The bottom line is, although he seems to be a very nice guy, taking on Roger (and Dick Lepine…read moreRealty) would be an act of charity on your part. I wish I had more honest reviews to look at when I was making the decision to find a realtor.
Roger, representing Dick Lepine Realty, was my seller agent for my condo in Lowell, MA. The agency seemed to be of the more passive post-it-and-forget-it philosophy of real estate. I suppose if you leave a listing up long enough, someone will eventually buy it. Bottom line is, I was essentially on my own for the sale of my condo.
Roger put together a collection of comparable homes of similar size in the area that had recently sold. The average selling price of similar homes was roughly $185K, so he recommended listing mine for $176K. There was nothing wrong with my place at all (on the contrary, ), but I was okay with the price--that way I knew for certain I was well within the realistic asking price. He then took several photos of the place and later posted it on the MLS sites.
Compared to other listings on most web sites, this one completely lacked effort. The description text was literally two sentences, all caps, that basically said, "condo for sale, 2 bed, garage. Easy to show."
The photos looked depressing--really depressing. It was a collection of about 5 half-hearted snapshots. The main photo of the outside was gray and sad looking. The photo of my kitchen was nothing but a close up of one of the kitchen walls and the fridge door. The rest were no better. So I re-wrote the text for my listing to something much more descriptive and inviting, and then took my own photos that better represented what my place actually looks like. I then asked Roger to immediately replace the current listing with my updates, which he did.
Months went by. I had a periodic flow of potential buyers visit the place, maybe once a week or so, but I rarely ever heard from Roger, and no one ever made an offer. Friends and acquaintances of mine would ask me, "Has your realtor done this? Has your realtor done that? Have you had an open house? Does your realtor follow up with the potential buyers after each visit? etc." to which my answer was invariably no. As my buying agent later told me: I had been abandoned. Other than posting an MLS listing, my realtor didn't really do much of anything; and like I said sometimes I wouldn't hear from him for over a month.
The thing that was most frustrating is there was another unit in my complex that was also up for sale (and whose selling agent seemed to be much more on the ball). The other unit had a price tag that appeared less than mine, but because the unit was much smaller, its price per square foot was actually significantly greater--something a good agent would be sure to point out to any prospective buyers. It also had numerous inspection problems, whereas my unit was flawless. As the year bore on, I lost so many potential buyers to that other unit who were first attracted by the seemingly-cheaper price, only to walk away after the inspection. My agent never followed up with the buyer's agents, and in fact didn't really seem to do anything. Like I said, I was on my own here.
My listing went up in early March. By mid-summer, another unit in my complex that was in similar excellent condition as mine went up for sale. Within a week, they had a buyer. That's when I started to do some market research, and discovered that Dick Lepine Realty had just as many condos listed as all the other major realtor companies, but had zero closings, whereas the other agencies had closing rates of 33% - 63%. Dick Lepine was grossly underperforming their peers, essentially posting and waiting while the others seem to be more actively engaged in selling their homes. That's when I called Dick Lepine's office to complain. It was an essentially fruitless conversation. He seemed to be a bit out of touch with what was going on, and his ultimate advice was that I need to lower my price. Considering the fact that my place was already very competitively priced, I wasn't too keen on doing this. However, I also realized that, given the lack of agency support I was receiving, my place wasn't going to sell otherwise.
We dropped the price by $10K, and an investor snapped it up the very next day. Investors don't buy reasonably-priced homes; they buy undervalued homes to make a profit. I had to eat a significant loss just so I could be done with it and move on. What followed over the next month was a series of screw ups. He forgot to tell me I need to have my smoke detectors replaced, until the very last minute, forcing me to scramble to get it done in time for a fire inspection. He called my condo management company for a certificate I needed, and they told him how to get it, but he couldn't figure it out, so I ultimately had to do it myself, and pay an extra $100 to have it rush ordered in time for the closing
