Complaint Review: Foxtons Realty NJ - Metuchen New Jersey

OH, HOW PATIENTLY I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS PRECIOUS MOMENT TO SPEAK THE TRUTH. I MUST THANK RONALD LIANG FOR THIS PLATFORM OF OPPORTUNITY, FOR EVEN THOUGH HE DID NOT OWN THIS HOME, (IT WAS HIS GIRLFRIENDS) HE DID HOWEVER PROVIDE THIS OPPORTINITY TO DISPLAY MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS. PLEASE READ ON AS MY REBUTALS ARE AS FOLLOWS: RONALD WROTE, AS A SPECTATOR: Our dissatisfaction with the lack of service from Foxtons Realty has been chronic and ongoing since the signing of the agreement. Upon signing the agreement I didn't fully realize the terms of the agreement or the full scope of the services provided by Foxtons. Had I fully understood, I certainly would not have chosen Foxtons as my realtor. After realizing my error I tried unsuccessfully to be released from my contract on Thursday August 17, 2006. The local office manager Robert DiBiase told me that being released from the contract early was not an option even though he realized there were mistakes made by Foxtons. TRUTH: MY ONE HOUR PRESENTATION COVERED ALL SERVICE DETAILS AND MY "DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE PROCEEDING TO PAPERWORK?" WAS HIS QUEUE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS IF THERE WAS ANY. MOST IMPORTANTLY, HE DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE LISTING OF THIS HOME FOR SALE AS IT WAS NOT HIS HOME TO SELL AND HIS SIGNATURE WAS UNECESSARY...IT WAS HIS "GIRLFRIENDS" HOME. RON SAT THERE SILENTLY AS HE SHOULD HAVE AND SAID CLOSE TO NOTHING AS I SPOKE TO THE HOME OWNER. RON We spoke to Mr. DiBiase for quite some time, and Mr. DiBiase agreed that the house was categorized incorrectly, incorrectly priced and that Eirk Rivera, our Foxtons agent hadn't been responsive to our needs. He wouldn't release us from our agreement, but would speak to Erik, relist the house with MLS, see if he could get us into the NY Times. Why all of the sudden are they now going to give us some attention. After they have lost us valuable time and money in the sale of our home! The following examples of Foxtons lack of judgment and service has left us with no trust in there ability to represent us in a professional manner: RON: 1-My home was classified as a High Ranch, when it is a split level and when I bought the house it was listed as a split level. TRUTH: I SUGGESTED FOR THE HOME TO BE CLASSIFIED AS A SPLIT LEVEL BUT HIS GIRLFRIEND SUGGESTED THAT SHE BOUGHT THE HOME AS A HIGH RANCH AND AGAINST MY SUGGESTION, I CLASSIFIED IT AS SUCH. IN RETROSPECT, I DO ADMIT THAT I WAS THE PROFESSIONAL AND I SHOULD HAVE DECIDED AGAINST IT INSTEAD OF AGREEING WITH HER DECISION. RON: 2-The Market Analysis was six GSMLS listings of ranch style homes in Mountainside, with prices ranging from $575,000 to $979,000. Although I do not fully understand what a market analysis entails. I've been told there is much more to it than what I was presented. TRUTH: MOST OF MY LISTING PRESENTATION TAKE MORE THAN AN HOUR AND RARELY DO PEOPLE REMEMBER EVERY DETAIL PRESENTED TO THEM. I HAVE ALWAYS AND WILL ALWAYS GIVE A COMPLETE ANALYSIS AS THIS IS BENEFICIAL TO THE REALTOR AS WELL AS THE CLIENT. RON: 3-My Foxtons realtor allowed the price to be listed well above what the market would bear. He thought the house would go between $750,000 and $825,000, but suggested $899,000 would be fine to start with because we had some Time". I did not