1st Class Real Estate

1st Class Real Estate Blue Ridge- Jamie Via Beware!

As a military family relocating, we entrusted our process to Jamie Via, a real estate agent whom we believed would help us find our new home. Unfortunately, our experience with Jamie was nothing short of a nightmare.

Jamie displayed a concerning lack of professionalism and attention to detail. She failed to conduct proper due diligence when presenting properties to us, leading to us being misled and ultimately ending up in a contract for a house that was completely unsuitable and misrepresented. Moreover, Jamie neglected to thoroughly review important contractual details, resulting in critical errors that should have been caught and rectified early on.

Throughout the entire process, we encountered numerous red flags that should have prompted immediate action and correction. However, Jamie consistently ignored these warning signs, offering mere excuses and assurances instead of taking responsibility for her mistakes. This behavior clearly demonstrated her incompetence and disregard for our best interests as clients.

The situation reached its lowest point when we discovered that Jamie had negotiated for the wrong house with the builder. This unforgivable error left us without a home and without any recourse, as Jamie inexplicably distanced herself from the situation instead of working tirelessly to find a solution.

To make matters worse, we had sold our previous home in anticipation of moving into a property we genuinely loved. Instead, we were left betrayed and stranded, all because of Jamie's unprofessional conduct and incompetence.

I strongly advise anyone considering Jamie as their real estate agent to proceed with extreme caution. Our experience highlights the dangers of trusting someone who lacks the integrity, competence, and dedication required to fulfill their fiduciary duties. It is my sincere hope that by sharing our story, we can prevent other families from enduring the same anguish and disappointment that we have suffered due to Jamie's betrayal.

the worst possible property manager Zheng cold bitter heart, doesn't respond in a timely matter, has a communication problems, don't understand English or don't listen cause she knows it all send a handyman want to be to do repairs
she gets 10% of rent to only collect rent and thAt is all you could expect from her
I wouldn't even recommend her to my worst enemy

Just remember one name, TOM HICKEY! Five bright, red stars for Tom! This man is truly a 1st Class act (see what I did there? Tee hee! ) and if you need a property manager in Hampton Roads, he is your man! This review might have been penned with a completely different tone for 1st Class Real Estate (1CRE) had Tom not shown up halfway through our contractual relationship with 1CRE. Let's start from the beginning...

When we were stationed in Virginia Beach the first time around, we became first time home owners and after 4 years, our time was up and the military decided to send us off again. Instead of selling the home, we wanted to keep the house as an investment and decided to rent it out while we moved to the next duty station. At my place of employment at the time, a colleague had highly recommended her guy at 1st Class for property management. I trusted her so I took her recommendation and signed a contract with her guy (he who shall not be named). It started off fine. Her guy found us a tenant, another military family, as we were packing up and off we went to Hawaii, our next duty station. Things started off great and really, how much do you need to communicate with your property manager until there is a problem? He collected our rent, he took their cut and paid us every month. There were some repair issues along the way and he took care of them. I can't pinpoint exactly, but then he gradually started taking longer to get back to us when we had inquiries and issues with payment. It's really stressful and frustrating, especially when we are located so far away from our property and you solely rely on the property manager for any info AND payment. I was getting worried and quite frankly, I was getting so frustrated, I was ready to break up. Then Tom showed up! He emailed us to let us know the guy had left the company and he was our new property manager. What a relief it was to speak to him and it was amazing until the end. We recently ended our relationship, only because he helped us to sell our home to the most recent tenant occupying our home! We did not plan it this way, as we had every intention of moving back into the home once we got orders for VAB, but the offer was attractive with the current housing market. Tom acted as our agent and facilitated the sale. He was readily available, as he has always been and answered our texts, phone calls and emails promptly (or responded shortly after if unavailable), even in the evenings. He has a way about him, a nice manner, speaking to us like a wise friend and gave us straight up answers and advice. If we have to rent our home again, Tom will be the first guy we call!

