TravelValue: England: real

Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate
Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Services
8500 W 95th St
Overland Park, KS 66212
Phone: (913) 660-0822
Website: kc.selecthomes.com

Part of traveling includes trips to exciting new places and the possibility of picking up and moving to a different city. We visited Kansas City in 2007 never expecting to move there. Now it is time to move on, so we are selling our home.

After hearing Martin Taggart, Team Leader and Lead Listing Specialist for Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate, on a local radio show, he seemed to say all of the right things so I asked him to possibly list the home we are planning to sell. During our first meeting he seemed personable and savvy, but a couple things he did and said did not sit well at gut level. For example, after viewing the house the tenant had to get her kids to their soccer game, so Martin invited us to Caribou Coffee to make his pitch and, hopefully for him, seal the deal. When it came time to pay for my, my wife's, and his coffees, about $11 total, Martin did not even attempt to pay, hanging back while letting me pay and deliver his complimentary coffee to him. What kind of professional lets a potential customer capable of generating over $20,000 in commission pay for their own coffee AND HIS after extending the invitation? I should have listened to my gut and parted ways then and there, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

His Gold and Platinum "Worry Free Listing Addendum" scheme is nothing more, a scheme to get another 1% commission out of sellers (for a total commission of 7% - Platinum). The Worry Free Listing ADDendum also ADDs an ADDitional $595 "Transaction Fee" on top of the already exorbitant standard 6% real estate commission (or 7% in the case of Martin's Platinum scheme) charged on all real estate transactions, something I have never seen in all my years of buying and selling houses. When I asked him why I had to pay a transaction fee on top of even a standard 6% commission, he quickly told me "I'll waive it and pay it out of my own pocket", as if it were something he would owe someone else rather than an invention to produce more profit for his company that it actually is.

Martin was anxious to get the house on the market within two weeks, so he promised to help us expedite the listing and sale by referring contractors he claimed he has "special pull with" to perform needed work on the home in preparation for sale, but none of them panned out, either not following-up or not being available to perform the work soon enough to list the home according to Martin's recommended timeline. Clearly there was no communication between he and "his contractors" about the schedule, wasting my time with numerous phone calls, emails, texts, and a 100 mile round trip to meet one at the subject home in Kansas City. In the end, not one performed as promised, another indication that Martin's words carry little weight.

He also led us to believe that Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate located in Overland Park, Kansas is #9 in total units sold in the US and #1 in Kansas, "according to the Wall Street Journal", but upon closer inspection of the link he sent me to confirm these supposed "facts" (see table below), I found that it had nothing to do with the Wall Street Journal at all and the numbers he was quoting included sales for four offices throughout Kansas, including Hutchinson (219 miles from Kansas City). Newton (182 miles from Kansas City), and the home office in Wichita (199 miles from Kansas City).

2015 Teams by Transaction Sides

Rank	Team Name	Company	MSA	City	State	Transactions	Website
9	Mike Grbic	Select Homes - Team Real Estate	Wichita, KS	Wichita	KS	952.00	Visit Website
15	The Koehler Bortnick Team	ReeceNichols - Leawood	Kansas City, MO-KS	Leawood	KS	738.00	Visit Website
24	The Rob Ellerman Team	ReeceNichols - Lee's Summit	Kansas City, MO-KS	Lee's Summit	MO	628.00	Visit Website

Source: https://www.realtrends.com/rankings/real-trends-1000-teams-by-sides15

How can someone include home sales in cities 200 miles away in the numbers that lead people to believe that their Kansas City Team is one of the "top-10 teams in the country"?

Here is Martin on KMBZ Radio, leading listeners, as he did me, to believe that his "Kansas City Team" sales numbers include those of the franchises' offices in Wichita, Hutchinson, and Newton, Kansas:

I followed-up in an email, asking Martin:

"You claim being one of the top (#9) teams in the country according to the Wall Street Journal and Kansas’ #1 team, but you don’t mention Kansas City. Why?
Why can’t I readily find these accolades on your website?
Where can I find the sources for your claims?".

His response was "Our team outsold the #2 team in the Metro last year by several hundred units", referring to a team whose sales numbers included ONLY the Kansas City Metro area, not the entire State of Kansas.

