This is the second property Terry has sold for us. He did an excellent job the first time, and repeated the performance for us a short while ago. The first property sold quickly (and the buyer paid over full price because of Terry’s innovative Buyer Cash-Back, which made US more money!), so, although we knew the quality of Terry’s marketing, we DIDN’T realize how totally committed he would be during the soft market that we sold our last home in.

He provided EXCELLENT photo-quality flyers (a bound booklet of 4 of them, actually) to fully present all the positives of our home, and to mitigate the negatives of our location. As important as the printed flyers were, the on-line flyers and the other Virtual Tour and other “extra-mile” enhancements were even MORE important. (Originally, we didn’t think that a Virtual Tour even was an “extra-mile” enhancement… however NOT EVEN ONE of our competitors had one, so we guess it IS “extra” for most agents, but NOT for Terry. Less than 30% of all listings have Virtual Tours…but just “business as usual” for Terry!)

Our home was very close to Jamboree, a 6-lane, busy street, right across from a major resort hotel. Nevertheless, Terry got the job done.

One helpful selling approach was the extra commission we were able to offer to buyer agents, WITHOUT paying more than the overall going rate ourselves. Sounds impossible, but it’s true because Terry only charges about 1/3 the going rate as a listing fee. In a strong market (not like the one the sub-prime loan fiasco had just pummeled to the ground), this would mean lower costs to us. In the weak market we had to sell in, however, we were able to offer a VERY attractive commission to the buyer agents WITHOUT paying more than the “going rate” overall. The extra commission sure caught their attention, and was critically important in getting our sale together. The extra commission attracted the agent of the buyer who ultimately bought our home. During the negotiations, however, we were able to negotiate it back down to standard. GREAT approach!

Because the home is in a gated community, and because the HOA does not allow signs, Terry held a huge number of Open Houses to get people in to experience our home. In short, he utilized the internet masterfully, but also handled the local action equally as well. Despite his low fees (and Buyer Cash-Back), Terry is a more-than-full-service broker.

We have trust in Terry personally, and are continually impressed with his forward-thinking marketing approaches. …ALWAYS a pleasant experience working with him.

Next year, we will buy again, and look forward to working with Terry for the THIRD time! Until then… DH & PH, Happy, “money’s-in-the-bank” sellers in Newport Beach

Dear Terry:

We want to write a short testimonial on your behalf that you can share with others, if you so choose. We rarely do such things, so we are not sure where to begin.

We have bought and sold many houses over the years, and have really not seen much difference from one agent to another...until we worked with you.

We knew you were different when you explained why putting an offer on a particular property was not in our best interest. We have never heard of an agent going to such an extent to look out for his client. It turned out, of course, you were right. What a mistake that purchase would have been!

We appreciate you taking the time to get to know our needs and limitations. You tirelessly showing us several properties until we found just the right one. But, you didn't stop there. You negotiated, bartered, advised, and reassured throughout the entire process. We have not a single regret. We love our new home, and are convinced we could not be where we are if we had any other agent.

We cannot foresee buying or selling a piece of property without consulting you first. You are truly a knowledgeable, skilled, and multi-talented professional.

To anyone reading this, we want you to know how impressed we are by Terry Hunter's astute real estate and financial expertise. His intuition and overall business acumen are second to none.

Terry, please feel free to share this with anyone you choose. If they want confirmation, feel free to give them our personal contact information.

Thank you so much for everything you have done for us. And please don't be a stranger.

Sincerely,


Matthew Willey
Michele Reynolds

It's easy for agents to be 'heroes' to their clients when prices are rising, and homes are 'selling like hotcakes'! The situation is a vastly different, though, when the market is moving the other direction. That was our situation. Terry provides extraordinary marketing, including newspaper ads for our home in over 20 newspapers weekly, a widely-distributed, professional-quality Virtual Tour, open houses, direct mail, unbelievable Internet marketing results (including 1st page search results from Google), his "Talking House" technology, his own showings of our home, and much, much more. With ALL of this, though, it just wasn't happening (neither for us, nor for competing sellers & other brokers in our neighborhood).

Then it happened! One of Terry's other clients decided to accept the offer she had on her property, and immediately decided to purchase in our neighborhood. Until that time, such buyer interest as there was (lukewarm at best) was about $25,000 less than our minimum acceptable price. However, Terry's other client bought at a price that would have been acceptable to us. Even though she chose another property rather than ours, this finally 'put the brakes' on the unchecked 'market slide' that had been happening, and created a new 'floor' $25,000 higher than the other buyers in the market were focusing on. So, that was a relief! Finally, we were going to get a 'comp' for our sale that might help us get our price, and the short escrow on the other sale made it almost certain that we would be able to use it to get our appraisal, once we found a buyer.

All we needed was a buyer!

About this time, Terry's Virtual Tour (which Terry had worked long and hard on with us to make it near perfect) produced for us! A buyer who had viewed the Virtual Tour sent in an email requesting a physical viewing. Terry showed him our home. The next day Terry wrote up an Agreement that met our price requirement, AND allowed only 7 days (not the usual 17 days) of uncertainty before removing buyer contingencies. The escrow closing was only 12 days after that!! Part of getting our price was Terry's Buyer Cash-Back Rebate. The buyer received several thousand dollars from Terry (NOT from our money), and that helped convince the buyer to pay OUR target price.

Terry's program is UNBELEIVABLE. He only charges about half what other brokers ask, AND gives Buyers back thousands in rebates, too! On top of that, he controls the financing, and is able to close in under 20 days, like he did for us. We really appreciate the quick close and low commissions, but the KEY is the price he was able to get for us, and how he was able to get the buyer contingencies removed in about 1/3 the usual time, so we could complete our move to Arizona, knowing that our home was REALLY sold!! Terry helped us buy this home about 3 years ago, and now he has gotten us a premium price for it in our current market You can guess who we will use if we ever return to California!!

BG & LG, Former La Mancha owners, on to Arizona!

Jo Ann & Travis Searcy, Award-Winning Insurance Agency Owners,
Channel Islands, CA

"Terry Hunter has been our broker for most of our real estate transactions for over 18 years! He has handled our homes, business leases, land acquisition, commercial land and building sales, development negotiations, and government "buy-out" negotiations, among other tasks.

We have remained loyal clients because he has ALWAYS put our interests above his own, constantly kept us informed up-to-the-minute, and given us the bare, unvarnished, honest truth about every single aspect of our transactions. He is extraordinarily expert as a negotiator, and he constantly trains and educates his inherent abilities. (It's great to work with a professional who not only understands us and our complex transactions, but actually anticipates what we will want before we want it!) We have made HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS in profit with his help, and it has been a pleasant and exhilarating experience, time after time. We have GLADLY paid him commissions up to 10%, and counted it a BARGAIN to gain his expertise and guidance for so relatively little. (We operated our own award-winning insurance agency for years, and we know what it takes to consistently deliver expertise like he does!)

Now, Terry has begun his UNBELIEVABLE "Sellers Save About Half" and "Buyer Instant Rebate" programs, along with his written "30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee" assurance. We frankly have NEVER seen such a combination! (In fact, we told Terry that lower commissions and rebates would be totally UNNECESSARY for us and his other clients! However, he is convinced that technology is causing drastic changes in the marketing of real estate, and he wants to remain at the forefront of the real estate industry, continuing to bring exceptional value to his clients.)

Without reservation, we highly recommend Terry Hunter & Hunter-Broker to ANYONE buying, selling, or developing real estate. Based on our own 18 years of experience with Terry as his client and his friend, his services would still be a BARGAIN at MANY TIMES his low fees!"

Ms. Olivia Catibayan,
International Business Owner

"At first, my friend didn't understand, but then I explained. "Since you plan to buy a home in the $300,000 range", I told her, "this card will save you $3,000!" I explained that Hunter-Broker pays a 1% REBATE to Buyers, and this would be money in her pocket.

I also told her that I had been VERY pleased with Terry Hunter (the Broker for Hunter-Broker) on the marketing of my own home. He was always accessible through his email, fax, and mobile phone, and he kept me up-to-date constantly. During the short time my home was on the market, he also did extensive advertising and held a number of open houses. Furthermore, selling my home through Terry would have saved me over $13,000 because of Hunter-Broker's "Seller Save About Half" & "Buyer Instant Rebate" programs.

