Nevertheless, equally important to the buyers, are the professional experiences of each of the Realtors®, the buyers encounter. While it may be helpful for the agent to have access to even the most incidental knowledge of a community, those are issues that are equally accessible by the Internet Consumer today. Today, your Realtor® must be an expert in understanding financing, construction of offers/contracts, strategies in negotiating those offers/contracts, have a very clear understanding of the importance of being able to control as much of the transaction process as possible for the sake of their client. Today's Realtor® is tasked with keeping his/her finger on the pulse of the transaction from the lender level, title level, home inspection level, pest inspection level, appraisal level, cooperating agent level (that is some times the most challenging) and much more. Lori & I excel in all of the fields with knowledge and experience, as Today's Realtor® should.

Today's Realtor® must be able to convey answers to their clients in a way that those explanations don't sound like Geek-Speak. We must be articulate and yet down to earth. We must take the TIME to explain every question our clients ask and be honest enough to say, "I don't know that answer but I will find that answer and get right back to you".

Assuming all offers are reasonable, sellers are counseled by their agents/representatives to make the first cut by eliminating those bidders who have not supplied a "Letter of Pre Approval" from a certified lender with their offer. The next cut is made if the offer is contingent on the buyer selling their current home. The next cut is made based on the closing date. For example, if the seller needs time for a home to be finished being built, then a longer closing is preferred. If the buyer wants to get out quickly, a short closing is preferred. It is up to the buyers Realtor® to handle the negotiations of those issues and work the scenarios to the advantage of the Realtors® client, as best he/she can, and we are pretty good at that.

What is the difference between PRE APPROVAL and PRE QUAILIFICATION? Pre approval is much different than pre qualification. Pre qualification is no more than a buyer talking with a lender or Realtor® wherein the lender or Realtor® simply advise the buyer that they make enough money to handle the mortgage payment. This type of qualification is about as useful as, "feathers on a lizard". Pre approval on the other hand is much more powerful. The buyer has spoken with a qualified lender and has given the lender all of the credit information needed for the lender to issue a letter that states the buyer is not only qualified by way of income, but that their credit profile complements the financing/purchase platform the buyer wishes to employ and that the buyer has the funds needed to support the down payment, closing costs, pre paid escrow items, origination points and discount points if any. Additionally, if the buyers Realtor® is successful enough, some of those costs can be worked into the negotiations of the home purchase, thus reducing the amount of money with which, the buyer has to come out of pocket. That too is something that Lori & I are particularly successful with. Not 100% of the time but we are successful about... Ohooooo say... 95% of the time.  You can get pre approved, On-Line at Coldwell Banker Mortgage by clicking here or you can be pre approved with Pacific Funding, Mark Schmidt by personally e-mailing Mark.  Be sure to include a contact phone number and best time to be reached.  Mark will contact you with 24 hours of your post, in most cases much sooner.

Many Realtors® today are intimidated, by the pace of our market, to ask for seller contributions. That is because they don't know how to frame the concept in the initial offer. Most Realtors® would construct an offer wherein they ask the seller to reduce the price their asking for the house and at the same time ask the seller to pay some or all of the buyers costs. That is nearly always a kamikaze approach in the offer process. You can usually successfully negotiate one or the other, but almost always, never both.

Perhaps because I am Retired Air Force, I understand the aggravation with waiting for the government to get around to doing what they are suppose to do. That is the reason, years ago; I searched the VA system for ways to infiltrate the VA machine. I was successful in finding that rat hole and, today, use it quite effectively in Florida and in Arizona, where we hold active real estate licenses. I am able to insert myself into the interstices of the military fabric and wriggle my way through it and come out with the desired results 98% of the time, and in most cases in a fraction of the time it would have taken if we let the VA machine lumbar along at its own pace.