“Just find us a house. I trust you. Get whatever you want and I’ll be happy”

Nechama Norman with Batsheva Berman

I was in a field in Indiana when I got the call that would launch my career.

It was summer, and I was running a teen sleepaway program. We’d just moved to Lakewood after having spent seven glorious years in Eretz Yisrael. Wanting to settle down, we were looking for a house. And since I was seven hundred miles away, my husband was trying to get my input on crucial decisions.

The problem was that reception in Indiana was patchy at best.

“How important is—?” was all I heard.

And then, a minute later: “…open-plan kitchen or…”

This wasn’t going to work.

“Just find us a house,” I told him, as soon as his voice came back on the line. “I trust you. Get whatever you want and I’ll be happy.”

“That’s what you’re saying now,” he said, “but you’re going to be living here. You need to love it. It’s important that…”

I never did find out what was important, because at that point, our call dropped. And I was left with a single thought: We need a really good real estate agent. Someone we can trust who can walk us through this — even if I’m three states away.

Four weeks later, I was back in Lakewood.

And we still didn’t have a house. The school year was fast approaching and we wanted to be settled before the kids started school. We didn’t have the biggest budget, but we were flexible and willing to be pioneers.