The Legends of Real Estate

Recent Google reviews

• Zhenghua Lin 1 · 2 years ago

  Unfortunately, I picked this agent as Johnathan Richie was a friend of my family member. But it was proved to be a wrong decision. Firstly, The whole process is “over promise, under deliver”. I was told that the housing market was in the seller’s market, as the buyers were fled from out of town, and the local housing stock was short, so the property could be well sold —— on that note, Johnathan was right. However, what he did appeared opposite with what he said — Not mentioning there was no 3D pictures as promised (which would have made the property receive more attention during the lockdown), the profile cover picture was terribly picked. Several friends of mine commented to me, separately, that the cover picture would turn them away as a buyer. Hence, I kindly asked the agent to retake and replace the cover picture from a better angle. But as a reply, I was given many excuses…Finally, I was tired from being fooled and told him that I wanted to remove my listing. Then he took my request seriously and changed the profile picture. And since then, we started having more shows, however, I should have terminated our business relationship right there, as it was the red-flag of me being under-represented (see the following). I chose to ignore this red-flag, and I paid a big price for that. Secondly, I was under-represented. I took the agent’s advice and spent $6K to repaint 4 rooms (to unify the interior color) and upgrade all the major applicants in the kitchen, in the trust of his good will and professional judgement, also in the hope of selling the property at the pricing he projected. But then, I was told over and over that my property worth “less than” the others in the same neighborhood. Johnathan kept showing me the evaluation of “too pricy” from the potential buyers, insinuating that I should reduce my listing price. (Note: Later, when I thought about this: Of course buyers wants to pay a lower price, even if it is the lowest in the market). Anyhow, I took his advice again and reduced the listing price from market average to 10% below that. But did my property really worth that little? I don’t think so. There are two evidences of that — (a) After the closing and I got the report from Redfin indicating that the property was sold at the lowest by square-foot in the same neighborhood — yeah, with all the things being fixed per an objectively strict and detailed inspection report, with a 1.5-year-old roof, and with all the brand-new appliances. (b) I asked the buyer for a copy of the appraisal report, where it would show the appraised value of the property, but the buyer refused to provide it. Everyone knows that the appraised value mostly is lower than the market price, especially in the growing area; So, if the appraised value is lower than my listing price, why did the buyer refuse to provide me the report? (Note: By the way, Johnathan Richie didn’t acknowledge me about my right of asking the appraisal report, I found out that by researching it myself.) One may argue that the realtor’s interest should be aligned with the seller’s, as he can get more commission, right? Well, not so much when the market is growing and he sees more listing opportunities coming — He would rather finish a deal and earn the commission faster — As even if my property was sold for $10k more, the agent would only get $150 in addition. Apparently, it is not worthy the time for him. Thirdly, now when I look back, many things the agent should have done but didn’t do on their due diligence. I wasn’t informed several important rights as a seller during the pending process. No to mention, my name was wrongfully spelt over the documents back and forth during the contingent process. Shall this carelessness raise a red flag? It should. After all, I was the one choosing to ignore all the red flags and deciding to stay in this partnership, so there was no one to blame but myself. With all the remorse on my loss from an undersold property, I gave this earnest review and hoped that the agent would improve, or no one shall repeat my misery.