House Grades - Part 1

[destroyerj]

These are my reviews of the people I interacted with in the recent selling of my house and purchase of a new one. Part 1 contains grades concerning the process of actually buying and selling the houses. Part 2 will contain grades about the remodel and moving companies, etc.

The short and sweet version:

• Realtor (Buyer's Agent) - Jane Adsley Chopp (

Comments

[taesmar]

Don't forget to give grades on the movers when it is time!

I used Gracy title too and well, (1) I am a lawyer and (2) due to the enormity of the task of buying a house and the fact that these things are all pretty standard, I didn't really want to know what I was signing (what, like I had a choice?) so I just signed and signed and ok done.

[destroyerj]

Well, looking at the documents helped me out, cause I noticed that a specific agreement listed a fee at $50, but the settlement statement had it down as $150, so I saved myself from getting charged an extra hundred bucks. :)

Also, my dad's thoroughness (and calling his lawyer) during my brother's closing got a lot of documents changed, and in significant ways (he got his name off the deed of trust). So *shrug* maybe you don't have a complete choice, but even if things are pretty standard they can be pretty wrong, or can be changed significantly anyway.

[onefishclappin]

I'm really sorry that you didn't have a great experience w/Jane - she was our Realtor and went above and beyond helping us navigate all of the "buying out first house" woes. Since that, I know that D&G weren't as enthralled & obviously you aren't, so I have to say that it does sound very inconsistent. That's a shame.
Beyond that, congrats on the house!
(And I've heard all sorts of bad things about Gracie Title, but it sounds like you experience wasn't horrible, so good for you!)

[skimmerduk]

For me, Jane's strength was certainly her willingness to investigate contractor possibilities for us and then her flexibility in doing so. She was also pretty fun to shop with, but I'm not sure that translated to professionalism. My big issue, personally, was that SHE didn't seem to structure the buying process well for us; I felt like we were relying more on Jonathan's previous house-buying experience to know when to do what. Also, she misspoke quite a bit when discussing all sorts of things, so at some point it became natural to question most of what she said.

And that is the sum total of what I feel qualified to speak about regarding the buying process. I've been much more involved with the renovation side of things :)

[cifarelli]

When we got to closing on our house (which was new construction, so we were dealing with the builder), the closing agent got exasperated with us for wanting to read and understand all our documents, and basically said, "fine, go sit in this little room by yourselves if you want to spend the time to read all this crap" and left us completely alone. We were very NOT happy. But we read all our documents, didn't see anything that looked incorrect, and signed 'em all. And things have been fine since then.

[destroyerj]

Yikes. I have to say neither of the closers got that exasperated. Wally was a little exasperated I think, but as mentioned, my dad is beyond thorough, and Wally hid it well; plus I think he only really cared because I cared because it was delaying my funding. Stacey didn't show exasperation; at some point she made a comment about how we were reading everything, so she'd stop taking as much time to explain things, but it didn't seem snide.

[abstractseaweed]

Thank you for these very thorough reviews. Good information to know.

[gregstoll]

Wow - much more detailed than mine :-) Sorry the last week or so sucked hard, but yaaaay new house!