In my own case, my plans had changed, and I decided not to sell my home. True to his word, Terry cancelled the agreement immediately, no questions asked (Hunter-Broker has a no-hassle program that allows cancellation of the listing).

NO question in MY mind how to sell my home if I do decide to leave the area! Hunter-Broker gave me the best service I have EVER received. What a refreshing change from my other real estate experience! Highly recommended!"

Ed Martens, Financial Planning,
Royal Alliance Associates
Feel free to call me for more specific details about working with Hunter-Broker at (949) 837-6700.

"As a Financial Planner, I demand for my personal real estate transactions the same kind of expert, responsive, and accurate handling that I provide for my own investment clients (especially given the recent market "run-up" in our real estate equities). I really didn't think such service was available in the (undisciplined, to my eye) real estate market, but I got all the expertise and attention to detail that I expected, and more, from Hunter-Broker. As a direct result of his performance, Terry Hunter has earned, and continues to earn with every new transaction, ALL of our real estate brokerage business. Even more critically, he is one of the VERY few people from any industry I have been willing to refer to my own clients, whose interests I watch even closer than my own.

He has gotten us premium prices when we have sold property with him, and terrific results when we have bought. I have gone from intense "micro-managing" to being secure in the knowledge that Terry consistently makes the same "on-the-spot" negotiating decisions for us that I would make personally. There's just no substitute for the winning combination of experience, focus, education, and intelligence in today's demanding real estate market, and Terry is the "best of the best". He told us that he was striving to be our "real estate agent for life", and that's just what he has become!

PS: Hunter-Broker's fee structure is the lowest I have ever seen! By itself, that would not be a decision point for me and my clients, but combined with Hunter-Broker's overall excellence, it certainly is the "icing on the cake"!"

I missed the 'top of the market', but still needed to sell to pursue other activities. What to do, what to do…?

Clearly, the home across the street hadn't sold after months of trying, so it didn't make much sense to contact that broker (and there would be divided broker loyalties if a buyer had to choose between that house and mine, anyway). Also, I knew that the market had dropped from its dizzying heights, and I needed to save some money on commission, too, to make up part of the price decline.

So, I saw Terry's ad for a 1% listing fee, and called him. His program was exactly as I understood it from the ad (a little surprising, considering my typical experience with this process). His presentation convinced me that he could do a good job of marketing the property for me, and I liked his nearly 50% savings in the commission, so I signed up, sold and locked-in my incredible 3 year profit.

Now that I had the profit, I still needed a nice place to live. So, I talked to Terry about buying a new place. Not surprisingly, he liked the idea.

Not only did I now have someone to help who I could trust, but it turns out that Terry has a SECOND, and unrelated money-saving program, this time for BUYERS (like me, now)!! Basically, no matter who listed the property I buy (in other words, ANY property in the entire MLS), I get up to 1% cash rebate through escrow. So I bought a place, and the cash-back went a LONG way toward paying the listing fee on the SALE of my home. Remember my goal of making up part of the market decline? Well, here was another piece of my 'recovery program' !!

Terry saved me still MORE money, this time from an unexpected source. The termite report & repairs on the property I bought covered a situation where the termite company did part of the work, and part of if was subbed-out to other contractors by the seller. Terry has a saying that "EVERYBODY'S responsibility is NOBODY'S responsibility". So, he decided to order a reinspection of the property (at his own expense) about 10 days before close. I guess it's just the careful, thorough way he does business. Anyway, the report came back NOT clear. Nearly $2,000 in repairs were needed to get a 'clear' report. We caught it before close of escrow, so it was the seller's responsibility. So, I was glad to save the money that I would have had to pay if Terry had not been on-the-ball. But this raised another problem, one that looked a little 'thorny'.

My loan, which I had elected to get through a family member, rather than Terry, EXPIRED because of the termite report delay. PLUS, that lender wanted thousands of dollars to extend my rate lock, even for a short period. Furthermore, even if I DID extend the lock, I had no assurances that I could close, because the lender absolutely REFUSED to allow the transaction to close before the work was done, even with 200% of the repair cost held in escrow. So, it looked entirely possible that I could pay for the extension, then STILL lose my loan rate (a GOOD one!) if the work didn't get done on time, through no fault of mine. And, it was December, and who could know (before it would already be too late) whether the busy local contractors would actually complete the work on time??

Terry to the rescue again... He talked to my lender, confirmed that there was no way to close the sale with that lender without the work being done, and then called me. What he basically told me was that the other lender would not perform, but that he (Terry) could get me the same rate, and also lock if for a full 30 MORE days. Better yet, Terry's lender WOULD close BEFORE the work was done, with just holding 200% of the contractor's bid from the sellers' funds in escrow. And, the new loan from Terry could be done in 14 days from start to finish. (Actually Terry delivered MORE than he promised AGAIN! It was NOT 14 days … It was only 10 days, including the weekend. We started the process on Wednesday, and by the very next Friday, my transaction funded, and I closed Friday afternoon. We started from zero, and got the appraisal & everything else I needed to close in a little over a WEEK!! Unbelievable!)

So now, I didn't have to worry about the work getting done by some artificial deadline. I could close NOW, and fix LATER (actually have the seller fix later). Meanwhile, however, I still had a Monday date with my moving company, and here it was Thursday already. No problem for Terry! He arranged a rent-while-in-escrow with the sellers' agent, and so I moved in on time, too!

The cost for getting the replacement loan and arranging the rental…?? Well, actually there was NO COST. In fact I SAVED nearly $1,000 from the costs of my original loan. So, not only did I save the money on the repairs I didn't have to do (because they were the sellers' responsibility, and Terry caught it before my purchase closed escrow), I ALSO got a better loan than the original, and I got it only 10 days after starting over again on the loan!! (The new lender paid for a replacement appraisal, too!) It certainly doesn't hurt that I have great credit, and was making a large downpayment. However, the other lender had the same offer made to them, but it was TERRY & his lender who really came through.

Wow! What a long story… I really hadn't realized all that had happened, until I started to think about it for one of Terry's Client Success Stories, as he calls them. There were LOTS of places where things going wrong could have cost me THOUSANDS. With Terry on my side, I actually came out BETTER because of the problems. I have already done 2 transactions with Terry. You can guess the answer to the "WHO ya gonna call" question the NEXT time I do ANYTHING with real estate, including refinancing!

G.R.,
Mission Viejo Homeowner who made the RIGHT choice!

Chris & Cynthia, Mission Viejo

Terry was no stranger to us. He was the listing agent when we bought our home about 3 years ago, and he also represented us as the buyer in that purchase. He was our lender, too, so we knew who to call when we were ready to sell!!

Despite our hot seller's market, most agents probably still would have told us that we were "out-of-bounds" on the price that Terry himself suggested. However, Terry was more interested in getting us a premium price for the way our well-decorated home showed, than worrying about the price per foot (which was pretty high because of our home's size). He told us he could succeed at the high price he suggested, then proceeded to almost immediately get us a full-price offer from his "First Look" program. The First Look program presented our home to over 2,500 buyers in the first few hours after we listed our home with him, and one of those buyers bought our home at full price.

Everything went very smoothly, and we bought our new home in Phoenix (to close when our sale escrow closed). The bank delivered our buyer's loan paperwork to the escrow, and we were ready to close the NEXT DAY, the movers were coming, and then the buyer had a disagreement with his employer and lost his job!! Oh,no! What a disaster!

Terry told us not to worry, to complete the move anyway (so that we would be situated for our new baby) and that he would take care of it all by getting another buyer right away. Out went the First Look email again, and Terry DID get us two new buyers, including one who could almost pay cash for the home (80% downpayment!). To close the sale in just a week, he arranged for that buyer to put in the cash, give us a note, then pay us off within 3 weeks. (Our buyer would get a loan, but we didn't have to wait for that to happen to get most of our money, and we were safe because of the small amount of the note we received on our sale, and the buyer's large downpayment). This saved the day for our new Phoenix home and eliminated our "stess-out" over our new home, when all we really wanted to concentrate on was our new baby. Terry hand-carried everything, and the new sale closed in about a week. Since we didn't get all our money at close, Terry even agreed to take part of the note as his commission (to be paid when we got the rest of our money), so we could have all the cash ourselves to close our new home.

