Lara Branch Realty 22 Hicks Street, Lara, Victoria 3212

"Down to earth. Karen and Adrian were fantastic to deal with as buyers. Quick communication and extremely personable. After looking for a house for quite a while every interaction with Karen and her team was great. Highly recommend!"

"We used Karen and Adrian to sell our deceased estate property recently We were absolutely thrilled with the outcome. It was such a pleasent smooth process and we couldnt be happier. We highly recommend Lara Branch Realty ."

"Purchasing a home through Lara Branch Real Estate was nothing short of a nightmare as a first home buyer. At one point I said to my partner that had we not wanted this particular house, that I would have given up and looked for something else. Adrian was personable and we had absolutely no issues with him at all throughout our experience. It was confusing although, as it was only him at each inspection we attended, however, all of the negotiating we did was through Karen- who we had only met the day prior to our settlement during our final inspection. Karen sure lived up to this name! We made multiple offers with no counter offers made in return- I said I was happy to negotiate, although I couldn't negotiate with nothing! At one point I asked Karen if she had even brought our offers to the vendor- little did she know that we had personally met the vendor, so when she said she had brought each offer to them I was suspicious. The vendor told us that they had not received any offers from the real estate despite Karen telling us she had brought each one to them. This was disappointing and also unethical in my own opinion. She was unprofessional from this point on- on a phone call she remarked that she "swore on her childrens' lives" that she had brought these offers to the vendor. I was extremely uncomfortable and taken aback by this comment and had to remind her that I'm just here to purchase a property and would like to keep things professional. Despite this on top of many other issues- Karen had never explicitly told us our offer was in fact accepted. Not in a single moment, point or stage were we congratulated on purchasing our first home. My partner put his life savings into this and it felt like this huge achievement was made to be a hard, unpleasant and absolutely heartbreakingly disappointing. The only way we knew we were successful in purchasing this property was because my partner's mother did a "drive by" of the property to show his aunt, and noticed the "For Sale" sign had a "Sold" sticker on it. We weren't even told the sticker was going up, and from having so many other people around us purchasing homes, it was our understanding that the real estates usually at least let the first home buyers know the sticker is going up. And this is the big "Insta" photo to show off the achievement. The day we settled, Karen met us out the front of the property, informed us we could call the sign company ourselves if it doesn't get taken down, gave us 2 keys (both of which only for the front door- none for any of the other accesses to the home) and told us we can contact the seller to ask for the other keys (which is an INCREDIBLE concern for our own security and safety, and I believe should have been fully chased up by Karen or Adrian). Karen gave us our Lara Branch Real Estate box that I assume they give every home buyer, and then left. Still no congratulations, not even a handshake. From our perspective (and that of our Broker at one stage) it seemed as though Karen did not want to sell the property. We were clearly keen but she gave us nothing. She was unapproachable, and when I was negotiating with her, she would contact my partner instead of myself straight after phone conversations I would have with her. Seemed like a game she was playing but I'm no agent so I don't know. Her self image seems to be quite bloated- she once said to me that everyone in Lara knows her and knows where she lives. I reminded her that I hadn't even met her in person so I don't know her from a bar of soap so it doesn't matter what other people think of her. To me, she is the last person I would want to be representing me if I were to sell my home. It was the most difficult encounter I had experienced and made the excitement of the first home buyer experience quickly turn into an incredibly frustrating, difficult and sad experience."

"Karen/Adrian had intimate market knowledge of the local area and were upfront and honest on what to expect with the highest level of professionalism. They were very helpful and accommodating and so easy to deal with. We were so pleased with the outcome from the sale of our first ever home and had full trust in them both selling our home. We would highly recommend speaking with Karen or Adrian before signing with another real estate agent to sell your property."