Dena & DeAnn

The listing included a duplex home and vacant lot next door; on a deepwater canal with Gulf access and less than a block's walk to the public access point to the beach. We followed DeAnn and Dena's advice on pricing the house, going with the upper end of what they thought we might get for the house and lot. They put the listing on the MLS and had one showing. We had no serious offers. They did request permission to allow an out-of-town friend of theirs to park at the house while going to the beach, which we granted. As time dragged on, we saw no extra efforts, no creative marketing, although when a builder offered a free sketch of a plan that might suggest what people could build on the lot, they did take that up for us. We are out-of-town from the property, and a neighbor had to notify us that the "for sale" sign had been torn down and tossed in the woods. I gather that since then, DeAnn and her crew have been more attentive in checking the property. As the listing period drew to a close, the D's did not bother to tell us we needed to do something different. In fact until the last minute, they didn't bother to remind us that the time was ending for their listing, which meant that we were faced with letting the listing lapse or continue with them. We opted for a short period of additional listing with them. At that point they brought in their top-selling agent for advice. The advice was to drop the price. We don't understand why this advice couldn't have been given to us earlier and more persuasively. We don't understand why there weren't more creative efforts to connect with buyers and/or investors at a time when an international company announced it was moving its headquarters to the area. We don't understand why other agents have sold lots farther from the beach for the same money we asked for our lot --especially as the market has been improving. The only answer we could come up with was that the D's just aren't that creative, energetic, or effective at selling and working with their clients, at least in our case. Perhaps it is because we are out-of-town clients--out of sight, out of mind. Our perception of their company is also colored by the rental agents who were supposed to be renting out the property while the D's were working on selling it. The only thing the rental agent ever delivered was tantalizing promises that the place had been rented -- which ALL fell through. At first there was a misunderstanding about the pricing. But this was resolved, so there should have been no problem renting out the place, as previous rental agents (who weren't very good or energetic) managed to keep it rented much of the season. When the rental listing expired, the rental agent reduced the commission discount we had been given for doubly listing with the agency's sales and rentals departments. On short notice, and being out-of-town, we had little choice but to accept what was essentially a pay raise for the agent, despite receiving NO rental contracts. Sadly, I can't give a strong endorsement to DeAnn, Dena, or the Berkshire Hathaway group they work for in southwest Florida.