YORK SIMPSON UNDERWOOD

In October of 2007 we made an offer to purchase a home that was listed by this agency. We used one of their agents to make the offer. The home was listed with another agent in the same office. It was a contingency deal and we gave them the listing on the home we needed to sell. The eventual buyer of our home was represented by this company as well, both on the sales and purchase end. It was a very lucrative series of "deals" for this firm. The agents, all three of them, worked in the same office under the same managing broker. They might as well have worked on different planets. They failed to communicate important information, they missed deadlines, they dropped important action items and they all claimed it was the fault of the other. They did however manage to use the same inspection firm, a fact that becomes important as you read on. Each time we viewed the home we were attempting to purchase we noticed an odor in the kitchen ("fish" was our agent's suggestion), as well as a damp musty smell in the basement. Our agent never once suggested air sampling in the finished basement and having never purchased a basement home, we didn't know that such a test existed. This same agent recommended the home inspector who also failed to suggest air sampling. One week after we moved into the home, we discovered that the basement was infested with mold. To date, we've spent over $30,000 deconstructing, remediation and reconstructing what amounts to over 50% of the square footage in our home. When told of the problem, all they could say was "Really - oh I'm sorry". Then, weeks later they said "I really want to get over there to see it, really I do". And "Gee, have you spent $40,000 yet?" They say the mark of a company is the service you receive after the sale. We really could have used some help with recommendations and all they could do was ask how much money we had to spend to fix the problem. Oh, the odor in the kitchen - it was a propane leak. We have worked with many fine real estate agents in the past. This agent and the company she represents don't fall into that category. In fact, when we wrote to the owners of the agency to express our concerns we received an immediate call, a promise that they would look into it and an expression of "interest" over our concerns. What we got from them later was a letter from their attorney telling us to 'go away'.