On July 24, 2011, I received an e-mail from Janet saying our next door neighbor at 7036 Trellis CT, Christine Hatcher, made an offer of $160,000, but the house had leaks, mold and areas requiring paint. There were no leaks, mold, roof problems or areas requiring paint when we left in November 2010. In May 2011, my husband returned to the house to set the A/C to run on 76 degrees for the summer. He did not notice any problems in the house. Had Janet been making regular visits to inspect our vacant property like good realtors are supposed to do for a vacant house, then the problems would have been noticed at an earlier date and less expensive to fix. When we heard of the problems, my husband returned to the house and realized that the problems had been occurring over a 2 month period which confirms the fact that Janet had not been in our house for at least 2 months. We now had to pay $500 to repaint and fix the mold, $1,200 to fix the A/C, $100 to check out the roof tiles and pay a sky-high A/C bill of $323 which was one hundred dollars more than the same month a year ago. After everyone panicked about the roof leaking, an A/C technician discovered the A/C had been running all the time, the condensation lines froze and that is what caused the leak and mold. Furthermore, the technician realized there was nothing wrong with the roof, but the potential buyer was scared to death the roof was leaking and wanted it replaced. Had anyone viewed the property and saw mold and leaks before Janet did on July 24, they certainly would have walked out and we lost that potential buyer. Janet did not feel responsible for the damage she caused to our house that we entrusted her to monitor. She never once said she was sorry for the damage she caused by not regularly monitoring our vacant house or offered to pay for the damages or A/C bill. On July 24, 2011, I got an email from Janet saying she had used the wrong e-mail for me. Good realtors would have paid more attention to their sellers e-mail. The best Janet could get for us was the buyer would pay $170,000 and I would pay $3,000 towards the buyer’s closing costs, repair the roof which did not need repairing, fix the leak, fix the mold and repaint, and fix the AC. We also had to pay $1,250 to the buyer after the house inspection, a total of $4,250 in buyer closing costs. In all, Janet Kitchens cost us $4,250 in buyer closing costs, $1,800 in repairs, $323 for a sky-high AC bill, $12,000 in monthly costs for our house for 8 months, $2,500 not received from a favorable appraisal of $172,500, $30,000 not received from the $199,900 price she said she could sell our home (when we renewed the contract after the first 6 months), $40,000 in upgrades not received back, and $80,000 less than we listed the house. This does not include the IRA fees at 2012 tax time for early distributions I will have to pay because we needed these funds to pay for the repairs, closing costs and monthly bills. She is not worth the 6% commission of $9,000 we had to pay. Janet Kitchens is the WORST realtor we have ever met and if we could go back in time, we would have selected the realtor I knew from my hairdresser.I have asked Janet a number of times to find out when the open house was held and I still don’t know. I am not sure if she really held one or not. Also, I have asked for the pictures she took and I have not received those either. I have asked Janet a number of times to find out when the open house was held and I still don’t know. I am not sure if she really held one or not. Also, I have asked for the pictures she took and I have not received those either.
Description of Work: My husband and I are writing to express our extreme displeasure of the performance of Janet Kitchens, Broker/owner of Lakeside Realty LLC, The Kitchens Team in Cumming, GA and strongly recommend your subscribers not employ her as a real estate broker. We rate her F’s across the board. We absolutely will not use Janet Kitchens again in the future. We decided to sell our house (July 2010) in Alpharetta, GA after living there 15 years, We knew this was not the best time to sell, but we no longer could afford paying two mortgages, two tax bills, etc. after I was laid off 5 times in a row. Janet wanted to list our house at $249,900. This price appealed to us because we were paying taxes on $225,000 and we had added $40,000 in upgrades over the 15 years we had lived there. Janet said we would get more money for the house if we got the house ready for the buyer to move in, because it would be immediately available for the buyer to see and quickly move in. We got the house ready as best as we could and then moved out the week before Thanksgiving 2010 to our Niceville, FL house. Good realtors would have held weekly open houses to sell the house. Janet Kitchens did not want to hold open houses. We begged her to hold regular open houses. She held only one open house in the 8 months she had the listing from the first week of Dec 2010 thru Aug 29, 2011. This cost us $12,000 in monthly costs, I had to sell IRA’s to keep up with the bills and a $110,000 foreclosure on March 30, 2011 in my neighborhood put downward pressure on the offer price and appraisal. Good realtors would have created an error-free brochure and MLS for sale listing on Realtor.com. The on-line MLS listing on Realtor.com was missing key information (house size, lot size, neighborhood and price per square foot) and only showed 4 pictures compared to 25 pictures from Harry Norman listing for 2150 Brookridge Terrace with a house for sale in our neighborhood. The directions to our house were wrong, too, but when I asked Janet if she was going to correct the directions, she said no. And, Janet promised me she would keep the brochure holder in front of our vacant house full of brochures. This is another area Janet failed to keep her promise, because my husband went to check several times and they were not there. It also explains the reason why there were only 3 or 4 other realtors in 8 months who brought potential buyers to see our house.
All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our State Contractor License Requirements page.
*Contact business to see additional licenses.
Service Categories
Real Estate Agents
FAQ
KITCHENS TEAM is currently rated 1 overall out of 5.
No, KITCHENS TEAM does not offer free project estimates.
No, KITCHENS TEAM does not offer eco-friendly accreditations.
No, KITCHENS TEAM does not offer a senior discount.
No, KITCHENS TEAM does not offer emergency services.