Early this year my husband and I made the decision to purchase a condo in Chicago. After renting for many years, this would be our first home purchase. I worked with Dana a few years ago when I was searching for a new apartment in Chicago. She was so accommodating and easy to work with during that process that I gladly reached out to her in December 2007 just to let her know we were going to start 'looking' to buy a home in the spring of 2008. Over the next few months, we communicated a few times while she waited for us to decide we were ready. What I appreciated most was she was not pushy at all. And when my husband and I finally decided to do our research and get the process going in March of 2008, Dana explained what we needed to do before looking at properties. She gave us referrals to a number of mortgage bankers to find out what we could afford and what to expect given our budget and required amenities. As first time homebuyers, Dana made the process so easy and walked us through step by step. We really felt she had our best interests at heart. When we started to look at properties, Dana was fantastic, allowing us to choose days and times that worked best for us to view properties. She coordinated all the visits, did not give her opinion until we shared ours and quickly understood what we were looking for in our first condo. For example, Dana knew us well enough to suggest looking at an additional property one day after our original search turned up no results. Although it was in a different neighborhood, she thought we would like the layout and interior and she wanted to make sure she understood exactly what we were looking for - and it was a perfect property! She was able to find exactly what we wanted and proved to us it did exist in the city, even though this was not in the right area. She gave us confidence that she knew what we were looking for and would find it! Soon after, we found the condo we eventually purchased. During negotiations, Dana always had our best interests in mind. Although the asking price was high, she would not allow us to make an offer that was over market value. The owner kept trying to argue for the list price and Dana provided him with facts - data about recent home purchases and also mentioning that he had an offer on the table at a time when people are struggling to get financing. Knowing how much we loved the place, Dana continued to work the seller down to our price point, and one week later she called us to say he had accepted! Without Dana, we would have either caved in to the higher price or walked away from the home which we love so much. We are now in the home we love because of her! We will work with Dana again in the future and have already recommended her to our friends. We would be happy to discuss our experience or serve as a reference for anyone who would like to work with Dana Dinello.Andrea and Mike, Bucktown
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