Pardon this gigantic wall of text, but after hearing such great things about Red Pear Realty, we decided to try our hand at a flat rate realtor in Denver… to disastrous results.
I would warn sellers to steer clear of Daniel Gurzhiev with Fixed Rate Realty. He does not have the attention to detail or skill to guide clients through the selling process. Despite Daniel assuring us he was a full service agent, it became apparent he was not. The first sign of trouble was showings being scheduled when we requested they not be. More than once, Daniel blamed this on the scheduling service despite it being his responsibility to ensure these things are correct. It happened on multiple occasions, after going back on the market multiple times.
The first contract fell through, which was upsetting. When we asked Daniel to advocate for us, he dismissed that request saying the termination paperwork had been sent. He had disclosed to us that the wife was still very interested in the property, which is why we wanted him to try to work through it. That request was never honored.
After going under contract for a second time, the buyer backed out because of a lack of understanding of how waterlines work with multi family properties. We asked him, once again, to advocate for us, and he dismissed that request. We reached out to the buyers agent directly with the information in hand needed to make an educated decision, and the agent confirmed that Daniel was "not the best." The odds of salvaging that deal were slim, but Daniel would not honor our request to advocate for us and was clearly annoyed when we pressed the issue.
When I told Daniel I felt like nobody was advocating for us, he got very snippy and said what else can we expect him to do, and that he was "busting his ass" on our behalf. In reality, we have two contracts (at that point) that fell through, that Daniel refused to try to save. He simply accepted the termination paperwork and expected us to move on without question.
The final time we re-listed, we requested we go back on the market either Wednesday night, or Thursday morning. Daniel confirmed this, and then disappeared without re-listing our house. I had to reach out to his transaction coordinator explaining multiple attempts to reach Daniel to update the MLS went unanswered. We would have expected more attention to detail, especially after having lost 2 contracts.
We went under contract for a 3rd time. When Daniel called us to deliver the news that THIS buyer was also terminating, he requested I rush home and prepare the house for a last-minute showing because he "had a contract" ready to go. After canceling my holiday weekend plans, asking our guest to vacate the guest room and clean up, Daniel confesses that the potential buyers had submitted a contract on different house that had been accepted… Meaning he never had an offer in hand. It was a big mistake at best, and outright dishonesty at worst.
We contested the third buyers earnest money. While we were mulling over our options on how best to proceed, we received this exact message from Daniel: "Hey guys please sign the earnest money release ASAP for the previous buyer. My phone is blowing up about it and I don't have time for that." At that point, he should've told the other agent to refer their questions to the title company instead of sending us such an unprofessional message.
In preparing to go back on the market for a 4th time, we received no guidance on a different strategy. Daniel would simply ask "when would you like to re-list?" after every single termination.
A big issue that inexperienced sellers need to be aware of, is that Daniel does not have the attention to detail or the skill level to write a contract/counter proposal. It would take multiple attempts for him to make corrections for mistakes we caught, which we only caught because we have previous experience with real estate contracts. It would take multiple changes for him to make very simple corrections on dates and deadlines. A seller should be able to rely on the experience of their agent to write a clean contract, and not have to babysit a transaction.
On one counter proposal, Daniel added an appraisal condition ***WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION*** or discussion. He did not discuss it with us, he simply tried to put it in the contract. We had to ask him to remove it. There was no explanation why he added it. I am unaware in any instance where it is ok for an agent to add things to a contract without the clients permission.
Daniel's frustration with us became more apparent more we started to babysit the transaction. We had no other option as both Daniel, and his transaction coordinator, did not seem to have the time. It's pretty concerning that Daniel could not grasp why we wanted to be involved, having lost three prior contracts in a hot market.
Daniel also took it upon himself to disclose prior contract prices to prospective buyers, basically limiting the amount we kept seeing on offers. When we told him to stop disclosing and let the market decide, we received the highest offer yet, totaling $10,000 over what he had been telling buyers we wanted.
When the day finally came for us to sign documents a few days before the buyers did, Daniel did not contact us at all. We had no idea if he was going to come to closing or not. We did not hear from him at all, even to verify that we had signed our portion of the paperwork. We laughed it off because we expected him to at least check in, which he didn't.
The Friday the buyers signed their paperwork, we also heard nothing from Daniel. I had to reach out to him to see if the buyers had shown up to sign their documents. He confirmed they had, and that was the last communication we ever received from him. Hours later we realized we hadn't received the actual closing confirmation. We received a very ambiguous email from the title company, that did not state the house had actually closed. We were left in the dark until Monday morning when we could reach out to the title company to confirm it had signed, and funds would show in our account shortly.
Looking back, we would happily pay a full 6% to avoid the stress of working with Daniel Gurzhiev.
Please don't let Daniel Gurzhiev at Flat Rate Realty's promises of being a full service agent fool you. He is either stretched far too thin, or lacks the care to fulfill his obligations.
