If you are researching or even THINKING of using the real estate company, spare yourself the heart ache and STAY AWAY!!
I was told horror stories from others who have been screwed over my Real Estate De Louisiane, but unfortunately for me and my family, it was after we signed up to buy and sell through them!
Let me start from the beginning:::...........
Towards the end of May, my husband and I started looking for a house. We had a realtor we were searching with, but when she found out that we would probably not be using them to list our current house, she bailed on me. A few days prior to that happening I spoke with Bev Thomson of Real Estate De Louisiane regarding a property. She was so courtesy and was able to show us houses on short notice, which is what I needed at the time! She spent about an hour with us, and showed us a few houses, a few new subdivisions, as well as the one we are ultimately building a house in. When she took us they were closed and we went back on our own and finished up on our own. We did give them her name when asked who our realtor was, even though we really did it on our own. After trying for a month to sell our house "for sale by owner" then decided to let our realtor also sell our house. THIS is where we made one of the biggest mistakes!!
A few days later Bev came to our house with Joan, our "2nd" realtor. This was strange to us, but she just basically said "you'll have two realtors working for you". Assuming this was normal, we said okay. A few weeks later, after our first few showings of the house, I realized that our 2nd "realtor" was VERY new at the business. I was having to call her after each showing and asking her to follow up with the realtor and get feedback for us. Turns out she didn't know she was supposed to do this! From here things continued to go down hill!
After the 1st month, we got an offer on the house. It was a full price offer, requesting we pay closing costs. Well, everything was going great until we got the appraisal for our house. The appraisal came in $13,000 less than we had priced the house. When we were pricing the house, we had the idea of $120K. Bev found house sales in our area comperable to $120K and said it was on the mark. Well, this made everything fall apart, which happens. So we dropped the price to the appraised price, then expecting him to pay his closing, but he couldn't afford it. Well, after it all unravelled, Joan tell me that she knew from the guy was no good. She then proceeds to tell me that when they got the earnest money from the buyer, he asked if they would hold it for a week. Which they did. Then when they did cash it at the end of the week, the fund were still not available! And MY agents allowed us to take an offer and waste a month of our time on this buyer.
As you can imagine, this was not good, being that we were under a time crunch to sell our house before the new one was finished! If we didn't sell our house, we'd lose the new house! So after this deal fell through, I requested an open house. Joan scheduled us for one about a week and a half later. The day before the open house she suggests we cancel and reschedule due to possible rain. I said fine. She then tells me that she didn't know she was supposed to notify the secretary when she scheduled an open house so the secretary could run an ad in the paper. Again, this is my agent.....not knowing what she is supposed to do! I am NOT feeling very secure at this time!! We schedule another open house, which had to be rescheduled again due to Gustav and Ike. Before we reschedule the next open house, I start trying to figure out exactly how they have been advertising our house. It came as no surprise when I found out we weren't listed anywhere we had been told. Once I fussed, we appeared in the real estate mag - with the WRONG price, they didn't list it under the lowered price!
Anyways, we got down to having about 6 weeks left to get an offer on the house. I emailed Joan letting them know I was really getting worried. That I hoped they were handling the sale of my house with the urgency it needed. That we were running out of time and that this open house HAD to work! Bev is who I get an email response from. She seemed annoyed that I was questioning their work and assured me that they would be putting an ad in the paper, contacted all of the New Iberia realtors and would be bringing pointer signs to put out. I told them I would be passing out fliers and bought some open house signs to put out for the week prior to advertise ahead of time to passers by. She scoffed at me and told me that wasn't necessary.
