Green Beret Realty

06/01/2026

Love this place!

06/01/2026

The key to a winning strategy is planning your moves ahead of time. So stay informed to have an understanding. Today?

Closing costs — the most surprising part of any home purchase for a first-time buyer.

Here is what you are actually paying for at closing, so there are no surprises.

Lender fees. Origination, underwriting, processing, credit report. These vary wildly by lender, which is why shopping lenders matters. A difference of half a point on fees can mean thousands of dollars.

Title and escrow. Title search, title insurance (both owner’s and lender’s policies), settlement or escrow fee. These are real protections. Owner’s title insurance in particular is a one-time fee that protects you for as long as you own the home.
Appraisal. A few hundred dollars, typically paid during the loan process, not at closing itself.

Recording fees and taxes. These are government fees for filing the deed and mortgage with the county.

Prepaid items. Several months of property taxes to set up your escrow, a year of homeowners insurance, and prorated interest from closing to the end of the month.

Total: in Iowa, plan on two to four percent of the purchase price for closing costs, with the bulk being title, lender fees, and prepaid escrow.

The good news: closing costs are often negotiable. A seller can contribute toward them in many deals. A strong agent will know when to ask and how much to ask for. That is part of my job.

Questions about a specific situation? DM me. Link in bio or contact info below.

Agency Iowa


515-214-8586/910-391-4554
[email protected]

Licensed to buy/sell real estate in Iowa

05/30/2026

With Agency Iowa – I'm on a streak! I've been a top fan for 25 months in a row. 🎉

It’s easy to be a fan of a group and a broker that supports you because they know it is best for the client. My continued improvement is because of the culture and the supportive broker that is Mark Charter.

If you want to know why real estate is important, and want to know how to do it right for Iowa, use an agent with Agency Iowa, or join Agency Iowa as an agent.

05/29/2026

Cash offers versus financed offers — the real story, not the sales version.

You don't need to listen to a financial or budget coach to understand what just makes sense.

Conventional wisdom says cash always wins. And cash does have advantages. But it is not a magic wand, and financed offers can — and regularly do — beat cash in real estate. Here is the honest breakdown.

What cash actually gives you: certainty. There is no appraisal contingency, no financing contingency, no risk of the loan falling through. Sellers love certainty. Cash can also close faster — sometimes in a week or two instead of the thirty to forty days a financed deal often needs.

What cash does not give you: infinite leverage. A strong, well-structured financed offer — full pre-approval from a reputable local lender, solid earnest money, reasonable contingencies, clean terms — is often within a few thousand dollars of a cash offer in the seller’s mind. Sellers do not always take less money just because the other offer is cash.

Here is the nuance. The value of a cash offer goes up when the home has condition issues, appraisal risk, or a seller in a hurry. It goes down when the home is clean, well-priced, and the seller has time.

If you are buying with financing and worried about competing with cash, do not panic. Structure matters more than people think. We should talk. Link in bio or contact info below.

Agency Iowa


515-214-8586/910-391-4554
[email protected]

Licensed to buy/sell real estate in Iowa

05/28/2026

Great and growing community!!!

05/27/2026

Should sellers pay buyer agent compensation?

Short answer?

YES!!!!

Read for more:

There are always exceptions, but fundamentally, it is basic math. If seller agrees to pay, the buyer can afford more home.

For $100k of home, a BAC might run 3% or $3k. If the buyer is required to come up with 10% down payment, a $100k home would require $10k in cash from the buyer to qualify for the $90k mortgage. So if they don't have $13,000, they can't afford the $100,000 mortgage.

That buyer with $10k in savings would barely make it, but could potentially qualify IF the seller agrees to pay the buyer agent compensation.

If you force them to compensate their own agent, they will likely have to have $3k to give them, leaving them with $7k in savings. That means they could only qualify for a $70k purchase and $63k mortgage. Reality is that it would meet somewhere in between, but...

Sellers are literally shrinking their pool of potential buyers if they are unwilling to allow the BAC to come from their side of the transaction.

Basic economics says that if you are trying to maximize the price of the product you are selling, you want to maximize demand. You don’t do that by eliminating potential buyers because you don’t understand math.

These numbers can fluctuate based on loan programs and other variables, but the point is the same. In this example, even if there is no other home available and the buyer is the same, the seller would end up getting a net $67,900 after paying their own agent 3%, rather than $94,000 if they were willing to compensate both 3%.

It makes a massive difference and educating our clients is a fiduciary responsibility in order to protect them.

The conversations are free. Don't sign an agreement until you are working with an agent that can explain the "why" of things in a way you understand.

Contact me!!!

Agency Iowa


515-214-8586/910-391-4554
[email protected]

Licensed to buy/sell real estate in Iowa

05/26/2026

05/26/2026

It was so much fun. I can’t wait to do it again.

05/26/2026

05/25/2026

There is a leadership concept in the military called “eat last.” It comes from this idea that the leader of a unit waits to eat until everyone under their command has eaten first. It sounds like a small thing. It is not.

What it really means is this: your people come before you. Their needs, their comfort, their outcomes — those come first. Yours come after.

I carry that into real estate, and it changes how I work.

When I am evaluating whether to recommend a house, I am not thinking about commission. I am thinking about whether this is the right house for this family, today, at this price. When I am negotiating, I am not thinking about my cut — I am thinking about getting my client the best outcome, even if it means a smaller or slower deal for me. When I am preparing a listing, I am not thinking about my timeline — I am thinking about what actually gets my seller the most money.

The commission takes care of itself when you take care of the people first. That is how I was trained. That is how I work. I do not know another way.

If that is the kind of agent you want in your corner, I am here. Link in bio.

Agency Iowa


515-214-8586/910-391-4554
[email protected]

Licensed to buy/sell real estate in Iowa