Keller Williams - Peters Group

Description of Work: Sold property

Description of Work: I had interviewed 8 different Real Estate Agents. I was finally a little overwhelmed and confused as to which one I was going to hire. The agents I had interviewed had given me a spread of $30000 as far as to what to list the house for. The lowest being $150,000 and the highest being $181,000. I finally asked a friend of mine, a minister and chaplan, who to hire. He said I should use Dan Miller with Keller Williams. I figured that I could trust my friend to give me the name of a repriable person. I would have gone with my friend's recommendation and there was no need to exagerate any figures. Dan recommended that I put the house up for sale for $178,500, which I did. He said there would be no problem selling the house for this price based off the neighborhood and comps in the area, which I believed him. His recommended listing price though was the second highest price that was suggested to me but I trusted the recommendation by my friend. His suggested price was also $10000 higher than the next closest suggested list price for the house. Dan had sold houses before in my neighborhood and had said he had been in the real estate business for a while (like 20 or 30 years) and had won a bunch of sales awards. I figured he was being upfront and accurate in what he said he could list the house for. 3 1/2 or 4 weeks passed and finally I got an offer... It was about $18000 (10% less list) below what he said I could sell the house for and the buyer wanted me to pay for all of his closing costs and things he wanted done to the property and he was not willing to negotiate. The house next door to me and the one down the street sold in 1 day and 3 days. Granted they were in better condition; however, I think they were priced accordingly... I then lowered the price by $10000 the following week. I finally started to get some interest but no offers. When I asked Dan finally what to do, he had the audacity to tell me I could lower the price but that based off of my expectations of what I expected to get for the house that he suggested I not lower the price and that I should expect to wait several more months... He also told me that it had been my choice to list the house at that price. This was highly insulting and dishonest to say the least since he was the one who told me to list the property at this price and it is his job as a Real Estate agent to manage the expectations of his clients ethically and fairly. I wish there was a rating that Angie's List gave for the ability of a business to deflect blame. Dan would have gotten an A+ for that category! I finally dropped the price of the house another $18000 which Dan did an excellent performance of fawning some token resistance... (Bravo Dan. You should go into theatre once you retire.) This is the only smart move I made because it immediately set up a bidding war between two Real Estate agents (probably 2 of Dan's buddies...) and I got an offer (w/o having to pay any closing costs. Of course..., the agents got to pay themselves for the transaction since they were real estate agents.) which was in line with the majority of the other listing prices suggested by the majority of other agents I interviewed. What is most insulting is that Dan thinks he is slick... I was in a tough spot financially and needed to sell the house and had to sit back and pretend that I wasn't being hussled. The only redeeming quality about my experience with Dan is he did do several open houses and close the deal promptly. ( Mostly to his benefit I assume. Free advertising and quick payment from the title company that he had a stake in...) My lesson that I would share with you is do not give anyone like Dan the benefit of the doubt. He bought my listing. Period! If you are looking at agents to hire, go wth the hard data. Do not use recommendations even if it is from a trusted friend alone. Go check out other homes in your area and their listing prices, sales data history for your neighborhood, and DOM. Talk to 5 to 10 agents and go with the agents that give you the median price. Most (if not all) agents will use comps that support there numbers. This will help you at least know that whomever the outliers are at least you know they are probably at best not experienced enough in selling in your location and at worst not being honest with you. I recognize that the price discrepencies are small here in the grand scheme of things as far as real estate price go and the market I was trying to sell in. However, I was told that it is normal to negotiate prices between 1 and 5 percent ranges not in the 15% to 20%. However, the principle of the situation is what is important here and I do not feel I was dealt with in an honest and ethical manner. A real estate agent's job is to manage a seller's expectations and tell them accurately and truthful what they should expect to sell their property within a reasonable range. I did not receive that service from Dan and I believe his motivations in not accurately providing that information was self serving. He wanted a quick pay check...

Description of Work: We used Keller Williams as our real estate agents.