"After
finding Terry's Cash-Back Rebate program on the Internet, we called him to make
an offer for us on a home we had seen at an open house (after a brief
conversation with him that made us comfortable working with him). That property
was already sold, but this started the long process of looking at properties
weekends & after work, sometimes as late as 8 - 9 PM. Terry was ALWAYS
available for us, even though we know that his workday starts at 6
AM!
We made
another offer, but found out during our inspection that this home needed more
work than we were willing to do. Fortunately, Terry had insisted, because of
the current insurance company concerns about mold, that we "line up" insurance
during the 17 day inspection period, so our deposit wouldn't be at risk if we
couldn't get insurance at a reasonable price. Sure enough, the only insurance
company we could find to insure the home insisted that we have a contract to
replace the wood shake roof before they would agree to insure us. Partly for
that reason, we decided against that home. Too much work for the
price!
We then found
a newer home in a gated community that Terry negotiated for us at $31,000 UNDER
the appraised value. Our purchase price was SO LOW that the appraiser commented
in the appraisal that he assumed the sale was a foreclosure sale. (It wasn't -
just a GREAT buy for us, negotiated by Terry!!) Part of our success in the
negotiation was Terry's late-night Full-Credit Loan Pre-Approval. (Terry, as an
Associate of a major bank, was our lender, too!). Our Pre-Approval was a
detailed & official-looking document, which listed ALL the conditions of
the Pre-Approval (no "got-cha's" there). Also we were able to make our offer
BEFORE we sold our current home, and WITHOUT making a "contingent offer" (which
wouldn't have been accepted in this Seller's Market). Since the seller was a
sophisticated real estate investor, this detailed Pre-Approval, with NO SALE
CONTINGENCY, made our offer look great to the Seller ! On top of that, even
though many of our friends told us about the delays that lenders in their
transactions had caused them, our financing was delivered on-time & as
promised! Sure does reduce the "stress-level" when people deliver!!
Meanwhile, we
changed our mind, and decided to sell our current home, rather than keep it for
a rental. True to form, Terry sold it for the highest price EVER for our model,
despite the substantial road noise from Lake Forest Blvd!! On top of that, we
only paid 3.5% commission, and since Terry charged us just 1%, we were still
able to attract other brokers with the 2.5% we paid them from the 3.5% total
commission. So, we not only got a higher price than more desirably located
homes like ours got, we also saved over $6,500 in commission, plus a several
hundred dollar discount in closing costs negotiated by Terry, PLUS our $31,000
profit he negotiated for us on our purchase.
But it gets
even better!! Remember the Cash-Back Rebate we mentioned on our purchase? That
amounted to about $4,600, and Terry's TOTAL Listing Fee for our home was only
1%, or about $2,650. So, in effect, Terry paid US BACK about $2,000
MORE than we paid him to sell our current home (from the commission our
seller paid to him in our purchase)!! Even now, it really doesn't seem
possible, but the dollars are in our account, for sure!!
Besides
seemingly being available on his cell phone whenever we called, Terry also has
a sophisticated team that used the Internet & email to CONSTANTLY keep us
informed. His high-tech team of Escrow, Transaction Coordinator, Termite,
Inspector, and Title was a joy to work with in BOTH our transactions! But the
best thing of all is that we knew we could TRUST Terry. We knew after dealing
with him for a short time (especially when he told us NOT to buy several
properties !!) that both his CHARACTER and his technical EXPERTISE were
trustworthy. Instead of trying to sell us something, he actually dissuaded us
from buying what he considered non-optimal, then brought ALL his skill to bear
when we found the PERFECT one!! We couldn't be happier with our new home, the
sale of our old one, and with Terry's expert counseling & assistance. His
attention to detail got us out of the home we didn't want, got us
into the one we did, and paid us TOP DOLLAR on our own sale. What
a combination!!"
- Happy Former
Lake Forest Condo-Dwellers who have moved "Up-Town"!