When I held his feet to the fire and questioned him about the authenticity of the data he was quoting, requested that he provide objective comparative data in regard to sales in Kansas City alone, and asked him to answer numerous other questions I had, including why he was comparing apples to onions (a Kansas-wide franchise group compared to a single Kansas City based real estate team), Martin refused to answer and quickly replied "I respectfully withdraw our offer to engage in the listing of your home".

There is an old saying in the military about talking the talk and walking the walk, and Martin Taggart can clearly "talk and talk and talk the talk" ... I will leave it at that.

Martin Taggart and Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate Get One Bomb Out Of 10 And A Spot On My "WALL OF SHAME" ... More Bombs Are Better!

One Bomb Equates To:

Read Reviews By CombatCritic:

Yelp - Elite '14/'15/'16

TripAdvisor - Top Contributor

Tabelog - Official Judge (Bronze)

Zomato - #1 Ranked Foodie

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Title: Select Homes - KC Team Real Estate "Talks The Talk", But Does Not "Walk The Walk"

Key Words: Select Homes, KC Team Real Estate, Martin Taggart, Martin, Taggart, Kansas City, select, homes, real estate, realtor, agent, real, estate, TravelValue, travel, value, service, review, Yelp

Translation for Civilians: FUBAR = "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair"

El Camino Real

903 N 7th Street

Kansas City, KS 66101

Phone: (913) 342-4333

Website: elcaminorealkck.com

Prices: $$$$

If you want authentic Mexican food, handmade tortillas, cheap prices and fast, friendly service, El Camino Real in Kansas City, Kansas is the place for you.

I grew up in California where El Camino Real, the royal road, runs the length of the state with Spanish missions founded by Father Junipero Serra strategically placed every 50 to 100 miles. This El Camino Real provides sanctuary, very much like those 21 California missions, but in the form of excellent food rather than shelter. Unfortunately, it just happens to be about 50 miles from my home.

A small place with 15-20 tables, the little kitchen sits in open view as you walk in the door where a lady was making fresh tortillas for each order. I grabbed the last table in the place and the server quickly brought chips, salsa and small cups of pico de gallo, cilantro, and diced white onions to add to the tacos. The chips were obviously made in-house and were thick, warm, and crispy just the way I like them. I asked if they had a small or side order of guacamole so I could try it, but the server told me they only sell one size and it was $3.99. I told her "thanks, but no thanks".

The tacos are in the traditional Mexican-style, with only the meat of your choice (pastor, asada, carnitas, picadillo, pollo, pescado) piled on two hot, grilled, handmade tortillas, not the crispy American variety you get at Taco Bell and most Mexican restaurants. I had one taco al pastor ($1.50 - sliced pork with pineapple), one carne asada ($1.50 - sliced steak) taco, one picadillo ($1.50 - ground beef) taco and a chicken enchilada à la carte ($1.50). Adding diced white onion, pico de gallo, fresh cilantro and salsa to the tacos, the only thing missing was some guacamole, but they were delicious nonetheless. I would have preferred a cheese and onion enchilada, but I failed to specify, so what I got was a chicken enchilada. My least favorite variety, it was still pretty good, although not very hot, and the red (chili) enchilada sauce was dark, rich and superb.

My only gripes are that you cannot get a side order of guacamole and the fact that they used a microwave oven to heat my enchilada, resulting in inconsistent melting of the cheese (see photo above) and a lukewarm enchilada. But hey, compared to the sad excuses for what they call Mexican food in Lawrence, these flaws are minuscule.

My bill came to a little over $7 including tax, so with tip I paid just $10 for a great lunch. A value meal at a fast food joint costs nearly that, so this filling lunch was a tremendous value. I tried to talk the owner into opening an El Camino Real in Lawrence. He seemed interested, but alas, it will not likely happen in my lifetime. Too bad.

CombatCritic Gives El Camino Real 9 Bombs Out Of 10 ... Bombs Are Good!

Read Reviews By CombatCritic:

Yelp - "Elite '14/'15"

TripAdvisor - "Top Contributor"

Tabelog - "Official Judge (Bronze)

Zomato - "Super Foodie"

... And Don't Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube

Title: El Camino Real: Real Tacos, Real Mexican Food, Real Good ... HOOAH!

Key Words: El Camino Real, el, camino, real, Mexican, taco, Kansas City, Kansas, city, 7th, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, review, Yelp, TripAdvisor

El Camino Real

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