Buyer: Anne De La Sierra
Buyers Agent: Gail Zars, The Real Estate Group
Looking back at her real estate career, Gail Zars remembered how much of a rocky start it was while trying to raise her daughter. “It was during the 80s and 90s, and I totally hated it,” recalled Zars, who is now an independent realtor with the The Real Estate Group. “I was stretched at every angle you could be stretched.”
Her dislike of the realty world led Zars into a career of home construction and remodeling that proved to be successful. Looking for another challenge, she decided to venture into house flipping. Her efforts provided consistent monetary gains but an accident would again alter her career path.
“I got hit on the head with a tree branch six years ago. It changed my whole world,” Zars said. “Remodeling became too stressful with too many details. So, I had to do real estate again. It was one of those moments when I said, ‘Suck it up Gail! You’re going have to do it.’”
As she dreaded the new transition, Zars soon realized that her circumstances had changed from decades ago. Her daughter had grown up and she was in a much better position within the housing industry from her past success.
In addition, Zars said many of the people she’d met in the industry have grown to become good friends. One of them, Anne De La Sierra and her husband met Zars when they were looking for a new home near the San Antonio Military Medical Center.
“We worked for the Army in Georgia. I came out to San Antonio in January of 2011 and rented a small, 600 square-foot apartment,” De La Sierra said. “My husband was able to get a job here in June of this year and we were both in this small apartment.”
The couple still owned their home in Savannah but decided to look into a second house. “Having a small space wasn’t working,” De La Sierra said. “When our daughter visited us in college, we didn’t have room. We wanted something small with not much of a yard to fix up.”
While actively searching for a new home, De La Sierra found Zars from an open house showing in Alamo Heights.
“We happened to walk into this enormous house and Gail was standing there,” De La Sierra said. “I explained to her that we would want a small house near this area, but Alamo Heights was very expensive.”
Zars and De La Sierra went looking for the right home to no avail. As time passed, De La Sierra received a call at work from Zars.
“One day she called me at work which she usually doesn’t do and said, ‘There’s a house that is on the market today and you got to see it. Because I don’t think it will be on the market for long.’”
Everything was ideal except the house exceeded the price point that De La Sierra wanted to pay.
“I tried to convince Gail that I didn’t even want to go there because I didn’t like the neighborhood,” she said. “But she kept saying, ‘You have to come, you have to come.’”
After further prodding from Zars, De La Sierra took one look at the property and decided that it would make the perfect home.
The De La Sierra quickly closed on the home and Zars had continued to be there from choosing the right lender to recommending a fabricator for their remodeling projects.
“I consider Gail in the context of being my friend,” De La Sierra said. “She is wonderful. Everything we did in San Antonio has been a wonderful experience.”
Meeting a couple like the De La Sierra has also given Zars a second wind in her real estate career.
“I have met the most wonderful people this year selling real estate,” she said. “Every body I’ve worked with has been a friend of mine. It didn’t start off that way, but God has blessed me with wonderful people.”
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