Dennis Kaiser

He and his wife were excellent. They were very down to earth and knowledgeable about the market. They were very savvy about finding what works for you while using what you have at the time. You can reach them immediately. They are very honest, direct, and supplied us with all the information we needed to make the right decision. We could always reach out to them for any information or advise about home buying and general investing. They are savvy across the board.

Dennis was quite knowledgeable and followed through with great detail. Dennis and his wife, Crystal, were very responsive. We are extremely pleased with their service.

He did not communicate that we had a home warranty. If he did, we never heard him. He hired an inspector who missed a lot of problems with the house. I found the roof was leaking and there were holes that were covered up with paint. We also had electrical problems and plumbing issues. We are happy with the house but the experience was unsatisfactory.

We were not down in the area at the time. He gave us all the information we needed to feel comfortable about purchasing a home before seeing it. He was very prompt and responsive. We were able to communicate and complete all the paper work over the internet. I was very pleased with service.

The service went very well. He knew a great deal about the market. We were looking for a home that was in a senior park for ages 55 and up. He was able to guide us and explain the opportunities. He was a goldmine of information and extremely knowledgeable. It was easy to communicate with him and easy to receive his communications. He was very good with negotiating the price and also knew about the number of other nuances. He helped my son get the best deal in his price range. He covered all the necessary steps and his wife was an excellent closer. They worked well as a team. I have no complaints with the service. He was always very prepared and came with the needed content. He performed on budget and were were extremely pleased with the service.

We still receive birthday cards and holiday cards each year from them. Dennis was always responsive. We have continued to stay friends over the years and he keeps me up to date on the latest changes in the market.

As a point of accuracy, the Carlsbad address shown on Angie’s List is from some previous operation Dennis Kaiser was involved with. Dennis currently works for Murphy and Murphy in Fallbrook, California. Based on the glowing reviews at Angie’s List and other online resources, we retained Dennis Kaiser to act as our Buyer’s Agent in a search for a home in the Fallbrook area. Our relationship with Dennis started out well enough. But from the get-go we did all the time-consuming legwork, searching for likely prospects on our own using realtor.com and zillow.com, and then driving by all those places on our own to screen out properties we wouldn’t be interested in based on poor “curb appeal,” neighborhood quality, road noise, etc. We met Dennis twice at his office in Fallbrook, then he drove us around to view the dozen or so homes we’d narrowed our search down to. He even provided some valuable new information, mentioning that many places in the Fallbrook area don’t have good cellular phone coverage, G4 service, or even hard-wired internet service – things we really needed to have a workable home office. Dennis also recommended we link up with Matt Hodlin, a Mortgage Planner with Cherry Creek Mortgage Company in Escondido. And Matt turned out to be a great resource, and very professional. Our problems with Dennis started with an annoying scheduling screw-up on our second outing. We had originally set the time for 1:30 pm. Then Dennis asked us to delay our meet-up to 2:00 pm, which we did. Then he claimed he had called us back and told us to meet him at 1:30 after all. But we didn’t get the message, and he was a bit of a jerk the rest of the day because we’d been “late” and screwed up his precious schedule. The problems got much worse, however, when we told Dennis we wanted to meet at his office to write an offer on a home we’d decided on. Dennis met us as promised. But he had done absolutely nothing to prepare any kind of market analysis of the property’s value. Instead, when we got to part where we needed to fill in the crucial line with the offer price, he weirdly sat back and just said, “What can I help you with?” After a few minutes of the stupid dance, Dennis finally did pull up a couple of recent sales, which he suggested were comparable to the house we wanted to buy. But when push came to shove, he merely said he’d put down any price we wanted him to. So lacking any helpful guidance from this guy who stood to grab a share of the nearly $24,000 realtor’s commission that was up for grabs, we punted and had him put in a price that we knew was low, but not ridiculously so. Based on what we learned later, Dennis apparently just emailed our offer over the seller’s agent. We don’t know for sure because he didn’t copy us on the transmittal. But even though the seller was a recently widowed elderly woman who clearly cared about who would be buying her home of many years, Dennis made no effort to explain who we were, or that we too hoped to make this our family home for many years to come. Things took an even worse turn, however, when the seller countered our offer. Since Dennis never provided meaningful guidance or advice, we had been doing more research on our own while waiting to hear from the seller. In the process, we learned that the offer which Dennis had written for us couldn’t actually have been performed. In particular, he had checked a box on the template offer form stating that we would take responsibility for any termite or pest repairs that might be needed. Which Dennis should have known we couldn’t possibly do under the terms of the VA loan we said we wanted to use where the VA demands that all such repairs before completed before close of escrow. No one in the rigt mind would knowlingly agree to repair a house they don't yet own, would they? When we asked Dennis about this and other issues, did he step up to the plate, offer an explanation, and help fix the problem? No, he did not. Instead, he quit on us ... right in the middle of an active deal where we still needed to answer the seller’s counter-offer! Dennis’s exact words were, “Since you have no trust in my ability to represent you, I recommend you find other representation.” How’s that for “service”? To say that Dennis’s irresponsibility put us in a bind, is to put it mildly. Since it’s sadly very common for realtors like this to make a claim for a share of the commission as the “procuring cause” even if they don’t actually finish the deal, the very first thing we needed to do before we sought out “other representation” was to obtain from Dennis and his managing brokers at Murphy and Murphy a compete and unconditional waiver to any claim for future commissions for this, or for any other Fallbrook home Dennis had showed us. To their credit, both Dennis and Murphy and Murphy at least had enough class to not refuse to provide this commission waiver outright. But they screwed around with it so long that the seller’s counteroffer had expired before we received an adequate written waiver. So the effect was the same: we lost the deal on the house we really wanted. Looking back, aside from the information about internet service and lender referral, we got no useful information or advice from Dennis Kaiser. He didn’t help us strategize about how to get the most house for the buck. And he offered no help in figuring out if the asking price of the homes we had viewed bore any relationship to their actual value. Instead, Dennis merely spent a few hours driving us around to look inside a few homes, and he spent about 30 minutes of typing to fill in a few blanks - badly as it turned out - in some pre-printed template forms. And for that he stood to gain a share of a $24,000 commission? That’s some expensive typing and taxi service! Long story short, Dennis wasn’t nearly up to the task of representing us as knowledgeable buyers who expected professionalism and performance in exchange for a meaty realtor’s commission. Maybe others who wrote such glowing recommendations about Dennis had a very different experience? Or maybe they just didn’t know what a realtor could or should do for them?