So, still feeling uneasy about our open house, we decide to place a camera in the living room. We really wanted to see why our house wasn't selling. Well, let's just say that what we learned from the audio on the video was more than we ever expected!! First, when Bev asked Joan if she contacted all of the New Iberia agents, Joan said no. She said she didn't know HOW to do it! Bev, sighed, but then said it was okay. (THIS IS SO NOT OKAY!!) Not only do I find out (or confirm) that they weren't doing their job, as I suspected, I also found out they thought I was a bitch! And also their opinions about why our house isn't selling - regarding it being in Jeanerette and the "types of people" here. Keep in mind, these are the people who are supposed to be looking out for our best interest! Aside from the name calling, knowing that Bev appointed an inexperienced agent to oversee our sale is just not okay!! While they sat at my house she was training her on how to do simple things. Wouldn't it have been nice if they did this training prior to putting her as an agent on my house??
Needless to say only one person came to the open house. A lady they spoke to prior. They showed not only our house, but DURING MY open house showed her another house down the street! Nice, right? Well, here we sit, 2 week prior to our house being completed and we have not sold! We started tring to figure out how would could keep the new house and we were lucky! Our lender qualified us to carry both notes! Once I told my agent this two weeks ago, I think she took that as a sign to give up. It had been two weeks since they spoke to us, never even reporting back about the last person that saw the house! Great realtors, right?? They either don't know what they are doing half the time, or just don't give a crap the rest of the time!
Well, I am now trying to get her to remove herself as the agent of the house we are buying! In no way do I think she deserve to make $6000 from my sale! Us buying that house was contingent on selling our other house and they have failed us!! Not because the market is bad, but because our agents are HORRIBLE. I guess knowing that either way they make a profit, made them stop caring about selling this one! I emailed her the other day and let her know I have proof they did not do their job and would be reporting them to the real estate board, the BBB and anyone else I can get to listen!! I hope to spare others the BS I have had to deal with!! I suggested that since she did not earn, nor does she deserve to make money after our treatment, the least she can do is donate a portion to our sale. I guess we shall see what happens! But don't just take my word for it, ask around. Everyone seems to be aware of the company and no one really has much nice to say about them!
Oh, another tidbit......I found out from other realtors ........ since Real Estate De Louisiane lists for 3%, which is half of what others list for, other companies try to avoid working with them. Which means, unless a buyer requests it, an agent won't show a Real Estate De Louisiane listing if they can help it! So listing with them does NOT work in your benefit if you are in a rush to sell your home!! I wish I had known this a few months ago!!
9 comments:
YEP! I could have warned you about this one. In my daily workings with Real Estate Agencies, that is one that is a nightmare to deal with!! Like you mentioned, they only charge 3% so other realtors do not like to deal with them. The best ones are Caffery, Van Eaton & Romero & Coldwell Banker Pelican. Maybe you should try listing with one of the other agencies if you really want to sell and not have the headache of dealing with tenants. Good luck!
Thanks for the heads up.
You know, after I told my husband about your last post where you put out the camera he told me that someone from that real estate company had called him. They had seen our for sale sign and wanted to know if they could help. I told him that if they called back to hang up......fast!!!!!
FYI: We have a contract signed for our house, and we're signing a contract for a new house today. Yay!!
That is awesome Kim! Congrats and I hope everything is smooth for you start to finish!! :o)
I would have given anything for a warning from these people! I hope everyone heeds it!
Let me know how it all goes!!
Well our buyer's appraiser came today and I'm extremely nervous about what the appraisal will come back as. I WAS optimistic until I read that yours had come in lower than your asking price, then I started to get nervous.
We won't know until next week, so I'm sure I'll have quite a few sleepness nights until then, just worrying.
Try not to stress! If you have a buyer that really wants the house and actually has money - ours didn't - you can work out a deal for them to still pay the asking or agreed upon price! Let me know how it goes!!
