CANO REAL ESTATE

This review is more specific to Troy Frei, listing agent, than the agency. To start, the personality match was not good and I should have heeded the feeling that I should not use this agent. However, he was recommended by an agent I was working with on the buy side in Oregon at the time and she based the referral on years of experience and apparent knowledge of area house was being sold in. Unfortunately house sales I had been involved with before were closely held transactions that did not involve a true market based process therefore I was not aware of some of the issues or bad behavior of the agent I was dealing with until after it happened, I was under contract, and others advised that what was being done was not correct or right. Troy came to my house once and once only to walk through and evaluate the condition for sale. He immediately came to an estimate of what he thought we should list it for and and where he thought it would settle. I explained at that time that I needed someone to work with me to recommend things that needed to be fixed or repaired to support the listing price and provide potential service providers that could do the work needed. I was assured he could help and he could get the house sold. We did not talk about the specifics of the agency or what they could provide other than they web market extensively and work as a team at the agency. Specifically I was getting a team. After signing, it was recommended that based on market for the area we list at the high price which had initially been discussed. The market evaluation was never provided and when (later) I asked for it when price seemed to become an issue based on sales in direct neighborhood he would not provide it. Specifically refusing saying it would not accomplish anything at that point. Since it would not be provided, I do not believe a market evaluation was actually done. Further after recommendations were made on what to repair, replace, clean or fix I was given names of providers I could use to assist me. Once I started working with those providers it was clear they were companies or individuals which had a personal business relationship with Troy. I feel like this should have been disclosed from the beginning. I had believed that as an agency there were providers which had been vetted and used which could be recommended by the agency from a business perspective. When started questioning the providers, the prices which I was being quoted, and how much it was adding up to I encountered attitude from Troy. It was clear he wanted me to just do what he recommended without question and with those that had been referred to me. Even once explaining why I felt I needed to be prudent on money spent and whether I would recoup those expenses I encountered attitude about my position. Once we were in the showing process, I was surprised to find out that buyers agents would be contacting me directly or showings and was asking me about the house, features, etc. I was essentially providing first line of "sales" to potential buyers. I was also surprised to find out that my house would not be marketed with open houses nor agent open houses to generate interest. It was solely web based marketing. Once showings started I was told that Troy would followup with agents and "sell" the property at that time. Seems a bit late to me if they don't know the features, value, that they might overlook on their own. Feedback from some of those showing agents also indicated Troy was difficult. When issues would happen such as agents showing the house not locking the house up, closing windows which had been opened, or staying with their clients and their clients going through personal belonging, the response from Troy when I brought this up was "well that happens in this process and its unfortunate." So just deal with the bad behavior because I'm not going to do anything about it?? As time went on the relationship deteriorated so that there was little talking, mostly texts or emails. I would ask questions, in writing,and he would answer some and not all. Generally if there were discussions it was contentious. We hit bottom when I was told to stop asking questions, questioning him, listening to others, and just let him do his job. Oddly enough I thought I was the customer and I was the one paying his commission. Whether my questions as an inexperienced seller or my style frustrated him, as a service provider I would have expected better patience, communication, and respect. Once we were in negotiations it was clear he was in his element and did perform. It should be noted that feedback from the the buyers side clearly indicated that his treatment of me was very similar or worse on the other side. But eventually a deal was made which was favorable in pricing, even surprising him and again he felt I should be happy with the great deal I got. What I didn't know is that the great deal potentially could not be supported by the market and even though I had a buyer willing to pay that it was possible it would not appraise and the deal would fall through anyway. Again I was told to stop questioning him and the deal. It did work out for the price but the process was unnecessarily stressful and problematic. I ended up deciding to stay in Washington and working with another realtor/agency to purchase a home. I specifically did not work with Cano due to the months of issues experienced with the house I was selling. As a result of working with another Washington agent it became clear there were things I was being told that just were not correct. For example, Troy specifically told me we should not ask for time after closing for move out during the price negotiations and should wait until the inspection and appraisal were complete to know if there were any issues we had to negotiate around. Later I was told by the other agent, my mortgage lender, the buyers agent, and the title companies (both) that it should not have been done that way and should have been discussed on initial contract and routinely is put in the original contract. I had indicated from the very beginning I needed time to move. When I pressed him after the inspection/appraisal I was informed it was too late and the buyer did not want/nor had to give me time. Troy then indicated that since he felt there was a workable solution in his mind on how I should move that not getting the extra time should be problematic. I was astounded. He did not know or care to know what my situation was in moving. It was not until I had a personal emergency that he requested and did get the buyers to amend the contract and give me extra time. He thought I should be very pleased he did that for me. Funny but that should have been done originally. My agent on the buy side ended up assisting me with both title companies, coordinating information with lenders, walking me through the last part of the process, providing me with solid service providers to finish out the process and helping to assure that I could get out of the old place and into the new without a breakdown in between. By rights she deserves some of the commission that was paid to Cano as she really helped finish the deal with little to no help from Troy. Additionally while I did not end up purchasing a home with the Oregon realtor I was working with and that originally referred me, she has since said based on my experience and the issues I was experiencing that she will not refer clients to him or the agency and was embarrassed that I experienced what I did. She initially attempted to defend Troy's actions but said it was clear at some point they were not defensible. Icing on the cake. I have not heard from him since he negotiated the additional time. He did not follow-up with me after the closings to even attempt to thank me for my business or attempt a pleasant closure. In that sense I guess that was honest because it was clear he did not appreciate my business and was probably thankful it was done. For once we agree. Regarding Cano as an agency, the photographer (great pictures) and the listing assistant were professional and very good to work with but other than that I never experienced a "team" working for me. Out of the showings for the house only 1 (out of about 20) came from Cano's buyers agents. I was told at the time that Cano had more listings and more sales than any other agency in Clark County. That also meant that I would get a lot of exposure from their own clientele and "team" of agents. I am not sure that claim can truly be supported.