Tonya found us the way many clients do — quietly, online, in a moment of need. She filled out a request form on our website, and she asked only one thing: to speak with me directly. That told me everything I needed to know. She wasn’t just looking for a house. She needed someone she could trust.
She had spent more than a year navigating a series of traumatic events — the kind that reshape you, that make you question everything and ultimately push you toward something better. She was ready to turn the page. More than ready. She was determined. And she came to us with a dream that was both simple and profound: a slower pace, a down-to-earth life, a fresh start far from the Northeast. A place where she and her children could finally exhale.
She’d visited Raleigh before, but something in her gut said it wasn’t quite right. And she trusted that feeling enough to ask for help finding something she couldn’t yet fully name.
That’s where we came in.
The first thing we do is listen.
What does your ideal life actually look like? It sounds like a simple question. It isn’t. But we sat with it together — really sat with it — because getting that answer right was everything. Tonya didn’t just need a home. She needed the right region, the right city, the right community. A place that would hold her and her children while she rebuilt. A place that would grow with her.
I’ll be blunt: the task felt daunting. Helping someone find a home in a city they’ve already chosen is one thing. Helping someone choose the city, the region, the entire backdrop of their next chapter — from another state, after everything she’d been through — that’s something else entirely. But Tonya needed us, and I wasn’t going to let her down.
I researched. I dug in. I asked the hard questions and sat with the answers. And we landed on Winston-Salem.
The Triad offered everything she was reaching for — warmth, a genuine sense of community, accessibility, and a pace of life that matched the chapter she was finally ready to begin. It felt right. And in this work, when something feels right, you lean into it.
The Signature Red Carpet One & Done Tour™
Our partner Karen accompanied Tonya and her two children on a five-home tour of Winston-Salem. I had done my part — now it was time to let the city speak for itself.
The very first home on the itinerary did all the talking.
Tonya’s son knew before they ever left the driveway. He sat in the car for the remainder of the tour — politely, quietly, completely certain. He wasn’t being difficult. He was being honest. Nothing was going to top what he’d just walked through, and he knew it in his bones.
His mother and sister were more measured. They toured all five homes thoughtfully, gave each one a fair chance. And when it was over, Tonya gathered her thoughts and said it simply:
“We all want the first home. It reminds us of my grandmother’s house.”
I had to pause when I heard that. Because that’s not something you can manufacture. You can’t research your way to a feeling like that. It was a newer home — beautifully updated, move-in ready, close to every convenience they needed. But what made it theirs had nothing to do with square footage or finishes. It felt like belonging. It felt like memory. It felt like home.
The negotiation was smooth. The transaction was seamless. The closing was everything it should be.
She moved in over Memorial Day weekend.
A few days later, she wrote to me. She was over the moon. She’d already met her neighbors. Already made new friends. She could see her new life unfolding — with promise, she said, in every direction.
I read her words and I just sat with them for a moment.
This is the part of my work that I will never take for granted. Not ever. Because six months before that letter, Tonya was trepidatious. She was healing. She was brave enough to reach out to a stranger online and say, I need help building something new. And here she was — moved in, settled, surrounded by neighbors who were already becoming friends, her children at home in a place that reminded them of their grandmother’s house.
We came full circle. From a quiet inquiry form to a life reimagined, in just under six months.
Even as I write this, I have goosebumps and welling tears. Genuinely. This is what I live for — not the transaction, not the closing, but this. Knowing that somewhere in Winston-Salem, Tonya is waking up every morning in a home that feels like it was always meant for her. Knowing that I was part of that. Knowing that we answered every call, every late-night text, every moment of justifiable anxiety with steadiness and care — exactly as promised.
That feeling never gets old. I hope it never does.
If you are standing where Tonya was standing six months ago — ready, or nervous, or somewhere in between — reach out. We will be there every single step of the way.
You have my word.
Learn more about Burson Home Advisors’ lease to own program in this press release.
About Tamera Nielsen
Tamera Nielsen is a licensed real estate advisor and lease-to-own specialist serving the Triad and greater North Carolina. As the founder of Burson Home Advisors, she helps first-time buyers, single parents, and families who’ve been turned down by traditional lenders find a real path to homeownership. Her Red Carpet One & Done Tour™ approach and hands-on negotiation style have helped clients across Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, and beyond close on homes they were told they couldn’t have.