Utah Realtor and Mother of Four Pays Her Clients When They Buy Homes

SANDY, Utah - Jan. 15, 2015 - PRLog -- “Why shouldn’t we pay our clients when they buy homes?  They work with us to get their financing together and drive around with us looking at properties, they are part of our team and I’m going to pay them!”

These are the words of Stephanie Pettey, mother of four and a successful Utah Real Estate agent. She's sitting across from me at Mimi’s café by the Southtown mall in Sandy Utah as she explains to that she has been a licensed agent since 1999; a fact that's difficult to reconcile with her youthful appearance and energy.  I myself have been a licensed loan officer in Utah since 1997 and immediately I know our experiences will cross over a lot of historic periods since the 90’s. Energetic but soft spoken, Stephanie begins to tell me a little about her history in the past 15 years and her vision for the coming year.

During the early 2000’s Stephanie would purchase large bank-owned property lists (up to 34 of these lists at a time) with hundreds and hundreds of reduced priced homes for investors and home buyers.  Her clients ranged from first-time home buyers to experienced developers. Stephanie has worked for them all.   I saw how her work really expanded the window of opportunity for her clients to get the best homes in the competitive Utah market while buying a home, beyond just the picks found on the Multiple Listing Service Stephanie put hundreds of hot homes in front of her clients.  I could see her value as an agent was for buyers in the Utah market with her willingness to go the extra mile in finding interesting first look homes for her clients and negotiating the best deals.  But her audacious plan for her clients in 2015 was what had me holding my breath.

Stephanie tells me she is currently associated with the Realty Choice real estate firm and her broker David Kenny is an expert in seller financing with over 30 years’ experience.   With this backing, Stephanie will again open more opportunities  for home Sellers and Buyers to achieve their home goals with carried personal financing.  The challenges clients face with high down payment requirements, credit score challenges and owning businesses that can hamper a buyers desire to own real estate; my personal experiences as a loan officer showed me this time and again.  What Stephanie is proposing will help many who have these issues and her well thought out strategy is now being taught all over Utah by a local Real Estate Attorney.

But this is not the end of her plan to help homebuyers in 2015. She and her team are actually giving her clients up to 1% of the purchase price of the home at closing to help pay for closing costs.  “Wait!  Do you mean you intend to give $2000 to a homebuyer for a purchase of a home that is $200,000?”  I ask.  She smiles and explains that her team is willing and able to gift 1% to her homebuyers.  “I want to make the home buying experience a team with more than just me the clients' real estate agent, you the loan officer and assistance all working separately.  We should all be working together - with even the homebuyer getting money - without the client having to worry about any fees paid out of pocket.”  What I’m hearing Stephanie say is that she is about to revolutionize the home buying experience; her clients will be well taken care of with her many real estate tools at their disposal but also will have payment after closing their home purchase.  An exciting and novel idea, of that, there's no doubt.

Of course, there's more to this story. I am now onboard with this wonderful team, and I'm really looking forward to bringing this innovative twist on real estate service to our clients.