Jan & Tom.com / Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty

Great people to deal with

We completed a home purchase at the peak of the market that was rather complicated. We are fortunate that Tom is knowledgeable, honest, conscientious, and reliable. He navigated this complicated purchase seamlessly with good communication. We are very happy with his service and professionalism.
This is our second real estate transaction that depended on Tom’s expertise and we will continue to work with Tom in the future.

“Even a Monkey Could Sell a House In This Market…” -Janice Stromar

…turns out we should’ve gone with the monkey.

Okay, that’s a harsh title, but upon our first meeting these were Jan’s words, instilling confidence in us when interviewing for the best realtor to represent us. The market did begin to turn when we listed our house, which we fully understand is beyond anyone’s control. If a monkey could sell our home at our expected price before the market dip, then we expected our realtor to dig in and demonstrate the advantages of human evolution.

Jan and Tom aren’t bad realtors, they’re very professional. They’re great sales people as they did come prepared and were very effective in selling us their services. We know they have many clients and have had success in a hot market. “We don’t need to sell your house, we’ll keep making money regardless” is me paraphrasing one of Tom’s favourite lines dropped on more than one occasion (in hindsight we should’ve given more weight to this red flag). The thing is, any sales person can look good in a hot market, but what separates the great from the mediocre is how they perform when the market starts to cool.

Jan and Tom chose a strategy that didn’t work, in fact backfired, and may have cost us a great deal of potential money, but that can be contributed to unfornate timing as that strategy worked for them in the past. This poor review isn’t a reflection of a misfired strategy or the complaints of people that wish they made more money. This review is about value for money. We firmly believe Property Guys would’ve given us exactly the same service as Jan and Tom.

Pros:
– pulled all the necessary paperwork
– took photos and virtual 3D walkthrough (did not post to their website though)
– scheduled viewings
– contacted us with offers
– sent someone to put the ‘for sale’ sign in the ground

Cons:
– frequently out of town, often not telling us and being unreachable (Jan would defer us to Tom once we did make contact)
– never being present when ‘serious’ buyers were viewing the house.
– never providing feedback because ‘that doesn’t happen anymore’. (Our current buying realtor is constantly asking us for feedback to pass back on sellers)
– Upon selling the home we didn’t see or speak with Jan or Tom again, except when Jan texted to ask us to leave the keys behind and Tom called to make sure the money went through before giving the keys to the buyers (we really did appreciate Tom’s call and diligence). In fact, being Jan’s client we felt she was actively avoiding us. She came to get the lockbox and didn’t even attempt to knock on the door because she ‘thought no one was home’ and knowing I work from home.
– no congratulations or otherwise upon closing the deal. No thank you for choosing them as realtor after they got paid.

I don’t know the exact costs that Realtors pay when listing a home, there’s not itemized bill and the industry isn’t exactly transparent. I know these costs come out of their commission, but the amount of our money Jan and Tom walked away with for the amount of service provided are grossly out of balance.

I would not recommend Jan and Tom to anyone simply due to the lack of service for the amount of commission paid. For a very similar experience hire Property Guys, 2% Realty, or something similar. Hiring a monkey would be a challenge when trying to convert a commission percentage to bananas.

So grateful for this team donating a tent for our Move to Cure ALS event