Geraldina De Via

I took the ACT class to get licensed. The class was good, I was prepared and I passed. Afterwards, I took Paul and Keith up on their offer of employment to work with National Realty. I’m just gonna say- new agents beware. They harp on all these free services and opportunities and low costs. In fact, they charge you $480 to be covered by their E&O insurance, so you’re paying $480 to join. Compare this to other places. This wasn’t clearly explained to me when i signed up, it was more like “here you can’t work without E&O- pay here, $480.” I thought I was getting my own policy since nothing was explained. Days later, when I got no receipt of payment and no E&O policy I emailed them for clarification since the payment posted to “National Realty”- no response. Not until I emailed a second time. When I asked for information about details of the policy coverage and terms I was told “I’ve never had anyone ask me these many questions, I’ll have to call you back.” I was called back and advised “hey so, since you’re not comfortable we will issue you a refund for your $480 and you can find another broker to work with”. Nice.... They want 40% commission your first sale. 30% your second. And 20% then on. Do your research- this is not a good deal. Furthermore, they are very disorganized- they forgot to collect the sign up papers from me that were “legally required” and they never noticed. You’ll notice a bunch of typos and errors on just about every document they’ve produced. They also boast that they have hundreds of agents working but if you tour their office you’ll find maybe 20 licenses posted at most. It’s almost like working for a smooth car salesman. But hey, that was just my experience. But thanks for that class gentlemen!

I recently purchased my first home. Our realtor was from National Realty and was very inexperienced. I foolishly assumed that the agent’s broker would make sure the process went seamless... I couldn’t have been more wrong in that assumption. Our realtor dropped the ball so many times throughout the process making the overall experience an absolute nightmare. Never once did they have us, their clients, in mind when it came to scheduling inspections and closing. The only saving grace throughout the experience was the SELLER’S agent, Missy Garrison with Montague Miller. She went above and beyond to get us in a house. Albeit very unorthodox for her to facilitate as she did, we were grateful for her! We’ve had to call the home warranty company several times for issues that should have been found and resolved during the home inspection. I would recommend any other realty instead of National Realty. We specifically worked with Keith Hartke (broker) and David Ruffner (agent).

For those pursuing their license via on line academics, I would highly recommend Act Web. The web site and support from Paul and Constance Hartke made the entire process from first log on to state exam as efficient and effective as possible. Thank you both. Matthew L

Passed both exams the first time. The course material covered everything tested and I felt really well prepared. I highly recommend purchasing the sample exams; it is $99 well spent.

By far the best businessman in Reston Keith has always said to me that it's about working together and if most people don't understand that then oh my God we don't have a relationship