It would be a HUGE understatement to say we are pleased! We are ecstatic about our dealings with Terry, beginning when we first bought and financed our home with him, and then with BOTH sales of it! Oh, and we got thousands in Buyer Cash-Back Rebate when we bought the home, and saved thousands more with Terry's low commissions (about 1/3 the usual fee) when we sold. Can you imagine?? Low commissions, years and years of experience to make sure every problem is correctly handled, and the marketing systems to get us top dollar! It's no wonder we're ecstatic. We would recommend Terry to EVERYBODY, and we DO!!

We had been looking for a home in Sea Island, Newport Beach for some time, and then we saw Terry’s listing there. He had an excellent internet Virtual Tour for his listing, and it looked like a home that would interest us. Our current home had great natural light and great views, and Terry’s web presentation made it clear that this home also had great natural lighting.

Once we saw the home in person, we didn’t like the location, but we did like working with Terry. He set us up with our personal website to constantly search for homes in Sea Island. Even though licensed as a loan broker, we still wanted to work with a residential pro to handle the purchase (and the required sale of our current home). Terry was organized, available, and pleasant to work with (and, he automatically offers a Buyer Cash-Back of 50% of the total commission), so we continued the search with him.

Then we found it… a new listing with the same floor plan, but a MUCH better location!
However, the seller would NOT accept an offer based on the prior sale of our home. We, on the other hand, were not willing to own 2 homes, so we unsuccessfully tried 5 counter-offers to try to work out something that was OK for both us and the sellers. Finally, on the 6th counter-offer, Terry was able to get us a full 30 days, but at the end of that time, we would have to remove all contingencies… for us, this meant that we had to have our home already sold and closed escrow(or very close to it). Saturday at 8PM we had our deal… now we just had to perform on our end!

The market was soft, and only 30 days to sell AND close escrow seemed like a long-shot to us. It seemed like a long-shot to Terry, too. Originally, he had suggested that we work with an agent from our area. However, given the extremely short time in this soft market to get our home sold, we all decided that if it was going to happen at all, we needed the extra “oomph” of Terry’s marketing to make it happen.

Terry worked all day Sunday (simultaneously taking photos, writing the advertising, and doing the first of 21 back-to-back Open Houses!). By late Monday afternoon (after the 2nd Open House, too), it was DONE… we were in the MLS, had our beautiful Virtual Tour on the Internet, and were on the public databases like Realtor.com, Homeseekers.com ,Yahoo, Google, DuPont Registry, and the like. The ads were in the OC Register & 22 local papers for the next weekend, and postcards had been sent to all our neighbors (to see if they had any friends THEY wanted for new neighbors). Terry also sent out hundreds & hundreds of flyers to other brokers. Since he charges only about 1/3 of the typical listing fee, his low fee freed us up to offer a premium commission to buyer agents, so that they would bring their buyers to US . His low listing fee STILL kept our total costs at or below what it would have cost with other brokers. Great program that gave us an advantage over other sellers in the soft market we were in!

The postcards and the constant Open Houses paid off! One of the neighbors already owned 2 homes in the neighborhood, and wanted ours, too! Yippee!!… we still had time to meet our deadline with our seller, because only about 14 days had gone by. Our glee turned to dismay as the neighbor’s accountant kept delaying and delaying and delaying getting the agreement written up. We were running out of time!

Fortunately, about this time another potential buyer from Santa Maria saw our beautiful Virtual Tour (Terry calls the Virtual Tours his “Internet Open Houses”), and inquired about the home. Fortunately, Terry is pretty much constantly available by cell phone and mobile wireless email and mobile fax, and the potential buyer got through to him directly on his first call. After discussing the home, Terry offered to buy the buyer an airline ticket to come down and see it. He also explained his Buyer Cash-Back program to the buyer (as mentioned above,Terry rebates THOUSANDS of dollars to buyers who work with him directly!). At first, the buyer didn’t quite “get it”. After all, it DOES sound pretty unlikely! When the “light flashed on” for the buyer, his only question was “…do you offer this to everybody??!! “ (Terry does.[g]) Terry told him about the other potential buyer, and the Santa Maria buyer decided to come down the next week… time was running OUT for us!

The buyer, after his friend arrived from New York and saw and liked the home, too, decided to buy it (full price, partly because of the significant discount provided by Terry’s Buyer Cash-Back). However, now only 9 days remained to close escrow (usually a 30-day process, all by itself). Fortunately, we own an active real estate mortgage company, and were able to get the loan approved almost immediately for our high-credit-score buyers. Working at breakneck speed, we were able to call in favors from the people whom we work with for our loans, and we MADE IT! … 30 days, exactly, to find a buyer AND close escrow on our home!

Terry did an outstanding job of getting the sale closed, too. Turns out that the buyer had made an offer on a nearby property ($20,000 less) that he liked as well/better, but that seller had accepted another offer. Terry was meticulously careful to be sure that EVERYTHING was delivered as promised to this buyer… good thing, too, because by THIS time the OTHER property had come back on the market, and just the slightest “breeze” could have knocked OUR sale off-course. If that had happened, then we would have had NO CHANCE of recovering in time to meet our deadline for our Newport Beach purchase. It’s GREAT to work with a careful and customer-focused PRO!
Terry’s approach is that every new client he works with is just doing the FIRST of many future transactions with him. So, his mind-set is NOT “…what can I ‘fudge’…”, but the opposite, “… what can I do to make sure that EVERYONE in the transaction gets EVERYTHING promised, and then some…”

When the loan rates shifted slightly before the rate “promised” to the buyer could be ‘locked’ in our transaction, he did NOT just assume that it would be OK to pass the increase on to our enabling buyer (the usual approach in the real estate industry). He cheerfully contributed a significant amount of his own money (right along with us) to make sure the buyer got what he expected.

Talking to the buyer after the escrow closed, it became clear that had we NOT done this, it was a virtual certainty that the transaction would have at LEAST been delayed past our deadline, and probably would have failed altogether… anyway, just going past the deadline with a suddenly hesitant buyer would have made it too risky for us to assume that the buyer would ultimately close, and we would NOT have removed the contingencies by the deadline, either. So, Terry’s business-as-usual approach of ‘delivering as promised’ actually bore IMMEDIATE fruit in the form of our successful move to Newport Beach!

Nothing did knock us “off course” and we effectively “sailed into Newport Harbor” [g] the day before Thanksgiving (because we are loan brokers, we were able to get our own loan, and close THAT sale in only 32 days). We let the seller rent-back over the Christmas holidays, but we will move into our new Newport Beach home in early January. Oh, by the way, WE got Terry’s Buyer Cash-Back on OUR purchase ($15,750 … over TWICE Terry’s 1% listing fee on our former home… Terry effectively actually paid US to list our home! He gives the Cash-Back on ANY home, and to EVERY buyer, NOT just on his own listings! Unbelievable!!)

Terry is careful and thorough, just like we are with our borrower clients. We KNOW the difference, and appreciate it. It is incredible to us that Terry is a “discount broker”, based on his fees. Based on his services, however, he is definitely the MOST “Premium Broker” we have ever dealt with, and we’re not bashful about telling this anyone who asks (and even some who didn’t even ask)!

Ecstatic New Owners in Sea Island, Newport Beach!

 

Bob & Christie, former Lake Forest owners

Terry sold our neighbor’s house, and the neighbor’s next to them, too. More important, he got the highest price ever by FAR for both homes. The first appraisals came in low, so he got new appraisals (from new appraisers), and closed both of those sales at their high asking prices. When we received his postcard in the mail telling about his super-low commissions, we just kept the postcard until we were ready to sell. We met with Terry, and even though we had agreed to ‘sleep on’ any choice of real estate agent, we decided to go with Terry at our first meeting. We knew we had a ‘keeper’!

Low commissions, good personality, and even good service would be meaningless if Terry hadn’t had a great marketing system to get us the highest possible price. We know that it can take a lot of “lookers” (even in a hot market) to get the right buyer, the buyer who really wants the property, and who will pay a premium price for it. Terry clearly has an effective marketing system (including his ‘First Look’ email database, ‘talking house’, internet, direct mail, MLS, virtual tours, etc), and his results were WAY above agents charging a full 6%!

