We are first time buyers – very nervous first time buyers. To put our minds at ease we did a lot of research, as you may have gathered from previous postings. That research included specifics on the house buying process. There are only a few books in the real estate section of our local library that we have not touched!

It is really interesting reading through some of the publications, given the recent collapse of the housing market. Most books focused on how to get rich buying a house, or the best way to buy it, fix it and flip it. The longest you will live in your purchase is five years, after which you sell and “move up” – if you believe what the books say. Of course, this sort of material is somewhat outdated.

Needless to say that this is not the approach we want to take.  We’re keen on buying a foreclosure, fixing it up and living in it as our primary residence for years to come.  Buying a foreclosure bears little resemblance to buying your typical house, as mentioned in the 04/04/2009 post.

Just trying to wrap our head around all this raised our stress levels. We needed help. We needed to find ourselves a Realtor – a good Realtor who can hold our hand in the purchasing process – someone who understands our very unusual goals and objectives.

We understand that our expectations run counter to those of most if not all average clients. Can we find a Realtor who is able to listen, put himself or herself into our shoes and think out of the box? We were not sure, and after working with a couple of Realtors whom we respected but who simply weren’t a good fit, we were even less sure.

Word to mouth is one of the more reliable research tools. We finally got a recommendation for a Realtor from our friend John. Michael Salvatori was willing and eager to take on the challenge. We very quickly learned to our delight that Michael was not only familiar with the neighborhood we wanted to investigate, but was very quick to understand what we were looking for.  He immediately forwarded us a great number of relevant listings, each an opportunity in its own rights.

A Realtor makes his or her living through commissions on the sales price. The commission is typically covered by the seller. The higher the sales price, the better the commission. The less time the Realtor has to put into a sale, the higher his return.

We are likely to purchase a foreclosure, probably for less than $100,000. This has “small commission” written all over it. Not only that, but the time a Realtor has to put into a foreclosure purchase can be quite significant, as it is not very easy to deal with the banks or entities that own or manage the foreclosure.

Michael did not blink once with the prospect of working on a foreclosure purchase or the probable run-around with the banks and/or seller. He stood with us all the time, and provided excellent services, advise and priceless expertise, which is priceless indeed for first time buyers like us! Thank you Michael.

If you’re looking to buy a house in Chicagoland, especially a big expensive house, and you think Michael is your kind of Realtor, you can find him at: www.coldwellbankeronline.com/michaelsalvatori

E-mail him at: [email protected]

Or call him at: (630) 373-2767