TOTAL REALTY CORP

We were looking to purchase a home and property in Volusia County, Florida. Total Realty was the listing agency on several properties that we looked at. In nearly every instance where Total Realty was involved, their responsiveness was poor. This included establishing times to view properties that they had listed, responding to questions when we were interested in making offers, and the following case: There was a home on 10 acres in Lake Helen that we made an offer on, and eventually came to an agreement on terms with the owners. This was based on the belief that the square footage listed was correct as advertised in the MLS listing as put forth by Total Realty and their listing agent. The home square footage included a guest cottage which specified that it had over 400 "heated" square feet. Both buildings had been built by the property owner. At the owner's request, all inspections were to be completed in concert on the same day to minimize their displacement, including the appraisal, building inspection, septic inspection, water tests and property survey. We complied with this request. The cost of all these inspections exceeded $1,500. However, during these inspections it was determined that the total "heated" square footage of the home and guest cottage was over 200 square feet less than Total Realty had advertised in their listing. While we were paying over $100 a square foot under the original agreement based upon the listed square footage, this error represented over $20,000 in value that was not in reality present in the property. We attempted to renegotiate with the owner, but they would not adjust their price to offset this significant (10%) error. Total Realty's listing agent represented that she had incorrectly listed the attached garage's (non heated) space as the guest house square footage, which was about 240 square feet greater than the guest cottage. We were never able to purchase that home, so our expenses were of no value. Had the seller and Total Realty properly advertised the property square footage, we would have never agreed to the original purchase price. When we requested that Total Realty, who was completely responsible for this square footage reporting error, reimburse our appraisal and inspection costs, they refused to consider paying for anything except the small appraisal fee. After this event, we refused to even consider any home listed by Total Realty. I would strongly discourage any potential home buyers and even home sellers from utilizing Total Realty in Volusia County. In my opinion, their responsiveness to us as buyers was poor in almost every circumstance and their declining to take responsibility for their own mistakes in this case makes them a poor choice for any future consumer.