We tried to sell our home once before, and so we know what it’s like to deal with an agent who can’t ‘cut it’. We had such poor results with the other agent (and his lack of a marketing program) that we simply gave up. Terry, on the other hand, got us 12 offers, ALL over our very aggressive asking price. (He really knows how to manage the other brokers, and, effectively, to ‘preside over an auction’ to drive our price higher & higher!).

Once we had our strong buyer and the great price (WAY over asking, as a result of the ‘auction’), THEN the other elements of his high-tech control systems, and the just plain good service, DID make a terrific sale just superb! Terry uses an advanced internet tracking system that allowed us to check on progress any time we wanted, and the people controlling and coordinating the transaction were a joy to work with. All the documents of the transaction were password-protected & posted on-line so we could refer to them whenever we wanted. Terry even provided us with a loaner fax machine to make it easy and convenient for us to get paperwork back and forth. Terry and his transaction coordinator are easy to contact, but the good news is that we didn’t have to. Between the on-line tracking system and Terry’s & Amber’s frequent phone calls, emails, and faxes, we were ALWAYS up-to-date. Terry has consistently had the highest sale prices in the neighborhood, and we are delighted with our sale and his services. Call him – you won’t regret it!

PS: I almost forgot… he has the lowest commissions we found in our exhaustive search for the right real estate agent -- about 1/3 the usual listing fee. We saved thousands there, too!

The whole process only took about 20 days, and I got MASSIVE cash rebates on top of getting the property thousands under the appraisal. I'd do this supposedly "high-stress" task once a WEEK!

It started when I saw an attractive Internet Virtual Tour, and called Terry to see the property. He got back to me right away, and we saw it the next day. The following morning, I told Terry to write it up. He did, and got a counter-offer that afternoon from the seller at a price that turned out to be thousands less than the property would appraise for in a few days. I accepted it, and 20 days later, we closed escrow, exactly as planned.

The reason the offer & acceptance went so smoothly is that I have good credit, and Terry handled the loan, too. This meant that he was able to present my offer with a full-credit Loan Pre-Approval (and the pre-approval numbers matched our offer, too, which helped keep the counter offer price down. I qualified for considerable more than this purchase price, but I obviously didn't want to present that higher qualification along with a low-ball offer for less than the seller was asking.) Also, I got the Full-Credit Loan Pre-Approval in MINUTES, not days like with some loan brokers!!

In representing me in getting the loan, Terry was able to get nearly $4,000 back from the lender with only 1/10 of a percent change in the interest rate. On top of that, Terry has a standard Buyer Cash-Back Rebate program that paid me over $4,000 MORE, for a total of about $8,000, plus the thousands & thousands in savings on the price.

Terry's team has an outstanding website with all the documents (password-protected) and the transaction status on line. I didn't really have time to deal with inefficiencies, and Terry's team capabilities and his adroit use of the internet and email to transport documents back and forth was PERFECT for my busy schedule. Everything went so smoothly (and quickly) that I only called Terry a time or two. His primary phone is a cell phone, so even then I got my questions answered immediately.

As a CPA, I know the value of time & expertise. I would recommend Terry to ANY of my clients, and be confident that my reputation would be safe, because I am sure he would do as great a job for them as he did for ME!

B.B.
Happy Mission Viejo Homeowner!!

It was time to sell my rental! Boy, was I dismayed when I saw the condition the tenant left it in! I contacted Terry to sell it, and in the selling process, we decided that it would be more profitable to do the fix-up myself, rather than selling it without fixing it up first. Next problem was that I was busy with my life, and didn't want to take the time to manage the fix-up. No problem here! Terry had been a custom home builder for several years, and he offered to work with the painters and floor covering contractors to get it done. He got a number of bids, then managed the whole process with the winning bidder, and all I had to do was write the checks.

He handled the real estate side of the project as thoroughly and professionally as the fix-up side! After seeing his correspondence with the various agents wanting to make offers on the property, I immediately gained a sense of ease with just turning it all over to him. He didn't disappoint, either!

He got me way above the highest price EVER for my model! And, during the whole process, his paperwork was flawless and comprehensively complete. He DEFINITELY knows how to handle today's technology for both his off-scale marketing, and for the negotiations and paperwork to get it done RIGHT! Although I was up-to-the-minute all the time, the impact on me and my time was minimal.

It seems too good to be true, but Terry's fees are the lowest in the marketplace, too. There are some other companies that charge low fees if they don't cooperate with outside brokers, but that would be just plain crazy. Terry tells me that there are over 16,000 agents in his MLS, and a person would have to be a fool to go with a plan that 'locked them all out', just to save a little on the commission. He only charges about 1/3 the listing fee of other brokers, and so we were able to pay what the buyer agents expected, and STILL keep the total low! What a program!

At the end of the day, it's not technology, it's not sales skill, and it's not his off-scale good marketing alone that make Terry's program right … it is ALL of these AND the trust that his totally transparent approach to serving ME generates that take him out of the ordinary. I would pay a PREMIUM for what he offers, but I don't have to, as he saved me about HALF the usual cost AND got me the HIGHEST PRICE EVER BY FAR!!

C.J.
of Lake Forest, CA

We saw the Old-Town Seal Beach home at an Open House Terry was having, and my brother fell in love with it (years ago, he had rented the same floorplan)! We decided to go direct through Terry, rather than involve our own broker, partly because Terry seemed easy to work with, and partly because of the thousands in rebates that Terry was willing to pay us. My brother was busy, and I handled the details of buying the home for him directly with Terry.

The whole process was very efficient, because Terry uses technology to-the-max to make it easy to contact him and handle the paperwork without wasting time in meetings. We run a family business, and really wanted to avoid wasting time. It is pretty standard anymore for agents to have cell phones, but Terry is TOTALLY mobile & wireless, with only one number to contact him, and with internet connectivity and a portable printer wherever he is. In addition, he also has a real-time, web-based tracking system and transaction coordinator (at no cost to us, although it costs him nearly $400) for our transaction, so we could get any details we wanted on-line (password-protected). Mainly, though, we were kept so up-to-date by Terry and his transaction coordinator that we seldom went on line. I guess you could say that the mechanics of the transaction were remarkable because they were almost invisible. This transaction went together with no fuss, no muss, and no bother. It just happened like it was planned. Seems unremarkable until we recalled how few of our other business dealings were so 'remarkably unremarkable'.

There was a pretty wide gap between what we were willing to pay and what the seller wanted. At this point, Terry pointed out that we could pay over $7,000 more at no cost to us, because Terry's REBATE was more than this! We didn't know anything about it, but Terry's way of doing business is to treat all his clients fairly, and so we got the rebate AUTOMATICALLY. That's what did it, and the seller accepted our offer because, on Terry's advice, we had added the rebate to the price we were willing to pay (and got it back through the escrow). Still netted out to our price, but our offer looked good enough to the seller to get my brother the home he wanted.

If you want an unexciting transaction, with NO surprises, NO last-minute crises, and one that closes exactly as planned, then use Terry. We did, and we will again (and again, and again….) I'm tough to please, but pleased I am!!

Sister & Business Manager of a Happy Seal Beach Old-Town owner

I'm the brother, and I concur. My sister has plenty to do running our business, and I am VERY pleased that her attention to this primary focus was not disturbed by handling the minimal activities that were left to do after Terry's efficient management of the process.

Happy Seal Beach Old-Town owner, himself!!

We had put in an offer on a property nearby, but got “aced-out” by another buyer.  Then, we saw Terry’s Virtual Tour on Realtor.com for another beautiful home in the area, and decided to give it a look.

We were so surprised by Terry’s explanation of his Buyer Cash-Back, we asked “… do you offer that to EVERYBODY…?  Turns out he does, and his answer was interesting.  He explained that everybody did get the same treatment  “… otherwise how could anyone trust him as their agent if they had to negotiate with him to get the best he had to offer ??...”.  Doesn’t seem like a very common attitude for real estate agents, but we sure appreciated it in him! (He also only charges a 1% listing fee, so his seller was able to price his home better from the start, too.)

