Most agents start by showing you houses. I start by getting you ready to win one.

The first thing I ask on a first call, and I ask it in these words on purpose: "Have you gotten pre-qualified for a purchase loan, or will you be paying cash?"

Cash comes first in that sentence deliberately. Paying cash is more common than most buyers assume, and more common again above a million. If you are financing, you are not at a disadvantage. You do need to know what you are up against.

Paying cash means I will need proof of funds before we tour. A bank or brokerage statement, and you can black out the account number. Listings ask for it, because a seller does not want to get the house ready and leave for the afternoon for looky-loos who think it looks great online.

Already approved means you email me the pre-approval letter, so I can read what loan type you are getting. Some properties do not qualify for every loan type, and I would rather show you homes your financing can actually buy than spend your Saturday on one it cannot.

Not approved yet means I put you in touch with two of my preferred lenders and you choose. Both close on time, both hit their deadlines, and both are good on rate and fees. I name them on the call rather than on a web page.

Then I tell you where I stand, before I tell you what I will do. I am a Certified Negotiation Expert (CNE), I have 34 years of experience negotiating real estate here in the Davis and Salt Lake area counties, and I am confident enough in that to put it in writing.

The savings guarantee. When you find the home you want, I negotiate for you to buy it for at least the amount below off the asking price. If I cannot, I pay you the difference out of the compensation I receive at closing.

At $1,000,000 and above: at least $20,000 off, or I pay you up to $5,000.

From $500,000 to $999,999: at least $10,000 off, or I pay you up to $2,500.

Below $500,000: at least $5,000 off, or I pay you up to $1,000.

What counts toward it: the reduction off list price, plus seller-paid closing costs, repairs, improvements and any other seller-paid concessions, added together. What it asks of you: a written pre-approval from a major lender dated within 30 days of your first offer, or written verification of cash funds. The property has to be listed at $400,000 or more, it cannot be one of my own listings, and your first offer has to be at least the guaranteed amount below asking. If it is not, the guarantee does not apply. My compensation at closing is 3% of the net sales price, as agreed in your buyer agency agreement for that purchase.

The cancellation guarantee. Every agent now has to have a buyer agency agreement signed before showing you houses. Mine comes with an exit: as long as no offer has been accepted yet, you can cancel at any time. No obligation and no cancellation fee.

The two-year satisfaction guarantee. If within 24 months of closing you decide to sell the home you bought through me because you are not satisfied with it, I will either buy it back or sell it for free. Which of those two happens is my decision rather than yours, and I would rather you hear that now than in month 20.

What it asks of you: that you buy another home of equal or greater value through me as your exclusive buyer broker, within about an hour's drive of my office, at 3% of the purchase price plus a $695 transaction fee. Sell it for free means I take no listing-side compensation on the sale of your home, and the buyer's side is still paid. If I buy it back instead, the price is the lower of two figures, 95% of the original net sales price you paid after concessions, or a current Federal Housing Administration (FHA) appraisal less 7%, and you complete the repairs needed to meet that loan's standards before closing. All of it goes on a signed Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract, and you get the full certificate to read before you sign anything.

What this looks like when it actually happens. Earlier this year a couple I had known for years, who had never done business with me, walked a home in Chestnut Farms here in Farmington with the listing agent. The listing agent sent them the purchase agreement to fill in and send back. They stopped, and asked me to represent them instead.

It was listed at $1,375,000 and they were ready to pay it. I did my own valuation and then wrote the listing agent explaining where my number came from. Homes in that price range across Davis County were closing at about 95% of list. Median sold prices were drifting down rather than up, at a time of year when they usually go the other way. Homes in that segment were selling in about 30 days, and this one had been sitting for about 110 days without an offer. I priced it off what had actually closed rather than off what was still for sale, and I sent the statistics along with the letter instead of asking her to take my word for it.

They closed at $1,290,000. I saved them $85,000 off what they were about to pay, and it cost them nothing out of pocket, because the seller paid the buyer-side fee. The seller's own agent wrote back thanking me for the level of detail and calling it a well-structured offer.

A few months later those same buyers had me sell their home in Cave Hollow. A buyer came in asking for about $24,000 in seller-paid repairs. I brought in other contractors, and I had that buyer's own inspector come back out and look again. He agreed the repairs were not necessary. They came down to $21,000 anyway, so we let that contract go, because I had already gone and found a backup offer and negotiated it above asking. The backup closed about $5,000 higher and asked for $8,000 in repairs instead of $21,000. That was roughly $18,000 more in my sellers' pockets than the deal we walked away from.

$85,000 on the way in, about $18,000 on the way out, for the same family.

I could send you everything on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) every morning. You can already do that yourself, and it is why you are tired.

So rather than send you hundreds of homes that may or may not match, or risk you missing the one that does, I would rather get 20 minutes with you and go through what you are looking for in detail. In person if you want it. Plenty of people would rather do the whole thing online now, and that is fine, there is a buyer questionnaire for exactly that.

Either way the search gets built on real criteria. Which towns, how much house, what you are willing to trade and what you are not. If you tell me you want to be near family or close to a particular workplace, that is your call to make and I will build around it.

One thing I will correct rather than go along with: school boundaries. People buy a home believing it feeds a school it does not actually feed. I check the boundary against the address instead of against what the listing says.

If you already own a home, there is a second question hiding inside this one: would you rather buy before you list, or sell first? Both work and they are genuinely different plans. I will walk your home while I am there and give you a real idea of what it would sell for, and no, it does not need to be ready. Hardly any home is ready. Leave it the way it is and we will talk about what adds value and, more useful, what people spend money on that adds none.

Moving up inside the county is move-up buyers. Coming in from out of state is relocation.