HOWARD HANNA SMYTHE CRAMER

My husband and I had an awful experience as buyers with Howard Hanna. We recently moved from NYC to the Cleveland area and were absolutely stunned by the sloppy and unprofessional work of Howard Hanna on many levels. Communication between divisions was very poor. The seller's agent (Leslie Kaufman) was an absolute terror. We initially started off using her as our agent but decided to switch to another agent because she was rude and belittling to us during the process. When we traveled out from NYC to look at houses during one weekend she was put out that we had our baby with us. Additionally, she refused to show us certain houses and when we asked to view houses for an additional day she said, "you don't need another day looking". When we finally decided to purchase a house we found that she was the seller's agent, much to our chagrin. We only had 2 contingencies for buying the house, but neither was completed by the day of our closing (there was still standing water in the basement and the HVAC needed maintenance). In fact, she left us in the house before we had closed on it alone with the HVAC person and stormed out after telling us to lock up and turn on the alarm. According to the National Association of Realtors this is apparently unethical. Our own agent went out of town 2 days before our scheduled closing and never told us. I only found out when I called the office after she hadn't returned my calls the day I was moving to Cleveland. In addition, our loan officer at Howard Hanna did not seem to have any clue how to handle a mortgage. We finally closed a day late but only because I made a myriad of calls myself (to trades, contractors, the title agency and a number of individuals at Howard Hanna to make sure our contingencies were met). My husband and I have purchased houses, co-ops and condos in CT and NY and have never had such a horrible experience. Bottom line: Howard Hanna from top down not only doesn't care about its clients, but is also staffed by rude and inconsiderate individuals who don't care about wasting client's time and money. Go elsewhere!

The guy who came out was fine. He came out and told us that our house wasn't worth anything. We didn't feel very comfortable with him when he just wanted a quick sale. He seemed like he wasn't even willing to try for something more. Then he had to have knee surgery and the person he left our name with didn't call us back for 3 or 4 days. We figured they didn't want our business and were not willing to work with us. We had done research and he was going to have someone else come up with an assessment to see if there was a big difference from his. The person didn't get back to us for about a week. We didn't go with them because we felt that they were undercutting and not taking into consideration the large variance in home prices in our area. Our house is still for sale so maybe they were right but we didn't feel comfortable with somebody that wasn't willing to meet us in the middle. He was here when he said he would be. We might use them but they would not be the first people we would go to.

She goes to every effort to make sure we get people to come out to look at our property. She holds open houses for us and keeps in contact with us on a regular basis. She also makes suggestions on how to make our property more appealing and on how to sell the property. She is very friendly and has a very nice appearance. She is very professional and I would highly recommend her to other people.

They have been excellent so far. They haven?t sold our house yet. Our real estate agent has been very knowledgeable and energetic. She is always there when you make a phone call. If she doesn?t have an answer, she finds it. She has been very good. We have been pleased with her. She has been very attentive. She is very knowledgeable about the area. She is right there when we have any questions or concerns. She has been very good that way. She will take great pride in your house and that is why we decided to go with her. She believes that the house will be sold. She is a cheerleader. We talked to three others and then we chose her just because she really believed in what she was doing. She also believed that the house had value. She did help us with the house we bought and she did a good job on that. Even after accepting everything, she gave us more information when we had a question. She contacted the builder and made sure that was the information we wanted. All agencies kind of charge about the same real estate fee and I think their fee is average. The 3 agents who came out from 3 different companies had almost the same fee. She has been really good. She also got us on TV last week. I would use her services again.

it went well. Debbie Mottl was dynamic and professional. She has a no nonsense approach, and made effective selling suggestions.

Liz was extremely patient and helpful. When it came time to close on our house, we found Liz's supporting staff at Howard Hanna to be great assets. I would recommend anyone at HH, but Liz in particular.

They were very professional. Both transactions went smoothly with them, it was great. My agent was Belinda Nowesnick. She was professional and very helpful. I would want to use them again if I needed.