a testimonial on sarah

Lost and found in Western New York;  Campbells to East Aurora

In the Autumn of 2006 we committed ourselves to relocating to the Buffalo area in Western New York from a small town outside Birmingham in the UK. The ‘we’ is my wife and I, and our two children aged 13 and 10. We knew nothing about the area, although a little about living in the US after having lived in Los Angeles in the 1990’s. Our reason for the move was to take up a great job offer at a highly prestigious cancer institute in the city of Buffalo.

Through the institute we were put in touch with Robitaille Realtors, who act as relocation agents for the institute. Coming from the UK we had little knowledge of what sort of house to buy, how the process of house purchase worked or where we wanted to live. To compound this we were keen to try and buy a house to move into immediately around the 1^st September 2007. Of course to balance this we were fortunate in a number of ways; the Western NY house market is probably a slowing one compared to the UK and the houses are cheaper. That said the challenges were still at times daunting.

Beyond the initial contacts we worked very closely with Sarah Robitaille and she provided outstanding, professional and reliable advice and service throughout. We worked with her in two concentrated blocks of about 4 days each. She made sure we were maximally effective in each visit. The first visit to help us choose an area to live in, no small challenge during February in the Buffalo area! Ahead of the second visit she worked closely with us to arrange a suitable list of houses to view and guide our decision.

Throughout these processes Sarah was great. She worked with a sensitive, honest and when required, supportive touch. That is, she was sufficiently perceptive to appreciate that although we were naive we were not novices, and helped as appropriate. She made the purchase process relatively painless, and certainly there was nothing more she could have done. Indeed I know she balanced the demands of dealing with us, and no doubt her other clients, with the requirements of her number 1 client, her pre-school daughter. From our perspective the flow of electronic information was seamless and much appreciated (even when she was on holiday in August).

We moved in on a beautiful sunny Friday in early September. It is still (apparently, unseasonably) warm in the Buffalo area, but everyday since then I have felt lucky to be living where I do. One requirement we had was to be about 15 to 20 miles away from the institute so I could cycle in several days a week. As it turns out we are exactly 20 miles away and so far the ride has been superb!