PRESS PERSONAL REAL ESTATE SUPPORT SERVICES

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Wonderful!! No issues at all!

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We began by meeting with him in a coffee shop to talk about the process and he gave us some documents to review. My wife and I decided very quickly to use their help and we were glad we did. Brett had select real estate agents, home inspectors, and mortgage brokers for us to choose from. And in between each phase of the process Brett was available day or night to answer any questions we had and to help us understand what to expect next. We had interviews with two real estate agents and selected one to work with. She helped us find a house and we made an offer on it. That deal fell through because the appraisal came in too low and we made an offer on a second house which we ultimately closed on. Brett came to both house inspections and was involved every step of the way. He turned a new and daunting experience into something manageable. He made us very comfortable with the experience of buying our first home.

Since we were new to buying a house, we took a homebuying class at the UW. Brett was the instructor, and mentioned that he also has a business connecting potential buyers to reputable folks in the industry. That sounded good to us, since we didn't know who to trust, and there was no cost to us for his service. Brett was very professional and very helpful (he lent me his post hole digger!) He connected to us to people who eventually helped us buy just the right house for us. While it's true that a lot about finding the house for you can be done on your own these days, the best part was the piece of mind in having Brett on our side the first time through the process. If we had a question about a certain part of the process or what was happening, we could always call and ask. Buying a house for the first time is stressfull. that was nice.

I originally attended Brett's homebuying seminar through the UW Experimental College, which was very helpful. I got the background on the homebuying process and the Seattle real estate market that helped my husband and me to launch a purposeful homebuying process. A few months later, we contacted Brett via e-mail to set up an appointment to use his consulting service, PRESS. My husband and I met with Brett for a couple of hours to tell him a little about ourselves and the type of house we wanted to buy (completely renovated house, one of the neighborhoods close to Downtown Seattle). He told us a little more about PRESS--it's free for homebuyers and gives you access to Brett's little black book full of highly qualified real estate professionals (which sounds too good to be true, but actually is just as it seems); Brett gets a referral commission from the real estate agent you choose, which helps him keep going. We decided to engage PRESS's services, so we signed a non-disclosure contract (agreeing not to share Brett's little black book with anyone else). Brett then told us all about three possible real estate agents that he thought might be a good fit for us; he recommended we contact at least two and ask them to "test drive" a couple of home tours together before we choose an agent. He also gave us a book he wrote with information about every step of the homebuying process and contact information for highly skilled professionals we may need along the way. We met with two of the agents he recommended and it was a very tough choice--they were both excellent. In the end, we decided to go with one who had extensive construction-industry experience. This agent's support was invaluable to us. As we toured old houses in our target neighborhoods, we learned a lot about good and bad home renovations, what work remained to be completed (and how much it was likely to cost), and potential red flags (like subtle signs of water damage from a leaky roof). Thanks to this agent, we found the perfect house for us. Then things got even better. Our agent's superior negotiation skills helped us to get closing costs paid by the seller and knocked an additional $20K off the selling price--well beyond our expectations! We were ecstatic. Meanwhile, Brett set us up with two mortgage brokers who underbid each other until we closed with a beautiful 4.375% 30-year fixed rate mortgage with no points and very low closing costs. The home inspector he referred us to was a journeyman electrician--just what we needed to check our home's updated wiring and give us the all-clear our insurance company needed to cover our house. In all, our homebuying process went very smoothly thanks to Brett and his network of outstanding real estate professionals--coupled with Brett's fast responses to our questions along the way. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't take advantage of the service PRESS provides. How can you turn down invaluable and free help with the most expensive purchase of your life?!? We've already referred friends to PRESS, and they are raving about their experience, too.

We purchased our first home eight years ago with a PRESS-referred agent, and last year when it came time again to move, we knew we would start the process with PRESS. Brett was extremely helpful and knowledgeable, and he was up to date with real estate market conditions, rate trends, and lending law changes. We met with the PRESS-referred real estate agents for a trial house showing and made our choice of whom to work with. We found an agent who we felt certain could handle the challenge of coordinating the sale of our home and the search for and purchase of our new home. I was very apprehensive over how well this could be coordinated. Our agent was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and patient with us through the whole process, and was very prompt with followup from phone calls and emails. Both the sale of our home and the purchase of the new home went very smoothly. We compared good faith estimates from three mortgage brokers and it was the broker referred by PRESS with the most favorable offer. Brett checked with us regularly during the entire process to ask how the process was going, and personally attended the house inspection. We felt that we had the support of the PRESS service every step of the way. We have been very happy with our home and the home buying experience both times we have worked with PRESS. I always recommend to friends that their home search begin with PRESS.

