Tom Faison Realty

We made the right choice with Justin. As first-time homebuyers, we had lots of questions and lots of things we didn't know. Justin was hugely helpful in answering our questions and explaining each part of the process. He knows the DC market very well and brings a wealth of knowledge of things to look for in a house. He was very responsive, and when it came time to put in an offer, he and Tim helped us quickly put together a winning offer. Most importantly, he was a guy we knew we could trust, and we would recommend working with the Tom Faison team.

Long story short: We feel that Tom Faison botched the sale of our home by advising us not to rent it, to put it on the market in September (!!!!) and to list it for $1. The fact is that Tom Faison persuaded us to use "Rafael," an unlicensed handyman to do a lot of work he thought we should do to sell the house. When we refused to pay the handyman for work that was not done, Tom snuck the bill into the settlement agreement--without our knowledge and without telling us--and then refused to remove it, telling us we could either breach the contract to sell the house, or pay his handyman, even if work wasn't done. What should have clued is in was that his success stories happened when his clients ignored his advice. He told us he sold a house for a contractor who sold a house for 2 blocks away who ignored his advice and listed the house at their desired price--and got it. We went with Tom's advice, which was to go with a listing price well below what we wanted, with Tom assuring us that doing so would create a bidding war that would exceed our target price. When the bidding wars never happened, he explained it away by saying "the market has spoken." There is nothing Tom will do for you that any one of the many nicer, competent decent human beings who sell houses on Capitol Hill won?t do, except maybe stress you out and make you feel bad about yourself and your house. My wife and I decided to sell our house after I wastransferred across the country for work. Tom struck us as a little off?he seemed to be have one idea about potential buyers and price, then he?d say the exact opposite?but we had to act fast, and we figured all the ?GONE!? signs around Capitol Hill must mean something good. Big mistake. We were wrong. We had the nicest house on our block?fully renovated with new everything. People would knock on our door or leave notes asking to buy our house. Really. It was a block from H St. bars and restaurants, a streetcar stop and the H St. Farmer?s Market. A Whole Foods was rumored to be coming less than a mile away (no longer a rumor). Beyond that, nothing played out the way Tom said it would. First, he made a big deal of being at our second open house himself. In other words, he made a big deal about doing his job. Even so, it was a big mistake for him to be there. During the day, we got calls from friends, neighbors and family telling is to tell our realtor that whoever was showing the house had his head buried in his Blackberry and wasn?t greeting anyone or talking to them. ?That was our realtor.? ?Oh.? Tom explained it away by saying nobody sells houses by talking to people at open houses. Maybe not, but he sure wasn?t going to sell the house by ignoring everyone, either. Second, His pricing strategy was to underprice to generate interest and get the escalation clauses to kick in. He actually suggested we list our house for $1. But this contradicted his theory about the potential buyers: the one or two people looking for living in the best of what DC has to offer and who could afford to pay top dollar. Are one or two people going to trigger vigorous bidding? Answer: No, they didn?t. In fact, Tom told us that a house that sold recently for what we wanted was listed at that price because the seller would not listed for less. But Tom thought we could get more by underpricing. We should have paid attention to his other seller?s approach: ignore Tom. Third, he was a jerk. We had explained that we had a lot of trouble with contractors in DC (that is everyone in DC)--one was actually on the national news program 20/20 as "the contractor from h***." That would seem to be extraordinarily bad luck to most people. Here is his response: "You and Kara have claimed being ?fleeced? by many vendors, contractors and service providers over the years. I have to ask Rich, have you ever considered the common denominator in all of the fleecings you?ve been a party to?" Fourth, he stiffed us. Really. He had agreed to pay for cleaning our house (we left it clean when we left, but he wanted it ?extra? clean). After closing, we asked him when he was going to pay us the cleaning fee as promised. He refused. Here?s his answer: " ?you'll remember you were responsible for having the sump pump cleared of trash and debris. I paid out of pocket for many items outside of marketing for your house?" He provided no accounting, except to say that he scooped a piece of paper out of the sump pump. He never explained what the ?many items outside of marketing your house? were. And: "?every demand you?ve made has been met with a new scorching demand and I don?t suspect that $130, or any amount, will result in your satisfaction?" Originally, he claimed the cleaning fee was around $400, but it gradually decreased with time. (Side note: My ?demands? were for an explanation of his handyman?s bill. His handyman billed us for a lot of work that wasn?t done. And Tom took his side, submitting an invoice to the settlement company without telling us. We picked it out as one of the (many) errors the settlement company made. He refused to remove it, and we were stuck all the way across the country worried he was going to screw up the sale. We ended up paying just to be able to move on with life.) Fifth, he also claimed there were all sorts of ?defects? uncovered during inspection, such as dampness in the basement and low water pressure because of a water company problem (that we had the water company fix before closing), but that just shows how bad his memory is, or how big a jerk he is. These were all items we disclosed and pointed at during the multitude of walk-throughs with Tom before listing, and that we asked him about because we were concerned they would affect our ability to sell the house. (We took care of the water company issue from California, convening a meeting between our plumber and the DC Water officials to prove to DC Water--after 10 years of back and forth--that the low water pressure was a a DC Water problem. And we got DC Water to fix the problem with the main in the alley before closing.) Tom also did not seem to grasp the sums we were dealing with. For us, $1K one way or the other was a lot of money with real implications. Tom did not seem to share that sense of value, of what it takes to ***earn*** a dollar. In the end, our house sold for about $20K-$60K less than Tom predicted (his estimated value kept decreasing as we got closer to listing), and what others thought we should get for it. Of course, Tom can explain that away too (?The market spoke?). Maybe, but given the way things played out, and since nothing played out the way he said it would, I have my doubts. His colleagues Tim and Jesse are nice, but they can?t balance out Tom?s weirdness. Selling your house (or buying one) is a stressful event involving big sums of money. If I had to do it all over again, I would choose much more carefully, and I would not choose Tom.

Worked with Tom and all his colleagues, comfortably working with his other staff members to accommodate our schedule. All staff members were very promptly responsive to emails and questions.