CENTURY 21 New Millennium - Gainesville

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In one word: lousy! Gloria provided nothing more substantive than getting our property put on the MLS database, going to settlement, & collecting her half of the 6% fee. My husband had used Gloria 30 yrs ago when buying this property & again more recently when we bought land in Culpeper in 2011. I did not want to use Gloria again after that transaction, but he insisted that we just needed to get it on the MLS & that it wouldn't matter who listed it; I reluctantly went along with his theory. We met with Gloria & her assistant, Christie, on a frigid, snow blowing late Jan. day to discuss the listing & provide her with all the property details. Gloria went over her C21 listing contract which appeared to be straightforward -- she explained the content in depth & seemed knowledgable about its particulars; she was able to provide satisfactory answers to questions we posed. She did make a point of informing us that even though only my husband's name was listed as the landowner ( we met & married only recently), under VA law, I would need to be listed as co-owner on all documents as well. We thought that strange at the time, but since Gloria was the expert, we deferred to her knowledge. As a result, all listing documents & subsequent sales docs & addendums were in both names, signed & initialled by both per Gloria's instruction. We discussed the property with Gloria at length -- all of its pros & cons -- 30 yr old house, comfortable but without upgrades, big, high maintenance yard & fields, on gravel drive, etc. We'd concluded that the property's location, size, & mountain views would be its selling points -- not the house. Gloria listened, agreed, & then set about measuring rooms & taking photos of the place for use in her listing. I provided a photo memory card with some property photos I'd taken during all seasons of the year to provide her with views not available then. She gratefully accepted the card & said she'd definitely use some of them. After agreeing on an asking price within the range Gloria suggested, we signed a 180 day listing; Gloria would receive a 6% commission if she brought a buyer. The MLS listing, full color C21 handouts, & a newspaper ad came out within a week of our meeting -- Feb 1-- very nicely done, BUT the property description contained errors regarding room sizes (smaller than actual) & all emphasis was on the house, very little on the property as we'd discussed. My husband said let it go, so nothing was said. We had good response for Feb, fair responce in March & none in April -- no offers at all. We had little to no contact from Gloria during this time; if we initiated a call, she'd respond or if a prospect had a question, she'd call us. Finally, at end of April, we asked Gloria to meet w/us to discuss lowering the price & changing the listing somewhat. She came to the property, advised that she'd run another market analysis of comparables & recent sales, & that she advised us to reduce the price by $60,000 -- we were stunned & couldn't believe she'd suggested it. We declined that "advice" & directed her to reduce the asking price by $20,000 only & change the copy in the property description to more accurately reflect its features as we'd originally discussed. She agreed to make the changes in the MLS listing. I also asked her to run the ad in our local newspaper - the Loudoun Times -- & not the Fauquier Democrat as before. I believed the demographics in Loudoun gave us more possibility of a buyer than the other paper -- despite my direct request, Gloria would not commit to running the ad in the Loudoun paper but neither would she decline. The ad came out in the Fauquier paper again -- but luckily, it didn't make any difference for w/n 2 weeks we had our 1st purchase offer. Gloria advised that the offer came as a result of the price reduction & not because of the listing change. She presented the contract to us -- the buyers offered $20K less than asking & wanted us to pay all closing costs. We both agreed that the closing costs should be shared -- Gloria opined that " in her 37 yrs experience, closing costs are typically paid by sellers." Both husband & I had had the opposite in our 7 real estate transactions, so, we decided to request that all closing costs be split evenly between parties. Gloria presented our counter offer & within 1 week, it was accepted. At that point, Gloria presented us with a time schedule of various inspections & activities which needed to be completed by each party prior to settlement on July 12. We completed each requirement in a timely fashion but had to keep prompting Gloria to provide information as she obtained it. When it came time for the lender appraisal of our property, Gloria notified us of this event the evening before it was to happen. Luckily, it made no difference to us as we had already moved out & prepared the property for this eventuality. Gloria met the appraiser at the property & advised us that all went well. But within a few days, she called to say that the lender needed to verify that our well was at least 50 ft distant from the location of our septic tank. Gloria said she'd "tried to obtain this information from Loudoun County's GIS system but it wasn't there" & then asked if we could have the septic system company who'd just pumped out the tank & inspected it, come back out & submit a written statement attesting to the location. Or, if not him, then maybe the well service guy could do it? We quickly agreed to ask these contractors but advised that they most likely would not agree to do so since it was not within the scope of their services. We immediately placed calls to both contractors, explaining the circumstances, but neither returned our calls. We advised Gloria of our lack of success with the contractors, & then asked why the appraiser didn't verify this location when he/she was there, Gloria said "she didn't ask for that information." And when asked why the appraiser couldn't revisit the property & obtain this information, Gloria said "oh, in my 37 yrs experience, they never come back out. She won't do that." I insisted that Gloria ask the appraiser to revisit the property. She reluctantly agreed to do so -- in the meantime, I decided to double check Loudoun County's GIS system for the required information. Long story short, all the information (& more) that the lender sought, was readily available on-line the whole time -- Gloria evidently didn't know how to use the system & didn't think to ask anyone for help. This incident finally convinced my husband once & for all that Gloria was not particularly competent as an agent. But the best is yet to come. A few days prior to settlement, Gloria calls in panic mode & says that the lender has done a title search & discovered(!) that only my husband's name appears on the property deed (how about that?!)-- my name is not listed at all. If we want to include both names for this sales transaction, we'll have to update the current deed & have it duly recorded in the county prior to sale -- all of which of course, would greatly delay if not derail, this transaction! The alternative - plan B - would be to attach an amendment agreed to by all parties removing my name from the sales contract. We chose plan B - which Gloria was able to finally fax to us, my husband signed & faxed back to Gloria, which she then sent on to the buyers & then to the lender. All was well again... At long last, settlement - July 12 arrived -- we all met (Gloria said we all needed to be together at settlement to answer any questions the buyers might have -- not true!!) at the appointed time & place -- signed papers, shook hands, & said "good luck & good bye to Gloria. Our money was wired to our account per our instructions within 2 days -- very pleased with MBH Settlement chosen by buyers. P.S. I did voice some of these concerns to Gloria's C21 Branch Manager, Herb Lisnak, who listened but did nothing -- I'd never recommend C21, much less Gloria, to anyone after this experience.