Michael Dotterweich-RE/MAX Gateway

I highly recommend Mike. First and foremost, he’s just a great guy, very fun, honest, direct and quite entertaining to be around. But aside from his charisma, he’s a great real estate agent. As first-​time homebuyers, I don’t think we could have asked for a better experience. Mike sent us regular lists of properties to vet online, then we’d go look at ones we thought could be hits. A lot of them were misses, but Mike kept honing in on exactly what we needed until we got closer and closer. Early on, he helped us understand what we’d be able to get for our money and in what locations that fit our desired parameters. His attention to detail was great, as he’d point out little positives and negatives about each property that we might have missed.
All in all, Mike only had to show us about seven houses before we found what we wanted and put in an offer. He was never pushy, and he even kept in touch here and there — but not too much — when we wanted to take a couple months off to see where sequestration and such made an impact. He was, however, clear about how fast the market was picking up and how quickly we needed to make decisions if we wanted to secure a property we really liked.
Mike was very helpful throughout the process, even after we made our offer. He helped guide us through all the forms, things we needed to do, etc., and he introduced us to his network of inspectors, lenders, etc. We got a very good deal all-​around, especially thanks to Mike and his network of business partners who participate in the Homes for Heroes program, which gets you contributions toward closing costs from their commissions if you have a VA certificate of eligibility as a veteran. When everything was said and done, we had credit leftover and got nine months of HOA dues paid up front by the sellers and never put a dime toward closing costs, just the down payment.
Perhaps the best thing about Mike is how fast he works and how he communicates with you via your preferred methods. Send an email? He replies pretty quickly. Prefer texting? He does that too. Need to have a quick phone call? Mike’s probably available. He’s just very responsive, very knowledgeable and friendly all along the way. If you’re a first-​time homebuyer — or really, any homebuyer or seller, I imagine — I don’t think you could go wrong with Mike Dotterweich.