Coming Home After
17 Years Away

A note from Eric

Some clients come to me with a move they’ve been turning over in their minds for years. That was Ron and Marley. After 17 years in Florida, they were ready to come back to Fargo and back to family, back to grandkids, back to where they’d put down their deepest roots. The challenge was doing the entire search from two states away. No Sunday drives through neighborhoods, no walk-ins. Just remote showings, honest video walkthroughs, and a lot of trust. Here’s their story.

The Pull Back Home

We’ve been in Florida for 17 years, longer than we ever expected. We always said ten years, and then we’d see. But life extends itself. And then our grandson came along. He’s six years old now, and he’s never even seen the place we’d been living in. He doesn’t know that part of our lives at all. Family pulled us back. It was time.

What We Were Looking For

From the start, we knew we wanted to downsize. A townhouse or a twin home, something in an association so we wouldn’t have to worry about lawn care or snow removal. That was the whole idea from day one: less maintenance, more life. We weren’t looking for a project. We were looking for something we could just settle into.

Buying From 2,000 Miles Away

The whole search happened while we were still in Florida. And the thing about listing videos and photos is  you can’t tell for sure. They make everything look so much bigger, so much better. The scale is off. The space is off. You’re making a decision about one of the biggest purchases of your life based on images designed to impress you.

Eric changed that. He offered to meet our friends Will and Carolyn at one of the homes we were considering and do a real walkthrough video, not the polished listing version. Just honest eyes on the property, showing us what he actually saw. He even pointed out one of the things that gave us pause. That’s the kind of thing a listing video never shows you.

Eric also gave us an important reality check about the idea of flying back to look at homes in person. The Fargo market moves fast.

The Near Miss

We actually made an offer on another home before this one, a four-level split with stairs going in literally every direction. We got outbid with multiple offers. At the time it was disappointing. Looking back? I’m glad it didn’t work out. That house was nothing like what we originally said we were looking for. Eric knew it. We just needed to get there ourselves.

The Moment We Knew

With this home, we knew right away. Ron kept saying “I like this house” over and over. I was teasing him about it. But honestly, that was the right reaction. It was the location that sealed it. And once we were there, it was back to exactly what we’d asked for in our very first conversation with Eric: a townhome, in an association, with lawn and snow care taken care of.

How We Found Eric

We didn’t find Eric on our own; a referral agent in Florida found him for us. She did her research, looked at who she thought would be the right fit for what we needed, and sent us his way. We didn’t know him at all when we started. But she knew what she was doing. 

Advice for Long-Distance Buyers

If you’re considering a long-distance move like ours, the biggest thing we’d say is this: don’t try to manage it alone. You need someone on the ground who will be honest with you and not just tell you what you want to hear. And if you’re tempted to fly back for a quick trip to look at a handful of homes, Eric’s advice stuck with us: by the time you land, those houses might already be gone. The right agent, with the right approach to remote showings, is worth more than a last-minute flight.