October 14, 2013
Everyone should use One Percent Broker. We worked with John and Hugh who exemplify everything a broker should be.
The excelled in all of these areas:
–Personable – A pleasure to talk to and sit down with to discuss our needs
–Knowledgeable – They know there way around a purchase contract and how to negotiate. We cannot emphasize how important and good they were at this. Just because someone is licensed doesn’t mean they know contracts or negotiating or anything else for that matter – John and Hugh are both great at it.
–Communication – John and Hugh communicate well and often – they were very responsive to our phone calls, emails and text messages. Sadly there are real estate agents out there that are horrible about returning calls, responding to emails or providing you with updates. John and Hugh were exemplary with communication.
–Licensed – Very important when you think about it.
–Local Market Familiarity – They knew every area we were looking at well and even suggested submarkets within the area that would appreciate better than others, which streets had the most traffic, etc.
–Truthful – Whether we wanted to hear it or not, they gave us the truth about areas, homes and banks.
–Full-Time – John and Hugh are full time agents, not part-timers that only work the weekends. While we know they had several other clients we always felt like we were #1.
–Integrity – John and Hugh demonstrated their integrity on more than one occasion and it was refreshing. They always seemed to put our interests above theirs.
John and Hugh’s business model is not the traditional one that you may be used to. In order to keep their costs low and rebate part of the commission back to you, they will not take you on tours of homes unless a special appointment is required and with the technology access and sale lists they provide this is not an issue. Do you really need a broker with you when you look at a home during an open house? We didn’t think so and still don’t. We could visit homes on our schedule and pace and make a list of questions for them to present to the seller when we had them. Outside of the home visits they provide every service a tradition broker would and they excel at it.
As for our search, we were looking for our house during a difficult market, where home inventory was extremely limited and remains so today. While we had a list of wants for the house, in response to the market we’d kept our options wide open. It took months to find our home, however throughout the process, John and Hugh’s knowledge of real estate values and demographics was invaluable. If there was a property we were remotely curious about they seemed to drop everything and pull together a comprehensive report combined with their expert advice. Their availability and response time was outstanding. It was so comforting knowing we had agents that were looking out for us instead of commission check.
John’s professional, relaxed demeanor was a huge asset during negotiation though close. He managed communications between brokers, banks, and escrow and kept us informed at every step during our difficult escrow. He was also present at every appointment through close. They provided great advice and resources on inspections resulting in additional credits from the seller.
Even after close, they continued to follow up with us. John and Hugh are both great guys and were a pleasure to work with.
One Percent Broker exceeded our expectations and we highly recommend them to you!
