Craig Via Realty & Relocation

I have bought and sold many homes, as well as other pieces of real estate. I have never encountered someone as rude and insulting as Craig Via and his wife, Suzi. We were interested in a home about 6 weeks ago that was listed by Craig. My wife called and emailed, trying to get a showing. Despite numerous attempts, she received no response at all for three days, and then was told the house went under contract. For the Seller's sake, I hope it was under contract before my wife called, but they did not tell us whether it was or not. Our second experience with Craig was one week ago. We were interested in another home that was listed by him. My wife again called and emailed. She did not get a response right away, so she did some sleuthing and found the owner, whom she called directly. As expected, he was delighted that we wanted to see the home. I don't know if Craig was ticked off because we went around him to the Seller, or if he is always like this, but from that point forward he was incredibly rude and insulting. The first problem was the showing. We elected not to use a realtor, and we just asked Craig to show the home. He refused. He said that it would be unethical for him to show the home because then he would be a dual agent. I've bought three homes, including two in Virginia, where the realtor acted as a dual agent, so I didn't see the problem, but he was insistent. So we got our own realtor. Before he would show the home, he insisted we get a pre-approval letter from a mortgage company. This was an $800K house. Maybe that seems like a lot to some people, but I was selling a home for $1.45 million and I bought my previous home for $1.1 million. I've never had to get a pre-approval letter for a showing. I could understand that he would want it when I submit an offer, but for a showing?? I was traveling, so it was inconvenient for me to get the letter. I called the Seller and we chatted for a while. He said he felt completely comfortable with letting my wife see the home without the letter, and he said he would tell Craig it was okay. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. The next day, my realtor emailed me saying that Craig still insisted I supply the pre-approval letter. I didn't have time to be dealing with that, but I took care of it, and got him the pre-approval letter. My wife saw the home on a Thursday, and I looked at it on Saturday. We decided to make a full price offer that day. You would think Criag Via would be happy, right? No, he continued his insults. He came up with a list of things for us to provide. Some of them were expected, such as the underlying contract on the home I was selling. Some were over the top, such as requiring the full credit report from my mortgage broker. My broker said this was the first time a realtor had requested that in his 25 years in the industry. He also wanted proof of funds from the Buyer of my home. Okay, I can understand the guy being cautious, but throughout this process, he would send insulting emails. For example, in one email, he pointed out that the Buyer had only just met me, so he should not trust me. I responded with an email telling about my education, my business experience, and my previous experience in buying homes. I pointed out that he could Google me, and I was sure we had many mutual friends in the Richmond area. Craig responded in an email that they still need to be cautious because I might appear to be a reputable businessman, but he had experience with a Buyer who was a respected attorney and he turned out to be a con artist who fled the country with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Seriously! This guy was trying to sell a house to me, and now he was comparing me to a felon???!!! The emails were so bad and so insulting that my wife suggested that we just go find another house. I decided to call the Seller instead. I told him that if we got one more insulting email from Craig Via, we were pulling out from the deal. The Seller was very apologetic. He said he knew that Via was being a jerk, but he couldn't do anything because Craig referred a lot of business to him. However, he promised to call Craig and tell him to play nice. We still got one more insulting email, but it wasn't as bad as the others and we let it pass. This house was listed for many years and was originally priced at $1.1 million. I wonder how many other potential buyers Craig Via insulted and pushed away before we came along. This guy apparently sells a lot of houses, but it is beyond me how he does it. I will give him credit that he pays attention to every little detail, and that is helpful in a transaction. But for the life of me, I don't understand how anyone can be successful in sales while insulting potential buyers. There are plenty of good realtors out there. Do NOT choose Craig Via, unless you want to use someone who goes out of his way to insult potential buyers of your home. I wish Angie's List offered a grading option lower than "F" so I could give it to him.