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For real estate agents
Most of my business arrives because an agent sent it to me, and that only keeps happening if the last file closed on time. So here is how I work, in enough detail that you can decide whether I am useful to you before you risk a client on it.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · Mark Ruhl, NMLS #105591
What you can count on
I answer the phone. This shows up in nearly every review I have, which says more about the industry than it does about me. If you text me at 7pm on a Tuesday because your buyer is panicking about an offer, you will hear back at 7pm on a Tuesday.
I close on time. This is the one that actually matters to you, and the one you would stop sending me business over. Your reputation is attached to my timeline, and I have never forgotten that.
I will tell your buyer no. If somebody cannot do what they are hoping to do, I would rather say that on the first call than three weeks into a transaction with your listing tied up. A fast no is worth more to you than a slow maybe.
A pre-approval that means something
A pre-approval is the difference between an offer that gets taken seriously and one that gets set aside, and not all of them are equal. Here is what mine actually does for your buyer.
It turns a wish into a budget. Before a buyer falls in love with a home they cannot afford, a real pre-approval gives them a clear, honest number. That saves everyone time and heartbreak, and it keeps your showings focused on homes that genuinely fit.
It gives the offer real weight. Listing agents read a pre-approval as a signal that the financing is real. A buyer who arrives properly pre-approved is far less likely to fall through, which makes the offer stronger even when it is not the highest one on the table.
It protects the closing. The mortgage process has a lot of moving parts, and a thorough pre-approval surfaces the problems early, so nothing appears for the first time the week before closing. That is how deals stay on schedule.
So encourage your buyers to get pre-approved before they start touring. It makes your job easier, your offers stronger, and your closings smoother, and I am happy to walk any of them through it.
Condo pre-flight
As of August 2025, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require a full condo review on any complex with more than ten units, full stop, and for a struggling HOA that can be the end of the conversation. The problem is that you usually find out after you have already spent time and money marketing the unit.
So send me the complex before you list it and I will run the review process first. If it is going to be a problem, you will know while you still have options, and if it is clean you have something no competing listing has: a seller's agent who can tell a buyer's lender the financing works.
When somebody else declines your buyer
This is the part I am actually known for. A bank or credit union works from four or five loan programs, so when a buyer does not fit neatly inside one of them the conversation simply stops, and the agent usually hears that the buyer "didn't qualify." Most of the time that is a program limitation rather than a borrower problem.
The ones that come up most often:
- Self-employed buyers whose tax returns understate what they actually earn. Twelve or twenty-four months of bank statements get to a very different number.
- ITIN borrowers who file taxes without a Social Security number. It is a real program with real terms.
- Manufactured homes, including homes in a park on leased land, which most lenders decline outright without explaining why.
- Buyers who need to move before they sell, so the offer does not carry a sale contingency.
- Investors who have run out of conventional slots, qualifying on the property's rent instead of their returns.
- Construction and renovation, including ADUs, on one loan with one closing.
If a buyer of yours has been turned down somewhere, send them over. The worst case is that I agree with the first lender, and I will tell you that quickly.
Things worth knowing right now
- A dollar of seller money is usually worth more to your buyer as a rate buydown than as a price cut, and it is not close. Worth reading before you write the next offer.
- Clients sitting on a 3% rate do not have to sell to move. Keeping the old house as a rental is often the better math, and it changes what they can qualify for.
- Portland's infill rules and Oregon's middle housing law changed what a residential lot can hold. That matters for pricing older homes on larger lots.
Want to talk through a specific file?
Send me the scenario, or a complex you are about to list, and I will tell you what I see. No obligation and no sales pitch, and if I am not the right fit I will say so.
Nothing on this page is an offer of compensation, a referral fee, or anything of value in exchange for the referral of settlement service business. Program availability, guidelines and agency requirements change and are subject to credit and property approval.