Weichert Weichert Realtors My experience as a seller with Weichert Real Estate. The most unprofessional and dishonest Real Estate company I've ever experienced. Morris Plains, New Jersey

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Welcome to
WeichertSucks.com!
 

WHY IS THIS PAGE HERE?
The intention of this page is to inform others of my experiences with
Weichert Real Estate.  I hope this helps you be better prepared and
protected should you decide to work with Weichert Real Estate.


WHEN DID THIS ALL BEGIN?
We signed with the agent in May 2011


MY WEICHERT EXPERIENCE.
First, some background.  We decided to list
our home with Donna Daly - an agent working for Weichert in Wayne, New Jersey --
the broker of record, Joseph Boreale would be considered her "manager". 
Our decision to list with Ms. Daly was based on several reasons -- however, the
main reason was that she was successful in getting the house across the street
from us sold for a price that was in line with comparables (comps) and did so
quickly.  Additionally, Ms. Daly had some very good ideas with respect to
getting the property ready to be shown.  I want to stress that Ms. Daly was
VERY good right until the point that we signed.  Once we signed, she went
from being a 10 out of 10 to being a 2 out of 10 -- and it only got worse from
there!
Note, when we interviewed Ms. Daly -- we made
sure she understood that we wanted to list the property for a "priced to sell"
amount.  We weren't interested in chasing the market, and we didn't want
her to give us a high number just to get the listing. (The history of the market
before and after proved we had it priced properly based on comps).
After signing, it came time to do the
pictures of the property as well as the written description (write-up) this is
pretty much where the horror began.  First, the write up.  The
original write up was riddled with typos and actually repeated the same line
twice!  Ms. Daly acted like it was no big deal.  Ok -- so let's talk
about the pictures.  I could easily write several pages about the pictures,
but instead I'll let some of Ms. Daly's pictures do all the talking:
PICTURES THAT DONNA DALY AND WEICHERT POSTED
OF MY PROPERTY ON MLS THAT ENDED UP EVERYWHERE ELSE (ZILLOW, REALTOR.COM, ETC.)


Visit WeichertSucks.com for pictures and more!  The site is updated often!!


Keep in mind the pictures were actually WORSE
before -- but that is what she did after we repeatedly begged for them to be
fixed.  We were also promised that the time/date stamp would removed right
away.  As you can see, that never happened.
Ms. Daly felt the pictures were
"professional" and that there was nothing wrong with them.  She even stated
that they were as good as the ones on a comp's listing that were professional! 
(That property has since been put under contract!)
Again, there are even MORE horror stories
about the pictures... but let's move on!


Is it 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom?

We were FORCED into listing it as a 4 bedroom, knowing full well that it was a 3
bedroom.  the 4th room didn't have a closet or a door!  But Ms. Daly
INSISTED that we list it as a 4 bedroom.  I asked her many many times what
we will do with people who come and look at it with 3 children - and I never got
an answer.  Needless to say, we got people to look at and then left because
they couldn't find the 4th bedroom that was advertised.  More wasted time
and effort.  After pushing the point over and over we got Ms. Daly to
correct the listing and bring it 3 bedrooms... mind you, after the most valuable
period of time was over -- when the property is still "fresh and new" on the
market!


I asked around... what can I do and who can I
talk to?  First, you're suppose to talk to her "boss" -- in this case it is
the "Manager" Broker in the office. Joseph Boreale.  I could go on and on
about Mr. Boreale, but I'll say this much.  He promised everything would be
fixed -- and it never was.  When we called him back to ask him when he
would do what he said, he ended the telephone conversation (hung up on us). 
I can't decide who I would warn you more against... Ms. Daly, or Mr. Boreale...
suffice it to say I would avoid them both... keep reading to find out how things
go from here.


Realizing that Mr. Boreale wasn't going to
help solve the problems, we turned to Weichert Corporate -- founded by Jim
Weichert.  Are you ready for to hear how Weichert deals with problems in
one of their offices?  I hope you're sitting down!  They tell you to
call the Broker-of-record for the next nearest office.  In this case it was
Franklin Lakes, NJ -- and I spoke with Tamar Joffe (who goes by "Tommi") --
she's very nice on the phone, however, in the end, all she did was "talk to Mr.
Boreale" -- who made more promises that never happened.  That is as far as
I could get no matter what telephone number I called for Weichert, I kept
getting the same answer to call the nearest Broker.


I then went tot he NJAR (New Jersey
Association of Realtors).  I'll expand on this later -- but suffice it to
say, they agreed that if what I said was true, I should file a complaint. 
I asked how long it takes... Answer: around FOUR MONTHS! -- Well, that's useless
to me since the contract would be up by then.  I have to think they know
that too.  So nothing there.


