The Buyer's Broker of Greenville

It went fantastic, far beyond our expectations of what we could accomplish in working with a real estate professional in helping us with a 700 mile relocation. Please bear with me for a rather lengthy explanation on why working with Keith is the best decision a prospective home buyer in the Greenville area could ever make. My wife and I lived and worked in southeast Michigan for our entire careers. Over the years, all of the kids and grandkids managed to find their way to either North Carolina or Florida. Once we retired, relocation looked like a great idea, both to be closer to family and to put the cold winters behind us. After many trips to many possible locations, we selected Greenville SC as our target area. It was centrally located for family, had a great downtown, had learning opportunities at Furman University and was close to the mountains. It would also be the first long-distance move that we had ever attempted. After reading an article about buyer's brokers, we decided we liked the concept. Buyer's brokers specialize in finding homes for prospective buyers. They do not list houses for sellers and do not spend their time trying to match a prospective buyer with a house that they or their firm may just "happen" to be selling. To us, this avoidance of a conflict of interest was appealing. In addition, since the fees of a buyer's broker are part of the seller's real estate fee package, this focused attention comes at a premium cost of absolutely nothing. We went to Angieslist and found The Buyer's Broker of Greenville. We visited the company's website and were very impressed with the emphasis on the systems and processes used by the company. After a couple of phone calls with Keith in early January, 2013, we decided that it was time for a trip to the area and a face-to-face meeting. In late January, we drove down and spent the greater part of three days meeting with Keith, discussing his systems and processes, discussing ourselves, what we thought we wanted,and what we thought our priorities were, driving through towns and neighborhoods, and looking at houses. After the three days of working with Keith, we knew far more about the neighborhoods in the Greenville area than we would have learned in many months of driving around by ourselves looking at listings. Keith knew the neighborhoods to show us even if there were no homes for sale there...yet. We ended up changing the primary area that we were initially targeting. We also learned more about our own priorities and after looking at a number of houses, decided that downsizing was something we did not yet want to do. Perhaps most important, we established a great rapport with Keith and felt that this was a guy that we could really trust through the entire task that we were facing. Once we had refined our target area, price range, house size and other factors, Keith entered the information into his system and told us that we would begin receiving all of the new listings that met our parameters. We returned to Michigan to prepare our house for sale and put it on the market. Every evening we would receive an automated email with that day's new listings in the Greenville area that met our criteria. Over the next weeks and months, we learned a great deal about the area by reviewing the listings which were customized for us. Our house in Michigan went on the market in mid-May. We stayed in touch with Keith, periodically refining the parameters of the program that he developed for us. After a slow July and early August, we received an offer on the Michigan house at 5:00 PM on a Wednesday afternoon in late August. We called Keith immediately. That evening and very early the next morning, Keith reran his program, refreshed all of the data and sent us the 30 listings that met our requirements. We spent Thursday reviewing the listings and emailed our "top ten" to Keith that evening. Friday we drove down while Keith scheduled showings. Saturday we looked at eight of the ten homes, selecting two as strong possible candidates. Sunday we looked at the two we had not seen on Saturday, revisited the two strong candidates, and looked at four more that had not made the top ten, primarily to validate the process. We selected one house on which we would make an offer. After eight months of assisting us in the search for a home, Keith now began working on the purchase of the home. He completed a market evaluation and we agreed on an initial offer. Keith handled the direct negotiations with the seller's agent. We had a negotiated price agreement within a couple of days. Then we headed back to Michigan to manage the sale of our old house and preparation to move, knowing that Keith was handling everything on his end. Keith's systems and processes helped take us through the details of a home purchase in South Carolina that was different than anything we had experienced in Michigan. The use of a real estate lawyer as the focal point of the actual transaction and need for a termite inspection are just a couple of examples of things that were new to us. During the entire process, Keith was on top of everything, whether it was specifically related to the house purchase, to helping to find a local lender with mortgage rates as low as those on-line, to assuring the contractors brought in to resolve inspection issues were qualified. We closed on the house on October 1. Our initial trust in Keith proved to be well-founded. Looking back over the past ten months, I cannot even remember how many times he pro-actively called us in advance to discuss a subject. Sometimes, it was because his processes dictated that it was the right time for communication. Sometimes it was because we hadn't talked in a while and he felt it was just the right time to talk. I also cannot remember how many times we talked about the Greenville area and what it is like to live here and what things there are to do. Keith has worked with many people over the years who were re-locating to the Greenville area. We talked about what it is like to live in the south and what differences we will see coming from the midwest. We are very happy with our new house and neighborhood in Greer. We know our selection was the right one, due in large part to working with Keith. Should we ever decide to leave this home for another one in the area, there is absolutely no doubt that we would ask Keith to help us again.

