Kenneth Richard Cutler

Ken is simply THE best in the business. If you hire him your job is done! He knows his stuff and is VERY prompt and responsive. He identified a major mortgage issue with EPJ even before the appraisal and prevented us from a disaster! He did thorough research, and assisted us in every step of the way.... Our mortgage broker was horrible but Ken compensated for the lack of information and also counseled us patiently throughout (anxious first time home buyer here) It was a wonderful experience overall and I would strongly recommend Ken for anyone especially first time buyers. Only downfall is, we now have a very high bar for attorneys!

I used Mr Cutler and found his work professional and ethical. I am also a real estate attorney but from IL not NJ. I used Ken for advice and counsel for a house purchase referred by my Realtor. He was responsive and worked well with the opposing side and with the title company. I am somewhat overly a...ggressive as a trial atty and Mr Cutler's calm demeanor was effective in resolving issues in a positive manner.

I am writing this to make sure that other buyers and even sellers do not go through what I did while working with Ken. I admit I made a mistake by going with the first attorney I talked to without doing much research and it was a costly mistake and caused a lot of pain for me and my wife (the buyers).... Firstly I was baffled to see that Ken called me from his car to discuss the contract for the first time. His voice was barely audible and I had to tell him to call me when he reaches work. He then called from work and we started discussing the different clauses in the contract. He just routinely read through the contract without giving any advise about what are some of the possible changes I might consider. I had to ask questions and anytime I asked he scoffed. His overall tone remained rude and impatient. There was one issue - the sellers had revealed the night before we went to attorney review that they don't have a permit for their basement. So I wanted Ken to put something reasonable in the contract that will work for both parties. He couldn't come up with anything. He wanted to add a line "The sellers must get permit by closing" without any other clarification. The sellers realtor had suggested that we put something in the contract that will compensate us well if we couldn't close because permit wasn't obtained. Ken was totally hesitant to put anything like that. So I asked him to talk to the buyers attorney and work out something reasonable. He did call the other attorney but I don't know what he did because the sellers totally freaked out. Finally I thought through it myself and consulted some friends and came up with a reasonable solution that I sent in a email to Ken which he copied into the contract. The sellers agreed on all the terms. There were no escape clauses in the contract except for the one that come in standard realtor contract and I should have added something about big items like foundation, roof and septic. Unfortunately the inspection revealed issues in foundation. Also it revealed at least 6 different misrepresentations in the disclosure including roof repairs and water leakage! Any attorney at this point would have fought for me and got me out of the contract based on these misrepresentations alone. I told Ken to talk this over with the sellers attorney and convince that it was the best for both the sellers and buyers interest to cancel the contract. But Ken continued his rude attitude and wrote a letter requesting cancellation and mentioned in the mail that he hasn't yet received my deposit money. It was only two business days from the date in contract and I had already given the check to my realtor. Obviously Ken wanted to higlight where the sellers attorney should strike and they took the clue. Instead of accepting their deliberate misrepresentations the sellers instead said I am breaching the contract by not putting my deposit money on time and they threatened to sue me. At this point I had no option but to continue wasting more time and money into the inspections. I hired a structural engineer, septic inspector and roof inspector. As luck would have had it, the septic inspection failed miserably and almost all parts of the septic was bust that could have cost us a fortune to repair. Finally after investing so much time and money into this I and my wife thought that maybe we can workout a decent reduction in price that will cover septic and structural issue and also a small compensation for all the misrepresentations in the disclosure. After getting the inspection results, the sellers sent us a reduced price offer that barely covered septic repair costs. I thought I should at least give them one more chance with a properly reduced price. So I discussed this with Ken and to my surprise he refused to negotiate. So eventually I asked him to cancel the contract. He did and was quick to deduct his fees from the deposit money before returning it to me. Overall I wouldn't advise anyone to use Ken as an attorney. His assistant was actually more understanding and open than him. All the