Century 21 Mike D Bono & Co's

Buying our house has been a nightmare through Century 21, Lake Charles. I'm in the process of filing an ethics complaint, Attorney General complaint and various other complaints against the realtor, Charlotte Curran and broker, Mike Bono. I made the mistake of using the seller's realtor, Charlotte Curran as a dual realtor. First it was, the seller needs 60 days to move, which was fine. It was to be from the time we signed the contract to buy. After that, Charlotte spoke with her seller further and now he wants 60 days AFTER closing. Charlotte sent me an amendment to allow this. I was very hesitant. After Charlotte sent this amendment, she called me on the phone in an effort convince me to sign. I told her we couldn't afford to pay rent and a mortgage while the seller lived an additional 60 days in our house. Charlotte assured me there wouldn't be a problem since we will own the house and we can charge seller/former owner rent. I texted Charlotte what we are paying for rent and we expected seller to pay that amount for the 60 days he would be living in our house after closing. The rent we wanted simply amounted to reimbursent and was extremely reasonable. Rather than respond in writing, Charlotte calls to inform me that she will talk to the seller when it was closer to closing. Well, when we were close to closing, the seller turned out to be very unreasonable. He refused to pay rent because he said ,it's not in the contract! I trusted the Charlotte Curran to protect us as our realtor. She should have known to put rent in the contract, if it needed to be included. How would I know...I'm not the realtor... Why didn't you put it in the contract, Charlotte? Shame on you. I told Charlotte my intent to contact an attorney and have seller evicted after closing, since he wouldn't agree to a rent back contract. Charlotte gave me the name and number of an attorney, Skipper Drost to contact. She highly recommended him. I learn later this is an attorney, who has a questionable reputation and was even disbarred for 2 years previously. An attorney who happens to represent that particular Century 21 franchise. I called Mr. Drost and told him my story. He said he needed a copy of the contract and would call me back with my options. I had Charlotte email him the contract. The next thing I know, he won't call me back and our closing date is coming up. There's a contract deadline for closing. My lender kept telling the realtor that we needed to close. So right after I talk to this attorney (who won't return my calls) and actually represents the broker and his Century 21 agency...Charlotte now begins to claim she can't get in touch with the seller for an extension, or to close on the house. The contract closing date expires on a Friday. Monday after the contract expires, the seller is available again. Coincidence, I think not. This was a strategic ploy to let the contract expire. Partially to protect the seller from eviction and mostly because the realtor didn't do her due diligence by adding rent to the amendment. It has legal implications for Charlotte. After Charlotte and the seller let the contract expire, she and her assistant, Lorie Kascak began to coerce me to sign another amendment, stating the seller lives rent free for 60 days after closing and we don't get the keys to our own house. I was informed if, I refuse to sign, the seller will refuse to sign a closing date extension. (The extension that was needed because of the seller and realtor.) We had been ready to close for 3 weeks prior. If I didn't sign their amendment, we don't get the house. It's basically blackmail. All this occurred while my husband was in the hospital and had just received a liver transplant. We couldn't start from scratch again to find another house and lose money, especially when it is the perfect home for us. I tried contacting the Broker, Mike Bono prior to closing and after closing via electronic communication. Mike Bono has never called me. He did briefly respond via email letting me know he stands by his realtor and refuses to reimburse us the 2 months rent which his realtor cost us, while we make mortgage payments on a house we can't live in. Meanwhile the seller has been paid in full for his former house by my mortgage company Mike Bono has absolutely no empathy that we have been put in a financial bind because of his realtor. My husband and I are both disabled, we are on a fixed income, and have medical bills related to my husband's transplant. We had saved just enough money for our down payment and closing costs. My recommendation to anyone after this experience is to never do business with a dual realtor agent as a buyer. Definitely not with Century 21 Lake Charles. A dual realtor is supposed to be unbiased and not to divulge confidential information from either party to the other. Charlotte Curran was never unbiased and she divulged my confidence to the seller. That was apparent by the last minute change in the amendment. The agents and the broker have conducted themselves in an unethical manner. Giving a seller 60 days free rent while the new owner has no access to their own property is outrageous and unheard of. We have a house, but we are confined to a tiny 200 square foot rental, while my husband is recovering from major transplant surgery. Meanwhile, the former owner is living rent free in our house while we pay both rent and a mortgage. All due to Charlotte Curran and Mike Bono. I'm glad this is my last house purchase because I will never trust another realtor or broker again. BTW, I spoke with another attorney and he informed me that dual agents never represent the buyer. They are required to, but it's always about the seller... which violates the Louisiana realtor ethics commission standards for a dual realtor.

After several months, and working with two different realtors, Century 21 and specifically Sharel Hebert were able to help me find the perfect home for my first home purchase.  I am still in the process of buying the house, but Sharel has been very helpful throughout the process.  She took me to this house when it wasn't even listed on the market yet, walked me through the process of bidding on the house including what would be a good starting amount and what I should ask for, the inspection process and what I should ask the seller to fix, and she has been very accommodating with regard to my work schedule and inexperience with this whole process.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Sharel thus far, and I would recommend her to anyone looking to purchase a home in Lake Charles or the surrounding areas.

