G M.

I normally give agents who knock on my door or phone and tell me they have a buyer for my property 10-15 minutes, just to hear what they have to say, before I weed them out and ask them to leave.

When I first talked to Andy he asked for 15 minutes of my time. More than an hour later we were still talking.

Just to fill you in, I was looking for a buyer for the property, not a selling agent. I have a number of friends, acquaintances and relatives in the business I could have chosen. I was already working, previously, with two agents.

Majority of agents (99%) I've spoken to were stumped with my first question. Looked stunned and didn't know what I was talking about. My second question to them was how did you get your license, if you didn't know what the answer to the first question was?

Andy assured me he knew what I was talking about and had sold a number of properties under similar circumstances. He explained what he would do to resolve my first question with agents and buyers who didn't know what I was talking about. He showed me results of his recent and past sales portfolio. He outlined his sales plan and how he operates. He provided a solution to one of my problems which most other agents wouldn't even do, let alone think about. He had piqued my interest, which was why we were still talking.

He was thinking outside the box, listening to what I was saying and wanted and assured me he had my best interest at heart.

I set up a meeting with the other parties to see what they thought. He provided us with a presentation of comparable homes for sale in the area. Normally that wouldn't impress me because I had seen the homes and figures previously so I knew what I was up against. Beside, I only worry about my situation, not anyone else's. What I was impressed with was the speed and the overall package of the presentation and how well it was designed and put together. Even the other parties I was dealing with were impressed.

After he reassured us about what he was going to do, I decided to give him a shot.

Andy worked diligently and tirelessly on our behalf. He followed through on everything that he stated he was going to do. He was committed, hardworking and a man of his word.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Andy as your agent, regardless of how tough you might think your situation is! Andy is knowledgeable and experienced in all facets of the Real Estate business. So give Andy a call and you can talk to him about your situation and ask him what the question was that stumped the overwhelming majority of the agents I talked to.

Thank You Andy for everything you've done and are doing for me!

GM

Samantha,

I would recommend & endorse your company wholeheartedly except for a couple of things which I'll get to later.
With some of the things you said & especially didn't say in our email correspondence,
I became skeptical & leery about your operation of the auction process.

Your staff was excellent!
They were friendly, polite, professional, knowledgeable, well informed and thorough.
Both at the front end & back.
I had no problem with them whatsoever.

Where I had the problem was with your auction process!
I was totally disenchanted with it.
It was almost as if you were working for the bidders/buyers & not the sellers who are paying your bills!
It seemed like I had no say in the process at all!
And that's not how it should be!

1 - There is absolutely no reason or any excuse that you can come up with to justify a starting bid of one dollar ($1.00) on all items/lots!
Especially the big ticket items!
This is 2020 not 1920!
People will wait to the last minute to try & steal an item for your one dollar ($1.00) staring bid.
You're doing a disservice to your company & especially a disservice to the sellers!
I was insulted!

If I go to a live auction, each item has their own starting bid, depending on size, category & potential value.
You can take any lot you guys put together, if you use pennies on the dollar as your cost,
You can come up with a bottom line value of around ten dollars ($10.00) +/-.
Kitchen cupboards with 200 - 300 items, as an example, big ticket items, etc. would fetch that easily.
A staring bid of $10 will not break the bank for the bidders/buyers and will appease the sellers!
Starting bid should be up to the sellers discretion!
If they want to start at $5.00 or $20.00 or whatever, that should be a choice between both parties with the sellers having the last say!
And your company makes more money this way.
You need to give the sellers more say in this area!
We know we won't get top dollar, but we'd like to come out with something that isn't insulting!

2 - Fact: The penny was decommissioned/phased out in 2013. Why are you letting your bidders bid in penny ($. 01) increments?
It doesn't make sense?
I found that insulting!
It's a disservice to your company & especially a disservice to the sellers!
Bids should be in one dollar increments ($1.00) until you reach the end of your first phase or however you work it.
After all, we'd like to make a little money but not that little!
That just baffled me!

3 - You need to put in a fail safe price for items to protect the sellers.
To have a dining room table & six chairs sell for $6.00 or two bedroom sets sell for under $20.00 to one buyer or a $1,000.00 reclining chair sell for $8.00 is ridiculous!
I could have sold them myself & gotten a couple hundred dollars for each one.
If you had a higher starting bid it wouldn't be as much of a blow but at one dollar ($1.00), it's an insult!
I had no recourse in taking it off the sale.
One of the bedroom suites was my Mother's and if there was a fail safe price I would have been able to take it off the sale & keep it instead of it selling for under $20.00!
If I had a fail safe price in place, where the total bid price didn't reach my price, ie: $75.00 for each set, I should be given an option of taking it back.
If the price where the total bid price did reach my price, ie: $75.00 + for each set, I would forego the option and the pieces would sell to the highest bidder.
That choice should be mine.
There might be some items with sentimental value that I would want to take back if a reasonable price was not attained!

4 – Because people where bidding at the last minute for your minimum one dollar ($1.00) bid a number of big ticket items were gone. That is totally unfair to the seller.
Not to mention insulting!
When items are placed on my front grass and taken pictures of, to sell on Kijiji for probably 50 – 100 times their purchase price on the same day, you're not doing the sellers any favours at all!
It gives one the impression that your company could be receiving some sort of kick backs from buyers for keeping prices low?
If I wanted to give items away, I wouldn't have hired you guys!

You need to revamp your auction process & make it more seller friendly!
It benefits your company & the people who hire you.
If you were to change & revamp your process to incorporate the above suggestions, I would fully endorse your company.
The way things are now, my skepticism & gut feeling were warranted and spot on!
If someone were to ask me about MaxSold, I would tell them to be careful and explain all of your shortcomings.

Because of my health situation and time constraints, I couldn't shop around like I normally do.
Otherwise I probably would have gone & used someone else!

As a Clearing house:
I was happy that you were able to move most of my items out.

As a Auction house:
The Sellers have to be involved more.
You need to revamp your process, as per above.
You need to make sure the Sellers get Fair Value for their products.
I wasn't too thrilled that you took almost 50% of the take.
I was totally disappointed with your process and the fact that you practically gave away most of my items for next to nothing!

So as you can see, I was disappointed & insulted with your auction process.

GM