Terrible experience, one of the worst I could have ever imagined, especially in our small community. Their glaring 5-star reviews sound curiously alike - 'going above & beyond' and 'roll up their sleeves', a 'dream team'. 'used them before on the sale of another house', 'smoothly walked through process' - word for word. If that did happen for you, I'm so glad because it wasn't the case for us.
Once we signed on the dotted line with Community Real Estate, the Draper Team 'Dream Team' seemed to whither away. Matt Draper initially had his game face on, but all bets were off after we signed. Talked a great game, mainly about going above & beyond, giving back. I'd say just give because you want to in order to be kind, not because you want to be seen giving and then to be heard telling everyone how much you give, how much you bend over backwards.
They, as a team, were convincing.They seemed nice, eager, sounded great, what a nice couple. Reality set in quickly and we're still paying for it today. They talked about how they have this down pat, that they have so many local connections after being here in town forever. They take care of those odds and ends, get the house ready. They promised a comprehensive list of what to expect in the next day or so w/the process, next steps. Never got that, let alone their connections of workers working. One guy was scheduled who did our bathroom counter, didn't finish. We paid him and he didn't come back. Sue Draper came by once to do a 5-minute glance. She was to be part of the 'staging team' b/c she had a great eye for what would need to be done. I never met Sue, she never came back. After we signed with Matt, the only list I got was not a checklist or calendar or next steps, but name of a painter who took off to Tahoe for the summer, some handymen we never met, a lawn guy who tried charging us $2,500. Before signing, a relief! After? What they claimed was 'their specialty' became ours. The minute we signed their contract, we had that list of painters & 'his people' he said he knew, that he'd line up. He said 'here, call 'em. Leave 'em messages. Tell 'em we're working together.' We didn't need much work done, but even the smallest things became bigger than they needed to be with them. We're working full-time, have kids, sports, we're calling his guys between work meetings. I could have called a handyman alone without an agent. Dropping my new real estate agent's name all over town to get a call back for five odd jobs was the first red flag. We gave him the benefit of the doubt but it continued - he'd say he was going to do something & just wouldn't. Start, wouldn't finish. The was a constant throughout our work together. More importantly, he confirmed - assured us - more than once he'd list our home under the correct district code, specifically for our very desirable school district. Huge selling point. We were listing the house before school started and put the house on the market, checked the sites, it's wrong, doesn't fall into the proper district. He told us 1) Mandy has been working hard all day with tech support to fix. Then he said 2) I never said that & we don't even have an account with that 'xyz realtor' site. Wait? You confirmed several times, this was a plan we talked through, you said Mandy is 'fixing' the mess up with the site you don't have an account with, and that you posted incorrectly on. Which is it? 'I never said that.' But we had other people who heard us talk about it? 'I never said that.'
OK, well let's move on from the social media marketing mess up. Each step we'd put something behind us. We wanted to hire a stager, they said that's what we do, 'the team!', we will run marketing with well-known social media sites with the right school district (that never did get fixed), and stage your house! Staging entailed slightly shifting my stuff. They brought old, dirty flower pots to put around our pool deck that looked like they were laying on their sides in a wet dirt garden. They brought 2 old worn out looking lawn chairs from their backyard. We're trying to sell our home in a nice neighborhood, a nice home, it was odd. Matt's guy never finished the bathroom tile, so Matt bought floor tile, cut them in half for our countertop, which we already paid his guy for. Matt & Mandy took home the new remaining stack of tiles, new tube of caulking & tool, all plants, any new pots (not old), flowers from the 'staging' outside, then sent a $400 bill with the receipts for the things they took home. We explained this was ridiculous. They agreed(?). Also said pool didn't need a pool fence. We thought it was the law. Nope, new law. Day before we're moving, they slip into an email that they need a fence guy for the pool, do we know who we used 10 years ago. Stressful scrambling. 'I never said that' was echoing again. But you did. Those glaring 5-star reviews after the date of the sale of our home are pretty unbelievable. Beware, Community Friends. Would not recommend. read more