I've done business with this company for over 10 years. They helped us through a difficult short sale of our condo during the 08 recession. They were very kind &understanding, so of course we decided to use them again in 2014. The woman who we had been working with us was still a delight to work with! She would show me the houses that were in our budget, what we expected from a home, & didn't push for anything else.
We found a fantastic home for our family. We had very little stress with the purchase of this home until the day after we closed. We found out through the city of Everett that the city workers will be destroying half of our property for a water run off project. In the fine details of it was stated the city owns half of my property. To add salt to that wound, the neighbors had disclosed that they were paid by the city upwards of 5K for this project. Our relator knew nothing about this & apologized. Stating it was an oversight/error on the seller's side & that there was nothing that could be done.
Fast forward to 2019, peak season for the housing market that year, people were paying way over asking, for "as is" homes. I decided to sell the home do to divorce & maintenance of the home/ 0.9 acres it sat on. I called the woman I had been working with all these years, as she was such a delight & kept in touch. I figured the last incident was human error. These things tend to happen, I went back to her. She informed me that we should price low, so it would sell high. I told her that I want it listed at market value, she coerced me into her idea of selling low, thinking "she has been doing this for over 20 yrs, she must know something I don't." Went along with her plan. While, others around me placed their homes for sale at Market value & made 50-60K over asking price. She put mine 20k under market value.
The sale of this home became an awful experience for me. My cell phone would ring nonstop with people wanting to see my home. That's a great sign for a seller, but these calls need to go to the relator I hired. I informed her of this & there were no changes were made.
When the time came for open house, I got 1000s of calls from other relators wanting to show my house before the scheduled time. I would return home after the open house to find water running, screen doors down, doors unlocked, lights left on, people had gone through my things, security cameras pointed up toward the sky, & holes were poked in the ceiling & in the wall (open house isn't an inspection).
I took an offer. I was relieved! Until I found out that my relator didn't list, or listen to what I wanted done with the sale of my property. I wanted it sold as is, she didn't state then pressured/ coerced me into paying for minor repairs, that had past inspection when I bought the house nearly 4 years prior (20K). My relator then gave the new owner, my new washer & dryer I had purchased 4 months before selling my home, worth about 3k ( I also told the relator I wasn't selling these, many times.) My relator even gave them the drapes that I bought for myself & children's rooms. Usually, clothe drapes don't stay, but mini blinds typically do. That was a more than a few hundred dollars I wasn't looking to part with & to be quite frank, my kids didn't want to leave those behind.
To make matters worse, it was my weekend with my 2 young children, under the age of 7. The buyer's relator, & my relator insisted that I leave my home for 4 hours, 2 days before move out, with these littles in tow, so the buyer can make sure I am taking care of "things". He basically wanted to make sure I wasn't leaving all my belongings behind & trash in the yard. As this is what I was told by the assistant to my relator. I told her they can wait until Monday, as everything stated in the closing documents is being done. Her assistants tone changed and told me the buyers health is in crisis & this is what needs to be done, so they have no more stress on their health. I felt bullied into taking my kids out of their home for half a day, unexpectedly, so these people could nose around. I certainly have NEVER done something like this when I purchased my home, & I guess I understand after seeing such destruction to homes during the 08 recession, but that's why we have written agreements to hold people accountable. This was stated in my closing documents, that all of these issues to be fixed/completed before move in.
In the end, I got the money back I put down in 2014 for this home plus 10k.
In the future, I will NEVER use a realtor again. I'd rather burn my money to provide fire, for warmth. This is hands down the worst thing I could have done for my children, myself, my health and my wealth. I felt they took advantage of me at my lowest point, just for profit & personal gains. Not what the client asked for or needed at the time. read more