Terry’s seller had a problem.  He had a VERY limited amount of time to sell and close escrow, otherwise he would not be buying the home he wanted in Newport Beach, and so would take HIS home off the market and stay there.  To make it all happen, we had to close escrow in about 10 days.  Terry was well organized, having already gathered most of the disclosures and other documents beforehand.  His seller was a very capable loan broker who offered to do our loan for free, and to fund it in just 7 days.  This all happened exactly on schedule, and yesterday we became the owners.

We were out of area, but all the details (like a mobile notary to come to US for loan doc signing) were expertly handled and paid for by Terry and his team.  There definitely was a “blizzard of paper/emails” involved, but it was handled well enough to give us the confidence we needed to buy in this whirlwind fashion.

Terry’s Buyer Cash-Back to us was $7,000! But, that wasn’t the end of it.  We had mutual agreement between us and the sellers on the purchase late Friday… TOO late to ‘lock’ the loan rate and costs. Consequently, we were at the mercy of the market, and Monday morning, unbeknownst to us, the loan costs went up by nearly $1000!  It would have been totally legitimate (but not very pleasant for us, nor very acceptable to us) for the increased loan cost to be passed on to us.  What actually happened was that Terry insisted that our loan be “delivered as promised”.  The seller agreed, and they just silently paid the extra, the only indication to us being the escrow amendment that covered the extra costs.  We LIKE being treated like valued clients!

The whole purchase went so smoothly (and in only 10 days, too!) that we wonder why we hear so many ‘horror stories’ about bad real estate transactions. It is obvious to us, given that we own a significant number of properties, and have a lot of experience in real estate, that these bad experiences don’t happen to Terry’s clients!

In short, the transaction went strictly according to plan, and we love the home.  All in all, it was a VERY pleasant (and profitable!) purchase. The Buyer Cash-Back, it turns out, is just “icing on the cake”! Terry is an OUTSTANDING broker!
PH & AS…Happy new owners in Anaheim Hills

Our friends had just had Terry very successfully sell their home quickly and for top dollar. They were pleased with Terry, and they suggested we call him for our sale. We did, and after talking briefly with Terry, decided to follow our friends' advice, and hired him.

Despite the softening market, Terry had our home sold in about a month, and for our FULL ASKING PRICE! The combination of full price and Terry's 1% listing fee did wonders for our bottom-line!

Terry's marketing is "stand-out" excellent… his Virtual Tour was one of the best we have seen. (Only about 30% of the brokers in our high cost/high-tech even provide a Virtual Tour… just providing one at all puts Terry in the top 1/3, and his is the best-of-the-best). His Virtual Tours, Open Houses, glossy, full-color photo-quality flyers, and the enhancements in Realtor.com (and elsewhere on-line) combined to really do the job of selling our home.

But the REAL test came when Terry's promotion attracted our buyer. It turns out the buyer's agent was his relative, and she was from outside our area. Once the buyers had seen the Virtual Tour, they were VERY excited about seeing our home right away. So, about 7PM that evening, Terry showed our property to the buyers, and within an hour, we had an oral agreement for full price, with a short 21 day escrow. Terry worked from then 'til midnight to accommodate the buyer agent's wish to write up the paperwork herself and email it to Terry, instead of just having Terry write it up for her approval and then get the buyers' signature.

That's when things really began to go sideways. The buyer agent insisted that 45 days (not the 21 days we had agreed to) were necessary to get the loan done, and she also wanted to have the buyers only put down a very small earnest money deposit. Terry explained to us that our shaky market and a 45 day escrow made the small earnest money deposit inadequate. Also, the buyers wanted 17 days to remove contingencies (and we wouldn't even know if we had a sale or not until after the 17 days, even though our home would be off the market for the whole time). Terry insisted that the buyers remove contingencies in 10 days. (This is about the minimum necessary to do everything in non-crisis mode, even though Terry pre-positions everything from the start of the listing, instead of waiting until there is a buyer.) However, by this time, the buyer agent had convinced the buyers that they should only put down a very small deposit, and that the escrow HAD to be 45 days, and that they needed 17 days to remove contingencies. With all this commotion, the paperwork didn't get signed at all that night, after all, even though Terry worked until after midnight trying to get it together.

Over the next couple of days, it became clear to Terry that we were going to lose our buyer (30% down, great credit scores, and a full price offer) because of the buyer agent. So Terry gave us the phone number for the buyers and said that WE would have to call the buyers direct because the buyer agent was blocking the sale. He told us step-by-step what to say to the buyer, and we DID succeed (with Terry's guidance though a number of back-and-forth phone calls with him, every time we hit a wall with the buyers), in getting our agreement back together with a big enough earnest money deposit and a 10 day contingency period, but still with the 45 day escrow (which Terry told he would likely be able to renegotiate AFTER the buyers removed their contingencies).

The unusual approach Terry took of having US get agreement with the buyers directly resulted in a strange situation… the buyer agent called Terry about 10AM to say the buyers were NOT going to buy our home, then called Terry back a couple of hours later to say that they WERE going to buy (after the buyers told her that they already HAD an agreement with us!)

Everything happened "whirl-wind quick" after that, and only 11 days after we had our agreement with the buyers, their lender was ready to make the loan! Turns out that even Terry's suggestion of a short, 21 day escrow was way more than this particular lender needed! When the buyer agent realized that we were actually ready to close, we were able to amend the escrow closing date, and we closed just 26 days after we and the buyers had reached our agreement. We could have easily closed even earlier than the 21 days Terry had originally suggested (and we all agreed to), but Terry wanted to be sure that the buyer agent was comfortable with the new closing date, and didn't knock the new agreement off-track.

Throughout the entire negotiations (including the renegotiation of the closing date which Terry told us at the start would happen) Terry's negotiating skills and uncanny ability to predict what the buyers would do next was crucial to saving our full price sale. It almost felt like a scripted play… Terry would tell us what would probably happen next, and sure enough, almost on-cue, THAT was what would then happen… unbelievable!

Lucky we had somebody experienced like Terry, able to head off the buyers' attempts to get us to take a lower price, able to work-around the buyer agent's inexperience. We got the earnest money and contingency period we needed, and we were finally able to renegotiate the closing back to almost the original 21 days! We realize that many agents would have tried to handle the situation with a "business as usual" approach, and the buyer would have been lost. With the market continuing to soften, and with interest rates going up, it's hard to say how much THAT might have cost us. In our case, we didn't have to find out, because Terry guided the entire transaction just like a director controls a movie, and we got our "happy ending"!

HIGHLY recommended! Best agent we have EVER had! And at only 1% listing fee?? WOW!! We have already referred Terry to our friends who are thinking of selling their home. We KNOW he will take great care of them, too!

SK & CK, on to the next adventure, with our profit in our jeans…

After interviewing a total of four real estate agents, I selected Terry. He arrived promptly, didn't waste my time, and, his presentation was so very, very professional, standing out from other established, fullservice real estate agents who had pitched my business. (The decision to move to another state was rather sudden, prompted by the need to be closer to an elderly parent.)

Terry is the only real estate agent I've found who lives up to his promise of a deeply discounted commission; others had promised discounts but hadn't delivered. Yet everything about Terry's work from the initial presentation to the listing and showings, negotiations, and followthrough to escrow and closing ­ will prove to you that you are dealing with a fullservice skilled professional with years of experience, racking up success after success. Terry always delivered on what he promised. Even better than that, his performance always exceeded my expectations. Being a nervous Nellie and a worrier, Terry made me feel at ease with such an important transaction. In fact, despite a contract, he stated in writing that he would be willing to release me from the agreement if I felt the arrangement just wasn't working out. Needless to say, that was never, ever an issue.

I packed up and left for my new home in another state. Terry produced marketing materials and, within the week had completed the yard sign, full color flyers (yes, folks, not the measley Black&White versions you get from socalled "Full Service" brokers!), newspaper ads, online photo/description/360 video...

