We are so proud of our buyer’s specialist, Justin Mitchell, for his appearance on Real Estate Radio Northwest with Nick Neal last Saturday. Justin discussed Seattle short sale properties, Seattle HUD homes, REO properties, and foreclosures. He also spoke about Team Troy, and what we have to offer, as well as discussed his strengths as a buyer’s specialist. To learn more about Justin and other Team Troy members, visit our about section
The transcription of his interview is below. Or you could listen to the four segments on our Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/dwellseattle
Transcription of Justin Mitchell’s Radio Interview
Recorded April 12, 2013, Aired April 13, 2013 on KKOL.com. Real Estate Radio Northwest with Nick Neal
Nick Neal: We’ve got Justin Mitchell from Keller Williams Greater Seattle over in Wallingford here to speak with us today. Justin is a part of a larger real estate team, called Team Troy. How are you doing today, Justin?
Justin Mitchell: I’m really good. Thanks Nick, I’m really excited.
Nick Neal: Geek is no longer a bad word, Technology wise. It’s cool to be a techno geek.
Justin Mitchell: No, it’s a Badge of honor
Nick Neal: Before we get into some real estate stuff, we want to find out more about you. Where are you from, and where did you go to school? How did you get into real estate?
Justin Mitchell: I’m originally from Wisconsin, a Midwest guy.
Nick Neal: Do you have a cheese hat?
Justin Mitchell: No, but I can tell you that many members of my family do.
I have been out here for about seven years. I originally came out here to work for Boeing, believe it or not. I have an industrial engineering bachelors degree, went to a tiny school, in a small town. I took a job out here for Boeing and worked there for four years. Great job and great company, but my heart really wasn’t in it. I had to step back and ask myself, is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? I grew up watching This Old House and Bob Vila and my grandpa actually built houses the entire time I was growing up. I had always been interested in real estate. So I made the decision to leave Boeing and pursue real estate. I started my Masters degree while I was at Boeing; it was one of my personal goals when I left the company to finish it. I have Master’s in project management now; I finished it last year.
Nick Neal: Congratulations. You’re probably really good then with the nuts and bolts and helping keep things going and organized over there at Team Troy?
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, It really helps me to keep things in order, and I really think the education benefits me in how I serve my clients and how I got through the process of helping them find a house as well.
Nick Neal: And how does Team Troy fit within Keller Williams? How do they have their own team setup, because I know that is something they do within their agency?
Justin Mitchell: Exactly, the biggest difference you’ll see with Keller Williams compared with some of the other bigger agencies in the area, is that have this great encouragement of individuality. They encourage agents to develop teams and their own name and branding, but you still get to be affiliated with the bigger umbrella of the nationwide company, which they just revealed is now the number one real estate company in the country
Nick Neal: You guys are number one, right?
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, that was really exciting. At family reunion this year, a yearly meeting they have, they announced that Keller Williams was number one in the U.S
Nick Neal: That’s amazing. That’s got to feel good to have that badge.
Justin Mitchell: Absolutely, it’s great. It’s very exciting. We are fairly new to the Seattle area, compared to other brokerages, you’ve got John L Scott or Coldwell Banker, so we’ve had to work hard to establish our branding and name and recognition in Seattle, but we are growing by leaps and bounds.
Nick Neal: And Team Troy fits within that?
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, right, we are basically a division of it. So we have our own name and our own branding. We are self-sufficient team that is part of the larger office and gets to utilize the resources that the larger office has.
Nick Neal: What do you like to when you aren’t working?
Justin Mitchell: Oddly enough, I like to play rugby; a Hooligans game played by gentleman.
Nick Neal: That’s a pretty rough game…
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, its football with no pads. It’s a great group of guys, tons of fun, like an adult fraternity. We have so much fun.
Nick Neal: What do you play?
Justin Mitchell: I play prop, right up in the front, do all the hard hitting. I play for a team here in Seattle, Seattle Quake Rugby team. I am a member of the board as well, we do fundraisers and are a big part of the community. It’s a great organization to be a part of. I am also a big tech guy and I have an unnatural obsession with cars.
Nick Neal: Cars? Me too. I’m a total gearhead, too.
Justin Mitchell: I grew up working on cars with my Dad and he is a big gearhead as well. We worked on random tractors and motorcycles and boats and trailers. I am primarily into cars, I’m like a geeky encyclopedia of things about cars, features and prices, and random facts about cars.
