Sotheby's International Realty Reviews 30

SCAM BY INAKI NAVARRO from Spain - DO NOT TRUST

We experienced a very concerning situation after placing a deposit of USD 20,000 for a booking. Initially, the contact appeared very friendly and professional, which gave us confidence to proceed.

However, after the payment, communication became unresponsive, and we have been unable to reach them via phone or email for over a week.

As a result, the booking has not been fulfilled and the funds remain unresolved. We strongly advise others to exercise caution, ensure proper contracts are in place, and verify all details before making any payments.

Our agent in Sicily, Silvia Gallo, went above and beyond any expectations to assist us. As non Italian speakers, she assisted with finalising our house purchase, informing us about local amenities and customs, finding an architect for us and last but not least provided guidance with setting up internet, gas, electricity etc. If you decide on a home in Sicily, we would highly recommend her without any reservation. Her knowledge about the myriad of different factors that can impact your purchase or sale negatively, smooths out the entire process. Always cheerful and positive, our buying process with her professional guidance was a pleasure!

Spammers, I blocked them but they changed the email address that they sent mail from. Have a 1 star review

We moved from London to Portugal in 2025, excited to work with Sotheby’s Portugal Vilamoura office. What we found instead was shocking rigidity, disregard for human decency, and a complete lack of ethical judgment.

We attempted to purchase a rural property in Faro for €570,000 to help elderly vendors (88 years old, severely visually impaired) relocate urgently for health reasons. Despite a fair offer and the vendors’ willingness to sell, the Sotheby’s agent refused the sale, demanding an excessive €42,066 commission that would materially harm the vendors’ ability to secure healthcare and housing.

In contrast, another agency, stepped in, showing flexibility, reducing their commission to €25,000, and ensuring the elderly couple could move safely. Sotheby’s? Unmoved, unbending, and indifferent.

Sotheby’s International Realty prides itself on integrity and discretion. Yet here, the Vilamoura office put profit over people, disregarding elderly clients in urgent need.

This is not just disappointing — it’s a reputational risk for a brand that claims ethical leadership. If you value humanity, fairness, and moral judgment, think twice before trusting this office.

MJ Realty Group horrible experience - Would not recommend this property to anyone. I had an extremely negative experience with the broker here—despite having a strong credit score and substantial income, my application was unreasonably denied. The decision felt questionable at best, and hard not to believe prejudice wasn’t involved. After reading other recent reviews, it seems my experience may not be unique, which is concerning. We’ll be taking our business elsewhere. Save yourself the trouble and look for a property that treats prospective tenants with fairness and respect.

An absolute excruciating process that even entered into! Zero attention to detail. Absolutely no customer service like a Third World country! It’s a horrible, horrible real estate company no matter what state what city what country you’re dealing with them. I tried four different countries cause I was buying real estate nothing but a horrible process with these people

This review relates to Jo Thomas at Sotheby's Tokai branch in Cape Town. I cannot speak more highly of her professionalism and determination in dealing with a very complex transaction with a tricky vendor. Two years after completing the conveyancing she is still helping us and we could not be more grateful. Both Jo and her husband, Steve, were very helpful when we looking for a house and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a house in the Constantia area.

Despite the Landlords agreeing to pay my broker a commission for bringing them a renter, they told me since I didn’t have a “Buyers Agreement” for a rental property they were keeping all the commission for themselves.

Ohio doesn’t require a signed “Buyers Agreement” for rental properties.

I spoke to the broker on the phone and they said they would send me a copy of the lease and commission agreement.

The agent (Alex) emailed me back saying they were keeping the commission since we didn’t have a document that isn’t even required in Ohio signed.

I told him the “Buyers Agreement” they are asking for is only for “Buyers” and not “Renters” but he didn’t respond.

I also reached back out to the broker to follow up since they said they would be getting me copies of the signed commission agreement and they haven’t responded to me either.

