"You're about to sign a 30-year commitment on the most expensive thing you'll ever buy," Mateo Ramirez says. "Spending four minutes getting to know the person you're handing that to isn't a bad trade."

So here are the four minutes.

Mateo didn't come into real estate through sales. He came in through maintenance. His family ran R&D's Janitorial, and that's where he learned the business from the ground floor: show up, take care of the property, take ...