starstarstarstarstar over 1 year ago
Two sales in Brooklyn
Mr Searle (Andrew.Searle@belleproperty.com) successfully sold two adjacent quarter-acre properties in Brooklyn, one a vacant lot, the other with a small house, built about 1970, that I'd owned since 1986.
His performance exceeded expectations every step of the way. Of the five agencies I contacted for appraisals, Belle was undoubtedly the right choice, and Mr Searle proved himself a very gifted salesman. A few numbered points address various aspects of the process.
1. The promise to keep me informed throughout was honoured to the letter. Besides unrecorded phone calls, I received over six dozen emails, often more than one a day.
2. I was selling to allow emigration, the flight booking providing a deadline, so time was of the essence. To have the two listings overlap seemed inadvisable, lest this information deter bids. Of course, keeping them disjoint served to prolong the selling process, thus exacerbating the problem. In the event, both places went with time to spare. Nearby houses, placed sooner with other agencies, were still unsold the day I left Australia.
3. Market interest was much less than expected. Mr Searle showed enormous skill in obtaining the best possible prices. Had the buyers known how little competition they faced, their offers would have dropped dramatically.
4. I based my choice of Belle on superior presentation, but it seems worth noting that Belle's commission percentage was least among the five competitive assessments. If word-of-mouth gets out, there may not be much competition!

Andrew Searle
star 5 (105 reviews)