Valarie Burke, NC Broker/Realtor®

Oct 27th, 2021

I had a tour scheduled for today (Monday 10/4) to view a home. The realtor, Kenisha Sullivan, called me at 8am this morning to “talk about our appointment”. However, being a Monday morning, I was unable to respond until 11am. She cancelled our appointment we had agreed upon. Basically wasted my valuable time and gave attitude blaming me for her canceling. I never make appointments I don’t stick to and am really upset with the lack of respect I was given.
Oct 15th, 2021

After excellent preliminary research on his part, I selected Keller Williams and their representative, William Frost. Ultimately, it was the company that chose not work with me as my buyer's agent. That was absolutely their decision to make; however, in my opinion it took them at least a week or two too long to make it. A quicker verdict would NOT have yielded a favorable OR negative review from me. It just seemed that this decision period Went on too long. My decisions come more quickly: Three stars +.
Jun 5th, 2021

I purchased a home that was listed by KW South Park. When we showed up to do our final walkthrough, all utilities had been shut off. We were unable to do our walkthrough and the fridge was now full of mold. Then upon closing, they did not present us with any keys. The lawyers said they did not drop any off. We contacted KW and they said they would not release any keys until after the property was recorded with the deed of records. I verified with the law office this has already been done but yet they still refuse to turn over keys. Now I am having to have a locksmith come out to let me in a house I own so that I can change all the locks and garage door openers.
Apr 4th, 2021

We had called Jamie Milam and asked her to be our real estate agent, but instead were referred to her associate realtor, Sarah Hill. I was open about our needs from the very beginning. I made it very clear to her that I could meet literally any day at any time and for her to just book appointments while they were available for anything that matched our criteria. We were desperate to find a home and I made that situation very clear to our realtor. The entire experience quickly became exhausting as I frequently and patiently had to share with our agent what we needed, in regards to the process, as first time home buyers. The standardized MLS portal was quite frustrating as each time I was able to go through the new listings and “like” the houses we wanted to see, as we were told to do, it was always too late to get an appointment to see any of the houses by the time our agent finally attempted to book at her leisure. I was prepared to be aggressive in our search, with the market so intense, but our realtor did not seem to prioritize us whatsoever, nor did she ever share that she was unable to be aggressive for us as we asked her to do so many times. We were given excuses and endless apologies, with accompanied promises that she would do better. After weeks of frustration, and seeing only a handful of total houses, we had to give an ultimatum that if we weren’t the right fit, we would respectively need to find someone else who could advocate for us in our search for a home. This seemed to turn on the switch in Sarah’s head, and she finally started calling me with new listings and making time in her schedule to prioritize us more after working together for over 2 months. Perhaps the very real prospect of losing her commission encouraged her to do her job. After putting in 7 dead-end offers on different homes, as is understandably the real estate saga of 2021, we finally got an offer accepted at a property that I saw on the MLS site on its LAST DAY of showings that went unnoticed by our realtor. Unacceptable. Fast forward to the end of our closing period, things seemed to be going smoothly for once until we were informed that the coordinating agent, Natalie, misquoted us on a huge negotiation quote for an electrician project. She had used the incorrect number of $1,500 for these repairs when, in reality, it was shockingly $15,000. Not only did this totally ruin our negotiation strategy in the asking period with the sellers, but she should have known that changing ungrounded 2-prong outlets for the ENTIRE house did not seem accurate for only $1,500 (she had previously informed me that other clients of hers swapped out 3 for $800!). Where is the logic? On top of this, she did not inform me herself once she got this news, but I was informed of the discrepancy by the electric company after I emailed to schedule the install 2 days prior to closing. Natalie was supposed to be our “bulldog,” as they described her, which we found not to be the case whatsoever. Additionally, Keller Mortgage forgot to credit the check for repairs we received from the sellers in the final closing costs and the lawyers office (Renger & Reynolds) incorrectly overcharged us $5,000 in closing costs. We were the ones, even with zero experience, that saw all these errors. Our realtor, who was supposed to review the disclosures and flag any discrepancies prior to sending them off, did not notice any of these mistakes herself. Did she even review them? I was informed that she quit the day after our closing. An absolutely awful experience and I will never wish it upon anyone. We are young and energetic newlyweds and were so excited to share in the long-awaited experience of one of our “firsts” and are devastated that Keller Williams Southpark (The Orenda Group), Sarah, Natalie, Renger & Reynolds, and Keller Mortgage ruined the experience that we will never get back. All that we were offered was $700 of compensation for their unbelievable mistake, an awkward hug from Jamie Milam and an invitation to a cocktail party.
Aug 19th, 2021