Realty World Dominion

Carol is the smartest and most experienced realtor I know, and that’s saying something. She has unparalleled strategic intelligence about deals. And she knows all the important people in the banks, so her short sale abilities are invaluable. In fact, I know other realtors who pay to consult with her about how to make complicated deals happen. I have bought or sold several properties with her. She watched out for my interests, even at the expense of her own. She fought for me in a skillful, akido manner. I trust her totally.

Summary: I waited 7 months to write this review just to make sure that my feedback about Carol was not a knee jerk reaction from my bad experience with her. In short, if you have not gone through a process of buying a few houses, don’t hire her. She will intimidate you into doing things you don’t need to do. For example, she will ask you to get a hard money loan so she can close the deal.
Carol brings unnecessary stress to a stressful process of buying a home.
…
I found a house I wanted to purchase and needed an agent to write my offer. The seller agent told my me they’d be taking offers in 48 hours. I called my friend who had been working with Carol and gave her raving reviews. From my perspective, what could go wrong? I found the house, I just needed someone to write me an offer and submit. I even agreed to her full fees even though all she needed to do was submit the offer. Most agents work with their clients for months, even years, for their fees.
I was so accustomed to competent agents over the years that I figured Carol would be no different. Wrong. Here are some lowlights of our dreaded interactions over 5 weeks.
1. I was the highest bidder and she couldn’t close the deal. The seller agent ask me to remove some contingencies and the house would be mine. I agreed. Carol sent over the updated offer and didn’t put an expiration time/​date. This gave the seller time to take new and potentially higher offers. She should have put a time limit. «offer expires in 2 hours…» This is standard contract negotiation 101, so I assumed.
2. The loan person i was working with was a bit junior so it took longer to close than anticipated (1 week more on a 4 week close). Carol called me almost everyday to see if I wanted a hard money loan. Just to test her out, I asked Carol if she wanted to split the hard money loan fees with me since she didn’t do anything but write and submit the offer. She said no.
Carol did offer the seller $ 5K, from her commission, more to close on the house. This was needed because the sellers didn’t respond after the updated offer. Had Carol put a time limit in the 2^nd offer, she would have saved herself $ 5K.
3. She called my loan agent to push and say that we’d lose the house if we don’t move faster. In the loan officer’s own words, «You agent is harassing me about the loan. We are all commission based and work hard to close.»
4. When the house closed, I asked when we could meet to get the keys. She texted me back to say she left the keys on the kitchen table in my new house.
5. A few weeks later I still gave her a chance. I sent her my house plans as I’m rebuilding the house. No response.
…
I will stop there.
In this hyper-​competitive RE market, having the right agent is critical. I never believed that until I dealt with Carol.

First let me say that I never write testimonials. In this
situation…I had to express my gratitude. Carol Pefley is the best
short sale agent out there. I ended up dealing with several people who
claimed to be specialists who all inevitably blew me off so I was
dubious as to whether or not Carol would follow through. It became
apparent early on that she was in a different league.
To say the least, things were very difficult with my bank. Unlike the
other agents, Carol knew how to play the game. During the process, she
reassured me and gave me hope through the darkest time in my life.
Most importantly, in the end she delivered. Obviously, it was taxing
to go through this but at least I had an expert on my side. She
listened to me freak out and told me to hang in there while she fought
for me and stopped trustee sales again and again, keeping me in my
house for months without having to pay my mortgage. She also made sure
that I received a substantial amount of money from the bank so I could
get back on my feet again.
I’m incredibly grateful for everything Carol did for me. If there’s
anyone out there reading this going through something similar like the
threat of foreclosure or considering a short sale… believe me there
is nobody out there more capable.