One Good Deed. One Huge Impact.

Dennis and Mary Zullig hit a string of bad luck. It started when Mary suffered a brain hemorrhage while in the car. After recovering from that, the next year brought about a hip replacement for Dennis.

This string of unfortunate events led Mary to think it was time to downsize their beloved home. “We weren’t getting any younger, after all,” Dennis adds with a laugh. Still, he was reluctant to downsize. He loved their home. They had made so many amazing memories there. And there was the worry about additional costs in buying a new home.

Then a one-story house down the street went on the market. “It seemed like the best of both worlds. We could stay close to our neighborhood, but downsize into a house that made more sense for us,” Dennis says. So they entered into an agreement to buy that house and sought a Realtor® to help sell the house they lived in.

Enter Daymark Realty, wholly owned by Coastal. Daymark worked with the couple to help put their home on the market. As part of that process, they sought to learn why the couple wanted to move. It didn’t take a Daymark agent long to realize the Zulligs didn’t need to move.

The Zulligs were moving because they had to find a house with fewer stairs. Daymark looked at their current home and realized they could install a home elevator, eliminating the expenses of selling and upgrading the new home. More importantly, this elevator would keep the Zulligs in the home they loved.

There was only one problem. The Zulligs had already signed a purchase agreement for their next home. Another realtor might have sold the old home and taken the commission. But Daymark was more interested in helping the Zulligs.

The Daymark agent asked to review the contract and see what could be done. They found an error in the agreement. A key element of a legal contract was missing, thus invalidating the contract. With Daymark’s help, the Zulligs were able to stop the purchase and receive a full refund of their money.

“They could have pushed to sell our house but realized that wasn’t the best option for us. They knew our first choice was to stay in our home,” Dennis pointed out.

So, that’s exactly where the Zulligs stayed. In the house they had lived in for so long, the house where they had made so many memories.

And staying put carried an unexpected benefit. It meant they could be closer—both in location and emotionally—to Mary’s mother when she grew sick shortly after.

“Daymark’s suggestion to stay in our home changed everything. It kept us where we wanted to be, and helped protect our investment,” Dennis says with amazement. “And they had no reason to help us with that, other than the fact that they could see it was best for us. And that made all the difference.”