My experiences with this real estate company, particularly with the owner/principal agent (goes by Johnny, but is Phu Thai Ho) is anything less than stellar or even acceptable.
At full disclosure, I was not the client, but the significant other of his client. I have witnessed and experienced firsthand the unprofessionalism and appalling business methods of the owner of Kava Realty.
I was not the "customer" but I was a potential customer. But from what I saw and experienced, I turned into the never-ever customer, and I will be sure to warn all my friends, family, and colleagues to look elsewhere for their real estate needs.
Please allow me to share my experiences I had with this company and the owner/agrent:
He showed us a home in a bad part of Randolph, where he acted as the seller and buyer agent (double commission for him) and ensured us the home was in an acceptable condition and perfect for a first house. He gave us advice to forgo the home inspection and said it was a waste of money. I refused to listen and insisted on a home inspection. When we had the home inspected, here are a few things we found out A.) roof - needed major repairs beyond belief! The prior owner installed shingles on top of each other and the cost to properly install a new roof was outrageous. B.) kitchen was "upgraded" with NO OVEN!! What kind of home in the 21st century has no oven? C.) attic - had some type of "fuzz" and "dark things" growing. Since the inspector could not use the term mold, he described it as "dark, black, fuzzy." D.) the bathroom vent and the dryer vent was somehow connected to each other due to improper installation. So the bathroom was sucking out all the unwanted air right into the dryer (your clean clothes). OH, and the foundation of the home was "leaning". It was just a home in terrible condition. I could go on about other items found on the inspection report. But the fact that he advised the client (my partner) to not get an inspection tells you about his morals as a real estate agent.
Then he showed us another home that we found online. We were doing a lot of our own research and he would just tag along and come look at the houses with us. At this point, we were wondering why are we even working with him? The house was in much better condition, but the master bedroom was small. The agent made a sexist comment towards me and said "oh, you must like homes with big closet only". I was appalled that he would speak to me in that matter.
Another issue I witnessed was a conflict of interest with people he referred us to. For example, the Loan Officer and the Closing Attorney were both his personal friends (he claimed this) and it caused a huge conflict of interest between the agent, the bank, and attorney. It might be okay to refer friends or colleagues, but the closing attorney he referred us to, we had so many issues with him that we had to file an initial complaint with the Bar Counsel. But that itself is another story/long review.
We gave the attorney a negative but honest review online. Because the attorney is his friend, the agent decided to text his client (my partner) to have it remove or else "there would be legal action". The agent tried to bully us into removing our review of his friend. Shame on him!!
Finally, when I ended up giving Kava Realty a negative review on their Facebook, the agent retaliated by airing his client business on the internet in a response (saying things like his client was unable to qualify for a loan due to X reason). This is a real shame, and just unethical.
I am now looking to file a formal complaint against him through the MA Association of Realtors for disclosing details about his client's real estate transaction read more