I should have listened but THANK GOD we were able to get out before it really even started. I dont see how Real Estate de Louisiane is still in business. We met with the owner, Robin Thomson yesterday regarding a possible listing and he was a very good pitch man so we decided to give them a change (before I did any real research). He kept stressing that he doesn't tell people what they want to hear but what need to hear. What he talks is a lot of CRAP! After doing a little research on the company before we signed our contract i found a few things I wanted to question. One being the problems that I read about here and I also wanted to question real sales numbers. My husband was able to speak with Robin before our meeting last night and is was agreed that we would only sign a 6 week contract because of just needing to fill out the company with out a long 6 month contract. Robin agreed. When he arrived at our home to sign the contract the first thing he says to me is I hear you have read somethings on the internet. He preceeded to BASH the lady in Jeanerette and pretty much call her 'Nuts' and she was just looking for some else to blame when she was really the one at fault. I asked him about their sales in the past year. And his response to this was that he really didnt know how many houses they have sold but he could tell me that he lives in a nice house and him and his wife both drive Cadillac's. and that he received some top selling award when he worked for some agency. I didnt push the topic becuase is was getting late. We signed the agreement. This morning I get call from someone who had been previously interested in our home during the time we had it listed For Sale by Owner. So I call Robin to ask how does this work since this person was interested before he came into the picture. He got PISSED. I was offering to split the comission since any other realtor that would bring someone through would spilt it, and I wasnt even talking 50-50 but 75 him- 25 us.He told me me in a not nice tone that he was already bent over backwards for us and this is not how things work. He then asked me to be fair to him and he would wait to list the house until we see where this goes with this person who was interested again. I agree and we hang up the phone. I called my husband and ask him about this and he thinks calling another agent would be a good idea to see how they would handle this. So he calls one and I call one, different agencies but both listing agents. And we got the some response that there is an exclusion clause in the contract that reads that anyone that approaces you about your home prior to your contract is signed with an agenct can be listed in the part so if they contact you again the comission fees are waived. My husband calls for Robin again to discuss this and before he can question what we were told Robin tells him he thinks that our deal won't work because he doesnt feel he will not be able to make us happy. I would agree 100% with this. If you dont take anything from this know that when you ask a agent about their sales and all he can respond with is I drive a nice car RUN RUN RUN!! I'm sure if anyone reads this and would question him about it he would just say we have an over priced property and looking for someone to blame but myself. All I was looking for was someone who was fair and honest and Robin Thomson did not prove to be this to us. I was willing to give him a change based on the fact of not believing everything you read but this thought me a lesson.
CB I think it is awesome you were so weary of this company! And I am SO glad that my warnings are getting out to people!
I think it's hilarious that they would brag about where they live and what they drive - especially since they cheat people in order to support themselves! Oh, I actually saw Bev last week. We were waiting for my daughter's Art class to finish and she came out of Upscale Resale, so I am not certain that they are living as high on the hog as they let on! lol
And as far as being nuts, I probably am......because if not I never would have entrusted people like that!
Let me inform you all of my great experiences with Robin. He sold 3 homes for us over the years. First home in 2 weeks, second home in 2 days and third one in less than a month. He was very pleasant to work with and did go out of his way for my family. With our experiences i would call him again anyday!!!!!
Well "anonymous", consider yourself one of the few lucky ones. I respect the fact that you feel compelled to make an attempt to put in a good word for these people. But at the same time you have to understand that the way a business treats it's clients is a reflection of their ethics. It is risky to treat people the way they do with social media and word of mouth as prominent as it is these days. And warning people to save them from the same bad experiences is what I think is the right thing to do!!! If they had done the right thing by forfeiting a portion of their earnings, I would have been satisfied! As because it was the Broker and his wife (the owners of the company) that both did the dealings, they could have easily made that decision. They are pompous and greedy and my little ol' blog will not be the downfall of them and their company. It will be the name they are making for themselves in our community. I would gladly retract all of my statements if they in fact changed the outcome of what happened. But because they feel they did nothing wrong and have made no attempt to make it right, I will continue to tell everyone I know to BEWARE!!! :o) And the fact that anyone who googles Real Estate De Louisiane is greeted with this blog right below the link for their site is just icing on the cake!! hehehee
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