This business may call itself Coldwell Banker Professional Realtors (CBPR), but their performance…read moreis definitely amateurish.
Bottom Line Up Front: CBPR had our house to sell for twelve months and did not despite two price reductions and a change of listing agent. Our property was so unimportant to them, that issues like a broken window and rodents went unnoticed. Communication from the office to us was nearly nonexistent. This is not the behavior of a professional realty company.
My first contact with CBPR was when my wife and I bought our house in April 2008. That part of the relationship was stellar. Our agent, Kayhan Ocal, patiently showed homes, answered questions and made the closing process nearly idiot-proof. When I was transferred in early 2014, it seemed a no brainer to use him and CBPR to sell our house.
First, getting a straight answer about a price recommendation out of Mr. Ocal was like trying to nail Jello to a tree. Even with all the facts and several walk throughs of our home, he demurred, telling us that it's "our decision" and such. Got it. We know that. However, he's supposed to be the expert and have a clue what the house should list for. We wanted expert advice. Expected it. And didn't get it. We finally picked a price and asked his opinion. No opinion. Did we aim too low? Too high? What? Please give us some kind of feedback!
The house sat on the market for six months under his stewardship and a price reduction and didn't sell. Fine. Finally, we started getting pushy for details about what he was actually doing to sell our property. The only Jello we could nail to the tree was that he had done two or three showings. Not fine. We promptly changed agents to a younger, seemingly hungrier and more motivated agent named Ryan LaPerle. Initially, he made some promising noises and reported he even did a few showings. However, after our property was no longer his new project, communication from him nearly ceased. We were the ones that had to ask for information rather than the earlier weekly reports we had been given. Later, any communication that came from the office was through a subordinate and at least once was factually inaccurate about our property. An agent who is interested in his clients is the one who calls. The message came through loud and clear: "You and your property aren't at all important to me or the company."
A word about the property. You may be thinking "I'll bet you're trying to sell a dump!" False. Our property is a well-maintained, cozy, mid-1940s Cape Cod with hardwood floors, new appliances, and big back yard in a quiet neighborhood with quick access both to Norfolk Naval Base and Little Creek. We love our house. The house should sell itself. We wouldn't have bought a dump. We're not trying to sell one.
Finally, we made the decision to rent. Here, we got wise and went with a different company, Bayview Realty. After Bayview Realty did their initial inspection of our property, it turns out that the company we entrusted with selling our house didn't even do periodic walk throughs to make sure the house was still salable. On CBPR's watch, rodents had moved in and a window had gotten broken. When? How? Who knows? An agent who is making showings and interested in getting the commission off of a sale would have noticed these things and contacted the owner as soon as he or she noticed.
Don't waste your time here. I'm pretty sure that just about any other company will do better.