This agent has 6 reviews.
One Friday morning in October my husband and I hopped in the car and made the 2.5 hour drive from Des Moines, IA to Austin, MN. We spent the day driving around town checking out the neighborhoods as my husband had recently accepted a position that would be taking us to Austin. After spending several hours driving around town aimlessly we decided it was time to check out downtown and grab a drink and some food. We walked into Dustys Bar and Lounge and sat down at the bar. When greeted by the bartender we ordered drinks and mentioned to her why we were in town. After making our drinks we asked her if we could pick her brain some about the Austin community, which she eagerly agreed to do. After about 45 minutes of conversation and learning so much about Austin, we told her thank you and that we looked forward to visiting Dustys again when we were back in town. Before we left, she went to her bag and brought us back what looked like the cutest little drink coasters. However, upon looking closer these coasters turned out to be business cards for HELEN COOK, REALTOR! She smiled and said, bartending at Dustys on Friday nights is her side hustle and to keep her in mind when we decide to start looking for a realtor in Austin. In awe, we both smiled and said thank you and we left. It was at that moment that we both knew we had not only made our first friend in Austin, but we had found our realtor as well!
Fast forward 2 months and some change and my husband and I just closed on our home in the beautiful SW neighborhood of Orchard Creek! Not being in the town that we were house hunting was tough, but Helen made the process incredibly smooth. Weve never met someone so genuinely positive, caring, understanding, patient, supportive, and passionate. Helen is also one of the best listeners and overall communicators weve ever met. Her ability to communicate efficiently and effectively is second to none. My brother is a realtor in Des Moines, and we wanted him to be involved in this process as well. Helen welcomed the idea and regularly communicated with him every step of the way. She was incredibly attentive and ALWAYS available no matter the time of day or night that we called or texted her. When conversations got tough, or we became frustrated during negotiations Helen was there to reassure us that everything would be okay. She didnt shy away from these conversations one bit and always presented to the sellers agent exactly what we asked of her. As a result, we got a phenomenal deal and negotiated some incredible upgrades along the way. However, her amazing service didnt stop once we got the home under contract. In fact, thats when Helen kicked it into an even higher gear that we didnt know was possible!
Following our home inspection, Helen sourced and scheduled contractors on our behalf to come and give us estimates on several different projects. She even went to the home to give these contractors access and to supervise the process, saving us the time and stress of commuting back and forth from Des Moines. When we say we couldnt have done this without Helen, we truly mean it from the bottom of our hearts. We feel so blessed to have crossed paths with such a remarkable and incredibly talented person and we could never thank Helen enough for everything that she did for us throughout our home buying journey. When we first reached out to Helen after randomly meeting her at Dustys she shared with us that she was relatively new to the real estate industry and had only been doing this about a year. We didnt flinch at that one bit and were so glad we didnt! Helen couldve fooled us as we felt like she had been doing this forever! Shes truly a professional at what we she does and were forever grateful for her services and friendship! If you or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell in the Austin area, we HIGHLY recommend working with Helen Cook, Realtor! We promise youll be happy you did!
2023
What a great experience that easily could have been super frustrating.
My wife and I decided that enough was enough, we wanted to get out of the cities so we got in the car and headed south.
We came across Austin. We immediately fell in love with the city and decided this was going to be the place where he plant our roots.
Now for the fun part, initially we had been working with a guy who, after a week of back and forth, we decided we didnt really want to work with. He was hard to get to get on the phone. We needed to get inside some of the perspective homes and he just wasnt responsive.
So, instead of waiting for that guy to figure himself out, we hit a random can we have more information on a home and a few minutes later, Miss Helen Cook called us and it was off to the races.
Helen could not have been more patient and flexible.
Let me remind you that we were 100 miles away up north and several times we would see a property online that we wanted to jump on and Helen would get on it and take videos or FaceTiming us from the properties in question when we werent able to be there ourselves.
She would give her honest opinion on properties and more than likely saved us from a silly purchase of a project home that we werent prepared to take on. (Whew)
Basically, she worked WITH us as opposed to FOR us. It never seemed like she was working for someone else and she always had our best interest in mind. It was refreshing not to just be a number.
The whole process, from start to finish, took about 3 1/2 months and she remained so patient and kept in touch with us essentially everyday to make sure we saw this property or that property.
When it was time to get our home up north on the market then it was really off to the races and she handled that super easily as well.
It really seemed that she understood who she was working with and guided us where we needed guiding without making it seem like she was driving the boat. Our house sold in 9 days. She nailed that as well. 9 days, to me, is impressive with the way the rates are now. But she got it done.
Now back to the rest of the experience she figured out quickly that one of us can be reactionary when frustrated and handled that like a champ. She didnt really buy into the frustration, but she didnt discount it either. She just explained, in a matter of fact way, what was happening and how things generally work in situations that had us frustrated. And that seemed to work every time. It was what I would consider a masterclass in human relation. (Its honestly more impressive to think about by the day)
Long story longer, we ended up buying the home we both wanted and Helen was there every step of the way with a great energy and positivity that never failed when it absolutely deserved to. She never let us get down when situations didnt work out the way we wanted them to.
Would I recommend Helen to be your realtor?
I think youd be a fool not to consider her.
She's the whole package and will guide you through one of the most important decisions of your life with ease.
We feel pretty strongly that we worked with a realtor who quickly became a friend of ours. And that might not be important to some people, but in this particular situation, it became important to us and we value it.
J & K
2023