There is not one decision in my life I regret more.
Since the day the keys were handed to me until today, it has been nothing but an albatross. There have been endless problems with contractors, getting projects finished, and most recently: realtors.
In April this year I decided to sell the house. It was a HARD decision I struggled with for quite a while, but up went the listing on Zillow.
After a few days a realtor contacted me about listing the house for me. A contract was signed, a sign went up, there were moderate stats on viewings, very few showings, a few abysmal open houses, and that realtor was let go very swiftly. It was not a great start.
Within a few days of posting on Twitter that the first agent was gone, I was contacted by the Social Media Manager for @509properties (SeeToddSell) representing 509 Properties, a branch of Keller Williams.
I was put in contact with an agent, we discussed the listing, and made an appointment to list my house through 509 Properties.
Real Estate Agent Toni Alltus came to the house and met with me in person to discuss the listing and sign a new contract. We discussed my issues with the old agent (the prior agent didn't feel comfortable showing the house), the lack of viewings and ways to draw more attention, all the tactics that 509 Properties would use to sell the house, and the price. I agreed to lower the listing from $150k to $145k to start the new listing and to lower it again to $140k in two weeks if there was no response.
After meeting with Toni, I was very excited about the listing. She had great ideas that were out of the box and aggressive. She seemed to understand my desire to sell the house FAST, and seemed to have a bulldog personality that would really get things done.
The initial week there were 114 online viewings of the house and Toni had one showing.
Not a bad start.
After the second week there were no additional responses, so as agreed, I dropped the listing to $140 (which actually ended up being $139,900 to "get in under the search cap").
After that things QUICKLY went south.
Each week I was receiving calls and mailings from another listing agency about my house that didn't sell- was it still for sale? They had interested buyers!
It was obviously canned messages from an agency picking through failed listings. Mine must have been on the list from the first agent fiasco, but why was it STILL on the list weeks into the new agent?
I called Toni and was assured my house was actively listed and the other agency was breaking the law calling me, there was nothing to worry about.
Two days after that I had TWO calls for showing; the first calls since Toni's initial showing. Maybe it was just a coincidence. I don't know.
Along those lines, I decided to check the online listings and see if I could find it listed for sale, just to make sure.
Here's what I found on Zillow (one of the largest online listing sources):
However- I know the house was listed, updated, pictures corrected, neighborhood information added, local schools tagged, and the sales estimate (and county estimate) updated. HOW? Because I did it all myself when I initially listed the house before ANY agents touched it; that's how the first agent found me.
Suddenly now with 509 Properties it's listed as a foreclosure?
That's one of the best selling points on this house: there's no mortgage to deal with. That's why it hadn't sold when I bought it- it had been listed as a repo by the VA and their financing blocked a few sales before my cash offer. I currently own it free and clear. Wrote the biggest check of my life two years ago for it. Yet here's is listed as a foreclosure which scares away plenty of prospective buyers. Excellent.
The next several weeks didn't go any better. The six weeks after the initial burst there were a total of 106 viewings (220 for all 7 weeks total).
Around week 5 I spoke with Toni again and she suggested adding a 1k selling bonus (on top of the contracted 3%) to whichever agent sold the house. She was also offering a $10 coffee card for anyone that did a showing. I agreed to the selling bonus, but still no results.
All said and done, in the 7 weeks of listings there were 5 showings total (Toni's initial one and four from other agents), zero feed back from any of the showings, and zero offers.
Needless to say, I was less than thrilled at the results. I was watching money disappear through lowering the price and the selling bonus but not seeing any feedback or forward movement.
Frustrated, stressed out, angry, I went to my Twitter account and posted the following two tweets on Monday of this week (8/19):
**Side note: the Social Media Manager tagging me in the Twitter and FaceBook listings, without my permission, was, in my opinion, very inappropriate. My social media feed is personal, not professional in any way. It says that specifically in my profile. My feed on both FaceBook and Twitter is FILLED with my frustrations over the house, repairs, etc. over the years. It is NOT what you want prospective buyers to see. Second: it directly links me to an EXACT address. It lets anyone in the social media sphere know EXACTLY where my children and I live. Over the years I've listed my house on several social media sites (FaceBook, Foursquare, Twitter), but only in generalities (cross streets, "north of the river", etc.); I've made it a point to never list my EXACT address. Finally, statistically speaking, posting a real estate listing on social media has been proven as not only the least effective way to attract clients, but also the fastest way to be ignored or blocked for spam. Not the results you want.**
Tuesday afternoon, 8/20 I was driving to pick up my oldest son and a call came in from Toni. I sent the call to voicemail since I was driving, and a new voicemail notification popped up letting me know she had left a message. I planned on checking the voice mail while I waited for my son.
Instead, less than two minutes later two Twitter notifications popped up on my phone:
Shortly thereafter, a new email notification popped up on my phone as well.
I took a deep breath, drafted an email response, had a friend review it, and mailed it back to Toni.
I tried to be very professional, stick to facts, explain my side, but stick to my guns. I had been drafting an email asking the company to release my listing and explaining why since posting my two tweets, but had not finished or sent the email. This exchange reaffirmed my decision to remove the house.
Toni responded to my email later the same evening:
I decided to leave well enough alone even though there was plenty I disagreed with in Toni's second email (an agent afraid to pass along potential buyer feedback?), try to keep things professional, and release the listing as quickly and cleanly as possible.
Friday morning (8/23), Toni stopped by my house with the release document that I quickly signed, she removed the lock box, and we parted ways what I believed to be amicably.
That afternoon I received an email notification that there was feeback response to a showing. Apparently opening/removing the lock box had triggered the email notification that there was a new showing and provided an opportunity for feedback.
I chuckled lightly to myself that there was finally feedback on a showing, but it was only when the lock box was removed.
Then I read the review that was left by Toni, after removing the lock box, and stopped laughing:
That brings us to now. I mentioned before that I'm not out to sink anyone's business. I'm not. If the final review had not come in, I would have let the whole issue drop and just considered it a hard lesson learned.
BUT.
You can't do that. You can't leave feedback like that as a professional and expect to get away with it. Am I a difficult client? Probably. I know what I bought my house for, how much I've put into it with repairs and upgrades, and what return I would like on it.**(see below). I'm very firm on that and I can fully understand it is probably as frustrating on the agents side as it is on my side.
Additionally, I have a very strong personality and stand up for myself and speak my mind. So yes, some people probably consider me difficult. Some people obviously consider me a "witch." Many people consider me things much stronger than that.
That's fine.
But as a professional, to call your client a witch and say they're unrealistic, even if you believe it's only in an email only they will see, is unacceptable.
So here I am, strong "witch" personality and all, calling out, using actual names, listing the business, letting people know: THIS IS HOW 509 PROPERTIES TREATS THEIR CLIENTS.
My house listing has been removed as of Friday, the sign will be out of my yard as of Monday, and hopefully very few of those signs will appear in any yards, anywhere in town.
**House listed in 2011 at $140k with unfinished kitchen, main bathroom with severe water damage, back deck that did not pass home insurance inspection. Purchased for $89k cash due to repo status/pending auction. Finished/upgraded kitchen, completely redid main bathroom (from the floor joists to the insulation in the attic, everything in-between), brand new expanded back deck, several other repairs/upgrades. Additionally the market has improved since 2011 (currently best in 5 years). I firmly believe I should be able to list at what it was originally listed at in 2011, if not slightly more.
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