Overland, Park, Kansas: Select Homes – KC Team Real Estate "Talks The Talk", But Does Not "Walk The Walk"

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.

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	Mike Grbic	Select Homes – Team Real Estate	Wichita, KS	Wichita	KS	952.00	Visit Website
15	The Koehler Bortnick Team	ReeceNichols – Leawood	Kansas City, MO-KS	Leawood	KS	738.00	Visit Website
24	The Rob Ellerman Team	ReeceNichols – Lee’s Summit	Kansas City, MO-KS	Lee’s Summit	MO	628.00	Visit Website

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: 

1. “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? 
2. Why can’t I readily find these accolades on your website?
3. Where can I find the sources for your claims?”. 

His response was “Our team outsold the #2 team in the Metro last year by several hundred units”, referring to a team whose sales numbers included ONLY the Kansas City Metro area, not the entire State of Kansas. 

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:

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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”

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United Airlines: We Don’t Care (Sometimes), We Don’t Have To (But, Maybe We Want To) … I’m Confused!

United Airlines, Inc.

77 W Wacker Dr

Chicago, IL 60601

b/t Lower Wacker Dr & Michigan Ave in The Loop

united.com

 

I do not usually write reviews so many weeks or months after the fact, but being in India for four months where Yelp did not yet exist, I felt compelled to add my two cents.

My first two of three United flights to Delhi were both two hours late and I had to rush through Frankfurt Airport to catch my final flight after already spending close to 20 hours traveling (with 7+ yet to go). I somehow made it!

However, when I recently checked my mileage balance on United.com, my final leg still had not been added to my balance, requiring me to submit a request that still has not been answered.

Airlines in general, and United in particular, just do not care about customer service because they do not have to. They know that most of us will probably purchase the cheapest fare, so it will only be a matter of time before we return even if their service is pitiful, which it usually is … rude check-in and gate agents, aggressive flight attendants, and poor on-time departure/arrival record … they should change their motto to: “United Airlines,We Don’t Care, We Don’t Have To”

As my India trip neared its end, I have to say that United came through with flying colors. 

When one of my wife’s return flights in mid-January was rescheduled, leaving her a 30 minute layover to clear immigration/customs, re-check her bag, and get to the next gate (IMPOSSIBLE), we contacted United and were quickly dismissed … “sorry”! But when we got our travel insurance company involved, they were able to change her flights and get her home in time to attend a meeting at work the following morning.

The saga continued …

I received a call in early February, three weeks prior to my scheduled departure, informing me that my 84-year old mother had been hospitalized and was not doing well.  I contacted my travel insurance company (Allianz Global Assistance/AGA Service Company /Jefferson Insurance Company) thinking that they would be as professional as my wife’s, but after 12+ hours of being ignored (on their 24/7 Hotline), I contacted United reservations in New Delhi.  They were not extremely helpful, but when I was finally transferred to an American employee, she was outstanding.  She quickly found me a flight two days later (i had to get from Southern India to Delhi the next day) and WAIVED THE $300 CHANGE FEE … without even asking.  I was able to get home to see my mother and spend a couple days of quality time before she passed away on 2/12/2015. At that point I was much happier with United.

and continued …

Then, just three weeks after my mother passed, my wife received word that her father had suddenly died in Naples, Italy where he and her mom live. I logged-in to my United account to search for “bereavement fares”, but even though a link appeared in the search results, there was no such information on their website. It turned out that United discontinued their bereavement fares at some point in the recent past. When I called United Customer Care, a deceiving term, I was connected with their offshore “care” center in Manilla, Phillippines where I was quoted $4000 for a single ticket … $1600 more than the cheapest fare available on Kayak.com and $2350 more than we eventually paid Delta airlines. Thanks for your compassion United!

I had been prepared to give United 6, 7, even 8, Bombs (3 to 4 stars) because of the recent positive experiences detailed above, but finding out post de facto that 15,000 of the 20,000 miles from the US to India and back I paid dearly for were not eligible for frequent flyer credits (K Class) and the $4000 quote for a last-minute bereavement fare changed my mind. So, I will now have to downgrade my previous ratings …

CombatCritic Gives United Airlines 3 Out Of 10 Bombs With Room To Grow Or Recede Further … More Bombs Are Better!

 

 

Read More Reviews By CombatCritic, Including United Airlines, On Yelp And TripAdvisor Along With Many Other Reviews And More!

Title: United Airlines: We Don’t Care (Sometimes), We Don’t Have To (But, Maybe We Want To) … I’m Confused!

 

Key Words: United Airlines, United, Airlines, air, plane, airplane, travel, airport, flight, reservation, agent, customer, service, CombatCritic, TravelValue, Yelp, value

 

Read This Review And Many More On Yelp … Where I Am An Elite ’14/’15 Member