Nick Neal: Do you have anything that you are working on right now?
Justin Mitchell: No, nothing in particular. I drive a newer more reliable car now.
Nick Neal: No ‘69 convertible?
Justin Mitchell: No, I wish. I’d love to have an old Cadillac. But space is not as abundant as it is in the Midwest, so you have to prioritize the toys you want to keep around because they take up space.
We also just got a dog that has been taking up a lot of time. We drove down to Oregon and got a puppy. We have a 14-week old Golden Doodle at home.
Nick Neal: How Fun! What is a Golden Doodle?
Justin Mitchell: A Golden Doodle is a mix between a Golden Retriever and Poodle.
Nick Neal: They are mixing everything these days! My brother has a labradoodle
Justin Mitchell: It’s the same idea, you get the personality and demeanor of these two breeds, but you don’t get the shedding.
Nick Neal: Crazy, we’ve got three dogs, Chihuahuas; 13 pounds between the three of them. So, Keller Williams over in Wallingford. You’ve got a big team, like 140 agents or something.
Justin Mitchell: When I first joined 3 years ago, we were 100 agents. So we’ve grown by 50 percent in the past few years. We’ve got a great group of people there. What I really like about Keller Williams is the camaraderie. A lot of the other brokerages out there, I’ve heard, can be a little more cutthroat. You know, you’re not always out there to help each other. It’s like one man for himself. You know, we’ve got our team, Team Troy, and we help each other, but, if I’m having a problem, I can bounce it off anyone in the office. I think it shows how we do business, and learn and grow and become better agents.
Nick Neal: Really. That’s nice, along with the positive energy that goes with that attitude. Your clients feel that too.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, well they come into the office, and they feel that idea of warmth and camaraderie. It’s welcoming.
Nick Neal: We will be back with Justin Mitchell and Team Troy. We will be back to talk about the Seattle real estate market and Justin’s techno geek side.
I’m Nick Neal, host of Real Estate Radio Northwest and I’m here with Shelley Dudley and I am a mortgage banker with Sound Mortgages. On a personal level, we try to make things easier for you. We really mean that. So you can pay attention to the big picture. Call us if you need help with a mortgage, refinance or anything.
Nick Neal: We’ve got Justin Mitchell, finding out where he’s from and just finding out what’s going on over at Keller Williams. A few weeks ago we heard from Shari Jansen, the team leader over there and we heard about all the great things going on over there. And you’re feeling that, right Justin?
Justin Mitchell: Oh yeah, we were just chatting during the break, that our office is lucky to have her, she is basically our office ambassador. The face of the team. She has such a great energy, such a great light and our office is so lucky to have her. She helps to promote that feeling of warmth and welcome.
Nick Neal: When you do get knocked down, you have that type of camaraderie to help you and pick you back up. You never feel like you’re alone when you have a battle to fight.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, as agents, we always have difficult clients and difficult situations. Other agents in the industry eve, and sometimes you feel like you’ve exhausted every single option you can think of and you feel self defeated. It’s great to have that safety net to give you suggestions. Not only do I benefit from it, but the client does as well.
Nick Neal: What areas do you like to work in Seattle, Justin?
Justin Mitchell: I have represented buyers from all over the place, from Sammamish to Tacoma to Everett. But, if I had my pick, I love showing properties and selling properties in the downtown area and the Capitol Hill areas Only because I’ve lived in these areas, and I know them really well, and I feel like I can make a really good connection with my client. You know, after were done seeing properties, they ask, do you know any good lunch places? And I can say, well actually, you can go to my favorite lunch place just down the street. I love being able to do that. I love the variety of places you can see in that small area. From condos to townhouses to big houses near Volunteer Park all the way out to the Madison Park area with its eclectic architecture – just so much to see in that area. It’s easier for me to win them over because I’m so familiar with the area.
Nick Neal: Well, Justin, have you been seeing a change in the Seattle market place recently?
Justin Mitchell: If any of you listeners out there are looking for a house, you probably know what I’m going to say. In the early stages of last year we definitely saw a shift in terms of supply and demand. It seems like overnight we started seeing multiple offers happening on homes that were priced right and turn key and showed well, and this has not changed. And the inventory has even dropped to the point where I am seeing insane, ridiculous things happening and people paying a lot of money for houses that I personally would never pay. But it’s not my money.
