I have a story to share with you. On Monday, I posted this Facebook status:

Here’s the story behind it, as I posted on another blog.

How often do we ask God for something, not really expecting it? Don’t we so often encourage people to pray, or tell someone “I’ll pray for you,” but we really only mean it as a form of comfort, a way to show we care?

I have clients who are selling their home, and hope to buy a new one in a nearby neighborhood where they will be joining the staff of a local church. I have their home listed for sale, and they are anxious to get it sold because they are excited to begin their new life.

Yesterday morning, my client called me and said, “Julissa, you’re going to sell our house today.”

“I am?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

She shared with me what happened that morning at their table. Her pastor had been teaching lately that one should be very specific when praying. Don’t just offer a general prayer of hope, ask God for what you want or need and be specific about it. She was teaching that to her children, and they asked her, “So, Mommy, can we ask God to sell our house today?”

She told them that would be a great prayer, and so she and her children prayed together and asked God to sell their house that day.

Two and a half hours later, she received a call from the showing service notifying her of a showing on her house. That’s when she called me bubbling over with excitement, and telling me we were going to sell the house.

So, we laughed about it and got pretty excited about it, and my husband and I added our prayers to hers and her children’s and asked God to sell the house.

The showing went as scheduled, and last night when my husband and I were sitting in the living room, I got this showing feedback from the scheduling agent:

I read it to my husband and this is what he said. “Baby, you know, I am just always so grateful that God lets me be nearby when He does awesome things.

I am, too. And, God willing, I’ll post today about a house I have under contract!

I have worked with some strong mortgage companies over the years, and they have been very supportive for me and my team.  But now, my preferred lender in Fayetteville, NC is Jason Brooks at New American Mortgage.  In the video, Dana explains why we think the world of Jason:

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If you’re a broker or agent that wants to have this kind of support for your clients, give Jason a call.  His phone number is (910) 920-7283.  His email is jason.brooks@newamerican.com.  If you’re looking to buy a home or refinance your home, call him. He really does offer incredible support getting home loans in Fayetteville, NC.

Posted via email from JuliGrace

Christmas is Wonderful!

One of the best parts of helping people buy and sell houses in Fayetteville, NC is that I have made so many new friends as a result of my business!

I’ll confess that by nature, I’m a pretty shy person. That creates a problem because I’m also very social–I love to be with my friends. Being a real estate agent in Fayetteville has gone a long way towards helping me solve my problem. I’ve made so many new friends and I’m thankful for each one!

Christmas is such a great opportunity to spend time and connect with the people in our lives. I love the get-togethers, phone calls, or even emails and Facebook messages from all my family and friends, as we catch up with each other and pray for God’s favor over the next year. And, I really enjoy getting Christmas cards and putting them all around my house during the holidays! They end up everywhere–on the fireplace mantle, on the secretary, on the island, etc–and they become part of my decorations. I’m sure it’s the same with you.

But, I love to send out beautiful Christmas cards, too. In the past, I’ve usually ordered my cards from Joni Eareckson Tada; I love her work, her ministry and her messages.

This year, though, I had the opportunity to order some handmade cards to send to my friends, and at the same time, re-connect with someone from earlier in my life. The story is pretty simple, but it’s one that I view as a real blessing in my life in the past year.

Tweet the Mistletoe!

I friended Cazzie on Facebook some time over the last year or two. We’d known each other during our college days, but not had any contact since then (quite a few years ago!) On Facebook, we had routine contact, the kind you would expect from acquaintances who hadn’t been involved in each others’ lives in the last 15 years or so. But at some point, Cazzie posted that she had developed a real interest in scrapbooking and graphic art work. At about the same time, I had helped a couple of my clients sell their homes in Fayetteville, homes they were pretty attached to after having lived in them for so many years.

I thought that giving my clients scrapbooks of their homes would be a great idea; scrapbooks would help them keep the many memories of their homes and their time in Fayetteville as lasting ones. So, I asked Cazzie  if she could do them, and she did.

They were beautiful! My clients were so pleased with them, and I was very impressed at how creative and artistic Cazzie was. I thought these were some of the best gifts I could ever have given.

Well, sometime after that, I asked Cazzie if she could make Christmas cards for me–I love the thought of handmade cards and thought they were a way to show my friends they are special to me. She said “yes” and then she created some of the most beautiful cards I could have hoped for!

Christmas Lasts All Year

It truly is amazing! Each one of these cards is different–no two are alike–and she made 225 of them for me! They are gorgeous, and when I opened the box and sat down on the living room floor to address them, it took me two evenings to get it done! I was so impressed I had to stop and look at each one, read it, and check out the colors, the ribbons and the little trinkets she put on each of them. It’s funny, as I was addressing them, I thought to myself, “I wish I could send this one to me!”

I really am happy that my friends and clients are getting a special card this year. I hope they are as impressed with them as I am, and that the cards get put all around my friends’ houses and become part of the decorations. And, I’m so happy I got to establish a friendship this year with Cazzie.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the cards, if you’d like to check out her work. By the way, if you haven’t gotten one from me, it’s probably because I don’t have an address for you, so just shoot me an email and I’d love to add you to my Christmas card list!

Merry Christmas, and enjoy the cards!