Pro tip: if you decide to rent out your home, I suggest opening a separate bank account just for your rental property. Use the account to deposit the monthly payments and pay any repairs or any other expenses related to your property out of this account. Use it to pay your mortgage (if any). Hopefully, the rent you are charging per month is more than the mortgage payment and the property management company's fees (usually a percentage of your rent), so you start building up some extra cash. Then fuggedabooooooutit. This worked well for us and even helped cover a few months when the house was unoccupied. This helps put you in a slightly less stressful position.

Thank you so much for everything, Tom, and hope to work with you again in the future!

The agent that works for this company put me into foreclosure and could not sell my home. I took legal action against him and won, he refused to pay and this company still hires him. The agent was Edward Walker and he took advantage of me and my situation that I was in because he put me in that spot. Take this as a caution when dealing with this company and it's agents they only want to profit off your misfortune and not aid you in buying or selling a home.

FULL PRICE OFFER WITHIN 5 DAYS OF LISTING!!! Kevin Purnell was excellent to work with. Can't give "1st Class" too much credit as the house sold before the sign was placed and the pictures were taken. But I do owe Kevin Purnell, specifically, my endless gratitude. If not for him we wouldn't have listed the house when we did.

My wife and I had some bad experiences with realtors in the past. Our residence in Portsmouth was less than 1000 sq ft and most realtors, including some close friends, made it seem like we were wasting their time with a lower commission sale. So we gave ourselves 2 months to find a realtor while we worked on the house. Not only was Kevin the first to return our call, but throughout the entire process he was just as enthusiastic about selling our home as we were.

He showed up the next day, told us our house was worth more than we thought and urged us to list right away. Truthfully, my wife and I thought we were asking too much for the house but thought Kevin's price would at least be a good start for negotiations. He also saved us time and money by convincing us not to replace bad flooring and instead give the buyer a flooring allowance. Like I said, FULL PRICE OFFER 5 DAYS LATER!!! We were still painting walls so we wouldn't let the photographer take pictures and the sign hadn't been placed in the yard. But his write-up for our listing was perfect. So glad we listend to him!

We purchased our home through 1st Class Real Estate and Brian Fockler was our agent from the Rhyan Finch Sales Team. He communicated with us every step of the way and not only did he listen to what we wanted, he found exactly the property we were looking for, in the exact area we wanted in our exact price range. When we got time for closing, the title company had an issue with the bank that lasted three weeks. The team in place there communicated with the Title Company and the Bank to figure out the issue the seller was having and communicated with us every step of the way. We now live in our forever home thanks to Brian, Rhyan and 1st Class Real Estate......thank you!

Seriously, when I say Skylar Barfield (Jenkins) is the best realtor ever, I truly mean it! She went above & beyond to ensure all of our needs were met during the sale of our home. She was my rock when my anxiety was going through the roof and walked us through every step of the process. We thought we were only going to break even, and she helped us get exactly what we needed to pay off debt with our sale! And we were under contract in exactly 30 days, which was a huge bonus!! I'll never trust another person with any of our realty needs!

Amy Maines was great to work with throughout the entire process. She was super organized and on top of everything and helped ensure that everything ran smoothly for our buyers from start to finish. You can tell that she cares a great deal for her buyers and treats them like family. I look forward to working together again soon!

Amy Maines was an amazing agent both for selling our house and buying a new one. She helped make the transition absolutely flawless. Her communication was great and she was able to take a lot of stress off our shoulders during the whole process. Would definitely use her & 1st Class Real Estate again!

When they say the right agent is everything, they mean it!!! We used Skylar Barfield With 1st Class Great Neck and she was amazing!!!! We had such a bad experience with a previous agent from a different company and almost gave up. Skylar came in and made everything so stressfree. Anytime something remotely came up that could cause a delay she already had a solution and was ready to continue. She was extremely professional, knowledgeable, responsive and flexible. We really feel like she had our best interest at heart and went above and beyond for us. This isn't just a hobby or paycheck for her like some agents, you can tell she truly enjoys helping people find their dream homes. You won't go wrong using skylar and 1st class real estate to make one of the biggest decisions of your life.