The reviews collected here give you the general idea that you should go elsewhere for your real estate needs. These folks are Real A Snakes

Sotheby’s in the Algarve are the most expensive, unprofessional and incompetent estate agent I have ever had to deal with. They consider that the buyer is their client, not the seller who pays their exorbitant fee. They are a disgrace

Well, very short experience but quite intense. At the beginning nice and quick reply, then you recognize the impatience growing when main didn't arrive to my account, asking for another mail address, finally getting aggressive when asking for another payment options (as if credit card is so exotic and full of fraud). They cancelled the reservation probably because my reply on whatsApp took too long.. Very unprofessional and impatience "support" requiring a short training in how to handle with customers. Good luck Sotheby's International Realty for the future! well done!

Der Service ist nicht in jedem Land gleich, man weiss, es soll sich um einzigartige Objekte drehen. Es sticht aber doch auffällig häufig in Irland hervor, dass es sich hier eher um überteure Ladenhüter handelt. Ich hatte ein paar Kontakte zu den Maklern, und plötzlich wurden mir ungefragt einfach nur überteure Objekte zugesandt, die überhaupt nicht meinen Kriterien entsprachen.

Such a bad experience with Sotheby's Real Estate in Porto Montenegro (in MONTENEGRO).
This agent didn't know to explain important facts about properties (areas, rental pool, etc.) in Porto Montenegro. Even the prices in some cases were wrong. Unprofessional behavior and negative promotion of Porto Montenegro. Choose another agent!!!

I asked for a contract on the first showing, (name withheld) and didn’t receive one. I asked again on Friday, I went to view on Saturday, and It didn’t open. When I rang later that day, it was sold for 1,313,000. Considerably less than I was willing to pay. Since the unit above, #8, was sold for 1.4mill in April and didn’t even have a garage. I am a genuine cash buyer.

You want to talk about a realty company that just makes a sale and will just cover up anything to make the sale, take my advice and stay as far away from any home sale to do with this realty company!!! BUYER BEWARE!! Complete sharks in the realtor industry!!!!!

The Sotheby's ad keep getting into my cell phone when I open the Yahoo website. It keeps sending me their realtors' ads even how many times I have sent feedbacks like "Not interested in this ad" or "Viewed this ad many times" to whoever is sending the ads. We are NOT in the position to buy a hovel, shed, or hut in Vancouver anytime the next 5 years. Pls stop sending the ads. You are being charged by the ad group every time we reject your ads.

My landlord used Chardonnee Cunningham when he sold our unit. She gave us hardly any notice when someone was going to tour or a that an inspection was going to happen. In fact, we found out from our upstairs neighbor that they were coming through. Chardonnee simply forgot to inform us. She also told us that we needed to leave our apartment that we legally pay for for 2 hours during an open house so she could make money. She would also move things in our home without permission. Her attitude was forget the people that live there…where’s my commission. Tenants beware: She’ll move your stuff, show up unannounced, and make your life hell.

Mäklare Mikael Ortolanis som undanhöll bud, vilket kom fram senare när jag tvingade honom att säga upp uppdraget, som gav dåliga råd (jag har konkreta exempel och kan skriva ner allting, hör av dig till mig om ni behöver mer info, men anlita inte den mäklaren).
Jag hörde av mig till Sothebys, som hanterade ärendet otroligt oseriöst och svarade inte.
Fick mig som säljare att känna mig skyldig.
Otroligt oseriös hantering av försäljning av min bostad. Mäklare som inte hörde av sig utan jag fick höra av mig för att kolla läget och höll endast i en visning under 6 veckor och gjorde ingenting.
Jag kommer att fortsätta och göra en anmälan, då de har fått mäklaren att lida och gett dålig rådgivning.

Seller/buyer and agents beware! Unethical, unprofessional, and unsavory practices. The listing had a deadline stating “best and final offers to be provided” Colleen Burt accepted offers after the deadline she posted and used it to manipulate the offers to the benefit of herself. We provided a cash offer, which was the highest and accepted offer that she then used it to manipulate a higher offer from a buyer she was representing for a sale that she was also the listing agent.

This company obviously does not know how to hire realtors with good values. I recognized and witnessed Cynthia Mattiza cursing out the pharmacy staff at Walgreens. She repeated the F word several times and continued to tell them they didn’t know what they were doing. She clearly lacks professionalism. I felt so bad for the pharmacy staff to have to listen to someone belittle them. Please do not do business with her. And to make things even worse, she left by saying, “I don’t have time for this, I need to pick up my kids.”