KNE Realty 360 - Beware!
In mid to late May 2023, I sought advice from the owner and broker of KNE Realty 360, who sold a house for us in 2018. I was seeking her expertise about selling a home we had been renovating. I wanted to know if it would be better to sell now or try to renovate it further and sell it. She appointed her husband who was licensed real estate agent for KNE Realty 360 and who owned KNE Development (DBA KNE Roofing) to assist me. KNE Realty 360 frequently partners with KNE Development to help sellers get their house ready for sale based on their own Facebook postings.
When he looked at the house in late May, he said he could sell it between $325k and $350k once it was finished. He said it would cost between $80k and $100k and he would have it for sale in late July as the market was good right then. He asked me to send him $40k which I did. By mid July, he said he would have the house ready to sell by August. It was not.
On September 20, he asked for another $36k which we sent him after he assured us that the house would be ready at the end of October. He continued to promise the house would sell for $350k despite the rise in mortgage rates & the slowing of the fall/winter market. I could see houses in the same area as mine were not selling at $380k even though they were bigger and had more amenities (garage) than mine. I asked him to work within the $36k we sent him to finish the house and cut corners because the delay was causing us financial strain. I called the owner and broker of KNE Realty 360 in Oct to ask for an updated figure as I did not trust her husband as he had a clear conflict of interest.
She said she would send them to me. She did not. When Ed promised the house would be ready for sell by Christmas, I called Kristi & left a message for her on Dec 19. When I did not hear from her, I called her again on Dec 26. She said she would do a walk through & send a listing range for my house to me. She passed the phone to Ed who said he was optimistic and believed it would sell for $375k.
On Jan 2, Ed asked us to send him $20k which I refused. I confronted him about not staying within budget and deadlines. I could not send him more
money when he had no clear accountability as to what he spent it on and would not provide receipts. I did not trust him to finish the house nor did I believe he used the $76k on our house given its current condition. It was absurd that he said the house would be finished within a week and a half—-a week ago and it still lacked a functional kitchen, both bathrooms had not plumbing, and numerous doors lack a door frame and door. Within an hour of the call, Kristi finally texted to my husband the CMA listing range between $329k and $350k based on wrong lot size data on Jan 2 where she listed our home as having 3920 acres as opposed to 3920 sq ft. I would explain why our house was valued higher than the house in our area that sold for $295k but was 1000sq ft larger than ours and had .5 acre as opposed to ours which is on an .08 acre lot.
While we did not have a written contract with KNE Realty 360 or KNE Development, it did not stop them from providing dubious real estate assessments nor from taking our money. We certainly had a verbal contract which caused great financial harm to us.
We are left with an unfinished house that we can’t sell, and we are at a loss as to what Ed did with our money and his time because our home does not show 8 months time worth of work nor $76k worth of labor (we purchased the majority of material ourselves).
It was disheartening to see KNE Realty 360 currently have a house on sale that KNE Development was renovating at the same time as ours. The house was bought by KNE Development and Quit Claimed to KNE Realty. The new hardwood floors and kitchen/bathroom vanity granite tops in the house appear identical to ours.