We started communicating with Dennis through emails as our search lead us to the Oceanside, CA area. From the instant we met him, he garnered our confidence. He took us on a tour of available homes meeting our criteria and provided valuable insight into the pros and cons of the various places we reviewed. Once we decided on the home, Crystal entered the picture. Her tenacity and attention to detail made the 30 day escrow a very satisfying and productive event.

I returned to San Diego to meet Dennis and continue my search. He spent three days showing me homes in various areas of north county. His advise on which homes would be a good investment proved to be invaluable. He steered me away from homes that would not sell easily in a buyer's market because of location, highway noise or towers. On the third day a new home came on the market and Dennis called me immediately. We were there within an hour, the first to view the home, and I made an offer that was accepted. I've been in this home now for almost 14 years and am so happy with my decision. Dennis and Crystal still stay in touch and send market updates. He is not a hard pressure sell which is something I am comfortable with in a sales agent.I have over the years recommended him to friends who were in the market for a home.

We had an amazing real estate advocate on our side from our first contact to closing on the ideal house for us. Our trust in Dennis is unfaltering. He guided us away from several homes we considered that weren’t really the right fit and told us he wanted us to be happy with our decision for many years to come. He also pointed out potential issues on things we might have missed. He really had our best interests at heart and wasn’t just trying to make a sale. We mostly worked with Dennis' wife Crystal (also a real estate agent) once we went into contract. Crystal is extremely detailed and organized and proactively worked with all parties to ensure the closing process was smooth and efficient. Both Dennis and Crystal are highly intelligent and really understand the business. They are also a pleasure to interact with – always upbeat with a good sense of humor and also very “real”. We highly recommend, without reservation, Dennis and Crystal to anyone wishing to move to or from the San Diego area. We also thank them both for all their help in finding us the perfect home!