I had the great misfortune of purchasing a home that Frances Alves was selling. This was our third time buying a property, and we have dealt with many realtors over the years. Frances was a real standout in what an absolute nightmare she is to work with, and how positively awful she is at her job. This woman doesnt even do the bare minimum, has no problem inconveniencing multiple people to pick up the slack for her repeated failures, then behaves like a petulant child and blames everyone else for her behavior. Just know if you are working on a deal with Frances, she will not uphold her end of the bargain and then blame you for it.

The circumstances surrounding our purchase of the house were incredibly sensitive. We needed to all work together to make this happen smoothly. The sellers were clearly in crisis and needed an agent who was proactive, compassionate, communicative, and cooperative. Frances is NONE of these things. She is lazy, rude, defensive, incompetent, and hostile.

This woman didnt even tell her clients they needed to leave for the inspection or final walkthrough, couldnt be bothered to return emails or phone calls from our agent, and didnt even drop off the key and garage door opener to the title company so we could get in our house. This was a $750,000 deal and Frances left us a house that was totally trashed.

The sellers suffered an unthinkable tragedy of losing a child during the sale of the house. We figured there was no way theyd be out in time, so we offered them an extension MULTIPLE TIMES. We even said they could back out of the sale if they wanted. Frances INSISTED they would be out in time. Staying on top of her clients timeline and communicating their progress with us was her responsibility. Because she did not even take care of this basic detail, the move-in was an absolute nightmare for us.

Despite us asking repeatedly checking in and asking if the family needed more time, Frances insisted they would be out on time. Well guess what? They were not. We were sitting in our car with our baby until 9 pm waiting to get in the house. The carpet cleaners were still there and had been there for 12 hours because Frances did such a bad job of coordinating with her clients and they werent moved out in time. We finally just went into the house because our baby needed to go to bed. Suddenly two people just walked in saying they needed to finish cleaning the house, because they couldnt do it earlier. They had been told by Frances the house was going to be vacant, when she knew we were moving in Frances also had told multiple strangers were they could find a key!

The house was absolutely disgusting, there were so many personal items left in the home, they left us a mountain of trash to dispose of, forgot to give us the garage door opener, strangers were just walking in on Frances instructions, and there was a car still parked in the driveway. I have sold two homes and would never think of leaving the home in the sort of condition Frances had no problem leaving the house to us in.

I packed up their personal belongings and called Frances to coordinate the exchange of their stuff for a garage door opener. She threw her clients under the bus and blamed them for everything, complained about having to deal with a crying mother all week, told me when [my] child dies Ill have the right to complain, gave me a guilt trip, said I should be grateful they even moved out at all, told me to throw out their personal belongings and change the locks, said our agent should have to pay for the garage door opener, and then hung up on me. I was floored by how inappropriate and unprofessional she was.

No compassion. No empathy. No accountability for her complete and utter failure to do her job along the way. No apology for leaving us a heaping pile of garbage, leaving us hanging with nowhere to go, and demanding top dollar for a house they left a disgusting mess. She took a difficult situation and make it even worse with her incompetence, finger pointing, and complete lack of regard for anyone but herself. She was using her clients trauma as an excuse to not do her job, when this occasion called for her to do her job well.

There were some really basic steps Frances could have taken to make this a more positive experience for everyone: Answer her phone. Keep us informed on how the family is doing on the timeline. Checking in with her clients and seeing they clearly wont be out on time. Letting us know they needed more time so we could plan accordingly. Physically going to the house and helping them. Calling a junk pick up service and having all of their garbage picked up. Giving us a heads up about the condition of the house and informing us of her plan to make sure everything got done they committed to doing. Letting us know the cleaning service was not able to complete their jobs and when they were coming. Letting us know there was still a car in the driveway and whether or not someone was coming to get it. Getting the key and garage door opener from her clients and driving a couple of miles to the title company to make sure we had the key.

These things arent even going above and beyond for clients. Its called doing your job, something Frances repeatedly did not do. This whole situation was completely avoidable, and this transaction went horribly wrong wholly because of Frances. Frances clearly only cares about herself in the transaction and did not care at all about upholding her end of the agreement.

The family clearly needed more time. Had they taken the time we offered them, they would have all their personal belongings, the house would have been clean for us to move in, we wouldnt be stuck with a bill to dump all of their trash and leftover belongings, all the people helping to get things done wouldnt have been so horribly inconvenienced, and all parties would have been much happier.

In short if you see the name Frances Alves, sprint in the opposite direction. Frances Alves, the woman who wont.

2022

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