understand the consequences of pricing a home too high! TRUTH: "SOME TIME" AS RON DESCRIBED WAS A YEAR ACCORDING TO HIS GIRLFRIEND...ALSO, BEFORE GOING INTO A COMPETITIVE MARKET ANALYSIS I ALWAYS COVER THE PERILLS OF OVERPRICING...NOT SELLING THE HOME IS USUALLY THE OUTCOME, HENCE WE OVERPRICED PURPOSELY THEN ADJUST LOWER IN PRICE WHEN READY TO SELL. RON: 4-There were no phone calls to me by my Foxtons agent. All calls were initiated by me or my fiance TRUTH: FEEDBACK CALLS WERE MANDATORY ONCE A WEEK BY MY COMPANY AND I ADHERED TO THAT GUIDELINE. SHE WAS RARELY HOME AND I USUALLY HAD TO LEAVE HER A MESSAGE. SHE WAS NEVER RUDE OR UNSATISFIED AS FAR AS I COULD TELL. RON: 5-After looking at other websites I very quickly realized the price was too high and called my agent to lower it from $899,000 to $799,000. Within a few days I after looking further, I asked him to lower it to $724,900. His only response to this was, The market declined 10% since I listed my home on or around June 10, 2006. I since found out that there has been a steady decline since January 2006. I feel my agent was not properly informed regarding the current market nor did he properly inform me. TRUTH: AGAIN, THAT'S WHAT A CMA IS FOR AND QUESTIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKED IF ANYTHING WAS UNCLEAR. RON: 6-The first 30 days on the market was for Foxtons exclusively. I did not realize this was not the normal procedure. DEFINE NORMAL PLEASE. PROPER PAPERWORK WAS DISCUSSED, SIGNED AND FILED ACCORDING TO NEW JERSEY REAL ESTATE LAW. AT NO POINT DID I CONVEY IT TO BE MANDATORY. THIS WAS A NONE ISSUE DUE TO THE LACK OF URGENCY FOR SELLING THE HOME AT THAT TIME OF SIGNING LISTING PAPERWORK. RON LIANG: 7-I was told by my agent that open houses generated only 4% of sales and weren't necessary. TRUTH: CORRECT THEY DO ONLY SELL APPROXIMATELY 4% OF SALES, HOWEVER, I WOULD NEVER SHY AWAY FROM THAT POSSIBILITY. OPEN HOUSES WERE HELD UPON REQUESTS. RON: 8-He also told me "realtor open houses" were a thing of the past because of the Internet I SINCERELY DON'T REMEMBER SAYING THESE EXACT WORDS AND THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I DO NOT BELEIVE. RON: 11-There was no tax map of the area presented to me TAX MAPS ARE ONLY PRESENTED UPON REQUEST AND NOT PART OF MY INITIAL PRESENTATION AS MOST PEOPLE DO NOT REQUEST OR CARE MUCH ABOUT THEM. RON: 12-My agent told me it was fine to have other realtors call Foxtons first to make an appointment with me to see my home. By doing this Foxtons had to track me or my fianc down before responding to their request. I feel it became too time consuming and possibly discouraged showings. TRUTH: THIS IS COMMON REAL ESTATE PRACTICE. IT'S CALLED A CONFIRMATION CALL IN AN EFFORT TO CONFIRM WITH YOU OR THE HOME OWNER OF THE VIEWING. LIVE CALLS FROM THE REALTOR USED TO BE PLACED ON HOLD BY OUR CALL CENTER AS THEY TRIED TO CONFIRM THE VIEWING THE SAME MINUTE THE VIEWING REQUEST CAME IN. YOU SHOULD HAVE INFORMED ME THAT YOU WERE OK WITH JUST A COURTESEY CALL INSTEAD OF A CONFIRMATION CALL. RON: 13-No feedback from any showings only comments from when I initiated call was that the potential buyers were not interested, no further action required. TRUTH: AS A LISTING AGENT FOR FOXTONS I HAD A TEAM OF BUYER AGENTS SELLING MY HOMES FOR ME AS I WAS TOO BUSY TO DO SO MYSELF WITH ABOUT 100 HOMES FOR SALE AT ONE POINT. RON: 14-No Foxtons buying agents ever have shown the house TRUTH: THAT IS PRECIESLY WHY THE