If you are a homeowner considering working with Debi or John Durzi and Pinnacle Estate Properties,…read moreI strongly recommend you think twice. I hired them to help sell my home, expecting professionalism, support and a hands-on approach.
As a first-time home buyer now planning to sell our property, they came in and it seemed to start off well. When we first met with both Debi and John to discuss potentially hiring them and they toured our home, they had positive comments and feedback about our property. After we signed the Listing agreement to work with them, we followed their recommendations to prepare for showing the home. Debi came for one open house. John came for a 2nd open house.
Aside from one private showing conducted by John representing a buyer who did not have their own agent, neither of them came for any of the scheduled, private showings. They just passed on the info of the potential buyer's agent to us in each case and left us to do the showings. Debi and John thus disappeared from the scene.
All the showings (about 20 of them) that went that way, after which Debi advised us to do a sizeable price reduction. When we did not feel that was the right move and didn't agree, Debi then went on a verbal and email campaign of negativity about our property.
So aside from the initial setup of the house for sale, we realized that we had no real representation - i.e., no one there actively selling our home to prospective buyers. And now, after the same person (Debi) took a negative approach to push us into a profit loss, we decided this was not the relationship that would work for us on selling our property.
I thus requested a cancellation of contract by both email and phone with Debi.
When I requested the cancellation over the phone, Debi's defense was that we "made it difficult for her to do her job." Keep in mind, that this is after we made ourselves available for, and held, all the showings timely (aka doing her job), sometimes with only a few hours' notice.
Right after this call and my email requesting Cancellation of Listing, is when the long emails with further negativity came in, also with threats of mediation.
When that didn't work, Pinnacle Estate Properties' Broker, Kent Palmer, informed me that they will be holding onto our listing until it expires in several more months and warned me against action if they find slander in any reviews - because they monitor reviews. Pinnacle Estate Properties followed up immediately with an attorney letter to me officially refusing to cancel the listing and it included a warning that leaving public reviews could violate California defamation law.
These tactics are not how a client-focused professional behaves, they are how someone covers for falling short. It is shocking how fast it went from me asking to part ways, all the way to them escalating to written legal threat.
I felt we were drawn in with positivity, then when the property did not sell on its own with minimal effort on their part, their tune changed to negative in order to push a profit loss, which when talking of percentage, always affects the seller much more than the agent. So honestly, it feels like we are now being held hostage and our free will and rights to choose who to do business with has been stripped away by this practice.
I am not a real estate expert. I am a homeowner who hired agents to make this process easier. Instead, I have been overwhelmed with legal threats and pressure when it mattered most. If you are a potential buyer or seller reading this, take it seriously. This has been one of the most frustrating and disappointing professional relationships I have dealt with. Do not make the same mistake.