Nick Neal: And it really happened overnight. And people are having to adjust to that. Justin I know its hard for people to make that change because when you are gradually moving up in a market, and you’re seeing things get tighter and prices go up, it’s pretty easy to go with that progression, but it was kind of almost an overnight change. And it’s been extreme, really, in that progression.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, it’s like it made a huge jump right away, and then we’ve seen a more gradual slope over the past year. It is hard for buyers that have been standing in the wings for that three-year period.
Nick Neal: They were waiting for the bottom to hit, they thought it’s a buyers market and we are going to get a better deal, and we have time to look.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, just no sense of urgency. People think, oh, there’s tons of properties on the market, interest rates are dropping, I will just wait until interest rates hit really good low and then I will buy. So, that changed happened so that those buyers that were waiting came into the picture. But it’s been very difficult to shift their mindset. Because I am not going to have 15 properties to show you when you call me to go look at houses that meet your criteria.
Nick Neal: And you’re not going to have two weeks to think about it.
Justin Mitchell: No, you have to prepare your mindset. If you love this house, I need to know five minutes ago!
Nick Neal: What are some of things you’re trying to help people do be competitive in this market?
Justin Mitchell: I am sure you know from the mortgage industry that it is crucial that you go out and talk to a lender first. Get your pre-approval. And get as much as you can into your lender ahead of time. All the paperwork and requirement documentation, they might be able to get in front of an underwriter before you go shopping.
Nick Neal: That’s what we do, it’s actually a pre-approval not a pre-qualification anymore. You plug in the pre-approval and the appraisal and you have a loan.
Justin Mitchell: They are going to feel a lot more comfortable about the money piece, so then I can shift their attention to the property itself knowing that we have the money taken care of. The big trend right now is pre-inspection. Typically, you would inspect a property after you are under contract, but you’re going to take that risk of that $300.00-$400.00 inspection. But if you do this before your offer, the price of your offer is reflected in the condition of the property. You figure out what’s wrong ahead of time.
Nick Neal: The sellers are firm in the offer, this is where they stand…
Justin Mitchell: There is that piece, but also by pre-inspecting it, we remove one of the contingencies, so we remove one of the ways out, you could say. The seller, at the end of the day, is going to take the offer with the least amount of ways out.
Nick Neal: Wow, I haven’t heard that before. That’s interesting. I have heard of sellers having inspections and having those ready when people come in to try and hurry things up and not have the fall out of an inspection causing issues. You’re just trying to take away anything that could be a barrier to the seller accepting your offer.
Justin Mitchell: Exactly, I am trying to position my clients offer as strong as possible and the best way to do that is the reduce the contingencies, or the ways out. I have had a couple of instances, where sellers have provided an inspection report. I personally still advise my clients to have their own inspection done, just because we don’t know the credibility of the person where that inspection is coming from.
Nick Neal: $400.00 when you are looking at a $400,000 house is a small percentage to pay to have piece of mind and not make mistakes when you’re going to have to operate as quickly as you do in today’s market
Justin Mitchell: Exactly. We were chatting about some friends of mine that missed out on a bunch of houses. The house we finally got into we removed the financing contingency as well. They are still getting a loan, but it was essentially a cash offer because we removed the financing contingency. They missed out on seven houses over the course of about 12 months before we finally got one.
Nick Neal: I just had a client in Seattle that we had an offer price of $375,000 and he had an escalation clause up to 415,000. This had been the 4th or 5th house in the last 6 or 8 months he had looked at. He was getting frustrated as well. The agent even had me writing down credit scores and employment history on his pre-approval to support his strength on the financing side. Looking at the house, I thought 415,000 should get it, and sure enough someone else overbid. And he lost out even with the $30,000 escalation clause.
Justin Mitchell: That’s amazing. And we have lost out with escalation clauses like that as well.
Nick Neal: So, it sounds like with inventory becoming short, these are some really important things for listeners to be thinking about.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah if I could summarize some of the things you should be thinking about before you go fall in love with a house. Make sure you really have a grasp of what you’re looking for; the neighborhood, the features of the house, etc. Really get your financing in order, because you’re going to need to be prepared to make that quick decision. Especially with a pre-inspection because you’re adding a third party into that coordination and a lot of times offers have a due date. So it might go on the market on Thursday and they are reviewing offers on Monday at 5pm.
Nick Neal: Yes, I have seen that as well.
Justin Mitchell: So, if you want to pre-inspect, you have to call your inspector to get out there. If he can’t, then like I did with these clients, I had to leverage my team at Keller Williams to try and find an inspector who could get out there. They are busy too now.
