My husband and I just bought a house from a man who used Lisa as his agent. It was supposedly in "move in" condition when we placed the bid on it, according to Ms. Howe's own words in the listing. When we got the inspection report, it showed about 2 dozen things that he listed as being in "poor" condition. We asked Mr. Zechariah Knottnerus, the owner, through his agent Lisa Howe from Remax, to fix the things which were glaringly wrong. My husband and I, and Mr. Knottnerus and his agent literally battled back and forth for 3 and a half weeks with amendment after amendment, trying to get some semblance of things fixed or replaced. They refused to fix the roof on the garage, which will most likely cave in this winter with a heavy snowfall. They wouldn't fix or give us a new garage door or opener because, even though it is out of code now, it is not illegal. They supposedly fixed the gutters, but one of the gutters has already fallen off, because the bricks they used to hold it in place fell. They refused to replace or fix gas leaks on the water heater or the range (in which the range doesn't have the leak, but the valve itself). There is an illegal connection on the dryer, which needs to be repaired. In fact, as of the time I am typing this (July 30, 2018), we have had our gas shut off for 5 DAYS because the gas company was called and found 3 major leaks (which Mr. Nottenerus "conveniently" had gas turned off to the house during the inspection, hence the reason our inspector didn't catch the leaks). We got them repaired on July 31, 2018, ON OUR DIME, because he wouldn't fix them like he should have. The bathroom tub was "painted" with the special tub paint to make it look white again, but it is already flaking off. A couple of sections of the tub were missed altogether. The shower doors were installed backwards and in addition, they were installed so tight, I can barely get them open to take a shower. The fridge doors were installed with right-hinged hinges, when they should be left-hinged. The stove he gave us was very old but fortunately, we got one donated to us which is in much better shape. The washer/dryer combo he supplied to us doesn't work at all, so that will need to be replaced. We got a new AC unit, but only because we agreed to "up the price" of the house to cover about half the cost for the AC unit (the original was in really bad shape and it was from 1989). Then when we complained about things still not being fixed (per a second inspection by the same inspector), they threatened to take away our earnest money and be done with the deal, if we reneged on the contract. As far as I am concerned, the contract was made under "questionable pretenses" by the owner/ seller and Ms. Howe. But we bought anyway and now we are stuck with a fixer-upper that we never intended to buy at my husband's and my age. I am a teacher on a teacher's salary and the only breadwinner because of medical issues with my husband. So, we were stuck buying a house which cost us more than what it is worth because it was all we could afford. We didn't expect a perfect house, but we did expect to have these very badly needed repairs to be repaired. So, I write this review in hopes of helping other buyers to beware of Lisa Howe from Remax and also Mr. Zechariah Knottnerus. They both work in tandem with each other apparently (from the bit of research I did online). If you work with them, just do your due diligence in researching EVERYTHING before you buy OR make sure you have enough money to buy a really decent house because according to Ms. Howe, we couldn't expect to get a great house, especially for that purchase price (her exact words from an email sent: ..."they are expecting a house completely free of any problems which does not exist especially in this price range."). I would never get involved with a "house flipper for a living" contractor ever again and a real estate agent which continues to back up a seller such as this. read more