MULTIPLE LISTING SYSTEM EXIST. LISTING REALTORS THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE TO SELL THE HOME, THEY CAN CO-BROKE A CERTAIN PERCENT TO PARTICIPATING BROKERS FOR THEIR EFFORT AND THIS ACCOUNTED FOR 60% OF MY SALES. RON: 15-We called Erik Rivera at 732-623-5655 on Friday August 25 to find out feed back on a walk through with ABC Realty on Wednesday and a walk through by ABC Realty on Thursday. Erik seemed very bothered that I called, very monotone, and said yes Ron what is it, I said Erik there were two walk throughs this week I would like to have feedback. TRUTH: FEEDBACK CALLS WERE MADE EVERY THURSDAY AND I DID NOT HAVE ANY FEEDBACK FROM ABC REALTORS TO GIVE TO HIM. I DID, HOWEVER, LEAVE MESSAGES FOR ABC REALTORS FOR SOME FEEDBACK FROM THEM TO NO AVAIL. RON: He said the clients with ABC said the bathrooms weren't updated and not in their price range. I then said what about Rankin Realty he really didn't seemed informed on this and was silent a bit and finally said no comments as of yet. He then said sarcastically to me, anything else" I said no thank you Eric just was seeking some feedback! Thank you! This is a chronic problem with Foxtons, no advice; no follow through no service what so ever! TRUTH: FEEDBACK WAS SOLELY BUYER AGENT SIDED. MEANING, I WOULD HAVE TO RELY ON BUYER AGENTS FROM MY TEAM AND DIFFERENT REALTOR COMPANIES AS WELL TO DELIVER ACURATE FEEDBACK FOR ME TO RELATE TO THE CLIENT. IF FEEDBACK WAS NOT OBTAINED THROUGH MY EFFORTS THEN NO FEEDBACK COULD BE CONVEYED TO THE CLIENT. ALSO, THIS HOME WAS SOLD UNDER MY SUPERVISION AND I DO HAVE THE PAYSTUB TO PROVE IT :-) ------------- EDUCATION RUTGERS UNIVERSITY NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN ECONOMICS FOXTONS INC. METUCHEN, NJ Listing Agent March 2006 October 2007 Met daily with home and business owners to deliver PowerPoint sales presentations and obtain new accounts. Negotiated property sales price and contractual provisions between buyer agent and seller and executed the sale to a close. Transacted more than $10M in real estate sales in 2006 and received the New Jersey Association of Realtors Silver Circle of Excellence Sales Award. Team leader of nine buyer agents for Middlesex County. Transacted over $11M in sales with 36 transactions for 2007 and ranked third in sales for the Metuchen regional sales office, servicing Middlesex, Somerset, Union, Hunterdon, Warren, and Morris Counties. Buyers Agent September 2004 March 2006 Ranked top producing buyers agent in 2005 for the Metuchen Regional office with a sales force of 55 on-the-field professionals. Transacted over $10M of real estate sales in central New Jersey yielding a total of 37 transactions for the year 2005. Ranked third in company overall sales for 2005 out of 236 on-the-field tri-state sales professionals. Qualified for the New Jersey Association of Realtors Silver Circle of Excellence Sales Award. ...AND ONLY ONE INTERNET COMPLAINT. I SAY THAT'S NOT TOO BAD!!! SELLING OR BUYING A HOME IN CENTRAL NEW JERSEY? PLEASE CONTACT ME AT: [email protected] SUBJECT: REAL ESTATE THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

We were not allowed to get out of our contract. But we held firm and demanded another realtor. We took control of our situation and offered another 1% to the buyers realtor. I must say that Ralph Rodriguez of Foxtons our new realtor has been great and so have the staff assigned to assist him. Our house is currently under contract!