New American Mortgage has become my mortgage lender of choice in Fayetteville, NC. I use them for my clients and recommend them first to anyone who asks me for a referral. The reasons are simple:

1. They are very responsive–Jason Brooks is on top of my referrals and always contacts my clients or referrals the same day. That’s important to me, because that’s the standard I set for myself and my team and Jason always meets the standard.
2. They are convenient–New American has set up office space in the Keller Williams offices, so meeting clients, coordinating information, and checking up on the latest status is easy and routine. I just walk down the hallway. There’s no loan officer who ducks phone calls or hides from clients here!
3. They are knowledgeable, accurate and thorough–Jason has saved my clients thousands of dollars by suggesting ways to get a lower rate or use a different loan. Their loan packages are complete and their experience with VA, FHA and USDA mortgages makes a real difference in the Fayetteville, NC real estate market.  This year, New American Mortgage Fayetteville has only missed 1 deadline that I know of, and that due to a VA error, not their own.
4. They are fast. New American is able to complete a loan, get it through underwriting and have a loan package to the attorney for closing in less than two weeks!  Quite simply, given all the changes in the mortgage industry and the new rules imposed on lenders as a result of the recent sub-prime mortgage mess, meeting that timeline is AMAZING! Other lenders I have used are taking at least 30 days to complete a loan and many, up to 45 or 60 days! New American can do it faster, and that is important to my clients!

I love that Jason takes such good care of my clients! I’ve worked with many mortgage lenders through the years, and largely, they have done a very good job. But, none of them have risen to the standard that New American Mortgage has for me and my clients, and it is for that reason that New American and Jason Brooks has become my mortgage lender of choice in Fayetteville!

If you are looking to buy a home or refinance your current home, call  Jason Brooks at (910) 920-7283 or send him an email. Tell him Julissa sent you; he always takes great care with my referrals.

Posted via email from JuliGrace

As you know, I was nearing the end of the seventh month with my first pregnancy when I found out my husband and I were going to be transferred by the military in about 2 months.  The transfer date was days from my due date!!

We hired a realtor to sell our house. We received bad advice from this person about setting the selling price of our house and this was only the start of some of the things that went wrong. For over 1 1/2 months we never had one offer, although I have heard very recently that at least one serious offer to negotiate a price was made but not brought to our attention. Our house never sold and the stress was really building up. I needed to start packing for the move!!

One good thing was done, however. You were brought in to do a virtual tour of our home and from our very first meeting I liked you. You made me feel so much better about the prospect of selling the house. You were sincere about your love of our old home and its unique architecture and grounds, and it showed in the absolutely incredible virtual tour!   I was very impressed with your “go-getter” attitude.  I felt this was one of the factors lacking in getting the home sold.  It was exposure.  I had brought this up on numerous occasions, as well as the price of the home, as factors of its not selling but our Realtor kept reassuring us that it would sell.  Believe me, I was relieved that even though you were not hired directly by us you were helping anyway. I knew from this moment I needed to do anything to make you OUR Realtor. And at this point my stress just lessened.

We had a meeting and priced the home properly with your expert analysis. You had a reintroduction celebration to bring the home back to the forefront of attention in our community, and it worked!!  Two days later the house was under contract!!

I can never tell you how much stress you took off my shoulders.  I learned a valuable lesson about choosing the right Realtor from the beginning!  Selling a home should not have to be stressful on the homeowners. You taught me this and I will always be grateful!  Every time we buy or sell a house in the future you will be in my thoughts and prayers for helping at such an extremely valuable time!

I told you before and I will tell you again, you have a real gift with virtual tours and now I will add home sales!  I also want to thank you for the wonderful pen and ink drawing of my house that you had made for me.  How sweet and thoughtful.  This is just like you.

Sincerest Thanks,

PS: my son thanks you also.

Colonel and Mrs. Robert Thomas
Haymount

Rebecca Russell
Haymount

We selected Julissa and were impressed from the very start. Julissa presented herself as a real estate professional who was uniquely prepared for the Fort Bragg/Fayetteville area. Her experience in the military and in the civilian world has groomed her well for the demands of the fast paced moves seen by military personnel. She boasted of not having a house on the market for more than 17 days in 4 years in business and that was what we were looking for. She marketed our house aggressively and passionately to the public and was personally concerned with every aspect of the transaction. As a result, our home was listed as soon as possible and just 6 DAYS later it was under contract!!! We have lived in areas that were hot real estate markets before but this kind of response was incredible.

After the home was under contract Julissa continued to support our family to the closing date. She took care of all the details and made every aspect of this move easier on my wife and me. I wholeheartedly recommend Julissa to any homeowner who is serious about selling their home and has little time to do it. Julissa Jumper gets results.”

Hugh and I want to thank you so very much for selling our respective houses. Of course, mine was the headache…at least for us. We couldn’t figure out why my beautiful house wasn’t selling and Hugh was determined that we needed to have YOU become our agent after the great job you did with his house. The first thing you did was to have an appraisal done at your own expense in order to determine the correct price. Boy, were we way off and our previous agent hadn’t figured that out.

You were totally professional and aggressive and had our best interests at heart..which was a must for us since we had to leave the house and move so far away in Montana. You handled EVERYTHING (repairs, paying workmen..being our eyes and ears) and did it beautifully and honestly. Best of all, the house sold in under two weeks once YOU were on the job. We would recommend you to anyone Julissa. I’ve sold five houses and I have never had anyone else working for me who kept me appraised of everything that was going on with the house through the selling process. You did the same for Hugh. May God bless you and thanks for a job well done!”

Hugh and Eileen Sale
Country Club North