While I concentrated on family issues...Terry was busy making certain that my house was being listed, marketed in the most professional manner and shown to multiple potential buyers in the most favorable light. When a buyer was located (so quickly too!), Terry addressed any and all concerns, communicating constantly and immediately with all parties. The transaction moved quickly from showing to interest to offer to accepted offer. Contingencies were addressed and removed quickly. Financing was confirmed and put in place. Inspections and small repairs to the property were "magically" handled. It was, in short, the smoothest, the easiest, and the fastest real estate transaction I've been involved with.

I highly recommend Terry whether you're buying or selling a home. Of all the real estate and homes I've bought and sold over the years, I only wish that I knew of Terry's professional services and stellar results many, many years ago. And, finally...did I get a good price on the home when it sold? You betcha!!! P.K, Former Laguna Niguel resident, now in AZ

Terry presented our property creatively to get the highest resale price ever for our model, even while the market was DECLINING! He also hired an engineer to provide indisputable square footage for our (oversized) lot size, when the builder did not provide the size data for us. Buyers just accepted the larger-than-standard lot size (naturally), since the measurement carried with it the professional engineer's official stamp.

Likewise, he convinced California Pools to design a pool for our backyard at no cost to us, then used the plans drawings and photo-realistic renderings (placed on a tripod in the kitchen/nook area for his open houses) to drive home the fact that we DID have a pool-size lot, even though people were having a hard time visualizing the pool in place.

We were living out-of-area, but Terry was available as necessary to meet with the landscaper, builder reps (we bought new, but never lived in the home because of a job transfer), and other workmen, in addition to the usual real estate transaction "suspects". He also got 3 separate bids for us, covering drywall repair and repainting the property (repairing tenant damage). He met with us and the landscaper, and assisted in "staging" the home for maximum appeal.

Terry's Virtual Tour is the best we have ever seen. Also, his placement in Google is at the TOP of over a MILLION "hits" for phrases like "homes for sale orange county ca". And when net surfers clicked, they got OUR Virtual Tour. Likewise, he maximized our presentation in Realtor.com, which serves MORE than 80% of all buyers in our area, we're told. Plus, he does other net things that are WAY beyond the typical Realtor's use of current technology. The bottom line IS OUR Bottom Line… and Terry and his systems produced for us, while another, competing seller on the same street lapsed into foreclosure because of the market decline facing us all.

Our sale, which closed yesterday, started out with an offer $138,500 UNDER our asking price (sign of the times in our market), but our sale CLOSED within $2,000 of our net asking price! Terry "worked this magic" over a period of approximately 2 weeks, developing in the process a spreadsheet/grid that arrayed all the competing properties, showing OURS to be the most value for the money, all the while "taking it away" from the buyer with our seeming unconcern about whether we sold it to them, or not. Terry wrote detailed letters to the buyer via their agent on more than one occasion to explain why they should buy our home, and not the (many) others they were looking at. Finally, the buyers (reluctantly) increased their offer to one we could live with (essentially Full-Price!), and Terry then started yet another round of extra services, to be sure the sale would close. It DID close… 3 weeks EARLY! Throughout the entire process, Terry kept us "up-to-the-minute" with a never-ending stream of emails. We have NEVER seen such complete coordination, and it was especially comforting, since we were out of the area for the entire transaction!

Oh, by the way, Terry is a "Discount Broker". Actually he's not a typical "Discount Broker", though … he provides what he terms "Extreme Full-Service"… while charging only about 1/3 the going rate to sellers, AND giving buyers a Buyer Cash-Back Rebate, too! I guess calling him an "Extreme Full-Service Broker with low commissions" is a much better description! Whatever you call him, WE call him OUR broker from now on, for us, and for our friends and family! A Former SoCal family, now "…on the slopes" in Utah!

PS: You've been awesome to work with and have communicated better than ANY broker I have ever worked with (both commercial and residential)! I greatly appreciate all of your help getting us through this sale . . . especially with us being out of state! I will gladly recommend you to anyone in the area. Please feel free to give my contact information to any prospective clients as I will gladly give a verbal recommendation as well.

Bill & Beverly Rancho Santa Margarita

When our job transfer came through, we needed to sell our home, but we weren't willing to pay 6% to do it, especially in this market. We saw a sold home near our neighborhood with a sold sign that said "Sold - Seller Paid Only 3.5%". It also had another rider on the bottom that said "Buyer Got 1% Cash-Back". That sounded GOOD to us, so we called to meet the agent and get a market evaluation of our home.

Terry Hunter (Broker/CEO for Hunter-Broker) provided a detailed description of the current market and showed us his very sophisticated marketing plan to sell our home for TOP DOLLAR (well, actually, it looked like OVER Top Dollar to us)! Naturally, we weren't going to "fall" for a low commission if we weren't sure we would be represented by a seasoned expert (to avoid any problems) AND get top dollar, too!

The first thing that happened was that Terry brought us an offer from a buyer who was willing to pay the full asking price (a VERY aggressive $400,000) PLUS the 1% Cash-Back ($4,000) for a total of $404,000. The buyer lived in the neighborhood, and wanted to downsize. With the Buyer's OK (because she knew the neighborhood, what she wanted, and what she was willing to pay), Terry eliminated the usual appraisal contingency. So, the buyer paid $404,000 minus the $4,040 Cash-Back from Terry (this netted out to the original full price of $400,000 she expected) and WE ended up with the 1% Buyer Cash-Back added on to OUR price, without the possibility of losing the sale because of low appraisal. (It was a good thing for US and for the buyer - actually critically important, since the appraisal did come in at only $395,000!)!

Next, Terry had to get our buyer's home sold to the people interested in buying IT. They also knew what they wanted and what they were willing to pay, and so they waived their appraisal contingency, too. (In this market, the appraisers just can't keep up, and since Terry knew that we HAD to sell our home to make our moving date, he made SURE that OUR sale didn't fall apart because of low appraisals).

We were willing to take a contingent sale because we trusted Terry. He is also a lender, and so he was able to directly verify that OUR buyer, and HER buyer, too, could qualify for the necessary loans. Nothing is ever simple, I guess, and it turned out that our Buyer's buyer still had their home in escrow, and IT also had to close to make the whole "chain" work. When Terry tried to verify that this 3rd sale would close (by confirming THAT buyer's loan qualification), they refused to cooperate! Further, despite being told that those buyers were making a 20% down payment (which is what the sellers thought, too), Terry found out that they were really making a ZERO down payment. Not a good thing! Darn! That looked like the end of our premium-price sale!!

What Terry did next, however, saved the day! He convinced the 2nd buyer to agree to close his purchase from OUR buyer whether or NOT their own sale closed (being a lender, Terry knew they could qualify either way). As it turned out, their zero-down sale DID close as planned. But, our being able to trust Terry when he told us that our sale WOULD close (even if the 3rd sale didn't close) was the KEY that allowed us to succeed in selling our home for a premium price!

If you're getting confused, you can imagine how important it was for US to be able to trust Terry's judgment & experience in this complicated situation! YOU can trust him and his ability too, and save BIG money while getting a GREAT price for your property.

PS: Our buyer, who got EXACTLY what she wanted because of Terry's expertise, is "happy as a clam" too! The LAST time our model came available she DIDN'T succeed in downsizing. She now knows how important it was to have Terry as our agent, because THIS time, with Terry's help, she DID succeed!

After Terry refinanced our home 4 times last year, we knew he was great to work with! And, the rapid appreciation of newer homes convinced us that it was time for a move (rather than another refinance). So we naturally contacted Terry to help us in that as well.

Our home is completely sold now, and we already have the ‘Big Check’ from the sale in our account, a check that was SUBSTANTIALLY increased by Terry’s astute & expert negotiations with the buyer (a licensed real estate agent) for a premium price. Financially, the transaction was so good that it was ‘off-scale’-- far better than even our earlier business dealings with Terry led us to expect. But, important as the ‘bottom line’ profit is, that is NOT the whole story. The rest of the story concerns the energy, acumen, and trustworthiness that Terry brought to the whole process.

At every step, Terry put OUR interests first (before his own) to make sure that we got the best the market had to offer. Although our home is relatively close to his central office, it was in a relatively rural area that was not where he did the majority of his business. With our permission, Terry negotiated with a 100 agent office locally to co-market our property jointly with them, to give us the advantage of the ‘walk-in’ business for buyers looking in our area. This virtually GUARANTEED that Terry would not be selling the home personally, but rather representing us by managing our interests while cooperating with the larger office to capture the market for OUR benefit, not his own. Although this meant less income for Terry, it was HE who suggested it for our approval!

