We used Dawn Nowak of Keller Williams Realty Greater Rochester in 2026 to sell our house in…read moreRochester and buy a house in Jamestown. Dawn listed our house and is the agent named on our purchase contract. Her husband, Jim Nowak, the buyer agent on her team, handled the purchase day to day. I would not call any part of this a good experience.
In our January consultation, I asked to list under $200,000. Dawn pushed for $250,000. That consultation is the last time I saw her in person. She did not come to the house before it was listed in March. The house listed at $250,000, was cut twice, to $248,900 and then $239,900, and sold for $230,000. On a call on September 16, Dawn acknowledged the pricing: "I think maybe we would have got a little bit of a bidding war if we would have priced it a little lower."
I am a videographer, and Dawn paid me to make our listing video. Her other listings get a walkthrough video with her in it and her "Dawn Sold Another" tagline. She told me she would come do her part of ours, then canceled at the last minute for something in Buffalo. It never happened, and she never told me our listing would be handled differently from her other listings. On that same call, when I said I had not gotten the same treatment as her other clients, she told me, "I did not agree to do your f***ing video, Bryant." She then asked whether I thought her saying "Dawn Sold Another" would have made a difference. I pointed out that she puts it on billboards. She told me, "You've been laying up way too many nights overthinking all this."
The purchase. Our offer was accepted March 18, with closing due by May 13. Our sale was set to close May 18 and the purchase was not ready. On May 13, Dawn sent us an agreement to move in before closing, and we signed it that night. The final version, from the sellers' attorney, was signed May 14. It made us tenants of the sellers until closing, said no alterations could be made to the house, and stated that we "have completed a final inspection of the premises." No walkthrough had happened yet.
On May 15 we drove three hours for the walkthrough. It could not be done because the sellers' utilities had been shut off for nonpayment. On May 16 we came back with our moving truck and our family of five. Our Rochester house was closing two days later, and we had nowhere else to stay. The walkthrough found the first floor toilet leaking so badly it was unusable, the second floor toilet running constantly, and low hot water volume at the second floor faucet. Jim did not advise us to wait. His advice was to take possession and deal with the plumbing at the closing table. We relied on him as our agent and moved in. He emailed our attorney about the problems at 8:42 PM that night, after we had moved in. Dawn was copied. In my view, that night is where this went wrong. We should have waited, taken a hotel for the night with the U-Haul, or called the attorney their team recommended to us.
Two plumbers quoted the work at $6,125 and at $8,685 to $9,315. As I write this on September 18, we still have not closed, more than four months after the May 13 closing date in our contract. We have lived with those conditions for more than 120 days. The hot water in the shower is barely usable, and we use the toilet on one floor and wash our hands at the sink on another. After May 20, Dawn did not call or text me for nearly four months.
On the September 16 call, Dawn said, "if we can't get you any money at the closing table for the plumbing then me and Jim would give you a gift card to Home Depot." On the morning of closing, September 18, she offered $500. We hired her expecting an agent who would fight for us, and felt alone the entire process, and couldn't even take a hot shower to cry in.
