Our relationship with the Buyer's Choice started in a rather unusual way. My wife and I were starting to get serious about purchasing a home, however we had yet to go as far as to retain a real estate agent.

We learned about a house that was for sale from a relative and scheduled an appointment to view the property with the listing agent. We viewed the property one night and were extremely interested in moving forward on it. As we were taking a second walkthrough of the house that night, a couple came into the house. My wife and I were wondering if they were also interested in purchasing the property. Turns out they were bringing some paperwork to the listing agent. "Nothing to worry about" we thought.

When we got home that night and were very excited about the property, but, didn't know what to do next. Having read a "How to buy a home" guide and learning about something called an exclusive buyer's agent, I decided to search the internet for any of these types of real estate agents in the Rhode Island area. Two sites appeared on my screen.

The first one was a simple site without out much information. The second site was from "The Buyer's Choice". It was full of information and multimedia. There's was no doubt these people were much more sophisticated and dedicated than the folks behind the other site. I decided to call The Buyer's Choice.

Having both Kathy and John on their speaker phone, I explained how a listing agent showed us a property which we were very interested in, yet we needed help in moving forward. Kathy nicely explained how we made our first mistake in the real estate world: We viewed a property without being represented by an agent. In order to introduce our own agent into the fold, the selling agent would need to provide signed permission.

Kathy continued: "We will be happy to work with you on this and see if we can get the selling agent to let us represent you. To start with, what's the address of the property you are interested in?" I stated the address and then heard silence...

"Are you sure about that address?" Kathy asked. "Yes, why?" I responded. Kathy then asked "You viewed that property last night?". Again I responded "Yes, why??" "Did a few people arrive just as you were leaving the property last night?" she asked. Now with a "What the heck?" look on my face I responded again "Yes, why???".

Kathy explained "The couple who arrived was us! We were delivering the paperwork on behalf of one of our clients who is purchasing that house." Now the silence was coming from me.

Turns out the selling agent never told us about the fact that she was expecting some final paperwork to be delivered WHILE WE WERE VIEWING THE "NOW SOLD" PROPERTY. What a feeling of disappointment and anger towards the shady listing agent who wasn't up front with us. We quickly learned how badly we needed some professionals on our team before becoming interested in any more properties.

We met with John and Kathy at their Lincoln office. They showered us with more information than we could shake a stick at. This information included several articles on the benefits and growth of the "exclusive buyer's agent" concept. They even showed us a handful of video clips from nation wide television shows like "Today" that were touting the concept as well.

We signed on with "The Buyer's Choice" that night. Kathy and John then provided us with any and all information they had on current property listings that were within our price and criteria parameters. Eventually I came across a property on my own by following their advice to look in the Sunday papers for the newest listings.

I found this property in my local Sunday paper. I called the seller and he said the property was still for sale and he had showing appointments scheduled all day but I was welcome to stop by and take a quick look if I wanted. I accepted his invitation and quickly fell in love with this property. Kathy and John instructed us to call them immediately if we found a property we were interested in. That's exactly what I did after seeing the seller lead a steady parade of potential buyers through his house. I didn't think the property would make it to the end of the day without somebody making an offer.

Luckily, I caught Kathy and John just as they were leaving for a special Sunday family get together. They immediately rearranged their plans to spend the afternoon with family to help me with this property I was drooling over. Within one half hour, Kathy and John were on the scene and going to work for me. We viewed the property and then told the seller we wanted to move forward.

The seller, already overwhelmed with the parade a potential buyer's walking through his property, was even more overwhelmed by the speed in which Kathy and John were taking action on this property. There was one issue we had with the seller's demand for an especially high down payment. He asked that we come back the next night so he would have some time to think things through.

The next day I tried to contact Kathy and John at their office to discuss some ideas I had to improve our argument regarding the downpayment issue. They never responded back to me and I never tried their cellular phone numbers. Where were they?

Turns out they were doing some extensive research on the property I was interested in. They spent the entire day going to town hall, to my mortgage broker to have a blind appraisal performed, and to two law firms to review the downpayment issue. Their research identified a couple of contradictions with some of the claims the seller made regarding the property. More importantly, however, they learned the seller was asking about 20% more than the local market would dictate. Basically, my mortgage broker said the bank would not provide a mortgage for 20% more than the fair market price.

That night, Kathy and John debriefed my wife and I on the way to the property. The seller strongly disagreed with our claims and we left the property behind us. Another disappointment, but this time Kathy and John saved us from making our second big real estate mistake.

A few weeks later Kathy clued us into a "For Sale By Owner" that fit our criteria. We drove by the property, liked it, and decided to call the crew in again. As I was on my cell phone, I drove by another "For Sale By Owner" in the same neighborhood. I told Kathy I was more interested in this second property we just stumbled on. Within a half hour Kathy and John were on site with us viewing the property.

We started viewing the property around 1:00pm that day. I needed to pick up my parents at the airport around 4:30pm. Around 3:00pm, Kathy and John worked out the offer letter for the property and told me to go pick up my parents and they would go back to seal the deal with the sellers.

Kathy and John were determined to strike a deal that day because the sellers had another showing scheduled the following afternoon. They were taking no chances on losing this property.

After picking up my parents, I explained to them about the property we found and asked if they wanted to drive by it. At about 6:00pm, we arrived at the property only to find Kathy and John still there. John came out to greet me.

"Everything's fine! We're just ironing out some small details but the deal is pretty much sealed!" John exclaimed. I couldn't believe they were still there, 5 hours after first arriving, to make sure they secured the property for us before the sellers had a chance to show the property the following afternoon.

"The Buyer's Choice" was not done yet. The next afternoon, a Sunday afternoon mind you, Kathy and John went back to the property at the same time of the seller's other scheduled showing just to make sure nothing transpired that would cause us to lose this property. Sure enough, the other potential buyers arrived as scheduled, but Kathy and John were there to make sure my position was safe. The potential buyers were disappointed in losing another property and decided to become clients of "The Buyer's Choice" so that they could be the first ones in line at the next property they are interested in. I would say that is a smart choice.

Kathy and John followed through with us to the end: They came to the house inspection, they came to the closing, and even came to the property on the day the sellers were moving out to make sure they did not take anything that was to be left behind. John even went to the property when my inspector had to make a special visit to test the septic system a few weeks after the initial inspection. My wife and I could not make it, so John was there on his own.

My wife and I can honestly say that we have never received the kind of service that Kathy and John provided in anything we've ever done. We were amazed at the long days they put in, the tenacity of their negotiating skills, the willingness to put us before their family, even on a Sunday afternoon, and their desire to make sure there were no issues that would take us or them by surprise. We compared them to pit-bulls.

The best compliment I gave them was when I told them if I ever tried to sell my house I hope they don't show up on my front door with a buyer by their side because I know what I will be in for.

Kudos also to Kathy and John's son Mark. It was his web site that lured me to "The Buyer's Choice" and he also made a nice video tape of my new property so we could show our friends and family.

Special thanks goes to Kathy, John, and Mark! I am sure you will be just as thankful if you make the right choice, that is, "The Buyer's Choice"!

-- Lisa and Kevin Badeau

If you have any questions about The Buyer's Choice, the free online registry, or buyer's agency feel free to call me or e-mail me. If you are looking to buy a house feel free to fill out our online form.
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E-mail: CorbettTeam@thebuyerschoice.com

Sincerely,