RE/MAX 1st Advantage - Colleen Nicholson

We chose Colleen Nicholson, a Re/Max agent, based on a recommendation.  She has a no-nonsense "bulldog" approach when it comes to business, which may not appeal to everybody, but I wouldn't want anybody else on my side.  She's one of the hardest working people I've ever met, in any profession, and working with her has been an excellent experience.
Re/Max has some fees and contract stipulations that one may not find agreeable.  There is a $600 fee above and beyond the normal real estate transaction costs.  You are also locked into a buyer/sellers agreement for six months, so good choice in your agent in paramount.  
Colleen made recommendations regarding improvements to our house, factoring in costs and labor, to make our house more attractive in a competitive market.  She had a shocking accurate profile of our potential, and ultimate, home buyers based on factors I would have never considered.  We staged our house based on this information.  
Colleen works with a professional photographer to take pictures for the MLS database.  It truly made our house stand out from the camera phone pictures out there.
Re/Max handled all the showings with minimal involvement from me, other than a confirmation phone call.  In a depressed seller's market, Colleen sold our house in less than a week with multiple offers.  Other comparable houses in our development have yet to sell. She helped us a**** the offers to make the best choice, and negotiated a better deal for us.The closing occurred at the local Re/Max office and a fairly complex process was made clear and easy. 
We're continuing to work with Colleen while we search for a new house.  We recognize that we're not a huge-profit customer for her, yet we never feel like we have anything other than 100% of her attention.  She's shown us A LOT of houses.  She always responds to phone calls, texts, and emails the same day.  Generally, she gets us into see houses the same day we request it.  She comes highly recommended.

My girlfriend was looking to buy a house and Colleen Nicholson was her realtor.  She came up with 3 properties for her to look at.  My girlfriend went through the newspaper and found 7 properties that Colleen had been unable to find.  When she showed the properties she routinely showed up 5-10 minutes late, and on at least one occasion sat in her car on the phone for 10+ minutes while we waited outside for her to show us the house.She made the entire experience painful and contributed unnecessary stress to a HUGE life decision.  When my girlfriend was making an offer on a $130,000 house she asked Colleen "what is a good first offer if I want to get it down to $120,000.  Colleen told her that she should start at $119,000!  When I disagreed she waited until I went outside, then proceeded to tell my girlfriend that she didn't appreciate others telling her how to do her job! I recently bought an apartment building through another realtor and I had none of the issues that my girlfriend had.  Colleen managed to take what should have been an exciting major life step and make it an excruciating affair.  I would never recommend this firm to another person that I liked.