After a vacation to beautiful Siesta Key Beach, my wife and I decided the Sarasota/Bradenton area would be a great place to look for our future retirement destination. As many people and companies have found out, many team members, including my wife, can work remotely from anywhere, making our move from Nashville to this area a possibility sooner than originally planned.
We were introduced to Audrey and Kevin Sullivan through Michael Saunders & Company as one of the top relocation REALTORS in the company. After some preliminary long distance communication through email and phone calls, and quite unsure which part of the Sarasota/Bradenton area we wanted to be in, we scheduled a visit down to begin the process. Of course, we did a lot of online searching and identified a couple areas/resale homes/developments that were interesting. We arrived and Audrey and Kevin greeted us and sat with us going into a little more detail about the "unicorn" we were looking for. We began thinking a 3 bedroom/2 bath home with a pool, updated, community amenities and more. Though there were no resales of interest to us at that time, they planned a comprehensive couple days of seeing some areas and communities to help us get familiar with the area. After much searching, we determined that we would also need to look at new construction and identified five communities to get on their "wait list" for future releases. They also counseled us on the site premium, offer process and explained the challenges of the low inventory/high demand market that currently exists. After a declined offer at one community, we expanded our search and identified another possibility. When the next round of site releases came up, we made offers on several sites, and were fortunate to be the winning bidder on one and were able to move forward with the purchase. Audrey and Kevin assisted with all the purchase documentation and have been with us each step of the way thus far, and will be until it will be completed/closed in the next 6 months.
Additionally, we scheduled an addition trip to the area for our option selections at the design center and pool company a month later with a search planned to look at apartments for temporary living during the construction period. While looking on our own, we decided to look at condos in the area for a possible purchase as short-term furnished rentals were very pricey. Of course, we reached out to Audrey and Kevin and "on a dime" they pivoted and showed us everything available at that time. We found a fantastic 2 bed/2 bath condo in a lovely, nearby area and were able to make an offer and purchase that for our temporary living needs. As before, they expertly handled all aspects of the transaction long distance while we were still in Nashville.
Audrey and Kevin were a delight and a pleasure to work with. They did a GREAT job with the entire process, true professionals and caring individuals.......not just real estate sales people, but true advocates for their clients. We would absolutely recommend them to assist any potential homebuyer in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.