Buyer Solutions

Gardnier Inc is widely recognized in the industry for its cutting edge solutions it provides to its clients.  Generally speaking buyers face three distinct challenges.

  1. Time. Life in the 21st century is moving at an unprecedented speed.  Americans work longer hours and more days than ever before.  Many families are two wage earners families where the spouses work varying hours and barely have time to visit with each other let alone look for and purchase a home.  At Gardnier Inc we are industry leaders in the application of technology to help our clients overcome the issues of time.
    1. WinForms:  Winforms is an electronic version of the California Association Of Realtor forms which allows us to create fast, easy to read and accurate contracts and disclosures
    2. Docusign:  No need to repeatedly get all of the buyers in one place to sign the documents as you proceed through the transaction.  We use Docusign which allows our clients to electronically sign their documents from anywhere in the world.
    3. Transaction Magic.  Gardnier Inc is the driving force behind the creation of TM.  TM is a nationwide service that allows agents to move the transaction into the cloud.  TM provides the buyers, sellers, agents, escrow and the lender with real-time contract collaboration and document management.  All parties can clearly see where we are in the transaction 24 hours a day.  All Gardnier clients are offered the chance to participate in the  TM Beta Test at no charge.
    4. DS-IDX:  We provide DS-IDX on all of our websites.  DS is the premier provider of IDX solutions and allows us to provide cutting edge search options on our websites.
    5. True Mortgage Calculator:  TMC is a proprietary calculator that provides extremely accurate payment calculations for our clients.  Clients can input the data in real time by themselves and get the answers they want, when they want them.
  2. Financing: One of the most important factors in maximizing purchasing power is the financing that the buyer obtains.  While many of the team members at Gardnier Inc have lending background, all are prohibited from lending activities.  This gives their clients the peace of mind of knowing that the recommendations made by Gardnier Inc personnel is truly made for the benefit of the client, not the person making the recommendation.
    1. Discount Points:  Discount points are a widely misunderstood tool in the loan arena.  It is important that the buyer understands this tool and how to use it.  Here is a rudimentary example.  We can all agree that lenders make loans to make money.  They can make money either by the upfront fees charged to do the loan and/or from the interest earned by the interest rate charged.  To the lender it does not matter which area they get the money from.  To the buyer though it is very important.  The average home is sold or refinanced approximately every 7 years.  Understanding these things now gives you the ability to understand Discount Points.  Let’s say that the lender want to make 10,000 dollars by the end of the 7 years.  If you pay 5,000 in fees at the time you buy the house, then the interest rate that they must charge you is that which will provide them with the other 5,000 dollars over the next 7 years.  This means that if you paid 7,000 at the time you buy the house, they can give you a lower interest rate.  If you pay only 3,000, then they will charge you a higher interest rate to make up for the smaller amount.  Understanding this gives you the ability to use discount points to help you achieve your goals.  Here are some examples.  If you are planning on staying in the house for more than 7 years and you have cash on hand, you may want to pay the discount points and get a lower rate.  After about 5 to 7 years you should have re-captured your money through the lower payments and each month you stay in the home you are making money.  If however you think that you will live n the house less than 5 years, then you might consider having the bank pay you discount points (yes they will do that).  Now the bank has paid you money to do the loan but given you a higher interest rate.  Think of it as a bet.  In the first example you are betting that you will be staying in the home for more than 7 years.  You gave the bank more money at the time you bought the house.  If you move or refinance before you have had enough time to recoup your initial cash outlay, the bank gets to keep the money and wins the bet.  If however after about 5 to 7 years when you have recouped your money, each month that you stay in the house you get the keep the lower payment and you win the bet.  In example 2 the bet is reversed.  Here you had the bank pay you the discount points.  You are betting that you will move very soon and are willing to pay a higher monthly payment to avoid the initial fees of the loan.  If you sell the home in a couple of years you win the bet.  While your payments were higher the sum of the higher payments was less than what you would have paid for the loan.  One last though on Discount Points.  Sometimes buyers will use them not for the cost benefit of the monthly payment compared to initial cash outlay, but instead as a tool to afford a home that would normally be out of financial reach.  It is a common understanding that as a buyer increases the down payment, the loan payment goes down.  Sometimes the buyer does not have sufficient funds to place down on the desired home to bring the payment within lender guidelines.  Many times the buyer can divert the funds from the down payment to the Discount points where they get a bigger “bang” for their buck.  Example:  Perhaps the buyer has 10,000 additional funds.  He needs to reduce his payment by 100 per month in order to qualify for the loan.  If he places the 10,000 as a down payment it brings his payment down by 70 dollars and he does not qualify.  If however he places the finds towards discount points, the resulting interest rate reduces his payment by the needed 100 dollars.  He now qualifies.  Remember that while the seller cannot provide any credits (money) towards the buyers down payment, they can give a credit towards the buyers discount points.  So even if the buyer did not have any money, he could possibly use the sellers credit towards the discount points and qualify for the loan.

    Solution: With Gardnier Inc on your team, you do not need to understand loans.  We will be you second set of eyes reviewing with you the loan documents and helping you to make a good decision.

3.  Friends: Real Estate is unique in the world of finance as it relates to relationships.

Unlike any other financial transaction, buyers and sellers are expected to use their friends to represent them even though they might find better representation elsewhere.  This is an inherent trait of the industry which has been fueled by an excess of agents with little or no financial experience.  The resulting service that clients had grown to expect is that of an agent who helps them find a home.  With the proliferation of the internet and access by buyers and sellers to listing information, the agent is seen to have grown less and less important.  This of course is the fault of the industry.  Just as the internet allowed clients to access the listings autonomously, the contractual perils for the clients grew proportionately.  Agents, who had previously been needed as neighborhood specialists, were now needed to be contract specialists.  Most however never made the transition.  Those looking to buy or sell a home simply use their friends because they cannot see any difference in what the agents do.   With an industry full of agents who are great at taking the client out to breakfast but lack even the basic understanding of the contracts and negotiation; the client figures why not keep a friend by using them as their agent.

Solution:  Gardnier Inc offers Full Real Estate Services and By The Hour Consultation Services.  Just let us know how we can help.