Ken Montville - RE/MAX United Real Estate

When we were getting ready to sell our house in College Park, MD, we interviewed three real estate agents. The first two agents were ?A?-rated on Angie?s List. We interviewed a third agent (Ken Montville with Re/Max United Real Estate) on the basis of his mailings on real estate activity within the community. We asked all three agents two basic questions: (1) how much should we ask for the house and (2) what do we need to do to get the house ready to be put on the market? 1. One A-rated agent provided extensive comparison costs from many neighborhoods in College Park and for a range of listing/sales dates. His recommendation for a listing price was quite high. The other A-rated agent came relatively unprepared having no relevant comps but a very extensive resume and no price recommendation. Ken Montville came with a preliminary flyer on our property with a beautiful photo and description of the house and yard ? clearly a result of his being very familiar with the neighborhood. His price recommendation seemed reasonable based on his experience and recent sales in the neighborhood. 2. All three agents pointed out areas for removing clutter to help the house show. The two A-rated agents recommended removing most to all furniture before listing the house so that potential buyers could see open space and visualize their own furnishings in place. One of the A-rated agents noted that kitchen, bath, and carpets were dated and was adamant that all carpets be removed to show the hardwood floors underneath the carpet and that the hardwood floors be refinished. Ken Montville seemed to take a pragmatic approach, pointing out how well maintained the house was and suggesting a minimum strategic amount of furniture be removed; his recommendations enabled us to focus on just the work needed to prepare the house for sale. When we contracted with Ken Montville to list the house, he brought in a professional photographer who took pictures inside and outside the house and created attractive web pages and a virtual tour. By comparison, both of the A-rated agents did mention taking pictures for the internet but one indicated that a professional photographer would be hired if we would increase the real estate agent fee by 1%! Within a few days of listing the house we had several offers, some low, some close to list price. Ken suggested that we ask all the potential buyers for their ?best and final? offer. As a result of this recommendation, we were able to accept an offer that was slightly higher than our original asking price. During the process of preparing the house for listing, evaluating offers, making the house available for the home inspection and radon evaluation, and finally closing on the house, Ken Montville was proactive in keeping us apprised of status and was responsive to our many questions. In addition, he was constantly vigilant in representing our interests and in ensuring that the sale of our house proceeded smoothly. For his experience, actions, attitude, and results, we highly recommend Ken Montville. He is straightforward and always demonstrates that he has his clients? interests as his highest priority.