CENTURY 21 Pierce Realty - Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin

Mike

I recently sold my cabin in the area and hired Century 21 and Tom Thiessen as the listing agent. I went with Tom as I was given his name by the realtor at Century 21 who I had done business with before and had started the process with this cabin a year earlier when I had considered maybe selling last year. This agent had retired and gave me Tom’s name so I followed up with him and hired him late this summer when I decided to sell. Tom did a very nice and thoughtful market analysis and came up with a listing price that I was comfortable with and turned out to be a good one. I initially thought it was quite aggressive but as it turned out it might not have been high enough. But I was pleased with the asking price and what I realized in the sale and I won’t play the “what if” game. However, that’s where the good in this process ends. In the 30 days I worked with Tom on this, I felt like I was working for him and not he working for me. Never once did I feel like I had any room for negotiation in the process. Closing date was left as negotiable with my preference to be in mid November. The offer that was the best wanted to close in 30 days. I wanted to negotiate at this point and I was laughed at when I brought up potentially asking for some more money in exchange for that closing date or even asking for a bit more time to allow me to clean out the cabin as I live 300 miles away. I did not call Tom frequently and did not call over trivial concerns but naturally questions and issues come up in the process. Multiple times it seemed as though I was bothering Tom and that he did not have time for my concerns and I even asked him a couple times if I was bothering him based on the tone of his voice. Another time I texted him with several questions and his reply was he was going to a wedding. I did eventually hear back from him but it was several days later , but the point being I was not a priority. Another time he was too busy to let the buyer view the cabin because he was on a pontoon boat ride. The buyer had made the offer site unseen and was up there and wanted to get in. In addition, after being away from my cabin for 3 weeks and returning to clean it out in anticipation of the closing, I discovered a light had been left on in the cabin by a realtor who had shown the property. It may have been Tom it likely was not. In addition the back door was unlocked. I texted him to let him know my concerns over this and disappointment to discover this and he never replied to me. But the biggest example of his seeming lack of regard and lack of ownership as the listing agent was when I discovered on my last day at the cabin cleaning up 6 days before the closing, that I had an issue with septic. I called him in need of guidance and hoping for some wisdom and direction and all I got was “ I can’t speak for the buyer”. So I was left to contact the buyer and had to ask Tom for his number to which he replied “ I’m driving now” He did shortly after text me his number. This obviously was a big concern with closing looming in 6 days, and like the other examples displayed a seeming indifference to me and my concerns. At this point I called the owner of the agency Mickey Pierce with my concerns regarding the above issues with Tom and did give credit where credit was due. I told her that I am happy to pay for service and value added, but did not feel I was getting service or value added in this process and asked for an adjustment in his commission. She said she needed to research and talk with him and that she would call me Monday after the weekend. I never received a call from her. But all of a sudden 3 days prior to closing Tom was texting me and emailing me and making sure everything was in line to proceed. This was window dressing and an attempt to look good at the end. I had already been in touch with the title company and was one step ahead of him at the end. I had done my due diligence on my own and did not learn anything new at the end. I wished I would have done my due diligence in selecting a different agent and agency.