Chris Ruhland was thorough in all details and displayed good follow through on miscellaneous items…read moreeven after the closing date. Chris is local to Deland, so he knows the area. I'd highly recommend Chris and Aparo-Griffin Properties.

From the owner: Opened in 2004 and celebrating our 20th year of Serving West Volusia, Aparo Griffin Properties is…read moreone of the few approved affordable housing partners in Volusia County. We have participated in first time buyers programs for almost 20 years. We work with SHIP, NSP, Florida Bond and many other programs. Each of these programs requires much training and continuing education on our part. We are experts in 1st time home buyers and very experienced in investments including 1031 Exchanges, Rental Properties and also self directed IRA's. We have multiple brokers in the office with many years experience. We are very involved in our community including mentoring young adults, Habitat for Humanity and many other organizations. We are proud to be woman and veteran owned.

Great guy and company! He will do all he can to find you exactly what you need in your price range…read more Highly recommended

I recently had the good fortune to become acquainted with Matthew McLean of Shoreline Realty in…read moreDaytona Beach after observing his excellent service involving the sale of a neighbor's beachside Daytona Beach home. When I decided to put my own house on the market a few months ago, I remembered Shoreline Realty from the name on the side of Matthew's pick-up truck, looked him up, and reached out. We met at my home soon after to get acquainted, have Matthew get a look at the house, and voice our thoughts on appropriate updates/repairs, the asking price, for getting it on the market, etc. With Matthew's guidance and assistance in facilitating preparations, the house was listed on April 20th, had six showings, and had two solid offers within a week. In the interim, I've come to know Matthew as a high-energy person of integrity, with a wealth of local knowledge and resources who grew up in the area and is finely tuned to the local real estate markets. He's reliable, intelligent yet relatable, driven yet chill, and knows how to market properties to the best advantage for both buyers and sellers. His appreciation and knowledge of older homes such as mine, as well as his knowledge of how houses of all eras are put together (and his sense of humor), is a bonus. If you are looking for a real estate agent in Volusia County who's willing to put in the work and go the extra mile, I enthusiastically recommend Matthew McLean of Shoreline Realty.

Our house flooded and a certain Realtor at Total Realty in DeLand did not help us or tell the owner…read moreabout our situation even after we'd been renters at this home on the river for almost 2 years. We had to BEG HIM to come to the house and see how bad it was. We could no longer live there due to the continuous water coming in, the mold, and the gators in the front yard, etc. The Realtor requested I give him a phone call the next day to "wake him up" in time to come visit our flooded home. I thought this was VERY unprofessional. The next day, I called him anyway and he didn't answer my call and he was VERY LATE meeting me. When he FINALLY got to my house 45 MINUTES AFTER he was supposed to meet me, he wouldn't even get out of his truck when he got there. He just treated it like it was no big deal. WE COULDN'T EVEN WALK TO OUR HOUSE IN RAIN BOOTS ANYMORE because the water was SO HIGH. He was so uncaring and treated us badly right from the start. I won't even go into what he did to try to keep us on his "roster" as renters and the crappy places he tried to get us to move into after that. He was always late again meeting up with us at potential new homes. We decided to rent ONLY from owners from then on. We will NEVER rent from any property managers EVER AGAIN because of this wretched experience. I advise you do the same! In my experience, owners are more concerned for the care of the house and about the people in their houses and they like to make sure everything is taken care of quickly and with quality. I hope this helps in your search. But DO STEER CLEAR of Total Realty! Updated response, after reading the comment from Cynthia: I saw the comment that Cynthia, the president of Total Realty, added to my review in 2012. I don't get on Yelp much anymore but, I thought I should come back to add a few things, in response to the comment. I do not blame Total Realty at all for the actual flood happening. Yes, things like that happen. It was not the fact that it happened... it was how it was handled. Jerry should not have asked me to give him a "wake up call" in the morning to wake him up and remind him to meet me at my flooded home and then ignore my wake up calls and show up 45 minutes LATE at the house and then not even get out of the vehicle to talk to me. He is supposed to be a business professional here. He didn't even want to deal with me in the first place because he thought the flooding probably wasn't "that bad". I literally had to BEG HIM to come and see the house, so that I could show him how bad it was and be able get our deposit back. The water was up to our knees and gators were starting to come into the yard from the river. We couldn't even take all of our belongings with us because we couldn't risk going into the water where the gators were anymore. We had to leave things behind. The house was condemned and was bulldozed not long after we left. That's how bad it was. He kept trying to find excuses as to why we shouldn't have gotten our deposits back. It was horrible. I'm truly in shock it was even returned to us after how he kept trying to find a way out of returning it. He also kept trying to get us to move into other properties that he managed, to get out of having to give us the deposit back. At the time, we were so desperate to get into a new place quickly, that we allowed him to show us some other rentals. However, his continued lack of respect and his perpetual tardiness at meeting us at potential new rental homes at the designated meeting times, made us want the deposits so that we could rent elsewhere. It was only returned after we demanded it back. This should not have been how it was handled. Also, there should not have been an issue returning our deposits because THAT MONEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN ESCROW. Simple. This is a HUGE red flag! Saying you strive for full satisfaction and then not taking any actual responsibility for how you handled our situation is like a slap in the face. I should have never have had to beg someone to come and see the property to prove that we couldn't live there anymore. You can't "save face" here for how we were treated by saying that you're sorry you "didn't achieve satisfaction within [your] capability". You were absolutely capable... of showing respect for us and our horrible situation, for showing up on time, and for putting that money in escrow when we first gave you our deposit. You have only proven my point that your company does not care, doesn't behave professionally, doesn't show general respect, and doesn't take responsibility. By the way, I'd like to add, since any readers don't know... The president, Cynthia DeLuca, is married to the property manager, Jerry DeLuca, who was the one who behaved so unprofessionally during this mess. So, it's likely that he still works there. However, it is also Cynthia's responsibility to take ownership of how her husband treats tenants, since he is employed by her. As I strongly suggested before, steer clear, people.

