RE/MAX

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We decided to retire to the Columbia area. Since we live in Texas now, and still work, finding the right place for our retirement was going to take a number of trips. Based on Zillow reviews and phone conversations with Scott Heck, we decided to engage Scott as a Buyer's agent. The arrangement has worked out well for us. Scott visited homes we thought interesting, took detailed photos of important aspects of each home and emailed those photos with his comments. Then he called us to review his visits and answer any questions. His engineering background made us confident discussing structural concerns. By the time we traveled to Columbia, Scott understood what we wanted and showed us homes we asked to visit as well as homes with features Scott pointed out were not appropriate for us as we get older and possiblly have mobility issues. He even went so far as to arrange for a highly regarded contractor to assess renovation cost of a FSBO home we were very interested in and for the contractor to estimate cost of building a home on a sloped site we liked. We decided to purchase the sloped site and build in 2014. Scott handled all the negotiations, getting us the site for less than the asking price. He also handled the closing. We are so impressed and pleased with Scott that we have asked Scott to be our advocate during the building phase. We have no reservations recommending Scott. He kept us from making potentially poor choices though doing so was not in his best short term interest. He has been excellent.

Did not go well. Realtor did not give us advises on things we should do to sell the house , she spent more time talking about herself !

Sellers and I agreed on a price, no realtors. Sellers decided to bring in a realtor for inspection assistance @ a special rate since the realtor did no find the buyer. Realtor, sellers, and I spent considerable time negotiating a contract. The contract was executed to everyone's delight. On the day of closing I was told that the underwriters of my loan would require flood insurance be purchased for the house since its back yard is in flood-plain schematics. The house is much elevated from the flood plain so I flatly refused to execute the contract if this was going to be yet another unexpected payment I would have to face. Jennifer worked hard with the bankers, flood assessors, and title company to get an appeal which resulted in deeming the home outside of the floodplain and therefore not requiring flood insurance. It was a last minute cinch, well done Jennifer!

I am happy to say that my house sold in June 2012. If I were to sell a house again, I'd go with RE/MAX. Cindy Whitby was on the ball in terms of promoting and selling the house. She did regular open house events, advertisements in the local papers, multi-page full color brochures (we went through a lot of those because my house was in a very visible location), and advised me well on pricing, staging, and other issues. Cindy was great. But I was only in contact with her every few weeks or so, especially during the long months between when the house went on the market and when the house finally sold. During these months, my main contact was with the RE/MAX office, because it's the main office that takes the calls from the buyers' agents and confirms the house showings with me, the seller. I don't know how many people they had in the office taking these calls and making these confirmations, but I know that my calls were answered or returned promptly and there was a lot of attention to detail. I think that if I'd worked with a smaller real estate brokerage, there wouldn't have been such strong staff support working with me. I really appreciate all they could do for me. It was very hectic for me to leave work constantly and take my dog out of the house for the showings during the time that it was on the market. Looking back on it, I wish I'd had another option, but other options were expensive and the showings were not regular enough to plan around. I often didn't hear about a showing until two hours before it happened, and they tended to come at times when I was busy. However, I worked very hard to make sure that I didn't miss a house showing, and I made sure that my house was clean, smelled great, and was a comfortable temperature every time. When a seller finally signed a contract for the house, it was a seller who saw the house at a very inconvenient day/time, months into the process, and the day before I was leaving for a trip. Of course, Murphy's Law reigns in these situations. The contract came while I was out of town, too! Cindy provided a lot of useful advice and I think I can say that I followed most of it! I spent a huge amount of time decluttering the house and cleaning it from top to bottom. This helped a lot. Of course, it also helped that the market picked up a lot as well! I highly recommend Cindy Whitby and RE/MAX Boone Realty. I think that together they did an excellent job.

If you are looking to sell or purchase a home in the Ashland, MO area then Elissa O'Brien is the Agent you want. She knows the area well and goes the extra mile to find what you are looking for as well as finding a buyer for your home. I was very impressed with her and how hard she worked to get things done. If there was a way to give an A+ I would, she goes above and beyond the call of duty.