Lillian Montalto Signature Properties

My wife and I looked at a home in Andover recently that we were very interested in buying. The listing agent holding the open house was Mae Zhou and I have to say she is by far the rudest agent I’ve ever met. She did not want to give us the time of day, likely because we were a bit younger than most of the other people who seemed to be coming through the house. We actually came back and saw the house a second time and were able to get some one on one time with the agent to ask questions. She seemed very annoyed that I was asking anything (how old the roof was, how old the central AC unit was) and didn’t even have answers for me.
She then asked if we were first time home buyers and I explained that we actually were selling our house in Reading and had held an open house that day a bit earlier on. When I told her I was selling it by owner she laughed at me and told me I was doing it all wrong and that I would never sell the home, or that I would sell it for way less than an agent would sell it for (it sold after the first open house and went over asking).
Finally, we came back and saw the house a third time with our agent to get her feedback. As we had our 11 month old with us and he was getting a bit fussy, my wife took him outside to walk around a bit while I stayed inside to talk about what our offer should be. While outside, the listing agent pulled up with other potential buyers, and she asked my wife how much longer we would be because we had parked in the drive way and she needed to pull her car in to avoid putting her Mercedes in the sun (that is a direct quote).
We placed an offer the next day and unfortunately someone else had already placed an offer which was accepted. I can honestly say that Mae Zhou was easily the rudest «professional» I’ve ever encountered, I could not believe how she treated us. Based on the other reviews, it seems this type of attitude is the norm with this Agency.

Lillian is extremely arrogant and rude. Perhaps others see the advantages this attitude could have in real-​estate transactions but I do not. I will never work with her and recommend that others stay away as well. There are better agents/​companies out there!

Really bad experience. Lillian is at the end of her career and thinks all she needs to do is slap an old photo of herself on a lawn sign, and if the house doesn’t sell, it’s the seller’s fault. Her advice, whether on pricing or staging or marketing, was consistently bad, and her attitude was «you, the seller, work for me… I don’t work for you… I’m doing you a favor.»
I think the $ 450 – 650,000 market isn’t her market and she is now focused on seminars, her own developments, her electricity scheme, and big ticket houses. Little engagement from her. In three months, her company showed the house to three people. All the work was done by brokers from other agencies. We should have gone with Tom Carroll or Doherty. More energy, and they know the market.
We called Lillian on the lousy job she did and, of course, it was our fault, all we needed to do was cut the price. «New Price» is a very common feature on her signs, and that seems to be her only marketing strategy. We finally sold our house, $ 15,000 below the appraised value, and no thanks to Lillian. Another agency found the buyer.
Steve and Lauren from Lillian’s company were great on logistics. Good people who should be working someplace else.

Horrid, horrid, horrid experience with them. We got our rental through Lillian Montalto. We specified that we needed a rental with storage as we were moving up here from out of state. They showed us a rental with storage, even gave us the key to storage when we signed the lease, then after we were locked into the lease, and moved in, they came back like a week or two later and told us they needed the key back because they had incorrectly thought the unit came with storage. They told us we were on our own to find another solution for storage and basically said we should have looked closer at the lease which didn’t mention storage in it.
Hello, you showed us the storage unit AND gave us the key when we signed the lease, why would we think we had to skim the fine print to know if the storage was included???
Also frustrating because they knew we were torn between this unit and another which was $ 50 less per month and ONLY CHOSE this unit because of the storage.
Erich or Eric (not sure of spelling) in their business office is a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE to work with. Super unprofessional. We had a tight timeline for moving in because of coming from out of state and he couldn’t guarantee that he’d have the key in time. Told me in a manner that was more threatening than anything else that I was «welcome to load up the trucks and drive all the way up here but I can’t promise I’ll be here to give you a key. That’s your choice.» End result we waited around for 2 days with a loaded truck that we paid for unable to move because he refused to call the landlord and ask a simple question (which the landlord later answered without hesitation and was TOTALLY FINE WITH) about us moving in a few days early.
Eric is super snide, rude, unprofessional. Moving from out of state while juggling what to do with my kids during the move was stressful enough and then to top it off he yelled at me because of our short timeline (I’m sure your client, the landlord was not upset to have someone in sooner than later) and made me cry over the phone. He has NO BUSINESS being in any sort of customer service position because he is just an arrogant unhappy human being.
Then to add insult to injury they try to scam their clients into this pyramid scheme on utilities by saying if you go through them you can get cable/​internet/​phone cheaper or some nonsense. We looked into it, the CHEAPEST bare bones plan through them was still like 50 more a month than the best plan going on our own through Verizon with HBO, and all the bells and whistles. They get kickbacks if you sign up for utilities and there is NO BARGAIN in the pricing. SHADY.
I think they saw us as little fish because we were just here for a rental at first but we are now in the market to buy a house and WOULD NEVER EVER EVER EVER go through this office, or even look at a house listed with them. Refuse to give one single cent more to Lillian Montalto Signature Properties and pretty much cringe every time I pass the signs with her face on them.