Joe Lipskis of CENTURY 21 Hometown Brokers

Joe was steadfast, determined and reassuring in the sale of my home. He follows through, keeps lines of communication open and works hard to get the deal done.

I went directly to Century 21. At the time my house in Casper, Wyoming was under contract to sell with Lavina Jackson/Action 21 Realty. I liked Joe right away. He isn't one of those dress-up-fancy-suit, phony smiles broker. He was extremely easy to talk to, and he made me feel comfortable. My family was still in Casper, while I was working in Billings and commuting so that we could get established to buy a home in Montana. Once I spoke with Joe, I never looked for a different broker. As we moved through the process, Joe would email listings to my wife. Joe understood what we needed for our family and the budget we were working with. He never tried to press us to look bigger, as some brokers do. When my wife came to Billings for a week, she brought a list that she had chosen from Zillow. Joe took that list, explained which houses had problems, and steered us away from houses that were not in our best interests. The inspector Joe recommended was extremely thorough, and sent a very detailed report. Any time that we needed to sign a contract, paperwork or extensions, Joe would email them and we could get them done immediately. He touched base with us often, and always let us know what was happening and where we were in the process. One weekend Joe was out of town for a wedding, and he still kept in touch with us to handle a problem that arose. He never at any time let the ball drop. Our house in Casper closed the 22nd of August, and our closing here in Billings was due to close August 21st. Joe helped negotiate with the seller for us to have an early occupancy. He made sure the appraisal was done ahead of time and the inspection was complete. We have four kids and three large dogs, so staying with family or in hotels was not an option for us. We wrote a check for a deposit, and a partial rent check, and he was able to get us the keys to the house on the 25th of August, the same day the kids started school. Since we were able to get into the home early, we didn't have to go through major storage shuffles. We stayed with my grandparents for four nights in our 5th wheel, and then moved directly into the house. We were coming from a 3000 sq. ft. house with pets, and Joe's ability to get us the early occupancy made our transition infinitely easier. If there is some kind of award, Joe should earn it for this one. He came through for our family in a way that this review, no matter how well I try to explain, will not begin to convey. The lender we were initially using was Rocky Mountain Bank. We had the pre-approval and as buyers we had done everything we were supposed to do. Joe, as our broker, had done everything he was supposed to do. Our closing was pushed back three times by RMB with no explanation why. Joe was on top of the extensions the whole time, making sure we were protected. He contacted the lender's boss multiple times to find out what the problem was. The morning of September 14th, (our third closing date), the lender called us and said, "you have no loan, sorry". They had screwed up on a massive level. They pulled our credit so many times that our scores had dropped from a 658 to a 609. They didn't have the loan in place, and never hinted to us or Joe that there was an issue. They had misrepresented this to us the entire time. Our early occupancy contract stated that if our loan fell through, which we never thought would happen, we had so secure new funding or vacate the premises within 72-hours. This resulted in sheer panic on our behalf, as you could probably imagine. Joe immediately started calling every lender he knew to find someone who could help us. He got us in touch with Barbara Seeley at Guild Mortgage. We spent a day rebuilding an entire application file for them, and they had until Monday September 19th at 5:00 to get us approved. We were using FHA and that process usually takes weeks. That particular weekend, the 14th - 19th, Joe had to be out of town for a business thing. He spent that

Joe did an excellent job of finding me the right house, at the right price and worked hard to get me in it as quickly as possible. I would recommend Joe Lipskis to my friends and family.