The Carlin Real Estate & Auction Co. Ltd.

Stories From Clients

Client Stories

Short summaries of the kinds of transactions Dave has handled — buyers and sellers, a sale managed from out of state, a move involving both sides at once, and a farm taken to auction.

How to read these: each story is a short summary written from a single published review, with a link to the original. They are not interviews, the reviews are summarized rather than reproduced, and clients are kept anonymous.Transaction-specific details come from the cited reviews; other information explains the process generally. Where a review doesn't state something — a price, a timeline, a reason — we've left it out rather than filled it in.

Home buyers

From Offer to Closing in 23 Days

A buyer who had an accepted offer and a short runway to closing.

In a published review, a buyer wrote that they went from putting in an offer on a house to closing in 23 days. The same reviewer said Dave was responsive even over a weekend and a holiday.

That second detail is the one worth pausing on. A purchase moves through inspection windows, lender requests, and title work, and each of those steps waits on somebody answering a question. Reaching your agent outside business hours is not always possible, and this reviewer singled it out as something that mattered to them.

We can't tell you what made this particular closing land where it did — that depends on the lender, the title company, the seller, and the property, and the review doesn't say. What the reviewer chose to highlight was being able to reach their agent when it mattered.

Source: Published testimonial on The Carlin Co. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the buyer testimonial on The Carlin Co. (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: Closing timelines vary a great deal and depend on financing, inspections, title work, and the other party. Twenty-three days is unusually quick and is not something anyone can promise you.

Home sellers2021

A Home Sale With Clear Communication Throughout

A homeowner selling a single-family house in West Unity, Ohio.

A seller who sold a single-family home in West Unity in 2021 described Dave as professional and thorough throughout the process. In their words, he explained everything and kept them updated constantly.

Selling is a stretch of waiting punctuated by decisions that have to be made quickly — how to respond to an offer, whether a requested repair is reasonable, what a contingency actually commits you to. Going in knowing the shape of that sequence is most of what keeps it from feeling chaotic.

The reviewer also said they got the offer they were looking for and that Dave followed through on what he said he would do. We haven't published the price, the time on market, or how many offers there were, because the review doesn't state any of that and we aren't going to guess at it.

Source: Published review on Zillow. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the seller review on Zillow (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: Every sale is different. Pricing, condition, timing, and local demand all shape the outcome, and no two sellers should expect the same result.

Land & auctions2019

Selling a Farm and Farmhouse at Auction

A seller with a farm and farmhouse to sell, taken to auction rather than a standard listing.

A seller wrote that they listed a farm and farmhouse with Dave, that he showed the property many times, and that it sold at an absolute auction. They also said he worked hard to get them as strong a result as he could.

Farm property is harder to price than a subdivision house. Tillable ground, outbuildings, road frontage, and a house of a particular age rarely have a clean set of comparable sales behind them, and showing that kind of property means meeting people on site, repeatedly.

An absolute auction sells to the highest bidder with no reserve price. That is a significant decision for a seller and not the right structure for every property — the review tells us that is how this one sold, not why it was chosen. Dave is a licensed auctioneer as well as a Realtor, so both routes are available to talk through.

Source: Published review on Zillow. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the farm auction review on Zillow (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: This describes one farm sale. Auction suitability depends on the property, the timeline, and the seller's goals, and an absolute auction in particular carries real risk because there is no reserve.

Home sellers2019

Selling a Family Member's Home From Another State

A seller in another state handling the sale of their mother-in-law's single-family home in Pioneer, Ohio.

A published review describes selling a mother-in-law's house in Pioneer while the reviewer themselves lived in another state. They described Dave as knowledgeable and helpful, said the process was straightforward from where they sat, and singled out how easy he was to reach and how quickly he responded.

Distance changes what you need from an agent. Decisions that would take a short drive to resolve in person instead depend on someone being reachable by phone, and on trusting their read of the situation. That is the part of the experience this reviewer chose to highlight.

The review does not say what the home sold for, how long it took, or who handled tasks at the property, so neither do we.

Source: Published review on Zillow, December 2019. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the out-of-state seller review on Zillow (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: This describes one out-of-state seller's experience. What a remote sale involves varies with the property, the distance, and who is available locally.

Buying & selling2020

Help With Both Sides of a Move

A client in West Unity, Ohio, selling one home while looking for the next.

Selling a home while shopping for the next one means running two sets of decisions at once. A West Unity client's published review describes working with Dave on both sides of that move.

They wrote that he helped them sell quickly so they could buy, that they viewed many houses, and that he did not push them toward any of them — checking instead that a place was genuinely what they wanted.

The review does not give a sale timeline or describe how the two closings lined up, and we haven't guessed at either. What it does record is a client who wanted help with both halves and valued a patient search.

Source: Published review on Zillow, December 2020. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the buying-and-selling review on Zillow (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: Buying and selling around the same time depends heavily on timing, financing, and the other parties involved. No two moves line up the same way.

Home buyers2020

Straight Answers for a First-Time Buyer

A first-time buyer purchasing a single-family home in Farmer, Ohio.

A first purchase raises questions that would not occur to someone who has done it before. A buyer in Farmer wrote about their first home-buying experience and described Dave as reachable by phone whenever those questions came up.

They described him as knowledgeable, said he answered the questions they had, and said he was open with them rather than holding information back. That last point is the one worth noting: being told what you are actually looking at, including the parts that are not flattering, is how a first-time buyer learns to judge a house.

We don't know what they paid, how long the search ran, or what financing they used — the review doesn't say, and we're not going to fill that in.

Source: Published review on Zillow, January 2021. Summarized here rather than reproduced, and the reviewer is kept anonymous.

Read the first-time buyer review on Zillow (opens in a new tab)

Worth knowing: One buyer's experience. What a first purchase involves depends on the property, the lender, and the market at the time.

These are six transactions out of hundreds, chosen because each shows a different kind of sale. You can read every published review — including the ones behind these stories — on the reviews page.

Individual experiences and timelines vary. Nothing here is a prediction of what your own sale or purchase will involve, and no result described above is guaranteed.

Call NowText NowTalk to Dave