ZillowVERIFIEDI cannot recommend Chad Durkee highly enough if you are looking to sell a home. Heck, if he could have acted as our buyers' agent in Wausau, we would have had him do that, as well.Aside from a quick response when we first reached out to Chad, what stands out to me is the photographer he workes with. I still remember when he shared the photos he would use with our listing. My wife and I looked at them and told him we wanted to look at that house. We couldn't believe it because it was our house - but on steroids. If you have looked at a lot of listings, you have probably seen terrible images or not enough images to invite you to want to see that home. Not so these images. We did get lucky that is was a fully-lit, beautiful day, but our home looked like a showcase home in those photos. Do not sell this aspect short; job one is to get foot traffic into your house, and Chad and his team accomplished that mission.Next came Chad's level of service. He started with an open house, and Chad nearly had an offer for us that first weekend. Things did not work out, but Chad helped us keep our spirits up as he offered two more open houses.Those open houses also help separate Chad from others. My wife and I have attended open houses in the Wausau area, and agents have been passive participants in the open house. Not so Chad. When discussing the open houses with us, he let us know what feedback - if any - he received, and when he didn't get any, he actively sought out "negative" feedback. We knew the one-car garage was an issue, but what else was an issue for potential buyers? Some we could address, but some were reflected in the asking price.Let's talk about that asking price. After appraising our home, Chad told us he would appraise it between $104,900 and $119,900 and that we should start the listing at $112,900 to price it aggressively to sell with an option to drop to $109,900 if we received no interest by the end of January. We got an offer by the end of January and sold the house for $111,500, splitting the difference on the initial offer. Chad was spot-on with his assessment because the house appraised out above asking price.Other services aren't as visible. We have come to trust Chad implicitly and didn't feel the same way with our buying agent in Wausau. Even though he would not benefit from our purchasing a home up here, Chad still helped us, looking over an offer we were writing for a home we liked and advising us to add some protections into the offer that our agent up here said agents just did for each other but not in writing. Our offer did not get accepted, but we felt much better about the offer we submitted.Later in the process, Chad used his connections in Wausau to help us find an agent who was just like him. Once the homes we had seen with our first agent went off the market, we started using the new agent and could not be happier. It feels like she is working for us - not the seller - and when she wrote an offer for us, it looked similar to the one Chad helped to write.If you have sold a home recently, you know it can feel more like a game of Survivor than a transaction. Chad, though, helped to support us through the entire process. When our buyer renegged on her initial offer because she wanted a roof evaluation, Chad kept us calm and worked with us to have our roofing contractor put the buyer at ease. This doesn't show up in the dollars and cents, but not panicking during this process can prove challenging. Chad provided just the right amount of nurturing to keep us positive."Go Team!" This became the mantra Chad used with us as we inched our way towards closing. Chad moved the various milestones along, always keeping us in the loop and not only explaining what things mean but also advising us as to what we should do. This made the process about as pain-free as possible.I still remember the calm the spread as Chad shared the loan commitment and then the closing confirmation and then the loan approval for the buyer. We knew that we had just days to go and we would no longer own our home which would free us up to make aggressive offers on houses in Wausau. On closing day, I was greeted by a text from Chad saying "Happy closing day!" And, it WAS a happy day.I recommended Chad to both of our neighbors who will be looking to sell their homes. If you are considering For Sale By Owner - STOP. Chad is a trusted agent who will work tirelessly to sell your home and make it as stress-free as possible. If I could give six stars, I would. And honestly, if he could help us buy a house in Wausau, we would drag him up here - that's how much we trust him. Go ahead and contact him to sell yours; you won't be sorry.
