Leah & husband Kevin are incredibly unprofessional and legally questionable.
My family is relocating from the PNW & were trasferred to them when another realtor became too far away from our desired location (work needed us in a diff part of the state than planned). There were issues from the start.
We wouldn't get a response for days, or at all. They didn't seem to ever look at the MLS site, as they kept sending us listings we had already marked as "no's", & which were all more expensive than the houses we never got shown.
Kevin did a showing, but didn't take us along. Instead, he toured it alone, then told us we didn't want it, & offered to send 3 minutes of video.
After a week, we were told that they were leaving for a family vacation the next day. She told us that they would be gone a week but refused to give us another realtors contact info during their trip.
Her reasoning was that we will be arriving in CT soon, & we should just wait until then to look for a home so we can get the feel of the neighborhoods. We explained that any neighborhood around there is a step up for us, & that we can't afford to live in a hotel for long, so we would prefer to keep looking in the meantime.
She then agreed to arrange any showings we requested with another realtor while they were gone. What do ya know, we found our perfect house in that time!
I called & left a message on the day they should have been coming home. I said "we want this place, unless inspection shows something deeply wrong. Please arrange a showing as soon as possible".
I was expecting a phone call to discuss an offer. But, I heard nothing for 1.5 days, then got a text "Requested a showing for 4 days from now at 6am your time" (apparently they were'nt home from vacation until Mon). I responded that we can't do 6am, please reschedule & heard nothing for another 1.5 days.
After talking to our broker about the house, I texted Leah asking that she write up the offer because our broker expects competition & we DO NOT want to miss out on this.
She texted asking what we want to offer & said she'd write it up as they were driving home. We don't know how best to structure that! I expect our realtor to advise.
When I explained that, she said she was keeping the 6am showing & we should discuss an offer after that.
I asked why she would tour without the client & she said she couldn't advise us until she saw the house. I asked if she had looked into the house at all because that gives a lot of relevant info. She agreed to check.
30 min later, we found out that there are multiple bids already, which is why I called 5 days prior. She recommended an offer $15k over asking with no contingencies for inspection or anything. On a 148 yr old home that we had not seen.
We got up 3 hrs early for the showing and we were shocked that she obviously hadn't read up on the place. She was surprised by things that are in the listing.
She gave us the fastest tour, only showing the layout, while making anything she could sound Very Bad. "This door needs to be replaced, it won't open" It was locked. "The furnace looks old, probably needs replacing". Furnace looks old but in great shape. "The electrical panel looks like it's 110 & will need replacing". It's 200amp and was replaced 4 yrs ago. It felt suspicious.
Zoom cut out when she went into the basement but she said it was VERY wet. We requested video & found a few puddles from a single leak.
Afterward, she never called us to discuss an offer. At this point we fired her. Her excuse was that she hurt herself on vacation & needs surgery. First we've heard.
In finding another realtor, we learned that we had never been under contract with them!
Why would a realty team who also buys/flips/rents out depressed properties not sign a contract of fiduciary responsibility with a family searching for a fixer upper?
Competition? Wanting a bigger paycheck? Low priority?
Whatever the reason, it was less than trustworthy, & we strongly suggest that you save yourself the trouble & do not work with either Leah or Kevin.
2023

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