Jan & Tom.com / Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty - Nanaimo, British Columbia

Derek M.

For me as a 1st time buyer and a 1st Nations person, Janice Stromar and her husband really came through for me and making my 1st time purchase easy. Janice and Tom explained everything very well so there were no surprises. The best part was that Janice gave me insights to some properties and steered me away from some possible bad choices. Janice was 100% responsive to messaging and did a great job at viewing potential places. Janice and Tom were on the ball when it came to explaining all the legalities of a purchase and gave me choices of who to hire to close out a deal. I highly recommend Janice and Tom for anyone looking to buy or sell, and or 1st time buying like I was. Top shelf ! - Derek

Julie R.

Janice was very helpful and professional, always on time and responsive. We were "out-of-town" buyers so when we had time to look at houses with her, she set up entire days worth of showings for us and worked tirelessly to get the job done. We were very pleased with her help and would highly recommend her expertise. Grateful to have had such competent assistance!

Lisa G.

Jan and Tom sold are exceptional at assisting in both the buying and selling process for homes. I both bought and sold with Jan and Tom and had an outstanding experience with both transactions. Awesome advice on staging for selling and the listing and photos were exceptional. The first buyer bought the home and it sold in six days! When buying a home Jan and Tom are also exceptional. I looked at 20 properties and was never pressured to buy anything. They offer great advice about each property from both a home presective and a investment prospective. They are very flexible with viewings and even accommodating to my 8 pm viewing request because of my wild work schedule. Would definitely recommend these realtors.

McKayla F.

We worked with Jan and Tom for a recent buy & sell, and I am so glad we did! My partner had previously bought his old property with Janice back in 2018 and when we stumbled across a house for sale, which we were very suddenly interested in, we reached out. While we primarily worked with Janice, Tom was always there to help answer questions or offer his support when needed. Clear, consistent communication was a given with these two. They truly cared for our transaction at every step. Janice was a gem in keeping us up to date, managing expectations and sharing all our options. We ended up securing our offer while out of the country and on opposite time zones, we couldn't have made this happen without Janice's absolute commitment to us. We're now in our dream home and are SO thankful. I would 100% recommend them to anyone looking to buy, sell, or to just start a conversation about the local market.

Julie C.

We have seen a property at the real estate search that interests me and my husband, we called Tom and Janice Stromar if they can pick us up at the ferry and make an arrangement to view the property on September 2nd, Labor Day and without hesitation, Janice pick us up us from the ferry to the place that we looked at in Parksville, and back again to ferry at the same day. We liked what we saw, and we decided to make an offer, everything went smoothly with their help. Our sincere Thank you to Janice for making this fast and smooth process.

Jennifer R.

Fast, efficient and professional. I enjoyed working with both Jan and Tom and they were very willing to go the extra mile when needed. I really appreciated taking the time to walk through several properties and discuss the benefits and drawbacks to come to a solid decision about meeting our families needs.

John L.

We completed a home purchase at the peak of the market that was rather complicated. We are fortunate that Tom is knowledgeable, honest, conscientious, and reliable. He navigated this complicated purchase seamlessly with good communication. We are very happy with his service and professionalism.
This is our second real estate transaction that depended on Tom's expertise and we will continue to work with Tom in the future.

Drew C.

"Even a Monkey Could Sell a House In This Market..." -Janice Stromar

...turns out we should've gone with the monkey.

Okay, that's a harsh title, but upon our first meeting these were Jan's words, instilling confidence in us when interviewing for the best realtor to represent us. The market did begin to turn when we listed our house, which we fully understand is beyond anyone's control. If a monkey could sell our home at our expected price before the market dip, then we expected our realtor to dig in and demonstrate the advantages of human evolution.

Jan and Tom aren't bad realtors, they're very professional. They're great sales people as they did come prepared and were very effective in selling us their services. We know they have many clients and have had success in a hot market. "We don't need to sell your house, we'll keep making money regardless" is me paraphrasing one of Tom's favourite lines dropped on more than one occasion (in hindsight we should've given more weight to this red flag). The thing is, any sales person can look good in a hot market, but what separates the great from the mediocre is how they perform when the market starts to cool.

Jan and Tom chose a strategy that didn't work, in fact backfired, and may have cost us a great deal of potential money, but that can be contributed to unfornate timing as that strategy worked for them in the past. This poor review isn't a reflection of a misfired strategy or the complaints of people that wish they made more money. This review is about value for money. We firmly believe Property Guys would've given us exactly the same service as Jan and Tom.

Pros:
- pulled all the necessary paperwork
- took photos and virtual 3D walkthrough (did not post to their website though)
- scheduled viewings
- contacted us with offers
- sent someone to put the 'for sale' sign in the ground

Cons:
- frequently out of town, often not telling us and being unreachable (Jan would defer us to Tom once we did make contact)
- never being present when 'serious' buyers were viewing the house.
- never providing feedback because 'that doesn't happen anymore'. (Our current buying realtor is constantly asking us for feedback to pass back on sellers)
- Upon selling the home we didn't see or speak with Jan or Tom again, except when Jan texted to ask us to leave the keys behind and Tom called to make sure the money went through before giving the keys to the buyers (we really did appreciate Tom's call and diligence). In fact, being Jan's client we felt she was actively avoiding us. She came to get the lockbox and didn't even attempt to knock on the door because she 'thought no one was home' and knowing I work from home.
- no congratulations or otherwise upon closing the deal. No thank you for choosing them as realtor after they got paid.

I don't know the exact costs that Realtors pay when listing a home, there's not itemized bill and the industry isn't exactly transparent. I know these costs come out of their commission, but the amount of our money Jan and Tom walked away with for the amount of service provided are grossly out of balance.

I would not recommend Jan and Tom to anyone simply due to the lack of service for the amount of commission paid. For a very similar experience hire Property Guys, 2% Realty, or something similar. Hiring a monkey would be a challenge when trying to convert a commission percentage to bananas.