Once the final buyers agreed to our price, the process began in earnest of checking the home out by physical inspectors, engineers, mold inspectors, and the usual run of multiple appraisers and, of course, the termite company. Terry managed this entire process, leaving NOTHING to chance! He was on site for hour after hour to be certain that he was available if any problems arose and to make sure the importance of any difficulties was not ‘blown out of proportion’ by the potentially self-important inspectors. Terry was a custom home-builder for a number of years, and so his meetings with the various inspectors (especially the mold inspectors, a group that could certainly have become ‘deal-breakers’ if their input had not been properly tempered and qualified by Terry’s involvement) was really a separate ‘mini-negotiation’ with the inspectors AND the buyer. There are no real guidelines for mold, and in older homes the prospect of mold can be a terrifying prospect for some buyers. Some mold inspectors, even though they have no real state-mandated standards, sometimes act like laboratory scientists dispensing the ‘gospel according to them’, and Terry’s slightly irreverent attitude went a LONG ways toward minimizing the buyer’s concerns in this arena by discussing, qualifying, and framing the statements and findings of the inspectors.

Also, we were covering new ground with the extraordinary price Terry got us for our home. To help alleviate appraisal problems (another deal breaker), Terry met with both appraisers, and provided the appraiser a professionally-done, full-color booklet on our property, to cast it in its best light for the appraiser’s inspection. We GOT our appraisal –BOTH times!!

Meanwhile, Terry was working hard to find the perfect home for us when our home closed escrow (since sellers in the hot seller’s market were not typically willing to accept an offer from us subject to our home closing escrow). With our home still in escrow, the prices of the homes we were looking at were beginning to spiral out of reach.Although we were willing to continue the search with Terry, and told him so, we also told him that we were on a waiting list for an exclusive new neighborhood, where a home had just fallen out of escrow (and was consequently available to us). His IMMEDIATE response was that this was a ‘bird in the hand’, and that we should pounce on the new home. Of course, this meant a very substantial reduction in potential income to him (just like the co-listing of our current home with another company for our benefit had meant), since the builder did not cooperate with outside brokers. We also didn’t get Terry’s Buyer Cash-Back Rebate (apx $20,000 in this case), but prices in the new development had already appreciated, and we agreed with Terry after discussing it with him in detail that we did indeed need to pounce on the opportunity that the new home presented to us. So, that’s what we did, and we are happily waiting for our new home to be built. (Terry even accompanied us to a meeting with the builder to view the home and go over the details, just to be sure that we were well-protected.)

The whole process, while stressful, was also exhilarating (and VERY profitable). It was also QUICK, eliminating most of the hassle of showing our home week after week. Working with an experienced agent made all the difference, and we would recommend Terry, even if his commissions were substantially MORE than the market. However, that is NOT the case, because Terry’s listing commission is about a THIRD of the ‘going rate’. He can do this because he took care of us PERSONALLY, not by having a relatively inexperienced agent handle us and our single most valuable asset. While that seasoned representation is VERY good for us, it also means that Terry doesn’t have to split his low commissions within his own office. So, the low commissions bought us a MOST experienced & trustworthy agent without detracting from the intense marketing effort to get us top dollar. What a great combination!

So, if you need a great agent, or a good refinance (or even 4 of them, like us!), call TERRY. We recommend him to all our friends and business associates, and we recommend him to YOU, too!

S.J, M.D. & E.J, M.D.

We researched the marketing of the various area Realtors, and found that Terry provided his clients some of the best marketing of any of the Realtors in the area. He seemed to do above and beyond what other agents did in producing high quality virtual tours for every home he listed. If his listings not only stood out to us, but impressed us, we were convinced that potential buyers for our home would be impressed as well.

Overall, we were most impressed with Terry's sharp knowledge as a realtor and his aggressive attitude toward the sale of our home. His attention to detail, such as producing beautiful, high-quality glossy flyers (much nicer than any other flyers we've seen) and making sure his pictures of the house are top quality (he came over multiple times to our house just to get the right pictures!), causes him to stand out above the rest. He was able to skillfully guide us in determining a sale price for our home by his thorough research of real estate activity in our neighborhood. It must have been the right price because we received two offers the first weekend our home was listed!

Once the offers were on the table, we were again impressed with Terry's skillfulness in interacting with the other agents and leading us to the more promising offer. Knowing the delicateness of these transactions, we were so thankful to have chosen Terry once a contract was in place. In the end, we received $5000 over our asking price, which is pretty impressive, given the weak market!

We owe a big thank you to Terry for his sharp negotiating skills not only in those first crucial transactions but throughout the 30-day escrow period. He was always on top of every detail and always keeping our best interest in view, especially since we were out of state through much of the process. During the process, we realized more and more that Terry's experience with all the details gave us an edge and peace of mind.

Most impressive was that Terry did above and beyond what any typical realtor would have done, yet amazingly, he is a discount broker (only takes 1% of the sale price). We highly recommend Terry to anyone selling their home or buying a home!

DH, PhD, SH-former Woodbridge residents, now on the east coast

Flo Hightower, Retired Realtor

"For the 4th time, Terry has delivered more than he promised. As a retired Realtor myself, I know the difference between good service and "lip service", and Terry's service REALLY IS outstanding!

The last sale he handled for me had a special twist. Terry is the ONLY Realtor I know who had the expertise to REALLY protect me. I was near the end of the time when I could sell one of my houses tax-free under the new tax laws. I could live with it selling or not selling, but I DEFINITELY could NOT close after the tax deadline! That would have cost WAY too much in taxes!

Terry to the rescue! He got me TOP dollar, plus he structured the sale as an option to make sure it DIDN'T close late. On time, or not at all - that was our program! At first the buyers didn't like the option arrangement, but when they found out the advantages to themselves, they decided to "go for it". Terry is great at explaining the "ins & outs" of complex transactions. (Also didn't hurt that Terry's REBATE was worth THOUSANDS to them!)

My sale closed on time (and on budget, too). As a retired Realtor, I would have gone through the hassle of selling it myself, rather than pay a full 6% commission. On the other hand, it did seem likely that I would end up paying a selling broker a 3% commission, even if I did sell it myself. For only ½ % more, Terry provided his unique option expertise, spent hundreds in advertising, sent out hundreds of direct-mail postcards, provided MLS & Internet exposure (including his novel "Internet Open House"), and held LOTS of real open houses. Small price to pay for my peace of mind and that kind of excellent marketing and promotion (and to save my weekends for more interesting pursuits than holding open houses)! Actually, counting the 1% REBATE to the buyers (which got ME a higher price, of course), it was an even BETTER bargain than I had expected.

I continue to work with Terry because he continues to provide more than he promises. He is easy to contact, and very good at explaining the complexities of special transactions. He keeps me up-to-date, and he gets the job done smoothly and pleasantly, to EVERYONE'S satisfaction. Highly recommended!"

Terry presented an offer for me on a major bargain-priced property, one that had just been reduced a LOT on Friday. Rather than leave my profit to chance, Terry tirelessly pursued the presenting of the offer, and by early Saturday morning, had seller approval. It was a good thing, because the exceptionally low price on the property had caused quite a stir. In fact, one potential buyer had seen the new pricing in Homeseekers.com, and asked his Realtor to see it Friday night. The Realtor put off showing the property until Saturday morning because of the Realtor’s prior dinner arrangements, and that was the edge Terry needed to get MY offer accepted. Saturday morning was too late for them, but just right for me!

It ‘frosts me’ to put up with incompetent service, but the flip side is that I recognize and appreciate excellent service when I do get it. And I got it from Terry! It was not just Terry’s reaction speed and focus, but also his precision that impressed me. So often, others that I have worked with have provided me with partial, misleading, or just plain wrong information. EVERYTHING that Terry told me was both true and fully accurate. I am considering some other real estate transactions, and you can bet that Terry will be a part of them!

PS: I also got over $5,000 in what he calls ‘Buyer Cash-Back Rebates’. That was great, but it was getting the deal together for several HUNDRED thousand in profit that ‘floats my boat’!!

