HomeTown Realty Unethical and immoral business practice Spencer, Iowa

Was looking at purchasing a home with a different realtor, that Home Town Realty of Spencer had listed for sale. This is a victorian home and the seller had done lots of remodeling, but this was the first time this realtor was in the home and we could not find a heating duct or source of heat, other than the gas fireplace and a few electric space heaters.

We checked the seller disclosure and for the heat source the question was left blank, the seller had not filled it in. My realtor called the seller and all the radiators were pulled out and were sitting in the garage. The seller heated the home with a gas furnace with no blower fan and electric portable heaters, as he told the realtor it was more economical.

We had agreed upon purchase agreement, depending on boiler inspection since there was no real source of heat, which is important in Iowa. Of Course, the boiler is bad and needs to be replaced. Had my realtor notify the seller and Hometown realty that boiler needs replaced.

Hometown realty, while not legally responsible for filling out the disclosure form refuses to do anything and is comfortable selling a house in Iowa without heat. They are comfortable collecting their sales commission for not doing anything to really sell the home and apparently comfortable selling homes without a heat source.

I wrote a BBB complaint and Norma Haack, co-owner of HomeTown Realty, with her Husband Greg, replied that " The seller was given the estimate and he decided not to participate in the repairs of the house because of a handshake between between the seller and the buyer with the buyer's realtor present"  That is lie, I have never met the seller, ever. I have never spoken to the seller at all, not even over the phone, my realtor took care of all of that, and I am sure my realtor will confirm there was no handshake deal.

Norma continued "with the realtor present stating if seller left a street light in his back patio, the seller would not have to lift a finger do any more repairs."  <--- Norma sure knows how to lie.

Again, I have never met the seller of the home, and the arrangement was, we had asked that the seller complete the hard wood flooring by the laundry room, the seller countered that he would, but that he would take the street light with him when he moved, so I agreed seller would not have to finish floor and the street light would stay. 

Obviously, the seller lied about the heating source the of home, and where he was moving too, (he stated out of state, but found out really only 50 miles away) so I figured it was best to finish the floor so it would be satisfactory and not shoddily and the street lamp really exemplifies the back yard. So it was a good trade off. (On the note of taking fixed items, the seller demanded to take the wood mantel from the fireplace, though a good realtor, or yea talking Hometown realty, would have made sure it was on the list of items to be taken, and of course it was not.)

No where was there any agreement to not have the seller fix anything else. I had the boiler inspected within the 14 days that is required, and notify the seller and Hometown realty that is needed replacement.

Legally, Hometown realty is not responsible for disclosing anything about the home, and Norma is right when she wrote " we do not own the home" but I believe she is wrong when she wrote " we do not make decisions on what the seller will or will not do" then what is a realtor for?  Obviously, hometown does not care what condition the home is in as long as they get their commision. This does not show any character or ethics, just greed.

What I had suggested in the BBB was that Hometown realty forego 1 1/2 percent of their commision for the sale of the home or about $1500, which would go towards putting in a gas furnace and duct work to the home. Hometown realty refused.