My husband and I called Century 21, Mike D. Bono in March of 2009 looking for a home to rent. I spoke to a real estate agent who said that she knew of a home that the owner might be interested in renting. She contacted the owner to see if he was interested in renting the home and he said that he was.( THE PROPERTY LOCATION IS 416 BONVUE ST. LAKE CHARLES, LA 70605). The owner of the home happened to be one of the owners of Delia Century 21 in DeRidder, LA. Even though the agent was completely aware that I was only interested in renting, she continued to hassle me into buying the property. After I finally made it clear I did not have any intention of buying the home, the paperwork and the rental contract was drawn up for the property. At first inspection everything seemed up to par inside the home, but little did we know that was far from the truth. We signed the contract and moved in right away. While moving in our first discovery was that our QUEEN size box spring to our bedroom set would not fit up the stair well, due to a careless remodeling job. When we contacted the real estate agent about the problem she directed us to the owner. He then proceeded to tell us that the box spring would not fit up the stairwell because that was not the master bedroom. We were quite baffled considering that the down stairs bedroom was tiny, and that the upstairs bedroom was enormous with two large walk in closets. My next question was what if I had a child that had a queen size bed? The owner proceeded to lie again and say the upstairs was not meant to have a queen size bed, and made it clear he was not going to fix the problem. The next problem was the broken garage door, which we were told was going to be repaired, but never was. From there the plumbing systems failed to the extent of there being about 6 inches of raw sewage in our showers. The dishwasher did not work properly, and some of the cabinets could not be opened due to incorrect measurements. After a couple months the real problems became apparent such as the fact that the Central air system was completely shot, and needed to be replaced. The owner called a company to look at the system and attempt to repair it. When the heating and air man arrived he said there was a major Freon leak in the system, and that by law he was not supposed to be refilling the unit with Freon because it was an EPA violation, basically that is was against the law. He contacted the owner about the issue, but was given the order to refill the system anyway, because the owner stated he was not going to buy a new central air system. From that point forward, every three weeks throughout the warm months of the year, the heating and air company came out and refilled Freon in the system against the EPA's regulations. About the time the central air system went out we noticed that the walls and floor were swelling in a particular area, which we later discovered was due to a leak in the roof, which nothing was ever done about either. Shortly after that we found buckling walls in the closet in the downstairs bathroom closet due to another roof leak.  A few months later we started to notice the presence of the black mold that was appearing around the areas of the leaks. I though I could keep it cleaned away, but it was a complete disaster. My husband and I could not keep the bugs out due to there being direct access to the outside at the baseboards, which also presented a problem during the winter when trying to keep the home warm. The windows all throughout the house were rotting and swollen because they also leaked terribly. along with leaking, the windows also let in pests and cold air simply from gaps due to not being sealed properly. There was not proper seal around any of the doorways either, so when severe cold or hot weather came along we would have to put duck tape around all the base boards, windows, and doors to keep the place at a comfortable temperature. Our monthl electricity bills were normally between 250 and 300 dollars a month simply due to energy inefficiency. A couple months after moving in the toilets in both bathrooms simply stopped flushing correctly, something else that was never fixed. Our contract for the property was for one year, but we lived at the property for two years due to the fact of not being able to find another suitable property after the initial contract had expired,  and also about half way through the second year we found out that we were moving out of the country, so we decided to tough it out in the house until we moved overseas. By the time we left the property, the home was actually falling apart. The garage still didn't work, There were huge cracks down all the walls in the living room, the mold was unbearable, the toilets barely functioned at all, the leaks were so bad in the roof that the ceiling was actually turing brown, and the central air unit wouldn't take a charge for any longer than a week or two. After spending hundreds of dollars cleaning the property before turning in the keys, we were disappointed to find out that the owner had no intention of giving us our $1000 deposit back. My husband and I were very disturbed by the fact, seeing that we paid $1000 a month every month, and were never late once. Not to mention all the problems, discomfort,and filth that we had to deal with during our time living at the property. My husband asked the owner for an explanation, and he sent an e-mail with pictures of chipped paint on the wall in our daughters room, a picture of a badmitton birdie that was found in the backyard, a few hangers that were left in the closet, random junk in the garage that was there when we moved in, and a picture of the damaged drywall in the stairwell (where we attempted to get our box spring up the stairs to our bedroom). My husband asked the owner if those few things were worth $1000, and the owner pretty much told my husband to forget it, because we were not getting the money back. I think the most disturbing part was that the real estate agent at Mike D. Bono tried everything in her power to sell us this home at the beginning of this ordeal having complete knowledge of the condition it was in. She would have sold us the home, and after we moved in we would have been Completely screwed in every sense of the word. It would probably take 50,000 dollars to repair the property just to get it in proper living condition. The real estate agent and the owner obviously have no conscience at all, seeing as how they would be completely able to lie, cheat, and take advantage of someone in one of the biggest purchases in their life, without loosing one minute of sleep at night. I know the owner is going to simply patch up the home a bit and put it right back on the market to sell to some other poor unsuspecting home buyer, and if he can't sell it he will simple rent it again and take advantage of someone that way. I do not want anyone else to be cheated and taken advantage of with this property, and I do not want anyone else to have to deal with the headache and torture that we did. So BEWARE