KATHY COLE

I initially found Kathy online by reading reviews, which she had great reviews! I think Kathy would work best for people who don't know what they want, but if you are into making your own decisions, keep looking! Kathy does not respect decisions and will actually undermine your decision. My husband was on island before me, so he was the initial contact with Kathy, he tells me she did a good job of showing him around and flooding him with places to look at. My husband and I had different priorities when it came to what we wanted in a house and she did talk to us a lot and ask questions. We did end up finding the perfect place (actually, I believe my husand found it and arranged for a viewing through Kathy). I was still not on island when we went under contract, but being the big researcher I am, did a lot of looking into the inspectors. Kathy also gave us a list of potential inspectors. I chose someone not on the list, spoke with him and was satisfied with him, as he had great experience in home building as well as inspecting. I then asked Kathy to make the arrangements for the inspection. Instead of just making the appointment, she flooded him with questions and demanded a contract - sufficiently scaring him off and leaving us with no time to find a replacement, so we had to use one of hers. Later, when we were in the process of negotiating about some work that needed to be done, Kathy was very inflexible and would not use the wording that we wanted to use to ensure the work would be to our satisfaction. As it turned out, there was wording elsewhere in the contract that covered our concerns, but instead of pointing that out, Kathy seemed content to argue with us - how dare we have our own opinions! (I discovered the wording myself when she was scrolling through the contract on her computer screen.) Yet again later, when it was time for the termite inspection, I again did my own research in addition to the names she provided us. One of the companies on her list actually had a really bad reputation (government action and all!), so I let her know and proceeded to pick one of my own. Again, after speaking to them to ensure they met my needs and were available. Somehow the appointment was never made and she later came back to me and told me I needed to pick another company because the one I selected wasn't available! Again - no time was left for me to research and find one of my own. Towards the end of the process, we found out the house, which was on stilts on a hillside, had termites and needed treatment and physical repairs. This was litterally a couple of days before we were scheduled to close. Kathy pushed for us to let the owners use their own construction "company" to do the repairs and wouldn't even go back to them with our request (which we felt was reasonable, we wanted to ask that we pick the contruction company for repairs!) She simply wouldn't work for us on this, at one point, she even ignored our request and sent us paperwork to sign that did not reflect our request! So we ended up cancelling the contract. I have never even heard of a situation where one's own real estate agent wouldn't even forward a request! Every time we wanted to make our own decision about something, she pushed back, sabotaged the situation, or even ignored our requests! So in the end, I am glad she didn't get that comission! I actually wanted to switch realtors towards the end, but didn't know the legalities. So when she pushed back on our decision that last time, we simply ended it. Kathy IS NOT for those who have a mind of their own. If you want a realtor to make all your decisions for you, maybe, but I really wouldn't even recommend her for anyone, because I don't trust her decisions.