Nest Realty - Jim Duncan

We cannot share enough praises to even begin to express our gratitude and appreciation for Jim Duncan. We were not from the area when we first reached out to Jim after finding his blog - his posts were just the first peek into his overall thoughtfulness and wealth of knowledge on real estate and the Charlottesville area at large. This kicked off our almost year-long process of searching for our next home as out-of-towners. Throughout the entire journey, Jim was in lockstep with us every step of the way from hearing our “wish list” to filming comprehensive tours to watch remotely to putting in several offers in competitive buying situations before we found the one. He was patient with us as we explored multiple options and provided constructive feedback through the entire process. We’ve even since reached out to Jim on advice/recommendations for the area even after our house had already closed. If you’re looking for an experienced, knowledgeable, and caring realtor, look no further than Jim.

Extremely professional. Friendly and understanding of needs.  Made the home buying experience go smoothly.  Cold not have asked for better company to do business with!

My husband did a lot of Internet research before we hired Nest Realty to sell our house; we were very impressed with their web presence, innovative use of social media, and Jim's ideas on new ways of selling. Despite this, it was rather difficult to set up the initial appointment due to lost messages, miscommunications, and other factors, but my husband really wanted to hire him, so we did so. At first, all seemed to go well -- Jim sent a professional photographer to take pictures for the MLS listing and printed a very eye-catching sign for the yard. On the other hand, the listing itself was poorly written and did not really address all of the features we wanted emphasized. Jim also seemed to lack a good network in our area to help actively market the home; nearly all our prospects were from agents who had found the listing. He held an agent's open house which no Realtors attended. Within a few weeks, we decided to lower the price of the home and asked Jim to make some changes in the listing -- he lowered the price appropriately but forgot to remove our offer of $4K in closing costs, a mistake which could have proved costly had a buyer made an offer expecting that extra $4K in concessions, which we were not able to make. We also increased the selling agent's commission to 4%, but Jim neglected to confirm that we wanted to keep his commission at 3% rather than lowering it to 2% (the significance of this will come later). Once we had an offer, he was competent at negotiating, and we were able to reach an agreement with the buyers. After that, however, I felt that he lost interest in the sale, and I found it difficult to get a lot of information or help from him in all the ensuing paperwork and details. We had never sold a home before and found the process a little confusing -- requests to Jim for information and assistance were often answered with terse, unhelpful e-mails or put off for later and never followed up on. After the home inspection, I felt Jim did not represent us very well during the negotiations with the buyer's Realtor regarding the concessions we were willing to make. The sale did go through on time, but Jim did not make any effort to attend any of the inspections, walk-throughs, or even the closing session, leaving all of that to us on our own. The buyer's Realtor attended all of the events and was very attentive in looking out for her client's interests. The Friday before our Monday closing, Jim contacted my husband and said that Jim had neglected to confirm with us that his commission would remain at 3% rather than falling to 2% when we offered a higher rate to the selling agent. My husband and I wanted to do the right thing ethically, and we had always intended for Jim to receive a 3% commission, so we contacted the closing attorney and made sure that he did indeed receive the higher commission, despite our disappointment with Jim's services after the contract was signed. Even with our agreeing to the higher commission, the only contact we had from Jim after that was a quick phone call to let us know that he would not be attending the pre-close walk-through or the closing session and would have the selling agent pick up his lock box for him. We never heard from him again, not a thank-you for our business, no congratulations on selling the house, not even an expression of appreciation for the extra $1750 he received because we wanted to be fair. On the whole, Jim seems like a man with a lot of great ideas for selling houses using social media and Web presence, but his attention seemed more focused on building his brand identity and blogging than on serving his clients once the initial contract was signed and his commission was ensured. He often seemed abrupt and unpersonable to me during conversations. Although I believe him to be honest and hard-working, I felt that his communications skills and attention to detail were lacking. Update (05/2011): Jim's response exemplifies very well the difficulties and frustrations I had dealing with him. My husband and I discussed this review extensively before I posted it, not wanting to unfairly malign someone whose income depends on his reputation. Reading the response, though, it seems to me that he still is focusing on style, not substance. For example, an apology or good follow-up and concluding contact at the time of the transaction would have probably prevented the bad taste left in our mouths afterward. Offering a much-delayed apology to the Internet at large just seems to be a face-saving move. Also, the response ignores the substantive criticisms (like mistakes in communication that could have cost a lot of money) to cherry-pick quotes to make it look like we were some sort of whiny prima-donnas who expected an unprecedented amount of hand-holding. I actually revisited this report a year after posting it in hopes that the frustrations and complaints we had would seem much less significant through the lens of time -- hoping to be able to upgrade my rating in light of a longer perspective and after the initial emotions had settled. Unfortunately, reading my review and the response by Jim, I have to say that I still feel that he was, for us, a Realtor of great ideas and grand vision but lacking in attention to detail.