If there any Aggies in Denver looking to buy or sell their house, I can't necessarily recommend a good one, but I can tell you to steer clear of this guy!
I would warn sellers to steer clear of Daniel Gurzhiev with Fixed Rate Realty. He does not have the attention to detail or skill to guide clients through the selling process. Despite Daniel assuring us he was a full service agent, it became apparent he was not. The first sign of trouble was showings being scheduled when we requested they not be. More than once, Daniel blamed this on the scheduling service despite it being his responsibility to ensure these things are correct. It happened on multiple occasions, after going back on the market multiple times.
The first contract fell through, which was upsetting. When we asked Daniel to advocate for us, he dismissed that request saying the termination paperwork had been sent. He had disclosed to us that the wife was still very interested in the property, which is why we wanted him to try to work through it. That request was never honored.
After going under contract for a second time, the buyer backed out because of a lack of understanding of how waterlines work with multi family properties. We asked him, once again, to advocate for us, and he dismissed that request. We reached out to the buyers agent directly with the information in hand needed to make an educated decision, and the agent confirmed that Daniel was "not the best." The odds of salvaging that deal were slim, but Daniel would not honor our request to advocate for us and was clearly annoyed when we pressed the issue.
When I told Daniel I felt like nobody was advocating for us, he got very snippy and said what else can we expect him to do, and that he was "busting his ass" on our behalf. In reality, we have two contracts (at that point) that fell through, that Daniel refused to try to save. He simply accepted the termination paperwork and expected us to move on without question.
The final time we re-listed, we requested we go back on the market either Wednesday night, or Thursday morning. Daniel confirmed this, and then disappeared without re-listing our house. I had to reach out to his transaction coordinator explaining multiple attempts to reach Daniel to update the MLS went unanswered. We would have expected more attention to detail, especially after having lost 2 contracts.
We went under contract for a 3rd time. When Daniel called us to deliver the news that THIS buyer was also terminating, he requested I rush home and prepare the house for a last-minute showing because he "had a contract" ready to go. After canceling my holiday weekend plans, asking our guest to vacate the guest room and clean up, Daniel confesses that the potential buyers had submitted a contract on different house that had been accepted… Meaning he never had an offer in hand. It was a big mistake at best, and outright dishonesty at worst.
We contested the third buyers earnest money. While we were mulling over our options on how best to proceed, we received this exact message from Daniel: "Hey guys please sign the earnest money release ASAP for the previous buyer. My phone is blowing up about it and I don't have time for that." At that point, he should've told the other agent to refer their questions to the title company instead of sending us such an unprofessional message.
In preparing to go back on the market for a 4th time, we received no guidance on a different strategy. Daniel would simply ask "when would you like to re-list?" after every single termination.
A big issue that inexperienced sellers need to be aware of, is that Daniel does not have the attention to detail or the skill level to write a contract/counter proposal. It would take multiple attempts for him to make corrections for mistakes we caught, which we only caught because we have previous experience with real estate contracts. It would take multiple changes for him to make very simple corrections on dates and deadlines. A seller should be able to rely on the experience of their agent to write a clean contract, and not have to babysit a transaction.
On one counter proposal, Daniel added an appraisal condition ***WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION*** or discussion. He did not discuss it with us, he simply tried to put it in the contract. We had to ask him to remove it. There was no explanation why he added it. I am unaware in any instance where it is ok for an agent to add things to a contract without the clients permission.
Daniel's frustration with us became more apparent more we started to babysit the transaction. We had no other option as both Daniel, and his transaction coordinator, did not seem to have the time. It's pretty concerning that Daniel could not grasp why we wanted to be involved, having lost three prior contracts in a hot market.
Daniel also took it upon himself to disclose prior contract prices to prospective buyers, basically limiting the amount we kept seeing on offers. When we told him to stop disclosing and let the market decide, we received the highest offer yet, totaling $10,000 over what he had been telling buyers we wanted.
When the day finally came for us to sign documents a few days before the buyers did, Daniel did not contact us at all. We had no idea if he was going to come to closing or not. We did not hear from him at all, even to verify that we had signed our portion of the paperwork. We laughed it off because we expected him to at least check in, which he didn't.
The Friday the buyers signed their paperwork, we also heard nothing from Daniel. I had to reach out to him to see if the buyers had shown up to sign their documents. He confirmed they had, and that was the last communication we ever received from him. Hours later we realized we hadn't received the actual closing confirmation. We received a very ambiguous email from the title company, that did not state the house had actually closed. We were left in the dark until Monday morning when we could reach out to the title company to confirm it had signed, and funds would show in our account shortly.
Looking back, we would happily pay a full 6% to avoid the stress of working with Daniel Gurzhiev.
Please don't let Daniel Gurzhiev at Flat Rate Realty's promises of being a full service agent fool you. He is either stretched far too thin, or lacks the care to fulfill his obligations.
If there any Aggies in Denver looking to buy or sell their house, I can't necessarily recommend a good one, but I can tell you to steer clear of this guy!
