Bought a home in 2009.
If you're going to buy a home and do not have a home to sell this is absolutely your best resource in the area!!!
After hearing about the first home buyer's credit, I decided to look into the potential of buying. I had rented my entire life, partly to be mobile and partly because I never
seem to have time for things like home repairs. I contacted Rich Rosa at Buyer's Brokers Only (BBO) and signed up for the MLS listings on their website. I explained that I was just toying with the idea of buying, that I wanted to do some research for a few months and that I would contact him if I decided to move forward. He passed along a few great resources and his contact info and told me to give him a shout when I was ready.
The first indication that I was not dealing with a 'car dealership' style of sales was the fact that he waited for me to give him a shout, which was months after our initial contact. At no point during the sales process did I ever feel that he was working for a commission. He was honest and shared things about properties that were negative, which in one case led me to decide not to make an offer on a place.
I found the place I wanted. I had set up a showing to compare it with another property actually but fell in love. Rich explained that it was a short-sale (which by the way is some bank's funny way of saying long-sale). He explained all of the problems with short-sales, things that could happen, the frequency of their closing being about 20%. But I had found the place I wanted!
I drove him crazy over the next few months, waiting, not hearing anything, not knowing anything. The lack of knowing anything had nothing to do with Rich, it was just that there were so many people involved that no one had a clue what was going on. Despite my continuous calling and demanding info, he stuck by me and was very patient (I would NEVER agree to be my broker).
The last explosion of events was when one of the seller's banks wanted one thing and another bank wanted another and I was put in a very difficult position and had to make an extremely difficult decision. Rich explained in great detail the legal problems, liabilities and options. He went to great lengths to warn me about potential conflicts of interest. At the end he reminded me that I was the one buying the home, and that he merely represented my interests and had no personal interest one way or another (aside from not wanting to see me get screwed that is).
When I turn the corner and walk into my new kitchen I still stop, take a breath and appreciate that I am a homeowner. I still check out the Buyer's Brokers Only MLS Listings on their website. Now that I've moved, we're in the same community. Not only do I highly recommend Rich but I highly doubt he would ever work with someone with a 'dealership' style sales approach; any agent at Buyer's Brokers Only is surely going to leave you extremely thankful you chose them.
Oh, one other thing to mention. After the closing Rich had encouraged me to file a Declaration of Homestead to protect my property (and gave me the paperwork to do so). Trying to move, paint, and deal with about a billion things I forgot to fill out the form, have it notarized and returned to Rich. Despite the fact that they had already made their commission and would gain absolutely NOTHING from me for filing the Declaration, Rich's business partner Dave emailed me another copy of the form and encouraged me to complete it and explained the legal benefits of having it filed. He also offered to file it in Salem for free (well I paid the $35 filing fee of course). My point is that they proved to me that they were not just after my money, rather they clearly care about their long-term business and act in a way that encourages their company's referral growth.
I have referred a number of people to BBO, one of which did actually purchase a home using their help. She told me she was blown away by the level of service and how detail oriented her agent was. She thanked me for the recommendation; you will too.…More Less![[AVATAR_ALT_TEXT]](http://photos1.zillow.com/is/image/i0/i0/i42/ISz0uiacouervn.jpg?op_sharpen=1&qlt=90&hei=100&wid=75)
After hearing about the first home buyer's credit, I decided to look into the potential of buying. I had rented my entire life, partly to be mobile and partly because I never seem to have time for things like home repairs. I contacted Rich Rosa at Buyer's Brokers Only (BBO) and signed up for the MLS listings on their website. I explained that I was just toying with the idea of buying, that I wanted to do some research for a few months and that I would contact him if I decided to move forward. He passed along a few great resources and his contact info and told me to give him a shout when I was ready.
The first indication that I was not dealing with a 'car dealership' style of sales was the fact that he waited for me to give him a shout, which was months after our initial contact. At no point during the sales process did I ever feel that he was working for a commission. He was honest and shared things about properties that were negative, which in one case led me to decide not to make an offer on a place.
I found the place I wanted. I had set up a showing to compare it with another property actually but fell in love. Rich explained that it was a short-sale (which by the way is some bank's funny way of saying long-sale). He explained all of the problems with short-sales, things that could happen, the frequency of their closing being about 20%. But I had found the place I wanted!
I drove him crazy over the next few months, waiting, not hearing anything, not knowing anything. The lack of knowing anything had nothing to do with Rich, it was just that there were so many people involved that no one had a clue what was going on. Despite my continuous calling and demanding info, he stuck by me and was very patient (I would NEVER agree to be my broker).
The last explosion of events was when one of the seller's banks wanted one thing and another bank wanted another and I was put in a very difficult position and had to make an extremely difficult decision. Rich explained in great detail the legal problems, liabilities and options. He went to great lengths to warn me about potential conflicts of interest. At the end he reminded me that I was the one buying the home, and that he merely represented my interests and had no personal interest one way or another (aside from not wanting to see me get screwed that is).
When I turn the corner and walk into my new kitchen I still stop, take a breath and appreciate that I am a homeowner. I still check out the Buyer's Brokers Only MLS Listings on their website. Now that I've moved, we're in the same community. Not only do I highly recommend Rich but I highly doubt he would ever work with someone with a 'dealership' style sales approach; any agent at Buyer's Brokers Only is surely going to leave you extremely thankful you chose them.
Oh, one other thing to mention. After the closing Rich had encouraged me to file a Declaration of Homestead to protect my property (and gave me the paperwork to do so). Trying to move, paint, and deal with about a billion things I forgot to fill out the form, have it notarized and returned to Rich. Despite the fact that they had already made their commission and would gain absolutely NOTHING from me for filing the Declaration, Rich's business partner Dave emailed me another copy of the form and encouraged me to complete it and explained the legal benefits of having it filed. He also offered to file it in Salem for free (well I paid the $35 filing fee of course). My point is that they proved to me that they were not just after my money, rather they clearly care about their long-term business and act in a way that encourages their company's referral growth.
I have referred a number of people to BBO, one of which did actually purchase a home using their help. She told me she was blown away by the level of service and how detail oriented her agent was. She thanked me for the recommendation; you will too.…More Less