Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate
Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Services
8500 W 95th St
Overland Park, KS 66212
Phone: (913) 660-0822
Website: kc.selecthomes.com
Part of traveling includes trips to exciting new places and the possibility of picking up and moving to a different city. We visited Kansas City in 2007 never expecting to move there. Now it is time to move on, so we are selling our home.
After hearing Martin Taggart, Team Leader and Lead Listing Specialist for Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate, on a local radio show, he seemed to say all of the right things so I asked him to possibly list the home we are planning to sell. During our first meeting he seemed personable and savvy, but a couple things he did and said did not sit well at gut level. For example, after viewing the house the tenant had to get her kids to their soccer game, so Martin invited us to Caribou Coffee to make his pitch and, hopefully for him, seal the deal. When it came time to pay for my, my wife's, and his coffees, about $11 total, Martin did not even attempt to pay, hanging back while letting me pay and deliver his complimentary coffee to him. What kind of professional lets a potential customer capable of generating over $20,000 in commission pay for their own coffee AND HIS after extending the invitation? I should have listened to my gut and parted ways then and there, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Services
8500 W 95th St
Overland Park, KS 66212
Phone: (913) 660-0822
Website: kc.selecthomes.com
Part of traveling includes trips to exciting new places and the possibility of picking up and moving to a different city. We visited Kansas City in 2007 never expecting to move there. Now it is time to move on, so we are selling our home.
After hearing Martin Taggart, Team Leader and Lead Listing Specialist for Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate, on a local radio show, he seemed to say all of the right things so I asked him to possibly list the home we are planning to sell. During our first meeting he seemed personable and savvy, but a couple things he did and said did not sit well at gut level. For example, after viewing the house the tenant had to get her kids to their soccer game, so Martin invited us to Caribou Coffee to make his pitch and, hopefully for him, seal the deal. When it came time to pay for my, my wife's, and his coffees, about $11 total, Martin did not even attempt to pay, hanging back while letting me pay and deliver his complimentary coffee to him. What kind of professional lets a potential customer capable of generating over $20,000 in commission pay for their own coffee AND HIS after extending the invitation? I should have listened to my gut and parted ways then and there, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
His Gold and Platinum "Worry Free Listing Addendum" scheme is nothing more, a scheme to get another 1% commission out of sellers (for a total commission of 7% - Platinum). The Worry Free Listing ADDendum also ADDs an ADDitional $595 "Transaction Fee" on top of the already exorbitant standard 6% real estate commission (or 7% in the case of Martin's Platinum scheme) charged on all real estate transactions, something I have never seen in all my years of buying and selling houses. When I asked him why I had to pay a transaction fee on top of even a standard 6% commission, he quickly told me "I'll waive it and pay it out of my own pocket", as if it were something he would owe someone else rather than an invention to produce more profit for his company that it actually is.
Martin was anxious to get the house on the market within two weeks, so he promised to help us expedite the listing and sale by referring contractors he claimed he has "special pull with" to perform needed work on the home in preparation for sale, but none of them panned out, either not following-up or not being available to perform the work soon enough to list the home according to Martin's recommended timeline. Clearly there was no communication between he and "his contractors" about the schedule, wasting my time with numerous phone calls, emails, texts, and a 100 mile round trip to meet one at the subject home in Kansas City. In the end, not one performed as promised, another indication that Martin's words carry little weight.
He also led us to believe that Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate located in Overland Park, Kansas is #9 in total units sold in the US and #1 in Kansas, "according to the Wall Street Journal", but upon closer inspection of the link he sent me to confirm these supposed "facts" (see table below), I found that it had nothing to do with the Wall Street Journal at all and the numbers he was quoting included sales for four offices throughout Kansas, including Hutchinson (219 miles from Kansas City). Newton (182 miles from Kansas City), and the home office in Wichita (199 miles from Kansas City).
2015 Teams by Transaction Sides
Rank
|
Team Name
|
Company
|
MSA
|
City
|
State
|
Transactions
|
Website
|
9
|
Select Homes - Team Real Estate
|
Wichita, KS
|
Wichita
|
KS
|
952.00
| ||
15
|
ReeceNichols - Leawood
|
Kansas City, MO-KS
|
Leawood
|
KS
|
738.00
| ||
24
|
ReeceNichols - Lee's Summit
|
Kansas City, MO-KS
|
Lee's Summit
|
MO
|
628.00
|
Source: https://www.realtrends.com/rankings/real-trends-1000-teams-by-sides15
How can someone include home sales in cities 200 miles away in the numbers that lead people to believe that their Kansas City Team is one of the "top-10 teams in the country"?
Here is Martin on KMBZ Radio, leading listeners, as he did me, to believe that his "Kansas City Team" sales numbers include those of the franchises' offices in Wichita, Hutchinson, and Newton, Kansas:
I followed-up in an email, asking Martin:
- "You claim being one of the top (#9) teams in the country according to the Wall Street Journal and Kansas’ #1 team, but you don’t mention Kansas City. Why?
- Why can’t I readily find these accolades on your website?
- Where can I find the sources for your claims?".
When I held his feet to the fire and questioned him about the authenticity of the data he was quoting, requested that he provide objective comparative data in regard to sales in Kansas City alone, and asked him to answer numerous other questions I had, including why he was comparing apples to onions (a Kansas-wide franchise group compared to a single Kansas City based real estate team), Martin refused to answer and quickly replied "I respectfully withdraw our offer to engage in the listing of your home".
There is an old saying in the military about talking the talk and walking the walk, and Martin Taggart can clearly "talk and talk and talk the talk" ... I will leave it at that.
Martin Taggart and Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate Get One Bomb Out Of 10 And A Spot On My "WALL OF SHAME" ... More Bombs Are Better!
One Bomb Equates To:
Yelp - Elite '14/'15/'16
TripAdvisor - Top Contributor
Tabelog - Official Judge (Bronze)
Zomato - #1 Ranked Foodie
... And Don't Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube
Title: Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate "Talks The Talk", But Does Not "Walk The Walk"
Key Words: Select Homes, KC Team Real Estate, Martin Taggart, Martin, Taggart, Kansas City, select, homes, real estate, realtor, agent, real, estate, TravelValue, travel, value, service, review, Yelp
Translation for Civilians: FUBAR = "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair"