Nick Neal: So, like you said. Just getting as much done ahead of time so that when you get out there you are fully loaded. You’re ready to go when you go look at properties. You know exactly what you want. A lot more research up front.
Justin Mitchell: Exactly, because that way you’ll mentally be able to make that decision. You know what, this meets everything on my list of wants and needs, this is the price, this is the neighborhood. Let’s do it.
Nick Neal: We will talk more about REOs and HUD properties and what Team Troy specializes in and how you’re helping people find homes.
Nick Neal: We’re talking with our guest here Justin Mitchell from Team Troy at Keller Williams, and we want to talk more about Team Troy and what they do. First of all, Justin we want to know, what is REO, what does it stand for?
Justin Mitchell: So, REO stands for Real Estate Owned, but to the Average Joe, still doesn’t mean much of anything. Basically, it is a foreclosure property that did not successfully sell at auction. The process that it goes through is that someone forecloses on their mortgage. Then there is a lender/the bank/whoever services the loan and there is a backing organization: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD.
Nick Neal: Like B of A [Bank of America]?
Justin Mitchell: B of A is the servicer, they are the ones who you pay your mortgage to, but they have an insurance company backing that loan, which is where you get your Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Nick Neal: Well, maybe some of the REOs that we see from lenders are some of the small middle of the road lenders, where they have some the unique portfolio properties.
Justin Mitchell: So if it’s a portfolio property, the foreclosure is on the lender. But, what typically happens that you foreclose on your loan and the bank tries to sell it, because they are trying to recoup the losses from this property; they want to try and get rid of it. So, they will put it up for auction to try and get as much money back as they can. As the market shifted thing have changed a bit. But, a lot of properties weren’t selling at auction. So, if they don’t sell at auction to a private party, then they go back to the servicer, in the case of a portfolio property, or the backer, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HUD. And then they have this property that they need to sell. That’s how you see a lot of foreclosure properties on the market.
Nick Neal: Then, you, as an REO specialist and Team Troy, you guys develop relationships with them to try and help market these properties.
Justin Mitchell: Well, I’ve got experience on the listing side as well. But various agents have different accounts with REO companies to sell properties, We have a couple different accounts, HUD is one of our bigger accounts
Nick Neal: So you’re a HUD approved office?
Justin Mitchell: Yes, we are a HUD approved office. We’re one of the HUD specialty offices in the Seattle area. We sell some properties that are HUD. But also too we have a ton of experience helping buyers who are trying to purchase properties from the various foreclosed companies. When it comes to foreclosure properties, you want to make sure your agents can navigate those transactions. Whether it is Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or HUD, they all have a specific road map of how they want that transaction to go. If your agent isn’t familiar with it, it can really derail the whole transaction and can be detrimental to you getting the property.
Nick Neal: This is where we hear the 3, 6, 9, 12 months that people can go through with an offer with people waiting to get through all these committees and things. And I am dealing on the front side with agents. They really don’t know what is going on, on the bank side.
Justin Mitchell: Those long wait times are with the short sale properties typically. As far as turn around times on the foreclosure properties, those turnaround times are fairly quick, similar to a traditional sale. Because if you think about it, that property in their portfolio is costing them money, so they want to get rid of it. Whereas, a short sale you’re going through that third party person that has to be involved in the transaction. It is the same concept as every bank is different, and they have to go through so many hoops to make it happen
Nick Neal: That’s a good point. To distinguish between them. With a short sale, it is still owned by the seller and they are probably still living in the house. Then you have to negotiate with the bank and the seller to get them to accept the price to get the loan paid off. So you’ve got your short sale, but you guys are more specializing in REOs?
Justin Mitchell: We do short sales as well. I know those can be confusing. When you are setting the expectation with the client, you have to say: if you want to purchase this short sale, then I am absolutely 100% on board, but it is my job to say how this could potentially go. There is nothing worse than getting four months into a transaction and have a client blow up your phone and scream at you because the house hasn’t closed yet.
Nick Neal: We just had one where the seller did a modification. We are two weeks away from having the offer accepted after waiting about four months, and they worked out a modification. Then all of a sudden, sorry, the house isn’t for sale anymore.
Justin Mitchell: Exactly, and as the market is changing, you might actually be seeing that more often because every time a property sells in a neighborhood, the value goes up. There is a higher probability of the modification happening because the house will appraise higher. If the bank comes to do the appraisal for the modification, there is a higher probability it will appraise higher because recent sales in the neighborhood are reflecting a higher value.
