Brett 's Blog

Most people think closing is when they sign their closing documents.  In our state, and in many states, that's not how it works.  Closing is when escrow can make the sellers funds available to them and the ownership rights available to the new buyer.  Have all the terms of the purchase and sale a...

So - I've commented on this before, but it really bothers me.  I have another appraisal, this time completed by an MAI/SRA that substantiates depreciation in values based on faulty data. When I took appraisal classes, the only acceptable adjustments to the comparable sales were based on a "matche...

Your local real estate market can be like a layer cake.  You know the kind I'm talking about, the one with the big base where the next levels get smaller and smaller until they hit the top. The base is the starter home market.  This is where the action is in most markets, good or bad.  There's al...

Signing, is when you go to the closing table to sign your loan doc's.   Enough slang in that sentence for you?  Of course, everyone knows that you'll need to sign a whole stack of papers when you complete a real estate transaction involving a mortgage.  What's confusing for most borrowers/buyers ...

Your loan hasn't ben sent to the Doctor-to get healthy.  We don't have a secret "loan hospital" for sick loans.  No when we refer to a loan as having gone to "Doc's", we are referring to sending your loan to have the Loan Documents prepared or drawn. What this means to you as a borrower is, your ...

So, here's an old trick that this dog knows....It's funny, whenever I find business is slow, I can trace it to a time in a previous month or two where I didn't work so hard. There's a reason that sales trainers push you to do "the 90 day burn" or "84 days to success" or........ Put in the effort ...

I used to be an avid reader of newspapers.  In fact, it wasn't uncommon for me to read two a day..... Used to be....Funny, now that I live by myself how I don't have the time.  I swore that I would always be a newspaper reader.  Kind of like how I swore I would always read books and not on an e-r...

Someone very close to me recently had to come up with $2,400 to rent a two bedroom apartment, between the deposit and the first months rent......a lot of money, but way cheaper than buying, right? I'm working with three customers right now who will be able to purchase a house with significantly l...

Yesterday, a fairly sophisticated home buyer called me about a pre-approval.  He and his wife own a home, and a vacation home.  This is a successful business couple who are doing well in the residential construction market despite the current economy.  He indicated that they wanted to buy a new p...