My overall assessment of Dick can be summed up as follows:
PATIENT TEACHER (MORE THAN A SERVICE PROVIDER): If you are not very familiar with the gymnastics and technicalities of what the mortgage process entails (as I was), then Dick is definitely the person you want to work with. Indeed, with Dick, I was not only a client but also a student (and often with very silly and ridiculous questions, which he answered with cheerfulness and patience). By the of the process, I was more knowledgeable about this than I ever was (I am a second time buyer).
NO EASY SOLUTIONS: During our first meeting, it became obvious that mine was a “hard” case. In a booming property market, few advisors want to invest time in clients who are not “easy” cases. Dick did exactly the opposite, looking for out of the box solutions, and his efforts paid off. If you are an out of the box case, which most internationals are, Dick is definitely the person to go to.
ACCESSIBLE & RELIABLE: I cannot guarantee you that he will pick up his phone at the first ring or that he will pick it up at all. However, I can tell you that he will never miss calling back as soon as possible, which often was not very long.