Nick Neal: And the seller will want to stay in that home if their home is appreciating and they have got the value there. That is really the tough side. So, give us the nuts and bolts on the REO, because we haven’t really talked about the much. We talked about short sales on the show, but what is the process? You market these REO properties, then? Or do you find them?
Justin Mitchell: The REO properties typically come to us through an account. We are basically a contractor, selling this property on behalf of the bank. I think that is a common misconception that foreclosure properties take a long time similar to a short sale, but they don’t.
Nick Neal: Buyers kind of lump them together
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, in my mind foreclosure properties are actually much closer to a traditional sale. You are only dealing with one person directly; you will get an answer right away. The big different is that whoever you are purchasing the property from is going to have a finite process that you are going to have to go through. So you have got to know that ahead of time. You agents needs to know this, because as an agent we have to cross every T and dot every I. There are going to be specific forms that have to be included with the offer, it can get really convoluted. It can be hard for the buyer to understand.
Nick Neal: It sounds like doing a loan program. Welcome to our world.
Justin Mitchell: As I represent my clients, I make it a point to walk them through the details, whatever property they choose. It is important to set the expectation and making sure I am communicating with them every step of the way. There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re in the dark and don’t know what’s going on. Knowing the process and keeping the client in the loop – it should be as easy as buying a regular house.
Nick Neal: So the REO, you think of the bank as the seller?
Justin Mitchell: Exactly, you are just buying a house from a company or an organization rather than a person.
Nick Neal: Do they have a price that they are pretty well set on? Or is there a long committee wait?
Justin Mitchell: There isn’t necessarily a long committee wait, companies that are selling foreclosure properties settle on that sticker price in different ways. Sometimes it is because of an appraisal. HUD, for example, completes an FHA appraisal on every single one of their properties and that is how they get their asking price. But, as we all know in this industry, appraisals are still subjective. Just because it is the sticker price, doesn’t mean it is right. So, that is where your agent comes in to really look at the market. I have had bids on foreclosure properties go through that I didn’t think would go through. I am constantly surprised.
Nick Neal: So, that is something that you can still get a good deal on. So, the REO, since there is not going to be that extra negotiation like a short sale, that’s the place to get good deals today?
Justin Mitchell: Well, you can get good deals. But, obviously the market still dictates the interest in a property, regardless of condition. There are investors, private parties who want to buy it for their family. You can get a good deal if you find the right one, but we are seeing bidding wars and pre-inspections on short sales. Which is crazy.
Nick Neal: So, it sounds like the market really is turning now.
Justin Mitchell: It definitely is.
Nick Neal: So you can find deals on REOs, but you need to know that you might have some competition.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, just like any property. You have to look at each property on its own, and if you like it and want to put an offer on it, there are a bunch of pieces that we have to put together. You look at the interest, the price, the location, all those things.
Nick Neal: You guys have a hard job
Justin Mitchell: You wear a lot of different hats.
Nick Neal: I thought all you did was go out and find houses and sign a piece of paper and say sign here, then you get paid your money at the end. That’s not the deal anymore?
Justin Mitchell: No, no. Not at all.
Nick Neal: Well that is neat, and that’s so exciting to hear that you guys really focus on that. You guys probably have relationships with people that you deal with on the REO side, too.
Justin Mitchell: We do, and when you do that, it makes the transaction so much smoother.
Nick Neal: When we were doing permit work, dealing with the building department, knowing those inspectors and different people you had to deal with, we could get things done a lot quicker than people who didn’t have those relationships or channels.
Justin Mitchell: Exactly.
Nick Neal. So be sure to pay attention, the different between REOs and short sales, and if your agent doesn’t know, you might need to check around and call another agent.
Justin Mitchell: Or call me!
Nick Neal: We are here with Justin Mitchell from Team Troy at Keller Williams Greater Seattle in Wallingford. Getting some really good information about REOs and HUD-owned properties, and how they are different from short sales. So you brought up something during the break about Team Troy, and I really saw a benefit as far as assets.
