Up until the past few weeks, my only personal experience with a real estate transaction was with purchasing my first home four years ago. However, as a local mortgage banker and licensed transaction coordinator, I’ve spent the past 12 years helping others in my community of Vancouver, Washington achieve their homeownership and financial goals.
I recently decided to sell my home and found myself spending an evening reviewing the multiple offers I received. I quickly realized that buying a property in the current real estate market must be so tough. So many people are competing for so few places to live.
As a seller, how do I choose which offer wins? All of the offers I received had agreed to an over-asking-price number, but each had slight variances. Some offers had contingencies on their own pending sales – which are of no concern in this seller-dominant market. Some had demanding inspection requests. One offer even requested for me to include all of my furniture and most of my belongings, except for my clothes. Why not my clothes, too? Not quite their style?
But, what I hadn’t considered before and what surprised me the most as I reviewed the offers, was how much I took the legitimacy of their financing into consideration. When I bought a home, I had always used my employer, Summit Mortgage Corporation, as a lender. But, I hadn’t considered that maybe it was my pre-approval letter from a great local company that helped seal the deal. The seller who accepted my offer didn’t know I was an employee of Summit Mortgage Corporation.
As a mortgage banker, I know the steps that are taken to pre-qualify a client at Summit Mortgage Corporation. And, we know what steps other companies take because we’ve had to step in and save a few deals for clients in the past.
In the end, I ended up selecting the offer from a family that financed with a local lending company and used a local mortgage banker that I had heard great things about. I trusted that this local mortgage banker would be able to successfully walk the buyers through the process of buying my home.
If you’re looking to buy, sell or refinance your home, I can help. The real estate market is highly competitive, and available homes are in short supply. Having a local and highly experienced team on your side will make all the difference when it comes time to put in your offer.
Give me a call or email me today to learn how to get pre-qualified to make an offer on your dream home.
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ANDREW LAMONT
Licensed Transaction Coordinator / Mortgage Banker • NMLS 7847
C: 503.348.9844 | O: 360.567.2322
andrewl@go-summit.com
Go-Summit.com/Staff/Andrew-Lamont
Summit Mortgage Corporation • NMLS 3236
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