D.G, Happy Real Estate Investor in Aliso Viejo

After we personally checked out Terry's services (for several of our own properties) I was willing to take the unusual step (unusual for me, at least, given my almost fanatical protection of my clients' financial well-being) of referring him to several of my clients who needed real estate services. I have been EXTREMELY pleased with his polished approach (even in stressful situations), and with his clear, concise explanations that keep everybody in the transaction 'in the know', all the time. The LAST thing I want is any controversy for my clients, and Terry does a great job of covering all the bases to avoid that.

The other thing I like is how he 'goes above & beyond', doing whatever it takes to get the job done. One recent sale he handled for a long-term client of ours benefited from his flexible approach, and also from his prior experience as a General Contractor. He took care of all the details of renovating a property, and succeeded in selling my client's property when competing brokers could not sell for their clients. He got my client a premium price, charged a minimal (compared to the general market) commission, and overcame all the obstacles to see it through to a successful close when other sellers were giving up and removing their properties from the market. It didn't hurt that his buyer got the benefit thousands of dollars from his Buyer Cash-Back Rebate, either!

He is easy to work with, valuing input from us and others, rather than thinking that he knows it all, all the time. As a result, he is able to use our ideas and other valuable inputs, along with his own, producing a successful approach that is more than the sum of all the inputs. He has a calming effect on the sometimes stressed-out participants in a real estate transaction, and simply can 'make it happen' when others can't. I will continue to refer him to my valuable clients, secure in the knowledge that his services are the best available (without regard to cost), and that his costs are some of the lowest, too!

(Call me if you want more details.)

Ed Martens, Financial Consultant
www.eemartens.com
949-837-6700

Former Residents of Coto de Caza

We met Terry at an open house in Irvine's Northpark. He had his computer & printer with him, and he was able to answer all our questions about selling our Coto de Caza home right on the spot. On top of that, he also only charged about half of what other Realtors had quoted us, AND he was even willing to give our buyer a rebate from that discount commission. His marketing program was top-notch (including glossy, photo quality full color flyers & an outstanding website, for example), and it was obvious that he really "knew his stuff"

We listed our home with him, and within a week, he got us $20,000 more than the highest sale ever (which hadn't even closed escrow when we listed), and even more than $20,000 over sales that had already closed. Since we saved 2.5% in the commission ($13,000), plus several hundred on our title policy, plus the $20,000 price premium, our total profit from using Terry's company was nearly $35,000!

About the same time, one of our friends had gotten behind on her house payments, and her lender was within days of starting a foreclosure because of delinquent property taxes. We referred Terry to her, and the first thing he did was to negotiate from the bank another 45 days before foreclosure. (Foreclosure is an expensive process, and one that makes it VERY hard to sell a home.) During that 45 days, Terry found a buyer for the home who was willing to risk $10,000 in option money because they wanted our friend's home, but they had a home to sell, too. They knew their own home would sell, but they also knew that our friend couldn't accept the uncertainty of a contingent offer with the bank "breathing down her neck". So, Terry drafted an option agreement that worked out for everybody. (Terry is also a lender -- not a loan broker, but a direct associate with a "top 100" bank -- and so was able to get a Full-Credit Loan Pre-Approval on the buyers in a matter of minutes - calming our friend's fears about the buyers' ability to qualify for financing, and making the buyers comfortable, too.)

The first $5,000 of the option money was paid nearly immediately to our friend, who immediately paid her back taxes (stopping the foreclosure), and also paid the taxes coming due in a few days (saving the 10% late penalty on those taxes as well). The buyers were willing about a month later to pay the second $5,000 of option money because by that time Terry had succeeded in selling their home, too! The next problem for our friend was moving. Although she had a large equity in her home, she had almost no cash to move with! The second $5,000 in option money totally took care of this, too! She was able to put down a deposit and smoothly move into her new home because the option gave her the cash to move with BEFORE her home closed escrow!

During the sale of her home, our friend's thought was to buy a smaller place. Although we believe that many real estate agents would have uncritically welcomed the opportunity to make more commission by selling our friend another home, Terry took a different approach. After clearly understanding the major changes happening in our friend's life, he TOTALLY dissuaded her from buying again right away. He convinced her to get the pieces of her life back together BEFORE jumping into another property, despite the reduction of income to himself.

This "cinched it" for us with Terry. It's important to have technical expertise (in options, for example). It's important to be able to do a "top-notch" marketing & sales job to get a maximum price by finding the right buyer for the property. Terry's discounts and rebates help a LOT, too. But the BEST thing of all is to have a trustworthy agent who puts his clients' interests ahead of his own. THAT'S who Terry is at the core, and THAT is why we would recommend him to ANYBODY!!

I had planned to sell my place myself, but I remembered Terry's ad from a few months earlier about a TOTAL commission of 3.5%, including everything. And I was willing to cooperate with brokers if I got a good enough price. After talking with Terry, I decided to have full representation by my OWN broker, working for ME, instead of having brokers with buyers just working for their buyers and themselves. Actually, I wasn't sure if any broker would list my home, since I wanted to sell it for WAY above any other sales in my neighborhood. However, I had a terrific location on the Coto de Caza golf course, though, and other areas were selling for more than my neighborhood. When I told Terry the price I wanted, he agreed that it was possible and promised to 'market it for all it was worth' to try for it. He mentioned that the Internet part of his marketing was 'off-scale', and he demonstrated that a Google search for 'Homes for Sale Orange County, CA' put him on the first page at position #5 out of 255,000 'hits'. WOW! Now THAT'S good marketing!!

Well, we were right, and it's now closed. Terry explained that the market was in a wild state, and wouldn't necessarily stay that way. He was very clear about selling right away, and with a short escrow (with all the contingencies removed early on). He was right! About the time my home closed escrow, the market cooled off considerably. If I had delayed even 2 weeks (or if I had had a 'weak' escrow), I probably couldn't have succeeded.

I have recommended Terry to all my neighbors because it is clear that his first thought is for his clients, not himself. He is the best real estate agent I've ever had (and I've worked with quite a few). It is incredible to me that his fees are LESS than the competition (probably should be a lot MORE than them!).

Now we are looking for another good investment. And, true to form, Terry will also pay me a Buyer Cash-Back Rebate when we find it and escrow closes. He calls his program the 'I pay YOU to Move-Up' program, because his Buyer Cash-Back will likely be more than what he charged me to list my home (eg only 1%). I don't know why his fees are so much more reasonable than the competition, but if that's the way he wants to do it, who am I to complain. Highly Recommended!!

YM, Happy Coto de Caza Seller

Terry has a "First Look" list that lets his clients see his listings BEFORE they even get into the MLS. In a hot market like we have seen here for some time, this can make the difference between getting a good buy, or not getting it at all. Terry took me to see one of his listings, but it wasn't what I was looking for. He mentioned that he had JUST listed another, and so he called the seller and we took a look at it. It was a GREAT rental, and exactly what we were looking for, and we immediately made an offer on it. After a little "back & forth", we got the property at an acceptable price, and we just closed escrow. Terry is the most "hands-on" agent we have ever worked with. NOTHING happens with his clients' contracts that he doesn't personally review, and that's the way we like it! Under control!

Just during the escrow, prices have probably risen $5-$10 thousand. On top of that, we got THOUSANDS back with Terry's Cash-Back program. And, his seller was able to give us an attractive price because Terry charged them about 1/3 the going rate as a listing commission. All in all, a GREAT buy for us (and good for the seller, too!).

Also, Terry converted his virtual tour for selling the property into a virtual tour for us to rent the property, letting renters see the property without hassling us to show it to them until AFTER they already know they want it. He did the same thing with his 'for sale' flyers… INSTANT for-rent marketing for us, at NO COST!

Terry uses 'high-tech' to the max. This provides an instant action response to questions or anything that comes up, and keeps us up-to-the-minute on our purchase (like most everybody, a major purchase for us). The old way of meeting after meeting is SUCH a waste of time, and we are busy people. We appreciate getting things done immediately, and getting them done right - both are the norm with Terry!

We asked Terry for some of his cards for our friends. We like him AND his 'well-oiled' team. Makes buying real estate a pleasure again!!

DD & SD,