Testimonials
“I cannot sing enough praises for Kevin and his patience and abilities as a realtor. We have been looking for our forever house in the Esquimalt area on and off for over 12 years. We had quite a list of must haves 2 bathrooms, garage, and a place for our teenager to hang out with his friends etc. We must have been in almost half the houses in Esquimalt and none had that “this is it” feel or was way above our budget. This search has finally come to fruition recently with the dogged help of Kevin.
What has endeared him to us was his no nonsense approach. We talked about likes and dislikes and he really focused on what we had said and retained a real appreciation of what we liked and showed us houses that were really close to what we were looking for but were just not “right”. We would all walk into a residence and go our separate way and sooner or later would hear one of his “hmms”. We learned that these meant issues needing immediate corrective measures or why did the owners do that? He would tell us straight up the good and bad, never pushing a sale just the issues, and let us decide which way to go. At times after walking into a potential residence he would just turn and say to us this is not for you. Kevin has an excellent grasp of what is entailed to get things to proper working order and we found out he was usually very close when he tossed out approximate costs versus obtained estimates given for repairs.
We thought of Kevin as more of a friend rather than a realtor and it seemed that we were always his only client as he completely focused on us when we called or during appointments. He finally located a house with all we were looking for, in the area that we wanted, and to top it all off it just felt “right” and it should be our one and only house. Funny part is that there were fortune cookies out in the entrance way on our first viewing and his fortune read “All your hard work is about to pay off” and sure enough they did. He smoothly guided us through the purchase process explaining it every step of the way. He even helped with the wording of the amendment and subject removals after the building inspection, of which the wording came into play and worked into our favour. He ironed out any wrinkles effortlessly behind the scenes and brought it all together to make a purchase with the least amount of stress as possible.
I would highly recommend Kevin for purchase or selling needs as one would be hard pressed to find a more accommodating, hardworking and dedicated individual with your best interests at heart.”
~ David and Tracey Lowther
“I listed my home with Kevin in spring of 2005. Kevin worked hard to promote my home on the market and to ensure that the exposure was sufficient to generate interest. Although I’ve bought several properties I had never sold one before so this was a new process for me. Kevin did a great job of walking me through the process and addressing each of my concerns. His thorough knowledge of the market inspired my confidence in his ability to price and sell my home at fair market value. The first offer collapsed while I was away with work – just one day before completion and after I had already put an offer on another property in anticipation of a sale. Kevin managed to help me recover from this as another offer came in shortly after – with a minimum of effort on my part Kevin managed to secure the new offer and get the deal through so that I was able to re-submit my offer on the other home. All this happened while I was out of the country and Kevin managed this for me in an exemplary fashion.
After this sale I had the pleasure of working with Kevin on the purchase of a new home. Kevin had some family commitments to tend to as his wife was ‘expecting’ – Kevin worked to ensure my needs (as a purchaser) were met.
In short, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either Kevin to anyone interested in buying or selling a home in Victoria’s dynamic market; with Kevin I am sure that prospective buyers and sellers couldn’t be better armed to manage their real estate needs.”
Regards,
Jared Hobbs
“Our experience of looking for a home was definitely made as painless as possible by your consistent attitude of patience and respect for our unique needs. We greatly appreciate your effort and will not hesitate to recommend you to anyone we know looking to buy or sell a house. “
Thanks again.
Connie Addario
I moved from Australia to Canada in 2002. I purchased my Fairfield home in June 2004 after having to wait forever to build a credit rating . I loved this house with a passion and spent many months and tens and tens of thousands of dollars renovating it. I had the worst time getting through these renovations due to nosey bloody neighbours calling City Hall every 5 bloody minutes and I had 2 stop work orders placed on me, several fines and my bathroom demolished!!!
When I made a sudden decision to move back to Australia less than a year after purchasing the home I was dreading having to find an agent to sell it for me. I contacted the agent who sold it to me and told him the business was his. He assured me that he would find a buyer quickly for me as long as I put in a second kitchen and laid floorboards in the laundry and preferably the kitchen too. I didn’t want to spend any more money!!! This work would have cost me another $20K!!! He said he had a lot of people on his books that would buy it in an instant if I did this work.. I told him to bring these people through and I would sign an exclusive agency agreement with him just to test the waters before spending the money. Two weeks later I had still not heard from him and I lost confidence in him and his agency so I decided to call some other agents.
The first agent that came through agreed with the fact that I had to add these ‘extras’! She also wanted to put my beautiful furniture into storage and make me rent different furniture(all at my expense) and that she would redecorate my place for me!!! As well she insisted I buy a few $100 a pop flowerpots to strategically place around my garden!
I almost bought into all of this crap when a friend suggested I give Kevin Koetke a call. Reluctantly I called him and he came straight over to see me and my house. I was impressed that there was no bullshit about having to wait a few days or weeks because he was ‘so busy negotiating contracts’ and such! A hot Fairfield Listing was worth sacrificing a little time in my eyes and I didn’t care if he had to come in his ‘own’ time and he never complained about that either like the other agents did. I needed my place on the market ASAP to fit in with MY deadline to get back to Australia.
I didn’t give Kevin any details about how much I had spent on the house.I didn’t tell him what any of the other agents had said I should do.I just asked for his honest opinion of what he thought it would sell for and what I would need to do. All he asked me to do was to paint my horrible laundry floor which was all cracked and peeling concrete and perhaps to weed my garden! He gave me the same price as the other agents!
My only concern with Kevin was that he only had one other listing on his exclusive books..(but I tried to turn that into a positive that he would have to devote all of his time to mine if he was gonna be able to provide for his family for the next month!!) He seemed like a great guy, he was highly recommended by a friend who doesn’t recommend lightly, he didn’t want me to spend any more money and he didn’t ask me to repaint my hot pink master bedroom prior to the sale.
I decided to sign with Kevin straight away.all I had to do was weed my garden and paint the laundry floor! Total cost about 60 bucks! (I am the seller from hell, by the way). I gave him 1 month to sell it!! I had to get home!!! I needed my price!!!! And I didn’t want to spend any more money!!!!
There were a few hiccups along the way. I failed my final City Hall electrical inspection! Kevin came over as soon as I told him and jigsawed his way through a couple of walls to make access to my hot water tanks. Next final inspection was approved. After less than 2 weeks he found me a buyer at my asking price!! (now meet the buyer from hell!!…sorry Dave). Kevin bent over backwards in every way possible to make sure the deal went through.. He sacrificed his golf time to meet with me and my irrational concerns and even brought fresh flowers over to make my place look more attractive to the buyers during the selling process. He lent me his power tools, he could not have been more helpful!
I have bought and sold several properties over the last few years and I have completely despised all real estate agents ’til I dealt with Kevin.
Kevin Koetke is a special breed of real estate agent and I would recommend him to anyone who really wants to sell or buy and with minimum fuss and expense.
Jodi Warner J
AUSTRALIA