Steve Atwell was such a terrific help

Steve Atwell was such a terrific help to me in buying my first home. I am truly a first-time homebuyer — not just the federal government’s definition of a first-timer, which is anyone who’s not bought in the previous three years — and though I’d taken a class in what to do it is still a very confusing process. Knowing which steps to take and in what order was not easy. To complicate matters, I was on a very tight timeline to buy and there were some issues that came up during the inspection that complicated the transaction somewhat. He still helped me make my deadline with a few days to spare and is still checking in with me to see if he can be of help. Initially, I had decided I wanted to hire a true buyer’s agent, not just rely on the seller’s agent or have a dual-agency situation, and the national association for these type of exclusive buyer’s agents said there were no exclusive buyer’s agents in northwest Arkansas, but had 2 names of agents who did mostly (or some) buyer’s work. The other guy never called or e-mailed me after this association contacted both of them for me, but Steve contacted me right away and I knew then he’d be responsive. He always has been quick to return phone calls or e-mails, and has a traveling office in his car with a laptop to make things go quicker. Steve has a team of lenders, inspectors and others he works with to make things happen, and I was able to lock in a 3.5 percent loan, It’s too bad more Arkansans don’t know about or have access to buyer’s agents, or know that in the majority of cases they split the same commission with the seller’s agent/listing agent that the latter normally gets alone, so the buyer would rarely have to pay the buyer’s agent unless it’s an unusual situation, which would be known in advance, and he advised me on what those cases would be and how to avoid them if I wished. I sure wish Steve had some apprentices so there could be more buyer’s representatives in the market. He also set me up on his website’s database, which gave me my own personalized MLS listings set to my criteria that I could prioritize, and it automatically e-mailed me new listings when they came on the market.