This was in my email this morning. ;) If you are seeking a realtor for the State College and Centre County area you need go no further than Doug Brown at Keller Williams. I needed to sell a house as soon as possible after my mothers death. I interviewed three realtors from the three largest companies serving Centre County and one from a smaller company. During the interviews I asked for specific information from each of the realtors. In all cases Doug was the most responsive. He was the first to reply and his information was the most accurate. One relator took over a week to reply, another didnt list the correct transfer tax rate, and one was not willing to negotiate the commission rate. From these four, I selected two of them for a house walk through and asked two questions: 1) What would be an estimated sales listing price? 2) How long would it take to sell? Doug answered me immediately. The other realtor, from probably the best known company in the area, would get back to me. When I had no response in three days I selected Doug. From these interviews I learned that you do not select a company, you select a person--your agent--to be the individual who will actually represent you. The company does not sell your house. A good company is important to support its agents, but all of the companies I queried were good. Regardless, how good a company is not nearly as significant as the actual person who will do the hands-on and day-to-day work for you. A good agent not only has to know the area, but also has to know the business inside-out and what is required every step of the way from the legal issues through all of the forms and steps required. For Doug, this was second nature and he was on top of everything including handling a last minute deed issue that could have delayed everything. In addition, Doug was proactive in keeping the process moving along and keeping me informed each step of the way. This was a family house and thus other family members were involved in the sales process. They had their own ideas on how things should be handled. A good realtor has to be part counselor and psychologist to settle family conflicts and disputes and Doug did this admirably well and kept everyone happy through a difficult time. Of course, there was also dealing with the buyers and the buyers agent. The family wanted the best price and the buyers wanted the best bargain. Doug successfully negotiated his way through a mine field of demands from both sides. In the end he worked out compromises to achieve those mutual Win-Win agreements where we were all satisfied--buyer and seller alike! These were not easy and I worried about a lot every step of the way. Doug continuously offered assurance that all would work out okay and we would close and he was right. If I made any mistake in working with Doug it was trying to tell him how to do his job. He deferred to me and did what I asked. He was patient and understanding; though in the end, he knew what he was doing and I should have followed his advice from the get-go. In the beginning of this recommendation when I asked the two questions of how much and how long from Doug: 1) On the price, Dougs original estimate was within a few percentage points of the final sales price; and, 2) On the time, Doug said four months, and it was so. Actually it would have been closer to three months if the buyers had not requested a three week delay to settlement. Who could ask for more from a realtor? Finally, in the process of writing these comments, I tried to think if there were any problems I had with Doug; after all, no one is perfect. In all honesty, I can not think of anything significant on which to criticize him. It was indeed a pleasure working with Doug and should I ever need to sell a property again, I know exactly and unequivocally to whom I would go.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 23:51:47 +0000
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