A client called me recently, not about buying or selling, but just to talk through a big decision. They were relocating for a job, trying to figure out schools, neighborhoods, timing, and how to hold it all together with kids in tow. I listened and then I said something I say a lot: I have done this. More times than most people would choose to.
My husband climbed the corporate ladder when we were young. We were living in Orange County when we found out we were expecting our first daughter. Shortly after, he got an opportunity to transfer to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We were excited. We were starting a family and buying our first home at the same time. I had just left a job with a Major League Baseball team. Life was moving fast in the best possible way.
What I did not fully appreciate yet was that this was just the beginning of a very long education in real estate.
From DFW we went to Boston, where our second daughter was born. Then Seattle, where we bought a house and sold it within six months. Then back to DFW for four years, where we built a new home and had our third daughter. Then Minneapolis with a new company. Then finally, the decision to come home to California.
Every single one of those moves meant working with agents I had never met before, in markets I did not know, while managing kids, movers, school enrollments, and a husband who more than once had to report to a new job before the rest of us were anywhere close to ready. I was the one left behind to close up one life and figure out the next one.
I worked with a lot of agents across those years. Some were good. The good ones genuinely seemed to care, and they followed up. They understood that what I was managing was bigger than a transaction. The others treated it like a transaction, and it showed.
The California move back home stands out. The market was hot and sellers had all the leverage. I was asked to write what I still call a love letter, a letter to the sellers with photos of my family explaining why we wanted their home. We got the offer accepted. We were thrilled. Then we found out the schools were full and my two young daughters could not be placed in the same elementary school. After a cross-country move, the idea of separating them was not something I was willing to accept. I spent hours working through it with the school district, and eventually they were placed together. But that moment stuck with me. Nobody had warned me that could happen. It was one more thing I had to figure out on my own.
We ended up putting down real roots in the Tri-Valley. Four homes in Pleasanton over about twenty years. Five kids, all playing sports, involved in clubs, making friends across every corner of the area. I drove all over this valley for two decades. I know the neighborhoods. I know the schools. I know which parks have the best pickup basketball and which communities have the kind of street where kids actually play outside.
When my youngest was finishing high school, I had a moment of clarity. I had been living on the buyer and seller side of real estate for my entire adult life. I knew what it felt like to need someone in your corner who understood that a home purchase is rarely just about the home. I knew what good looked like and I knew what was missing when it wasn't there. I wanted to be the agent I had sometimes wished for.
So I got my license.
I am not going to tell you real estate is simple or that every transaction goes smoothly. I know better than that. What I can tell you is that when you are sitting across from me trying to figure out your next move, I am not guessing at what you are going through. I have packed the boxes. I have handled the movers alone. I have made the school calls. I have written the love letter.
I have been you.
Patty Recupero | REALTOR® | Elation Real Estate | CA DRE 02112275