Garman Homes is a company for Rock Stars. They do not, however, cater to rich and famous musicians or even musicians exclusively. They simply employ the best customer-focused people and treat their buyers like rich and famous musicians. Throughout every step of our nearly 6 month journey into home construction, Garman has been there encouraging us during the difficult time of trying to sell our previous home to cheering with us as the new house was completed. Tonight, on the eve of moving into our dream home, my wife Dawn and I are feeling truly bittersweet about the whole process because the people at Garman have become much more than our builders. They have become our friends. My family and I would like to give each of them their due recognition.
Jim Garman started our journey with a phone call. We had been driving around Holly Glen and stopped in another builder’s open house to make a few preliminary inquiries and were given a few cursory statements by some drone behind a desk who could not even take the time to show us around his model. A few minutes down the road, we saw a Garman home with a similar sign, but no agent on duty. When we looked up the company on the web and called the number, a pleasant man answered and it was none other than Jim himself. When my surprised wife asked him if he was the owner, he nonchalantly answered that he was and what could he answer for us today. Twenty minutes later, we knew we had to see what Garman homes had to offer. Jim has been a constant presence throughout this process, mainly in the form of Facebook commentary and encouragement. How many builders allow you to see what goes on in their personal lives so closely?? We have yet to meet him in person, yet through these interactions, we feel like we know him much better.
Jackie Dickinson was the first person we met from Garman face to face to look at the house we affectionately call “The formerly Big Blue House on Magnolia Meadow.” Even though she was helping a buyer write a contract on another house, she was polite and encouraged us to look around. The Brevard is a beautiful design and we fell in love with it. After she was done, Jackie immediately came over and showed us all the great features and started talking about all the “upgrades” that were standard with all Garman homes. Jackie’s knowledge and personality ended up being the reason that we went back to our own agent later that day and said “We think we might have found a house to buy.”
Kathie Yllanes met with us a week of two after our first visit and helped answer all our questions about how the building process works at Garman Homes. She had such enthusiasm for her product and was extremely patient with my wife and I who had no experience building a home from the ground up. After several conversations with Kathie and more looking around at the Brevard, my wife and I realized something bad: the Brevard was not going to be our dream house. Kathie heard our reasons out, and then with a somewhat sly grin said, “You know we have this other model called the Southern Pines you will just love!” We loved it then, and now that it is complete, we love it even more. Kathie has been a true angel throughout this entire journey. Every time we had a question or concern, she was simply a text message or phone call away. I have never met anyone so responsive and attentive. Along with her profressionalism, her sense of humor is top notch as she helped us prank our neighbors who also built with Garman. She even took a great joke we played on her with laughter and a a promise to “get us back.” She even gave us great beach advice! Kathie has been our constant companion with Garman. She has truly become someone we consider a friend.
Alaina Money is as much responsible for our Southern Pines becoming our dream home as anyone at Garman. At the design center, my wife and I had a very intimidating task: pick out all the exterior and interior features of the home. How on earth would we know what looked good with what, or what were the advantages or disadvantages of all the items like the floors, the carpets, the bathroom fixtures, … we were lost. Alaina guided us through the process of selecting these items, along with Kelly and not only made the process easy, but extremely fun as well! She had some very insightful things to say, but never once did she pressure us to upgrade to a Level 4 item so Garman could make more money. She helped us make reasoned choices for what our family needs were. She was honest about the advantages and disadvantages in the selections we made, and cheered along with us when we were finished. The pieces for our home were pretty much in place by then. How would they ever get together without something going wrong?
Gerry Felton has a handshake just slightly less forceful than a pro wrestler. So after meeting him, I thought how was he going to turn our pile of parts into a dream home? Gerry is a masterful builder and took the time to answer all of our questions along the way (even the dumb ones). He seemed to know everything about where in the process our house was down to the location of every nail hole. Whenever we asked him about something that seemed to need fixing, Gerry usually would respond with “I saw that last time I was there, it will be fixed.” And it was, which shows that Gerry keeps a promise and is a builder that takes tremendous pride in his homes. Gerry took the parts we had selected for our home, and made them something more than just a house: our Southern Pines became our dream home.
There are others at Garman we have not yet met, or had some behind the scenes role in our house’s construction that remains unknown to us. My wife and I would like to thank them as well, and we know that if and when we do meet them, we will still feel like Rock Stars. That is how Garman does business. Hire the best, treat the buyer like they are the absolute best, and provide a home that is many times more than just a great house. And this treatment is sincere because the people at Garman truly care about the product and about their buyers. We are closing on our dream home tomorrow and yet is is bittersweet. We will miss our regular interactions with our friends at Garman. Thank you everyone for everything you do! We are going to recommend Garman to everyone we know because you guys are the Rock Stars!
- Jeff & Dawn
