Report Card Time!

Perhaps today is not the best day to do this, as I'm already in a bad mood over several other issues, but I may as well get this over with. I figure the best way to summarize the whole move is to present a report card for everyone we worked with.

Genesis Real Estate (Derek Mertz) - D+ : The main reason why I went with a realtor after our last experience is because I knew this was a bad time to be trying to sell a house. With my new job hitting crunch time and a wife trying to take care of three small children, the last thing I wanted was for us to have to handle all the work of real estate transactions. An agent was supposed to take care of all it, or so I thought. That's what they tell you in television spots.

Well, it didn't happen that way. I was way too involved in this whole mess, and it seemed like every time something was going wrong our agent was either nowhere to be found or not really interested in doing anything about it. If he ever picked up on my frustrations he never tried to be even sympathetic. The only thing he did well was to line up a mold removal specialist. Unfortunately, he did very little to set and manage our expectations, so it often seemed like one hit of bad news after another.

He forgot the little things. He didn't let us know that the sellers accepted our repairs request. He never did find us a copy of the subdivision CCR's, though I reminded him several times. If he ever did intend to tell us when to show up for closings, he always seemed to wait until after I'd given up waiting and called myself. It's as if the moment our offer on the new house was accepted his work was done and he couldn't be bothered. It just got easier to do things myself.

The last straw came last week on closing day. From what I can tell he was content to let things run their course without lifting a finger. He wasn't even aware there was a problem until I called him. And though he supposedly got immediately to work trying to find out what was going on, he didn't call back, even to let us know he wasn't able to find anything out--even that would have helped.

At any rate, this person will not be receiving any recommendation from us.

The Home Loan Coach - C+ : Our mortgage broker was a recommendation from our agent. I'll never know the whole story, so it's hard to say who was responsible for what, but the pains of the last day were mainly due to a network crash at the lender "Coach" lined up for us. While their follow up wasn't the best, at least they tried to get things straightened out. I'll never know if the lender just wasn't giving them accurate information or if they weren't passing on the truth, but I was told three different times over the space of six hours that the money had been wired. You can only hear that so many times and have nothing happen before you start to lose confidence.

The biggest problem was that they were out of state. That's fine when things go right. When they go wrong it's always nice to have someone you can strangle face-to-face. Plus I think I could have found a better rate locally. And I'll never know for sure who screwed up on the hazard insurance binder.

I would recommend them, but only if you really have NO time or desire to deal with mortgages, which doesn't take all that long, really.

Ness Construction, LLC (Air Quality Restoration) - A : The one thing our agent did well with. These guys came through for us. The inspector showed up the same day to inspect our mold problem. They came when they said they would, finished quickly, and hit their estimate.

I hope you never have a mold problem, but if you do, this is the guy to call.

Title One Title Company - A : Our buyers selected this one, and everything seemed to go smoothly for them. We had no problems. Our money came through on time. It went how I would expect things to go.

I'd probably recommend this company.

Pioneer Title Company - C+ : No one really selected them. Our agent preferred another office in another town (glad we didn't go THAT route). Our sellers didn't want to drive that far for closing, so they counter-recommended the most local office.

They were very sympathetic when things started going wrong, but didn't really seem to be trying that hard for us. I'm not sure that's their job anyhow, but who knows. They claim they never saw anything indicating our lender needed an insurance binder, but that sort of thing seems to be standard procedure, and I did find a form stating that the lender would not release funds without one in the stack of copies they gave me after signing. Something seems a little fishy, and I'm not talking about their huge salt-water aquarium.

I'm not sure I'd recommend them.

Adam Bramble Insurance Agency - A : He's our local Farmers Insurance agent. I called him last monday just to make sure everything was set on the insurance side of things. He hadn't heard a thing, which was not a good sign. But, unlike far too many of the others I worked with in all this, he simply said "I'll take care of it." And he did. Not a single delay was traceable to him or his staff not getting the proper documents to the right place by the right time.

There's a reason why he's our agent for auto, home, and life. If there's ever a problem in any of those areas, he's the guy I want to have taking care of me. And that's why I recommend him.

Space Age Movers - B+ : They guys that came to move us out of our home were great; very professional, very efficient, and communicated well. I felt we were in really good hands. The guys that came to move us in the following week were almost as good, but the extra team that showed up were a little flighty.

They were pretty good at work with us during the delay, but I'm still a little irritated that I couldn't get hold of anyone for an hour--and we were still billed for it. It did turn out for the best, though, as I had been calling to try and cancel them for the day, thinking we weren't going to get the keys after all. But then we got the keys and I was glad to still have them available.

I'd recommend them, but ask for Chris.

Idaho Self Storage - B+ : In spite of a flurry of rather minor problems, this proved to be a good choice. On the first moving day we suddenly realized we had more stuff than would fit in our storage unit. The site manager found me a second suitable unit right next to our first one, and gave me a decent deal on locks for both. He would have given me a good price, too, had the company policy allowed. They've been easy to work with, and they were quick to acknowledge their mistakes, which is fine.

It also happens to be right next door to my bank, which came in really handy when it came time to pay the movers the first time and I'd forgotten my checkbook.

Probably not the cheapest place in town, but they're good to work with.

Budget Host Inn - C- : Speaking of acknowledging their mistakes, these people really need to work on it. We'd reserved two motel rooms with a connecting door several weeks in advance. The reality was that the people they'd booked in those rooms the night before suddenly decided to stay another night. Had the motel told me this up front I probably would have understood and been happy to work around the problem.

That's not what happened. When I arrived they first made sure they billed my credit card up front for the entire week--non-refundable. Then they told me which rooms we were getting, with not even the slightest hint that it wasn't what we'd asked for. Not only were they not next to each other, they were on different floors.

When I called it to their attention they shuffled things around and found us two rooms next to each other. When I asked if it had a connecting door they admitted it did not. I told them that wouldn't work. Only then did they admit that they knew what I'd reserved all along and that it wasn't available. By that point I was mad. They finally agreed to get us into the connected rooms the next day when the occupants left, but they seemed determined not to budge an inch to help me unless I complained. They didn't offer to do anything at all to make up for the problem.

Housekeeping was spotty, at best. Richard hated the place. I wouldn't recommend them, not even if you have pets. All the free continental breakfasts in the world wouldn't make up for how they treated me.

Bottom Line
I'm glad it's all over. If there is ever a next time (and I sure hope not), I plan to be much more assertive about a lot of things. Ohhh, I'm so glad this is over. I realize my problems are pretty small compared to what's going on in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but then if they'd all payed what I shelled out to NOT have all the problems that I ended up with, THEY'D be ticked off, too.