Whether growing up in Edgewater and Portage Park or renting in Belmont-Cragin — and now buying a house in Montclare — Cynthia Rodriguez has spent most of her life on the northwest side of Chicago.
Last January, Rodriguez and Abraham Roman, her husband of 20 years, attended an information session at YUB Realty. Roman was ready to start the home-buying process, but it took Rodriguez a bit longer to warm up to the idea.
“I was always the hesitant one,” she said. “[I was like], ‘We’re not going to be able to do it. How can we afford it? How are we going to save for a down payment?’”
With two teenagers and an 18-month-old, Rodriguez was also worried about the prospect of balancing daily life with the ins and outs of buying a home, like submitting all of the necessary paperwork and visiting houses.
But by the end of the year, with some convincing on Roman’s end, the couple decided they were ready to dive into what they see as the “American Dream.” He told her, “I know it’s stressful to gather documents and have these financial conversations, but we can definitely do it.”
“It’s always a dream to buy a home for your kids and for yourself,” Rodriguez said. They wanted to give their kids a place to call their own, and it felt like time to transition away from renting, and instead invest in their own property.
It’s always a dream to buy a home for your kids and for yourself.
Cynthia Rodriguez
They returned to YUB Realty in January, where they met with real estate broker Lorena Ramirez-Carrillo’s team. Within a week, the couple received their preapproval letter, visited houses, submitted an offer, and closed on the house. Within the next month, they hope to move into their new home.
Rodriguez said she is excited that her kids will now have more room for themselves. Her 16-year-old daughter, for example, will stay in the finished basement, where she can chill without her two younger brothers “in her hair.” Her oldest son, 13, will now have his own room, and her toddler will grow up in the family home.
“[I’m] looking forward to my little one growing up in his forever home,” she said. “With my older kids, we’ve moved a couple of times. I’m just looking forward to now, for my toddler, this is his home and the one he’s going to remember growing up in. I’m excited for just making memories in our own home.”
Rodriguez credits her realty team with making the process smooth and easy. Their real estate agent was quick to respond to their messages and phone calls, and was sure to clarify information during each step of the process, she said.
“Our Realtor®, was so accessible,” Rodriguez said. “I’m fluent in English and Spanish, but when it comes to stuff like this, it’s like, I’d rather you explain it in Spanish to my husband so that we’re on the same page and I don’t miss or say something that maybe wasn’t translated correctly. So just having that accessibility of being able to speak with our Realtor® in both English and Spanish to where we all understand what we’re going through and understand what we’re reading and signing made it a lot easier.”
“That put us at ease that we had someone in our court that was able to provide us with that support in case we had any questions or didn’t thoroughly understand what was being asked,” she added.
The search
“One of the first questions Lorena asked us was, ‘What are you looking for? What does your ideal home have?’ It was at least two bathrooms and a dining room because with all the chaos, we do enjoy having family dinners together every day. That was one of the things that I must have had in my new home, was a large dining room. And honestly, all the properties that [Lorena] sent us had what we asked for, which made it really easy. It (was) like okay, they heard me, they are on our side, and want us to find what we consider an ideal home.”
The deciding factor
“At the end, we did have two [finalists]. The second house we saw, we really liked. There happened to be an open house that day, so of course there was other competition, there were going to be other offers.
With the last one we saw, the location and the size and it being move-in ready were those deciding factors. That second one we saw did not have a finished basement, where this one does.
[The situation was] having to go through that negotiation process with the one property that we liked, versus the last one where it was like, this has everything that we’ve been looking for, okay, let’s just do it and see what happens. We weren’t looking to do it so fast, it just happened this way. But again, because it was ready and had everything we were looking for, that is the reason why we decided to go with that last one we saw.”
Advice for prospective homebuyers:
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s one of those things where sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, I should know this or I can Google this and I shouldn’t be asking so many questions.’ Or it’s like ‘Oh, I don’t want to bother you with this question.’ But I think [it’s important to] just be okay with asking for help or additional clarification. [Lorena’s team at YUB Realty] just made it seem like it’s not a bother, we’re here to support you and in a way educate you and make sure that you understand everything. So don’t be afraid to ask. [Real estate agents] are here to help you achieve your goal, your dream of owning a home.”