Our whole experience with PRESS was excellent, from start to finish. There was one hiccup early on when we began working with one of the agents recommended by Brett and had some communication issues. After a week or so, we decided to instead work with one of the other agents that we had met with after being introduced by Brett. The agent we ended up working with was fantastic. We were incredibly impressed with her level of organization, her professionalism and the sheer amount of work she was willing to do to help us find the right house. She was also a great person to work with and we had a great time shopping for a home with her. Brett has a long history with the agents, brokers etc that he recommends, and in return for bringing the agents clients, he receives a portion of their commission. This system is great for the homebuyer, as you get all of Brett's experience and guidance, as well as introductions to excellent professionals. Everyone that we worked with (real estate agent, home inspector, mortgage broker and Brett) had worked with each other before, so communication between all parties was excellent. We had a fairly complicated purchase (a bank-owned property, owned by an out of state bank, financed with an FHA loan), but the professionals we worked with did everything they could to make the process as painless and stress-free as possible. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to use PRESS again, in fact I wouldn't consider purchasing property in the Puget Sound area without using them. I wholeheartedly recommend PRESS to anyone looking to buy real estate in Seattle.

My wife and I took Brett's class through UW (although this isn't necessary to work with them) about 3-4 years ago. We recently decided to buy a house, and opted to try PRESS first. PRESS let us select among 3 agents (1 of them turned us off on paper, and so we really chose from 2). The agent provided was really good and patient with us. Feedback and communication with Brett was also good throughout. I think we thought seriously about putting in offers on 3-4 houses, and consulted with Brett on those as a 3rd party - we usually got a response within a couple hours. The lenders supplied by PRESS were good for the most part - you don't have to use them, but we opted to (their rates were as good as anything we could find on zillow, and they were local). The inspector we worked with was amazing - we did 2 with him, and it was the best money we spent. I think for first time home buyers, PRESS was great to work with + would definitely recommend to friends!

My fianc? and I made the decision to enlist Brett from PRESS after taking Brett's class at UW. It's difficult to articulate how much easier the house buying process was. Given the complexity if the real-estate industry as well as many folks' ethically-challenged behavior, I could not imagine, not as a first time home buyer or even an experienced homebuyer, doing this on our own. Here's what you get when you work with PRESS. You get Brett, and with him comes his years of experience in the real-estate industry. You get everyone that PRESS has vetted. This is huge. These are people who want to be here, people who value PRESS business, and put the client first. You might take this for granted, but in many areas (agents, inspectors), the bar for entry is shockingly low. A big chunk of being smart isn't so much what you know as it is being aware of what you don't know, and knowing when you need to ask questions. PRESS surrounds you with folks who know their stuff, giving you the tools and the expertise to make informed decisions. If you're buying or selling a house, I cannot recommend PRESS enough.

We first met Brett and PRESS through a class he taught at the UW Extension class. This was the very beginning of our real estate investing. We had zero experience with investing in real estate and decided to take a class to learn more. The education we received in the class was invaluable! Brett was so knowledgeable and very patient as we stayed behind after class to ask question after question after question. Since that time, Brett and PRESS have walked us through the purchase of two apartment buildings and one single family home, all investment purchases. In addition, they walked us through the evaluation of properties that we didn't end up buying. To us, avoiding bad investments was just as important as finding good ones. PRESS's network of professionals from real estate agents to inspectors to lawyers were well-experienced, knowledgeable, and willing to teach us what they knew. Their work has been professional and complete from start to finish. PRESS is an invaluable resource that we come back to time and time again, year after year, purchase after purchase.

