I researched Rebekah's background on the internet and her background in home construction appealed to me. I chose to buy a new home without a realtor's assistance. Instead I wanted a lawyer helping me out. I will definitely recommend anyone considering real estate dealing without realtor's assista...nce to have a solid lawyer's backing. Rebekah was very knowledgeable in various considerations around entering into a contract with a new home builder. She explained the various Maryland laws that protect consumers entering into contract with new home builders. She explained the kind of stresses we might face while waiting for the new home to be done. She walked us through the contract and talked to the builder to change the contract with regard to certain options we wanted custom made. In fact, the builder's agent appreciated us hiring a smart attorney like Rebekah and explained how the process of entering into the contract became easier with us letting the attorney handle it. New builders have limited patience to deal with folks who do not hire a real estate agent.
That's just the start. While the home construction was underway we became aware of community HOA related pending community amenities repair issues that were not brought up to our consideration. Bringing in the attorney definitely helped us to have our interests protected both from HOA's side and also home builder's side. The HOA soon stepped up repairs needed in the community.
Rebekah checked with us the week before closing, to go over the HUD1 and HUD2 paperwork. She confirmed everything was in order and according to Maryland law.
Just when we thought it was all good, the brand new home got hit by lightning and caught fire and suffered vast amount of damage. We had to enter a brand new process of dealing with home reconstruction. Luckily our insurance was exceptionally cooperative knowing our circumstance of having just had the house warming done four weeks ago. However, we were faced with the prospect of home reconstruction having just gone through brand new home construction.
Since our experience with the new home purchase was so exceptionally good, we rehired Rebekah for legal advice in the process of hiring a general contractor to put our brand new home back together. Again, Rebekah provided us with public websites to research general contractors with respect to legal actions against them and legal actions against clients. She helped screen contract terms from three different general contractors. Rebekah also made several legal recommendations with regard to our plan for modifications in the home with regard to safety. She helped us write addenda to the general contractors write up, thus protecting our interests.
The process of reconstruction was not straight forward. Because of various reasons the project got delayed by several weeks. Rebekah brokered a path forward when the general contractor stopped answering our requests for updates. She communicated with the general contractor by email and phone to make sure our interests were properly cared for. Rebekah took an approach of moderating peaceful conversation between us rather than an aggressive approach, which the general contractor liked. The general contractor became responsive thereafter. Overall, the general contractor placed us back high on his priority and worked with us exceptionally well.
Having an attorney well versed in Maryland real estate law and general contractor legal considerations was a good decision on our part. When you need that mediator to break the ice with general contractor/new home builder nothing beats a good attorney like Rebekah Damen Lusk. At one point it even felt therapeutic to just speak with her and her reassuring us that everything will be alright and know that she is getting our questions answered.
We wish her well and all the success and we highly recommend her services to anyone.