We hired Devrie to sell our parents' home after their deaths. She makes an excellent first impression. Unfortunately that is where our positive experience ends.
She gave us bad advice about market conditions and sale preparation. While the house was well-maintained, it was cosmetically dated after 40 years as a family home. She discouraged us from painting and replacing the carpet, which we could have easily done even before the house went up for sale. Comments from prospective buyers uniformly came back that the house needed paint and carpet.
She never held an open house. The MLS listing failed to accurately describe the property, leaving out key information like a private water well and just failing to give prospective buyers an accurate description of the condition of the property.
Toward the end of her contract, Devrie brought us a low-end offer from an investment buyer as we were literally days away from painting and ordering new carpet and fixtures. We decided to accept the offer (increased substantially based on our negotiation efforts, not Devrie's) to allow us to finish settling our parents' estate. During the termite inspection, we met the buyer, who expressed similar frustration with Devrie and was pleased to find out about the water well that Devrie had not pointed out to him.
Devrie completed all the appropriate paperwork as required, although I really think this was due more to the competence of her brokerage office than anything she did personally. The sale closed without a hitch.
Devrie seems like a nice person, but as a real estate agent she just doesn't DO much of anything. read more