My husband and I met Brett 5 years ago when we took a UW Extension course, "Seattle Homes," taught by Jim Stacey, the founder of PRESS. (Since then, Jim retired and Brett took over both PRESS and the courses.) The course was incredibly informative. PRESS wasn't advertised in the class beyond "we run a consulting business; contact us outside of class if you want to know about it." We did want to know about it, so we talked to Jim and Brett. What a fantastic business model: clients get to leverage PRESS' wealth of knowledge, experience and long term relationships with excellent professionals, good agents get serious clients (which leads to them getting paid via sales commissions) and PRESS gets a cut. Win-win-win. People are always skeptical when we tell them this service exists and it's free to the client. It's true though. A year later, the landlord of our rented house decided he wanted to live there himself, so we only had two months to find and move into a new place. We were hoping to buy a condo instead of renting again, so we contacted Brett. We were upfront about our time line and that our plan was to try hard to find a condo in the first month, but that if we couldn't find one to buy, we'd need to abandon the search and just rent for a while. We chose one of the several real estate agents Brett recommended. The agent was great. In the end, we just didn't have enough time and it was a seller's market, so we didn't find the right place on that go around. Fast forward to 3 years later, spring 2009. Home prices had dipped, and we could now afford a house. I emailed Brett and we picked up right where we left off. Our real estate agent was still in the PRESS circle, so we met up and started the search. I can't say enough good things about our agent: knowledgeable, thorough, caring, honest, professional, friendly, helpful and always looking out for our best interest. Our agent helped us find a great house and get a good deal on it. The home inspection was very informative and the inspection report helped our agent negotiate for seller repairs. The mortgage broker got us a rate no one could beat (I shopped around). Having these trustworthy, knowledgeable professionals on our side made the process much less stressful; we were very confident that we had all the information to make the right decision. My favorite part of the process was when Brett, our agent, the home inspector, my husband and I all sat around in our future living room discussing the good and bad points of the house, the repairs we should get the seller to cover and remodeling possibilities and costs. We've now been in the house almost a year, and we couldn't be happier. Even though the transaction is finished, Brett and our agent are very responsive to any questions we have about home improvement projects and anything house-related. I wholeheartedly recommend PRESS to friends and family, and we plan to use PRESS whenever we sell and/or buy again.

The experience I had with PRESS spanned over a year. It began after I took several courses taught by PRESS instructors on how to purchase a home in the Puget Sound area. I was not only impressed by the depth of knowledge of the individuals at PRESS, but the degree that they were willing to listen to my questions. No matter how frequent my inquiries were, PRESS always made themselves available through phone, email, or face-to-face meetings, and that was before I was even a client. After taking the PRESS courses, I decided to use their services to purchase my first real estate investment; however, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to postpone the process until a year afterwards. In spite of this delay, PRESS still kept in touch with me and still made themselves open to my continued questions about real estate investing. When the process started again the year after, PRESS reviewed my file and updated it with the new circumstances of my situation. They helped set up a meeting with one of their agents, and we were able to begin the hunt for a real estate investment again. The purchase process was new and complex to me, but PRESS helped take a lot of the uncertainty out of the equation. All along the way, PRESS answered my questions about inspections, maintenance, financing, and the escrow process. Within a few short months, I was able to secure financing and locate a turn-key real estate investment in my desired neighborhood at an outstanding price. The real estate investment has continued to pay us dividends, and it was made possible because of the help and mentoring that PRESS provided us. My only caveat is that individuals who use PRESS should stick with the professionals within the network that PRESS has set up. The professionals that PRESS works with have been tested and are very good at what they do. I made the mistake of using my local credit union to finance the purchase. I was able to get a slightly better deal through them, but they proved to be unfamiliar with recent updates in real estate law and slow to react during the funding process. This caused some hiccups in the appraisal stage of the purchase as well as unnecessary contention between my agent and my financier. It would have cost a little more to finance a loan through a PRESS bank, but in the long run it would have saved me a lot of headaches and aggravation. The bottom line is that I would highly recommend this service. The real estate industry is filled with traps that can derail a purchase or sale of a piece of real estate, and it is littered with unscrupulous and incompetent professionals. PRESS is the best safeguard against these threats for any person looking to get involved in the real estate market.

The process went really well. I was VERY nervous about approaching the whole home buying process, because i knew almost nothing. Words like "escrow" made me nervous.... But - I started off by taking 2 of Brett's classes - a 2-day overview of home-buying and selling, and then a shorter class specifically about condos. Both were extremely helpful. Brett is a good trainer, and he knows his material! I would refer back to his materials as well throughout the process of buying my home. Brett referred me to an awesome agent, who worked really well with me. We spent a while looking, but once we found it, the process went SUPER fast. and during the holiday (xmas season) which made things slightly hairy because I headed east for vacation, my agent headed out for vacation, and I am sure that Brett was on vacation in there as well. BUT both Brett and my agent were totally available to me by phone and email to answer my questions thoroughly and honestly. my actual buying process went super fast because there was a potential second buyer involved, and Brett and my agent were both very responsive. Brett was very patient and available, because I had a lot of questions as I was going through my documents. He also referred me to a good lawyer for document review. He had also checked in with me while I was looking to see how it was going, and he checked in with me after the purchase was complete to make sure all was well. I don't think I can say enough good things about Brett or the agent to whom he referred me; I highly recommend the PRESS service, particularly for the first-time/novice home buyer.

