I had a condo that I was renting because I could not sell it due to the state of the economy. I placed it for sale by owner on Craig's List early last year. Shortly afterwards, in February 2016, I was contacted by a Keller Williams agent, Dylan Holly, who offered to try to sell my condo for me and also to collect my rent for a smaller percentage than the current company was charging me. He felt for sure he could sell it to an investor with a renter occupying it. My place was listed with them for a year. During that time, he was collecting 10% of my rent money every month. I am 100% convinced that he was not interested in selling my place at all. Over the year they had it listed, I kept lowering the price trying to get some showings which I am pretty sure caused me decrease the price way below what I could have actually gotten for the place.
Overall, I got very few showings and my renter blocked 4 of the 8 showings that I did have in a year's time. When my renter "got hateful" with the realtor over showing requests, he refused to communicate with her about them any further and told me that I would have to ask her about any future showings. I was confused because he was the one who set the process up so that she could deny or accept any of the showing requests first over me.
By that time, I was really fed up with Keller Williams so I did some investigation of my own. I found out that it is virtually impossible to sell a property that is renter occupied due to many factors. The realtor had told me that with a renter already in there my property would be very desirable to investors, but actually, it is not. Investors want to check out their own renters for the properties they own. I decided with much reservation to not renew my lease with the renter, clean the place up, and try to sell it empty. I asked Keller Williams for help on terminating the rental agreement. Again, they proved completely useless. I thought I was paying them a portion of the rent money every month to help with things like this, but I was given some speech about how only the owner can terminate the lease. I had to do my own letter and mail it myself. The renter gave me some verbal opposition and didn't want to leave. I again asked Keller Williams for help if I had to evict her, and was told that I would have to contact a lawyer myself for advice.
So I basically paid them 10% of my rent income for a year to collect it and withhold it from me for anywhere from 7-14 days. They did not even have to find my renter for me. I already had her. I was given lots of lame excuses over the months about why my rent money was never deposited on time. I personally think they withheld it along with all the deposits in an account somewhere and earned interest while they delayed payment. One time when it was late, I called the office and was told it was late because my renter paid late. I said so there should be a late fee on it, right? I was told yes, but there was no extra money when it was deposited and come to find out, my renter was never late paying.
During the latter part of my dealings with them, the realtor slipped and told me that he has like 10-12 rental properties he collects rent on. Then it all made sense to me, he had sought me out not to sell my property but to collect rent income because 10X70=$700 and a nice steady monthly income for doing nothing, plus the interest you can earn on deposits and withholding payments.
Thankfully, my renter did leave on time without much of a fuss. You would think it would end there with them but it does not. We had a walkthrough on April 29, 2017 and I signed all paperwork and released her deposit to her on May 1. She was out of town all week and returned home that Friday expecting her deposit money in the mailbox. NO deposit? She called him and he said it was in the mail. There was a delay. Another week passed, and again, I get a text from renter---no deposit. She called the company and the check had not even been cut!! More lies!! I called them and told them I was picking the check up that afternoon to take it to my renter and they said it will not be ready until tomorrow. I said no it better be ready today, I will be there at 4:30. They replied no 5:00 PM. I told them no I would be there at 4:30 and it better be ready. I think they were trying to make me wait until 5 PM to come so the doors would be locked. Amazingly, when I arrived that afternoon, the check was cut and I was able to take it to the renter.
Subsequently I relisted my condo with Century 21 on May 3, 2017. I had 3 showings in the first days and a contract within a week. Now if that don't prove how worthless Keller Williams is, then what does? read more
