Chapman Hall Realtors - Atlanta North

Feb 13th, 2022

Sherine Searcy with Chapman Hall went above and beyond to help me find the perfect home for my daughter and I. We looked at dozens of houses and she helped keep me on track with what I was really looking for. There were a few times she had to talk me off the ledge when I went way off plan because the market is so competitive that I didn't get the first few houses we offered on. She kept me focused and she worked tirelessly to help us find The One. I'm thrilled to say that we found our dream house with everything on our list. We moved in a few weeks ago and could not be happier. I would recommend her to anybody if you want to buy or sell a home. Thanks so much for everything!!
Feb 8th, 2021

Jun 22nd, 2018

Jun 24th, 2015

Now that I am moved in and somewhat settled, I can take some time to caution on using this company. Please note that this experience was me being an out-of-state, first-time homebuyer. I initially saw a home on Zillow (or Truilia) and even though I had a recommendation, I ended up going with the agent that was listed within the listing. One thing I will say about this whole experience is that Jyoti (the agent) was always calm and kind and did her best to get to showings for my virtual tours. However, at the beginning I did a lot of the looking myself. I knew what I wanted, so I figured it would just be easier for me to send her listings but after working with another agent who sent me a form asking me details about what I wanted, I realized I shouldn't have been looking as hard as I was. Anyways, the real issues began when I put an offer on the 3rd house working with her. It was a really nice house, but once I went through inspection I was told about the extent of the repairs, one of which was the roof. Aside from that, I had agreed to a $30k appraisal gap. For those of you who are new to buying a house, this is VERY HIGH and should never the agreed to. Jyoti did do her best to explain to me what an appraisal gap was and I thought I understood until it came down to having the house appraised. It came in $30k under asking. Which meant A) I would have had to come up with the $30k in cash to cover the appraisal gap and B) I would have been already in negative equity because the house had a lower appraisal value than what I was about to pay for. Once I conferred with my dad and stepmom, it was clear to me I needed to back out of this deal. I think it was somewhere around this point (maybe a little before) Jyoti brought in her manager, Kamala. My concern was no longer the repairs as we had come to an agreement on that, but the appraisal gap amount as I was NOT paying $30k in cash or that much over the asking. Here's where it got really bad. I was asked by Jyoti (and Kamala) if I'd be open to having a Zoom meeting with the seller's broker. I found this to be odd but was assured he just wanted to explain to me the situation. When I got on this call, I was being pressured into going through with this deal by the seller's broker AND my own "team." Their reasons were because if I didn't go through with it, I'd lose my $10k in earnest money (which, by the way, is also VERY high) and because if I didn't go through and kept looking, I'd end up with a higher interest rate (which I understood due to the market). I understood both these things and still did not want to buy the house. And now I was very upset I felt like the seller and my realtors were in cahoots. It no longer felt like it was about me, but more about me closing so they could get their checks. After I lost $10k in earnest and digested what happened on that call, I let them know I would not be continuing. They brought in their broker who tried to match what my credit union's real estate program offered in closing cost cash, but it was nowhere near what I lost and did not at all cover the experience I have had up until that point. So in the end I went with Better Homes and Gardens through my credit union and was connected with a realtor who was everything from beginning to end. I ended up with a new-ish house on a cul-de-sac that appraised only $2k less than the offering price. He advised on maximums, added addendums...he did this thing. And in return I ended up not getting screwed a second time. Not to mention my interest rate was LOWER than what it would have been if I went with the pressuring of the last team. Please do your research and be careful with any agent you use because some of them are not for the people. If you have specific question, feel free to message me. I still have records and really just don't want anyone to go through what I went through.
Oct 10th, 2022