I came to PRESS in early 2009, in desperate need of education, guidance and expertise as I considered purchasing my first home. I knew nothing previously about the complexties involved with purchasing a home, but I was scared of the many big important decsions involved, and the many pitfalls that I expected to encounter. In my perfect world, I wanted a "dream team" of experts to be on my side throughout the process. The services offered by PRESS turned out to be EXACTLY what I was looking for. At my first one on one PRESS consultation, I unloaded dozens upon dozens of questions in rapid fire sequence, covering many topics and amazingly got them all answered. Once I agreed to formally work with PRESS, I was then given a very helpful, and detailed binder with thorough explanations of every type of professional that I'd soon be working with as well as every step in the process that I would soon be following. Over the following days/weeks, as I prepared myself for officially beginning my home search, I sent many emails to PRESS, and I called PRESS many times with questions running the gamut from financing, to real estate agents, to housing types, to home repair, and everything in between. I always was given prompt and thorough answers. I even signed up for a PRESS home buying workshop in order to expand my understanding much deeper and broader. I highly recommend those workshops too. They are INVALUABLE! Over the weeks that followed, I did it all with a ton of assistance directly from PRESS as well as, of course, with my "dream team" of professionals which I assembled based on expert recommendation and pre-screening by PRESS. My core professional team consisted of PRESS, a loan officer, a real estate agent and a home inspector and they were all terrific. Although I spent much time working one on one with each of these professionals, I loved being able to go to PRESS with questions about any of the other services or professionals, serving to check and balance everything. There were times when PRESS even contacted one of the other professionals directly in order to provide input, help clarify issues, and generally advocate on my behalf. Having PRESS attend my home inspection was a great benefit also. I found that having an extra set of, highly experienced, eyes on-site while inspecting the home was truly invaluable. After a couple of intense months and an incredible journey, I found myself in the exciting position of closing on my new home! I've been there for a year now and, more than ever I feel that, despite the challenges and pitfalls that I navigated on the way to this new home, I know that with the help of PRESS, that I did my due diligence, made smart, informed decisions and ended up in a solid, secure home that is just right for me and my family. The icing on the cake to all of this is that PRESS's service costed me exactly zero dollars! Wow. I would not consider buying or selling a home in the future without having PRESS on my side.

Embarking on the purchase of a second home was a bit unnerving. I figured I could do the job solo, but due to the urgency of my situation I wanted to make sure the transaction was done 100% correct. In 2009 I approached a neighbor about purchasing their home. PRESS helped me determine an appropriate offer pricing and walked me through the back and forth negotiations to ultimately come to an agreement with the seller. The deal closed in August 2009 and I then embarked on the home remodeling stage. I'm just about done with the remodel and the overall experience has been fun and rewarding.

I had used Press when I bought my first house seven years ago. Press referred me to three possible agents. After interviewing them, I decided on my agent. She was very professional and I was extremely pleased with her and Press. Everything went so smoothly. In the summer of 2008, I contacted Press again when I got engaged and wanted to sell that house to buy a new one with my fiance. Brett responded quickly and I used the same agent again. Unfortunately, the timing was not very good for selling a home. I took the house off the market, got married and waited until late spring of 2009 to try again. This time, we made an offer on a new house first and then put my house on the market. My house sold in two days with a full price offer. I believe this was due to Brett's excellent advice for minor improvements to stage the house well, and working with the agent to price the house well. My old house went through inspection cleanly and that transaction closed within a month. The inspection on the new house (new to us, but built in 1928) uncovered a few issues that needed to be resolved. Brett and the agent offered very good advice to resolve these issues to our satisfaction. We love our new house and are so appreciative for Brett and all of the great people we worked with along the way. I recommend Press to everyone I know who is looking to buy and/or sell a home. I think Press and Brett offer a wonderful service.

My home buying process could not have gone any better! Brett was with me every step of the way. With his expertise I had unsurpassed confidence in my investment decisions. I found the resource network of PRESS (i.e. agents, loan officers, inspectors) to be a solid team of experts. Both Brett and the PRESS referral network operate with the highest integrity to provide a very sound real estate investment experience.