First of all, let me be clear that this review is not a reflection on the entire office staff or other real estate professionals associated with Golden Oak Properties. This review is only focusing on the realtor associated with the company, and the mortgage lender associated with them through Marquis Mortgage. The mortgage lender will hold back on informing you of costly situations that could arise in the future. I was told it was so that we wouldn't be overwhelmed, but I prefer to have all the details upfront. Just a personal preference. I have found that I have been mislead on pricing in several aspects. The realtor, while open about communication and willing to spend the time with you, will talk out of both sides of her mouth. She will say one thing, and in the next sentence contradict herself about policy and procedure in buying a place. We were told information just a little bit at a time, which caused us to make decisions about places to make offers on that we otherwise would not have and which ended up wasting everyone's time and money. She also made a recommendation of a house inspector whom she "has worked with for years," who ended up having far too limited a scope of inspection which left us with little, if any, information we didn't already know about the house we were looking to buy. We basically wasted $500 on her recommendation and the housing inspector couldn't be bothered to get back to us on questions we had on the report until she contacted him herself. Finally, I was pitted against my partner after I gave her permission to be able to talk to him about pricing and procedure. I would make a decision, she would go to him about how I was being unreasonable and ask him to talk to me. Then, in front of me, she would tell him that he was badgering me about the issue to cover up her own involvement. I've never had so much strain put on my relationship than in the last four months I've worked with them. Concerning the last transaction I had with her, I have come to find that certain information was withheld or obscured from both myself and the seller of the property I was in contract to buy. The deal was guaranteed to fall through because of this. I'm not about playing games with huge amounts of money, so I'm through with them. When this whole thing started, the realtor said, "First time buyers are my favorite." We thought that was nice, and made us trust her more. But we realize now what she must have meant was that she loves first time buyers because they know very little about what they're doing and they're easier to mislead. read more