steven kossman
5/5
My wife and I were blessed to have worked with Ken for the pursuit and purchase of our vacation home in Big Bear Lake. Ken is a delight. He is a long term resident of Big Bear Lake and has a tremendous wealth of knowledge, and he shared all of it with us. His personality is relaxed, and he worked with us at our pace. He greeted us and provided a ground-work on the in's-and-out's of the different regions of Big Bear, qualities and limitations of each, and spent quite a long time assimilating this into a profile that would suit our interests. After learning about us, he developed a plan with many home options and went over them with us via phone and email (as our permanent home is not in BB.), and later, in-person. He provided an in-depth personalized tour of Big Bear Lake, and showed us the advantages of the areas that met our specifications.
We toured a number of homes. Ken is an engineer and has extensive building experience. This is a huge bonus to working with him. Upon each home we visited, he scrutinized details inside and outside the properties, and provided us with individualized professional perceptions of building quality, risks of future repairs, maintenance, expected costs, proximity to ski resorts, lake, shopping, and other necessities. He showed us basic and cosmetic details of the homes that related to value added or wasted in relation to the asked price.
Once we made our decision, Ken helped us develop an appropriate offer, and he worked tirelessly with the sellers' agent. He kept us updated on all of the communications and issues.
We were delighted with the outcome. Ken facilitated options for a trusted lending agent, and that process was seamless as well.
Ken really managed the entire process from start to finish. I believe he must have made over 20 visits to the home to check on it in our absence before, during, and after the inspection. During escrow, when there was a storm and we were on a trip out of state, he called us to let us know he had made visits to the home to check the integrity of the roof for water leaks, the foundation, the electrical, and plumbing, to ensure there were no problems. (There weren't any).
Our escrow was fairly fast, and we enjoyed working with the escrow company he chose in Big Bear as well. He provided us help for utilities and other essentials once we took ownership.
I can say this was the best imaginable experience one can have. I cannot say enough about how terrific Ken is as an honest and transparent real estate agent. We will certainly call upon him in the future for our next Big Bear sale and/or purchase.
