Kait & Zach Gabuat - Kaneohe, HI

“We couldn’t have asked for a better adviser, advocate, and friend to help us purchase our first home.”

Yvonne Ahearn was our realtor and we couldn’t have asked for a better adviser, advocate, and friend to help us purchase our first home. We are newlyweds and this was a super important part of us starting our life together. 

As we were using a VA loan, it was challenging to get an accepted offer. We wrote a few offers, in multiple offer situations, only to be beat by someone using a regular loan, even in cases when we had a higher offer. In spite of the frustration, Yvonne kept us positive, telling us a better home would come along. 

She was absolutely right! We found our dream home in Ahuimanu. It was so great, we wondered whether we deserved a “starter” home this amazing and perfect for us, as first time homebuyers. Yvonne assured us that we did. :) With her quick action and ingenuity, Yvonne got Zach in to see it first (Kait was deployed) and got a commitment that the agent would accept offers as they came, without waiting for an open house. We immediately wrote an offer over asking to make it worth it for the seller not to wait. 

The seller agent received the offer and contacted Yvonne telling her they would not consider a VA offer, due to some wood rot on the deck. Yvonne assured them she had worked with dozens of VA buyers purchasing homes with much more challenging problems than this one. She knew how to get it closed and felt she and the lender could even get it closed in under 45 days. The sellers would not change their minds. Sadly, the home went into escrow with another buyer. 

Several weeks later, we saw the home come back on market. Yvonne contacted the agent and immediately submitted another offer for us. Despite more assurances from Yvonne and even having the agents talk to the lender, they still denied us and waited for another offer to come. They got one, unfortunately for us, and another month passed. 


In the meantime, Yvonne and we were extremely disappointed with the VA loan discrimination that we repeatedly experienced. Yvonne told us that many Oahu agents didn’t understand how much the VA loan process and requirements have changed over the years... Especially some of the agents who got into the business years ago when VA loans were harder. 

So Yvonne got creative .... she wrote a beautiful article on this topic and sent an email directly to all of the Oahu agents!! The email talked about how the VA loan process had changed and protested VA loan discrimination. She hoped this would help not only us, but other veterans who were facing the same discrimination. She also turned the email into a blog article which went out to thousands of readers and was distributed on social media. 

While she got lots of positive comments and thanks from other agents who read the email and blog, we still didn’t have a house. Then, lo and behold, our house fell out of escrow again! We immediately submitted another offer. Yvonne told the agent that “third times a charm” and she helped us write another letter to the agent and seller that "this was meant to be" and THIS time, she was able to convince them to take our offer!! As promised, she knew exactly what we needed to do about the wood rot issues and VA appraisal, and we were able to close the sale in 40 days!

And also, Kait was deployed overseas during this whole thing. So it was also very important to have great communication and to use technology to make sure that she could see the property and participate in the whole sale process. Yvonne walked us through it step by step, educating us in the process. It was a great experience and we are so happy in our home!

Not only is Yvonne a stellar realtor, she is an amazing advocate, who definitely went the extra mile to get us our dream home. She also kept us hopeful through stress and disappointment with her positive, can-do attitude. We can’t thank her enough. I’m also sure that she helped educate some other realtors and helped other veterans get a home, due to her campaign against VA loan discrimination. For that, we are eternally and very respectfully grateful. We love our new home and hope Yvonne gets this award. She deserves it!