I have bought a few houses from Terry Bailey at Total Realty, a hard working realtor who I would…read morerecommend. I am writing this review based on their placement services. aka they run a background and credit check, as well as advertise your property, and place a qualified tenant to rent your house. Total Realty charges the owner the first month's rent as a finder's fee. As it turns out, having only moved in for a month, the tenant filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was informed of this news by a notice I received from the bankruptcy court in Orlando. It was very puzzling to me because I thought Total Realty did their homework on this guy. Needless to say, Total Realty got their first month's rent and couldn't care less that the tenant turned out to be someone who was on the verge of bankruptcy when he moved into the house. It was quite obvious to me that Total Realty made a mistake in approving this individual's rental application. So I asked Terry regarding his financial situation, and she me told that "everything looked good." In an email I received from Terry, someone in Total Realty said "anyone can file for bankruptcy." This may be true but not all filings are approved by the court. In fact, most courts in the U.S use a means test to see whether an individual is truly in financial distress before deeming you eligible for bankruptcy. It's not a free for all. The statement that "anyone can file for bankruptcy" is a fallacy. Although I do not have access to my former tenant's credit report, I'm quite sure that not everything good. As a loan officer, I've seen many credit reports from all ends of the spectrum. Those who ended up in bankruptcy are individuals who have been in a downward spiral for quite a while. I'm quite confident that Total Realty did not fulfill their duties in vetting this individual. Had they done so, nobody in their right mind would've allowed this guy to move in. Aside from the fact that Total Realty failed to place a qualified tenant into my house, they wanted to charge me again to find someone else. It's unconscionable, and outright ridiculous for them to do that. I was told that they would have to charge me for at least a half month's rent, because of the work that goes behind finding a tenant. Since it'll probably be the same procedure (if any) they used to find this deadbeat tenant, I decided to part ways with Total Realty. I refuse to pay for their mistakes again. It's really a shame because they've lost me as a client over a measly $400. Between me and my husband, we own four rental homes and Total Realty could've made thousands more down the road.

Did you notice Four Star didn't respond to my review as they did all other reviews. That is…read moreindication of my truth they won't acknowledge. Did they represent, me the buyer, or the seller. I asked the sales manager and he told me he represented him only. Nice dual agency. Lol. Here is my reasoning, for the bad review I'm going to write. I put a deposit down signed a contract for a fully furnished house and told what you see is what you get. However, when I got my appraisal pictures, half the house was missing. Contacted the buying agent who contacted the selling agent and she went back and rewrote the contract for the contents of what was in the house. I had already signed a contract and put down a deposit. In my opinion once the contract is signed and deposit paid you don't go into that house unless it's the appraiser to appraise it. My issue was again once you sign a contract and put down a deposit nobody should be going into a fully furnished house you signed to purchase and steal things which is what Pam told me she did because the owner told her she had the right to go in and take what she wanted but not after I signed a contract. And then I was told the cleaning woman threw out the house keys and the mailbox key and I had to go take care of all of that on my own without the real estate help. Not to mention the lack of professionalism when it came to closing on the house. I had to tell them what to. Since four-star Holmes was representing the seller and the buying agent as well where did I come in as a client. Especially when I had to tell them what to do and they had to apologize to me over and over and over again at the lack of professionalism they had in the closing process. And if you look at the pictures now those pictures are from 20 years ago. when I went into the office the next day to complain about things being stolen from my house that I paid for they had taken off the pictures so nobody could see them. Don't ever use Pam Hollingsworth she is a thief. she steals things and the agency backs her up. Not to mention how rude and degrading she is. I had to hold my husband back for the way she was speaking to me and degrading me. He was pissed with the way she spoke to me. Don't use this agency. Find a different one that's more up to date.

I am unsure about using them again from my own experience because I was unclear about a few…read moredetails about the sale of my home and they were unable to pull it up answer my question and the lady said a snide remark to me and then I got angry about it. I was then transferred to a man who was already told her side of the story and he was rude to me and hung up on me, leaving me, a widow, with unanswered questions about the sale that they handled. But I never received a paper of any kind stating the transfer of the title out of my name and I feel that is important to have a clear paper trail in any transaction and I feel they did not know how to do that even though years down the line, they should still be able to do that.

Service was awful. Terrible. No service to speak of…read more This group seems awful. They will not do the listing as required. It is a terrible experience.

Maureen is a true professional. I would encourage anyone looking for a real estate agent in the…read moreDeland area to reach out to her. She's truthful, honest with such a grounded personality. I highly recommend her.

I use Ability Title all the time, easy company to work with! Highly recommend them. Nice folks in…read morethe office that are professional and take care of business.

Gregg and I have worked with Ability Title on several houses we've flipped. They have always been…read morehelpful and professional. We request realtors use them for our closings and have never have been disappointed with the service they have provided.