Justin Mitchell: Yeah, so there are many different companies that are selling foreclosed properties, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and then there is a whole slew of other people you’ve never heard of, like portfolio lenders. I want to make sure I am comfortable executing that transaction with that particular seller before I start it because I don’t want to disappoint my clients. If I am not familiar with it, and can’t figure it out, that’s where I really start to leverage my team, Team Troy. I am one of three buyer’s agents, we have got two listing agents, a marketing person, two admin, so we have got a plethora of knowledge and experience between all of us. Chances are that if I haven’t dealt with that particular seller, one of my colleagues has.
Nick Neal: Hence the team, you all work together.
Justin Mitchell: We work together, we know our strengths and we know our weaknesses. Our ultimate goal is to serve our clients the best that we possibly can. Personally, I have no problem if I am dealing with a client and starting to know them better, saying, you know, this is an investor client, and we have a buyer’s agent that works just with investors. I am not the greedy person that is going to try and hold on to this client. I am going to go, you know what, we have this fabulous gal named Angela, who works just with investors, she is way more in touch with the investor side, I would love to introduce you to her. I will then hand her over, so people get put in the right category and really get helped the best way we possibly can.
Nick Neal: Tell us a little bit about Troy Anderson too.
Justin Mitchell: Troy Anderson is the CEO of our team. The fearless leader. The way we have our team structured is that he is the one that takes care of the majority of the listings. Those listings naturally generate leads from various buyers looking for properties. I am one of the three buyer’s agents that works on his team. So I work with just buyers all day. So we have system where if some of my sphere wants to sell a house, it get referred to Troy.
Nick Neal: So you build business together it sounds like.
Justin Mitchell: We build business together, and it really does benefit the client. The clients love it when we get talking about our team. It is not just me, I have a crew of people standing behind me that you can’t see right now that are here to help you too.
Nick Neal: If you ever go to the Keller Williams office, you come around the corner and there it is, Team Troy on the door. Behind the door is all of this amazing stuff that is going on.
Justin Mitchell: We are easy to find. I feel that our marketing a little bit outside of the box compared to your standard. We try to stay on top of technology and trends.
Nick Neal: In what kinds of ways to you use gadgetry or technology and stay on that cutting edge to market and find the perfect home for your buyers and sellers?
Justin Mitchell: The gadgets and the technology that is available at our fingertips. You are hard pressed to find someone without a smart phone. So I have my own personal gadgets, between i-phone, I am an Apple guy, I will probably get in trouble for saying that. Just like any industry, there are tons of websites and marketing, and we sift through what we find successful, so that when they converge we get that mix of technology and print and graphics and design. We focus on digital photography as well. You know, people won’t even look at a house unless it has photographs. We do virtual tours, blogs, and social media as well. We have been doing a huge social media and blog push to help with our search engine optimization. We are active on Facebook, we try to not just post stuff about real estate. We use a concierge model in our office, we’re not just real estate, we want to be your neighborhood expert, we want to give you a restaurant recommendation if you want to take your wife out for your anniversary, what ever it may be, we want to be here to help you
Nick Neal: So if someone wanted to connect with you on Facebook, where would they find you?
Justin Mitchell: We are Team Troy. So it is www.facebook.com/teamtroy
Nick Neal: Any other blogs or websites?
Justin Mitchell: Our main website is www.nwhomesearch.com.We have talked about HUD, we have talked about short sales, all of that is on our website. We have a fantastic amount of information up on our site. We have a list of preferred vendors on our site everything from carpeting to car dealership. We send it our clients as well. If we have good experiences, we want to share that with everyone else.
Nick Neal: What about apps and things like that?
Justin Mitchell: The Multiple Listing Service has an app and I use that all the time when I am out in the field showing houses with my clients because it gives me quick access to all the property information. I can put all the properties that we are seeing that day in a folder and link it to a contact. I can make a list, I have quick access to the listing agents phone number. The clients really like that you have all that information at your disposal.
Nick Neal: It probably makes the home buying process a lot smoother for them. What about sites for people to look at, I know you guys have a good one, but do you have any recommendations?
Justin Mitchell: I would like to recommend our site!
Nick Neal: You know, you’ve got Zillow, etc. if you are looking for properties. Really, that’s where people start. Is it functional for people to start with your site?
Justin Mitchell: You can connect with us on our site, and we have our own property search website that we can set you up on. We can see what you are looking at, we can see what you are saving. What is great about it is that is linked to the MLS, so it is updated constantly. Some of the other website are not up to date. www.nwhomesearch.com if you want to get connected with us.
Nick Neal: Thanks for joining us today, Justin
Justin Mitchell: Thank you so much for having me, it has been a blast!