This agent has 2 reviews.
Communication when buying a house is vital, and we didn't find it here. We just recently bought a home in Manistique in which Julie was the listing agent. The process went smoothly until we were ready to close and needed good communication between the sellers/listing agent and us (the buyers and our real estate agent).
Here's how it went: We got the OK to close from the bank on 11/30 and the way our purchase agreement was written, closing was to take place within 10 days of the necessary paperwork being done. After Julie proposed an "ideal date" of the 9th for closing, where no mention of seller occupancy holdover was made, I asked if the 10th would work as I was to be working out of town on the 9th. We were then hit with the seller's asking to be in the house until the 23rd, after we had all agreed in the purchase agreement, to immediate occupancy. They stated they would waive the propane proration contingency that we had originally agreed upon in return. We stated they could stay until the 19th under these terms, but we really needed to be in by the 20th, as we were each currently traveling over an hour one way to our respective workplaces this is why we triple checked that immediate occupancy was doable. We would not have placed an offer on the house, had it been off the table. An ENTIRE WEEK LATER, after numerous prompts from our real estate agent, our mortgage lender, and the title agency (where the sellers would be closing) we heard back from Julie. At this point, it was too late for the bank to prepare the closing disclosure for the 9th or the 10th, so we were left wondering when exactly we were supposed to close. Julie stated she would draft an addendum that addressed everything. Three days later, on the original "ideal" closing date, we get a basic addendum that says closing will take place on the 17th, seller's will be out by 5pm on the 19th and the propane cost will be waived. We're good with that, but asked our agent to put in some terms regarding liability if we close on the 17th and they held over occupancy for a few days, we wanted to make sure we weren't going to be on the hook for any property damages or injuries that might happen when we aren't even the ones living there Additionally, we asked that there be a fee and rent paid to us, if they did not vacate the property by the agreed upon time we felt like this was pretty standard stuff. The next day, they come back and say now we will close and get occupancy on the 17th and now we are back to paying them for the propane--that their offer to waive the cost was an incentive to let them stay longer even though closing on the 17th is already staying longer than what was supposed to take place. But what are we supposed to do?
So, after all of that, we closed on the 17th, were given immediate occupancy, and paid for the propane, but it was not without considerable frustration, anger, and almost walking away from the whole deal. The sellers left garbage behind, we were left no keys, and while happy to finally be in the house, I still feel a lot of resentment for what a fiasco the end of this turned into. I can't help but think that better communication on Julie's part would have eliminated a lot of those feelings. I feel like because Julie and the sellers knew we needed to move and wanted this deal to work out, we were jerked around and bullied into whatever they wanted to throw at us. I feel like Julie purposely drug her feet throughout this ordeal to allow the sellers more time in the house, when she could have just had a conversation with us and let us know what was going on. We did everything we were supposed to as buyers, tried to be as flexible as we could for the sellers and did so promptly, on top of that. I can't say the same for the other half. In any future real estate transactions, I will actively avoid any listings in which Julie is a part of and if asked, recommend others do the same.
2021
Julie helped us find our perfect new home! If you're looking for someone to trust, depend on and work harder than any other real estate agent out there - Julie Barr is the absolutely the right choice. She has an incredible knack for thinking outside the box with brilliant solutions, staging and marketing. She's tireless, but somehow never pushy. We can't wait to get our old house on the market and have her work her magic! Highly recommend! A+++++
2020