I was party to a real estate deal in which my counterparty was represented at closing by Reeves DiVenere Wright. This was plain vanilla contract with typical timing and process. Throughout, RDW were incredibly poor at communication, and their lack of communication introduced delays into the process that cost me more than $7,000 when all was said and done. I would not recommend using them. I was close to backing out of the deal after my own attorneys and other stakeholders having been jerked around by RDW throughout the process. Had I done so, this would have made their representation of their client very poor indeed, as their client had done nothing that I could determine to generate the delays. Details follow.
My attorneys at a different firm in town provided all documentation to RDW throughout the process, and when it came time to close the deal had still not received the required final docs, nor any response by their attorneys to my attorneys' and other representatives' inquiries as to whether there would be a delay, where was the documentation, or what was going on. Sure enough, around 10:30 am that day that the deal could not be completed that day. By late afternoon we were told there would be a week's delay, with no clear reason given. We promptly updated our own documents and sent them back the same day, along with an appeal to complete things earlier if possible.
The delay cost me more than $7,000 due to changes in the interest rate markets during the week-long delay. I was furious, but given lack of recourse to any alternative, completed things after the delay. Throughout the process my own attorneys were mystified at the lack of response from RDW despite repeated outreach by email, phone and text. Totally unprofessional, and totally unacceptable.
There were so many problems with this process, nearly all of them avoidable. And those that may not have been avoidable were forgivable if we had been informed in a normal timeframe of potential delays, or if they would at least have answered my attorneys' requests for a call/email back. This firm needs to be more communicative and meet their stated timelines; give advance warning when they can't; or at least give reasons why not. I'm glad that we could finalize this deal but very displeased with the losses I incurred as a direct result of RDW's poor communication and the presumed incompetence that delayed the process (I can only attribute the delays to incompetence given that their communication about the process and reasons for delays was so poor). read more
