finding home / 23
O
mar Khan and Taj Ta­
bassoom 
joined 
the 
ranks of many other 
young families who 
concluded that it was 
time to leave the city 
for the suburbs. Sami, 
an almost 3-year-old, was the reason they were 
willing to give up the convenience of living in Jer­
sey City. Besides needing more room, they wanted 
“to get the whole school situation settled for the 
long term,” as Khan put it. 
Although Khan has worked in New York City 
for 14 years, he didn’t know what lay beyond in the 
suburbs. Eager for input, he and Tabassoom con­
sulted Reddit. “There’s a ‘Moving to New Jersey’ 
Reddit thread where people ask, ‘Where should 
we move?’ ” says Khan. “A lot of people like us, 
and all these people who have lived in these towns 
for a long time, would respond, ‘Based on your 
criteria, you should look in X Y Z towns.’ And 
SOMA would come up in every thread.”
Their criteria included a manageable commute, 
as both work in midtown, good schools and a vi­
brant community with solid amenities close by, 
such as the South Mountain Reservation.
In January, the couple started attending open 
houses in Maplewood and South Orange. That’s 
how they met Victoria Carter. “She was just very 
organized. [She] had all her stuff down,” Tabas­
soom says. “She had these big thick packets of in­
formation about the town itself, which was really 
interesting because it wasn’t about the house. It 
was about why you should move to SOMA.”
Tabassoom says her husband and Carter clicked 
right away. “Omar is a data guy. Victoria had the 
data, so they were able to have this conversation 
where they were speaking the same language. You 
could tell that she was such a professional and also 
very passionate about the work she was doing.” 
They asked Carter to find them a home “We 
wanted to work with someone who had very deep 
roots and knowledge in the community,” says 
Khan. Tabassoom agrees: “It was nice to find a local 
Realtor who was like, ‘I know everything, I know 
everyone, and I know I can find something for you 
if you give me a sense of what you’re looking for.’ ”
Whenever the couple found a listing of inter­
est, they ran it by Carter. “She would give us her 
candid thoughts, which was tremendously help­
ful,” says Tabassoom. “She will tell you straight.”
Carter’s forthrightness was especially valuable 
when the couple found a Tudor home in the up­
per Wyoming section of South Orange on which 
they wanted to bid. “We were going to make a 
much lower offer … and she’s like, ‘Okay, you’re 
not going to get that …. And I’m going to tell 
you why.’ ” She then gave them the most recent 
comps for two homes nearby “in a very rational 
way, not where it felt like she was trying to talk us 
into something,” Tabassoom says. 
The couple reconsidered their bid and leaned 
on Carter to, per Tabassoom, “put the full pack­
age together that made us much more attrac­
tive.” They got the house. “I think that language 
of, ‘What is the value for you? Are you going to 
feel upset if you don’t get this for whatever small 
amount?’ really helped us in how we should frame 
the process because it’s a very competitive market,” 
says Tabassoom.
The couple closed on the house in June. It’s a 
four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home, large 
enough to accommodate their family as it grows. 
They love it for its layout, storybook charm and out­
door space. With no house behind it, the backyard 
has an unobstructed view of the city on a clear night. 
Khan and Tabassoom hope to move in by 
the end of the summer after they fully renovate 
the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. For local 
contractors, they consulted Claude and got some 
recommendations. One builder said an AI referral 
was a first for him.
The family looks forward to enjoying the home 
and community. Tabassoom remembers being in 
the backyard with her husband and Sami before 
they bid on the house. “I was like, ‘What a sweet 
childhood 
this 
could 
be.’ And our 
son was play­
ing 
around 
with sticks, 
and I think 
[it] was that 
special mo­
ment for us 
that 
really 
convinced us 
we should go 
for it.” 
A Couple Follows the Data 
to South Orange
Working with Victoria Carter
BY ELLEN DONKER
Omar Khan and Taj Tabassoom with son Sami.
Victoria Carter helped the Khan/Ta­
bassoom family find a home in South 
Orange.

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