With disappointment, I share my negative experience with Ben Rudgeley of Realmark when selling my late mum's home (a sad and challenging time already). Living abroad, I relied heavily on Ben's numerous promises of support and professionalism he made before I signed his agency agreement. Sadly, he fell short in several crucial areas, leading to stress and a sale well below expectations in a booming Perth property market. Firstly, Ben significantly misvalued the house, ultimately selling for $135K to $235K below his own valuation range. This misjudgement was evident as I watched neighbouring properties sell within a week or two, while ours languished on market for 2 months and staled. Moreover, he often demonstrated a lack of reliability. He offered to meet a tradie to hand over keys but instead left the key under the doormat, citing a sudden family emergency. Yet the tradie confirmed the doormat plan was already agreed with Ben days earlier. He often didn't seem on my side but on the buyer's- when negotiating with the buyer he suggested I accept a 3 week exclusivity in their favour (saying 5 weeks was market). My lawyer alerted me this was not standard, but Ben had already set buyer expectations making negotiation hard. Communication was another major issue. He was often difficult to contact and at times he left me on "read" for days - extremely frustrating and unprofessional especially given the importance of some messages, such as post home-open updates. These were largely during normal agent working hours and not unreasonable. Overall, the service provided left me stressed, confused and disappointed. It felt as though he paid little attention to detail and things were half baked. He seemed primarily interested in his commission rather than offering any reasonable service. In summary, I cannot recommend his services, especially to anyone wanting a high performing reliable agent they can trust.
Ben's reviews
Very happy with the outcome the sale went through pretty quickly and Ben is very easy to communicate with. He goes above and beyond for his clients.
Ben is an absolute professional who delivers on what he promises! He’s passionate about selling houses and his knowledge is second to none. Ben has excellent communication skills and kept us informed every step of the way. I would highly recommend Ben to anyone who is looking to sell or buy! Thank you Ben for taking the stress out of selling.
Ben is really nice and give us great service of finding our first home. He’s friendly and always there to help us. Thank you so much Ben
Both when buying and selling Ben went over and above our expectations. Best in the biz. He delivers. 11/10
Ben was a pleasure to work with. There was no pressure or off putting sales tactics. He worked hard to negotiate the best possible outcome and sale conditions for me with the buyer, including a required long settlement. He was helpful and reassuring in regard to my concerns and queries about various aspects of the sale process, assisted me with guidance on preparing the property for sale, and directed me to very professional and prompt tradespeople to assist in preparing my property. Through his colleagues, Ben has also assisted me in guidance around prices and locations of properties I have been interested in purchasing. Overall I have been very pleased with my experience.
Ben is a fantastic communicator, always updates about the recent status of an offer. He's also very professional and easy to work with, his friendly approach takes the stress out of a life changing decision, like buying a house or land.
Ben was easy to work with - genuine, professional, friendly… he helped make the whole transaction uncomplicated. I will highly recommend his agency services in the future!
Ben was thoroughly professional in the way he handled both the purchase of our new house and the sale of our old house. Nothing was too much trouble and helped us to handle the stress of the buying / selling of our houses which was greatly appreciated. He helped negotiate some difficult issues with the previous owner without compromising either party.
We have sold many investment properties over the years with different Agents but this was our family home which we built approx. 13 years ago. To that end it was imperative that we used an "independent" Agent, someone we have not dealt with on a business level before and who was 100% committed to getting our home sold. We found this in Ben. He was extremely professional, approachable, ALWAYS available, on time and open to suggestions. His presentation and conduct was impeccable and was prompt, efficient and understood the local market and type of purchasers we were seeking. In fact we cannot praise him enough for his expertise and professionalism - 10/10 - we will be in touch with Ben when we are ready to buy again - well done Ben for making this experience flawless!