I then went to the NJREC (New Jersey Real
Estate Commission) -- These are the same folks that keep the banks and the
insurance companies in the check and they were VERY interested in hearing more!
-- I decided to keep this as a "back up" should things get totally out of hand
(like the Realtor destroys my property or something, or doesn't let me withdraw
and give an unconditional release)... THEN I would go down this path.
There is even more about how she was going to
present it the way we talked about on Realtor.com -- all of which she back
pedaled on, which was my fault, for not getting it in writing.  The only
person I have to blame for a lot of this stuff is ME!  Why?  Because I
trusted Weichert to do what they said on their word -- which is why I put this
site up.  To prevent OTHERS from doing the same thing I did!


In the middle of all this we got an offer on
the house!  We were very surprised, and welcomed the offer.  It was a
lowball offer, but we relaxed out desire to push Ms. Daly to do her job since we
felt there was hope we could divest ourselves of the property and sever ties
with Weichert and learn from our mistakes in dealing with these people. 
Needless to say, like everything else, the offer was handled unprofessionally. 
To the point where MS. DALY MADE AN UNAUTHORIZED COUNTEROFFER ON THE PROPERTY!
-- this was when I really had the "ah-ha" moment - I was really dealing with
people that didn't care about anything except themselves!  I tried
everything I could to put the deal together and all Weichert did was stonewall
or ignore any ideas to make a deal.  I even offered the price the buyer
wanted and the deal STILL fell apart!  What does that tell you?  I was
never presented with anything in writing -- so I have no way to know what was
fact or fiction with respect to the "offer".  My gut tells me that none of
it was as Ms. Daly said it was... so I'll let you read my experiences as they
happened and make your own determinations.


Ms. Daly will tell you about the open houses
she had... and I don't know if they are a good idea or not.  But I'd to
mention that many of the people that came to the open houses came to look at a 4
bedroom house.  NOTHING Ms. Daly could do is going to make a 4th bedroom
appear.  I even had the opportunity to speak with a few agents that showed
the house.  The first thing they mentioned was that it really wasn't a 4
Bedroom house.


MY SUGGESTIONS.
So!  That's just the tip of the iceberg
with these people... let me tell you something important should you decide to
use this company (or, in truth, any other agent!) (There are MANY other agents
out there... I would suggest you DO NOT USE WEICHERT).  Make sure
EVERYTHING is in writing (learn from this!)  Don't believe them when they
say they'll take professional pictures or that they'll treat it like it was
their own house or any of the other things they say to make you like them. 
Also MAKE SURE you make it so you can get out of the contract should you need
to!  I had never sold anything with a Realtor before -- and I didn't know
better.  I gave them a SIX MONTH agreement that ends right around the
Holiday Season!!  I know... stupid on my part, but I trusted that Weichert
was a "big name" and that they would do the right thing.  I was VERY wrong. 
Make sure you sign for a shorter period of time and make sure you have a way
out.  NOW!  PLEASE be clear on one thing.  I don't want you to
have a "way out" if they do their job.  They deserve to get paid their
commission if they do what they say they are going to do.  So PLEASE don't
think you should be able to "get out" of a contract with them so you can avoid
paying them!!  Had Ms. Daly and her office done what she promised I would
have been HAPPY to give her the commission!  I would have recommended her
to others and I would have used her in the future.  Instead, I'm here
warning others to avoid her and Weichert at all costs!!!
What I'm trying to say is that had Ms. Daly
and her office done everything that she promised... had the property been
presented professionally, with proper photos, proper write ups, etc, I would at
least know she did what she could and kept her word.  That never happened.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
July 18, 2011

It is now the middle of July 2011.  Some might say, "gosh, you didn't give
them long enough!" -- To the contrary!  What should I have done? 
Should I have said nothing about the pictures?  Should I have accepted the
fact that a counteroffer was made without my permission?  Should I just let
the six months run out and have to keep paying for the house while it gets more
and more stagnant on the market?  Chances are Weichert is going to fight me
-- that will only embolden me to get my story out more and more.

At this point, all I really want to do is sell my property, but it is clear that
Ms. Daly and her office not going to able to do this in a professional manner. 
I will likely rent it out until I can put this experience to use and hire an
agent that actually does what they say.
I'll keep updating here as things progress. 
Hopefully the sign and the lockbox will be gone soon and I will be fully
released from the listing.  At this point, I'm not looking for compensation
for loosing the two most valuable months on the market.  The ball is now in
Weichert's hand.  How they handle it from here will be posted here. 
Thank you for reading!

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