HARRY NORMAN REALTORS

Let's title this review, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good: After we were miraculously able to get a contract on an offer with our first incompetent Harry Norman agents, we fired them (well, technically we couldn't fire them because we never had a buyers-agency agreement---EVEN after we requested an agreement on two different occasions!!) we were thankfully assigned a new agent named Ken Klosinski from the Cumming GA office. I can not say enough kind words about Ken and his professionalism. Ken took the transaction over with grace and the upmost professionalism! He seamlessly helped us close on a beautiful home. In no way does this F review reflect Ken's work. If I was rating only Ken, my review would be an A+++! Unfortunately, members of Angie's List community deserve to know and beware of the incompetency and unprofessionalism of the broker in charge and two agents in the Sandy Springs office in GA. The Bad: Sandy Springs Harry Norman office, Helen Lynch (Managing Broker), Fran Allen and Howard Rohan. To begin with, we were referred by an outside firm to Fran Allen to assist us with finding a rental home for a relocation to GA. Fran did an outstanding job with helping us find a rental home in a very competitive market. It is for that reason, when we were ready to purchase a home that we put our trust in Fran to represent us as a Buyers Agent. Although Fran is a very good person and good with rentals, unfortunately, her skills as a Buyers Agent stop on its door step. From the initial offer to a signed contact, all I can say is that the experience was an absolute nightmare! I won't go into every detail because there are too many; but the bottom line is, there were countless mistakes made from initial offer to the signed contract. Here's a small summary: Personal items that we requested in the initial offer were omitted, names, addresses, transaction amounts, transaction details on the contracts were constantly incorrect (I spent hours over the phone/email to get them corrected) Seller's disclosure statements "trickled-in" AFTER the initial offer was put on the table! Shockingly, after the final contract was signed, we get a congratulations email from Fran with a mystery attachment; another Seller's disclosure statement! There was NO mention of it in the congrats email, just an attachment. I don't care if it could have been the fault of the Sellers agent---my agent who is supposed to be representing me as a Buyer-agent should be all over it! Which leads me to "The Ugly". The Ugly: Howard Rohan and Helen Lynch. In this transaction Howard was acting as the contract guy in support of Fran. That is, his responsibility was to execute the paper work via Docusign, etc. We had over 3-4 different offers & counter offers and on each document and transaction that I reviewed, there were numerous mistakes. Again, I don't have the wherewithal to go into every detail but here's a small summary sampling: The Sellers Agent was listed as a Harry Norman agent, names, addresses, transaction amounts, transaction details were constantly incorrect. The final contract was sent to me and some other person that I never heard of. Shockingly, Howard Cc..someone our final contract that had absolutely nothing to do with our purchase. And more shockingly, the final contract price was INCORRECT! As I mentioned early, I had to spend countless hours over the phone with Howard to correct. To say the execution of his paperwork was sloppy would be a gross understatement! At one point in the process, I called Howard to get clarification if I would be seeing the last of the disclosure statements "trickle in" and I asked if we could get the earnest money to the Johns Creek office or via courier or if we could meet Howard half way versus driving to the Sandy Springs (at the time we lived and worked in Johns Creek). I have never been treated so RUDE by any human being in all of my life. After a simple and respectful request, he yelled at me over the phone, refused my reasonable request, told me that he's not getting a dime for his work on this and that he is under a lot of pressure right now. Are you kidding me? As a point of note, prior to completing the call, he did apologize for his rude behavior. But sometimes it's just too late. Unfortunately, Howard's rude and short behavior was evident from the beginning. For example, at the onset, Howard insisted on a 10 day due-diligence. We had to fight Howard for a 14 day due-diligence. Turns out, if we he had NOT gotten the 14-day DD, we would have had to walk-away from the deal. We also had to fight Howard for a 30 day loan commitment versus the 23 day that Howard insisted on. Again, if had we not won that battle as well, we would have had to walk away from the deal. It was almost as if Howard and Fran were representing the Seller. That's why we requested, on two different occasions (one in writing) to sign a Buyers-Agency agreement so that we could be assured that Fran and Howard were representing us 100%. For weeks, there was never any reply; until the end of our nightmare with Fran and Howard, which I will get to later. Reaching my breaking point, I emailed the Managing Broker in charge of the Harry Norman office in Sandy Springs (Helen Lynch) in which Fran and Howard reside. I emailed Helen to tell her that I had some concerns and issues with two of her agents, that I feared our deal would fall through and to please keep this email confidential and to get back with me at her earliest convenience. The next morning I get a voice mail from Helen telling me that she spoke with Howard and Fran and they have worked out a strategy for dealing with the final counter offer. FIRST, my email to Helen did not mention anything about a concern or a strategy with our final counter offer. More importantly, she breached my request for confidentiality! Frustrated (again), I called Helen and was able to reach her in-between meetings. On my brief call with Helen, she repeated what she had said in her voice mail..."We have a strategy for the counter offer, we do it all the time, YADA, YADA." I told Helen that I appreciated her input but that a counter offer strategy was not the reason that I reached out to her. I told her that I reached out to her because I'm having serious problems with Fran and Howard and could we speak at her next convenience. SHOCKINGLY (again), Helen's response was..."if the counter offer doesn't go through, perhaps we can talk." PERHAPS we can talk? Are you kidding me! Enough was enough! I finally called the firm that referred Harry Norman to me and walked-them through my issues. They immediately were in contact with Harry Norman trying to get to the bottom of this nightmare. During this same time, Howard emails me back and wants me to sign a "back-dated" Buyers-Agency agreement. That was it! The final straw! I'm not sure how it works in the real estate industry, but in my industry, back-dating is illegal! I called the firm that referred me to Harry Norman and told them to have Harry Norman reassign me a new realtor or I will request the Sellers Agent to be a Dual-agent in the transaction and that I will go to the Board of Realtors. Within 24 hours, I was reassigned to Ken Klosinski who took over the transaction through closing. Why do I put Helen Lynch in "The Ugly" category? Because as the Managing Broker in charge, she is responsible for dealing with and providing interventions for problems or issues; especially as they relate to the agents under her. She is, in my view, the most culpable in this mess! To this day, I have never received a follow up apology of any kind from Helen or an official from Harry Norman. I feel like the Sandy Springs office treated us like second class citizens. I suspect that the only follow up that I may get from Helen or anyone else at Harry Norman would be a rebuttal to this 100% truthful review. If I had the energy (at the time of the purchase) I would have filed a complaint with the Atlanta Board of Realtors regarding Helen, Howard and Fran. I'm sure that Harry Norman has some great agents. As a matter of fact, we had one named Ken Klosinski. HOWEVER, beware of the Harry Norman Sandy Springs office; Helen, Howard and Fran.