I was interested in some property in South Carolina living in the Midwest. I was completely unfamiliar with the technical aspects of real estate as it is conducted in South Carolina or the laws regarding these transactions. I selected Keith based on a review here on Angie's List. I had located a property and contacted Keith by email. He responded very promptly and followed up with a phone conversation where he agreed to look at the property in person even though it was in Anderson and he is located in Greenville. After his inspection he called me again and uploaded many pictures he took of the interior and exterior of the property for me to examine. After talking to him again on the phone and looking at the pictures I decided a personal visit was in order. I made arrangements to fly out to personally examine the property. Keith met me there and we looked at the property and he also had another property we had discussed that he showed me the same afternoon. He was on time (I was actually about 10 minutes late thanks to Atlanta traffic) and answered all my questions. I came back home and thought about it for a couple of days. During that time the house had moved from a simple REO listing to an auction status and after consulting with Keith I decided to bid on the property. The entire process was fairly complex and involved but with his help I muddled my way through it and won the auction but a price below the reserve. That bid was taken to the asset manager as a binding offer and after a couple of weeks wait I was informed my bid/offer had been accepted. The paperwork started flying and Keith was there whenever I needed his advice or clarification of the process even referring me to an excellent South Carolina real estate attorney to assist in the closing of the transaction. I can't compliment Keith enough on his patience and willingness to help the buyer, especially given the long distance nature of this transaction. I didn't keep track of how many phone calls we had but certainly more than a dozen and we even had a net-meeting at one point when we were at the auction stage. Keith is very busy so occasionally he can't answer his phone but he is one of very few people left in this world that WILL actually return a phone call promptly at his first opportunity. He was available on weekdays and weekends for me, even into the evenings, and to be honest, I would have never completed the transaction without his help. If you're buying a home in the upstate area, call Keith. You'd be foolish not to.

Selling and buying a house can be a very stressful and frustrating experience and I can't tell you how impressed my husband and I are with the services of Keith Clark in helping us buy a house in Greenville, especially since selling our house in Atlanta has been a nightmare. Keith is unique in that he is a "buyer's only" broker. He doesn't list houses for sale, so his whole concentration is on finding the right house for you at the best price possible. There is no conflict of interest as in some cases where your agent is negotiating with the owners of a house they or some other agent in their firm has listed. When you contact Keith, he sits down with you for an extended period of time to find out exactly what you are looking for in a house, and what your needs are. We looked at a number of houses with him and while they weren't right for a certain reason, every house we looked at was in the criteria we set. We limited Keith to find a house in just 2 neighborhoods. Other agents would have waited for a house to come on the market to look at. What made working with Keith so special is, since there weren't many homes for sale, Keith sent letters to owners who had previously had their homes on the market and asked them to contact him if they were thinking of relisting anytime soon. He also sent letters to homes he felt fit our criteria, mentioning he had clients interested in the neighborhood and to let him know if they were considering selling. Since Keith doesn't list homes, there was no fear that this was just a marketing approach to get a listing. Because of his efforts, we were able to see 5 or 6 homes that weren't even on the market and we put a contract on one of them. Another reason we felt so confident about having Keith as our agent, is that while we were looking a house and judging the appeal, how the rooms worked, etc. Keith was looking at all the potential problems of a house that we would never notice on that first visit, like mechanical stuff, moisture problems, windows, etc.. When we walked out, my first question became, OK, tell me what's wrong with it? Keith would never tell you not to buy a house you loved, but you would go into the deal knowing the potential problems and because he is so knowledgable about that kind of thing, he is able to use it when negotiating. It doesn't take the place of a home inspection but it gives you added security. We had never heard of a Buyer's Agent before using Keith but I can't recommend enough using Keith if you are buying. Keith did an outstanding job finding us the right home and kept our stress level to a minimum!!