okay so my parents are in the process of buying a custom built home by a major builder in texas. but they keep fucking up the house.

anyways, my dad paid almost $1k for extra hose bib thingies, and when they poured the foundation, they forgot to put in those hose bib things. now they want to put in stupid pvc piping crap and call it a day. i don't think we paid $1k extra for stupid plastic shit.

anyone got any websites or info about what we should be paying for when building a custom home in texas? i tried looking at their website and there's nothing. i looked thru all their paperwork they gave us, but nothing specific. eh.. what the hell do i do?

plus, not to mention they put the wrong colored kitchen cabinets in the house, and said it was *our* fault for the wrong colors, and refuses to tear the cabinets out and replace them with the correct colored ones, even though we did all the paperwork and have proof that it was faxed in, and the builder has a copy with the correct color cabinents listed on it. any recourse on that as well?

threaten to back out if the items aren't fixed.....

Hopefully they don't have too much earnest money tied up....might be best to walk.

fighting a builder is going to be almost worthless. When you signed the paperwork, you signed away your life. The binding arbitration agreement basically says you have no recourse. Determine if what you're getting is worth what you're paying or walk away and lose your earnest money/deposit.. if it's not too much. If you didn't have to put anything down initially then it's a no brainer... don't walk... RUN ! The other option is to have your mortgage company "turn you down" for financing. Depending on the contract you signed, there may be a way for you to get out penalty free if you aren't approved for financing. The other thing to look at here is how much you're paying for the home. Most builders will front the money to build houses up to $350-$400k or so (depending on the builider) and anything above that requires the buyer to obtain interim (aka construction) financing. If this is the case then you can freeze the funds to the builder and discuss options with your bank/mortgage co. The other option of course is to threaten legal action but they may call your bluff. If you cause a major stink, they may work with you to save their name. If you have details in the contract that aren't being adhered to, then by all means you have every right and power to sue their asses. Whatever is written in that contract and agreed to by both parties (signatures) is what must be installed in the home. Anything contrary is means for suit. Good Luck.

GAR! I hate this shit. They've screwed up so many times I can't even count them on only two hands anymore.

How the hell do you screw up the arragement of kitchen cabinents anyways? So now we have two big ones to the side, the kitchen sink is no longer in front of the bay window thingie, and the dish washer can no longer fit in next to the counters because of the weird arrangement they put them in.

I no longer have a curb anywhere along the property because they sawed it all away due to their stupidity and without the city giving them "OK" to go.

But the thing about the cabinent colors was that my parents had picked one color, and then had changed the color at the last meeting, which is when everything is written ONTO the blueprints (actually we had FOUR of these "last meetings" because the last builder was fired (probably due to me bitching so much)) and because the sales guy was GONE from THREE of those meetings.

So what I'm saying is that I put the change order in with the receptionist lady at the model home, and then she had made everybody a copy (the copy for the office, a copy for the builder, and a copy for us) and faxed it into corporate. EVERYONE was present at this meeting: the buyers, the builder, and the sales guy.

My parents find out they had put in the first color selection cabinents into the kitchen already, and I made a big stink about it with the sales guy, and he said "it never came across my hands." And the receptionist lady pulled out our file from his drawers, and she said "yeah see, here it is, I did it myself." and had the fax date on it and everything. But the sales guy still insists he didn't know about it, and that the builder did not know. I said that EVERYBODY was present, and the receptionist also backed me up on it. The receptionist also said that she made a copy for the builder and handed it to him right after the meeting. (So I guess it doesn't matter if the salesguy was not aware?)

He said the bottom line was that: "we" won't rip them out because it'll cost us too much money. -- ANY kind of recourse there?

My parents had suggested bargaining with them for the french office doors which are like 1k, but I dunno. I was kinda wanting something more than that because my mom will bitch about how ugly the cabinents are until the day she dies, and then some.

EDIT: As far as the house goes, they are almost done (I guess). The paperwork for the loans has been done. I'm just worried that this house will fall apart after like 5 years due to everyfuckingbody frankensteining the shit out of it. We can still pull out, but I have a feeling we will still lose the original deposit. I guess that I should also say that we've been waiting on this stupid house since August but they keep screwing up, and we're running out of options as to where we can stay. I don't think we can afford to wait for another home be built for us, and I don't think my parents mind a used home, but they can't find anything that 'suits' them, if you know what I mean.

Play hardball. Bargain with them, and say that you're not afraid to walk out. If they really won't even budge just a little bit on their mistakes then I think I'd seriously try to walk. Sounds like a crappy situation...

It's tought to fight a builder. I had problems with a builder in FL for my first house and there's not much you can do. I complained and fought enough that they refused to finish the house for me.

The problem is that they probably don't care if your parents back out. They'll be able to sell the house for more than when your parents signed on it. Just keep hounding them with complaints, watching a your house being built these days is really painful. Nobody has any pride in workmanship anymore.

builder?
My guess is KB. Do I win the prize?

builder?
My guess is KB. Do I win the prize?


NO

1st TX

threaten to back out. shouldn't have to pay for something you didn't order, fuq that old white lady

Yeah they could sell the house for more htan we signed for. they are ready for phase three and it just went up $6k per lot, so eh. We'll see. Apparently i brought up all the faults the house had and my dad threw a shit fit about either taking the house or leaving it, apparently he doesn't care if he's paying 200k for a shitty house, so yeah. i am letting him do wtf he wants to do, i'm not going to do them any favors.

I don't think you're getting a custom home for $200K.
My brother is building a house in coppell (sp) for $280k and it's NOT custom.

I don't think you're getting a custom home for $200K.
My brother is building a house in coppell (sp) for $280k and it's NOT custom.

Well ya know what I mean.

BTW, will a mod delete this thread? I forget who the mod for the texas forums is. :shifty

i believe he quit. :devillook

I think most builders do color changes/other changes on change orders and the buyer signs them and when need be, pays for the change orders up front.
have your dad look through paperwork, if the paper work doesn't match the house, then you have the builder by the balls. If it does match and changes were made verbal, congrats you're fooked.

I don't think you're getting a custom home for $200K.
My brother is building a house in coppell (sp) for $280k and it's NOT custom.
That's Coppell for you. We were going to build a custom in Euless for $247K, so it can be done.

i will be building a custom shed pretty soon.

Anybody have experience with D.R. Horton homes? I went to look at a few and they have a floorplan that I like within my pricerange. I was really set on a 3 car garage but its out of my range + the floorplan kind of sucks.

Anybody have experience with D.R. Horton homes? I went to look at a few and they have a floorplan that I like within my pricerange. I was really set on a 3 car garage but its out of my range + the floorplan kind of sucks.

They build in my subdivision and I haven't been extremely impressed, but I don't build homes so I'm not really a good judge. They just seem to cut corners on some small stuff. They're a very large company so I'm going to guess that you might lose some on the customer service.

Here's a link that's not too promising:

http://consumercenter.jdpower.com/cc/rd/cc/homes/ratings/home_builders/results_city/index.asp?v1=Dallas/Ft.%20Worth

BTW, if you think you need/want a 3-car garage, don't skimp on it. I'm regretting it. I would have rather given up floorplan space or a dedicated game room to get the 3-car if I could do things over.

I really want a 3 car garage so I might have to spend a little more on a house than I wanted to. Going to go look at some David Weekly ones tonight probably..

Ditto on skimping the garage, I regret it big time. Dude, all the builders cut corners. they all contract out to contractors and those contractors use the same "people" to build them.

Anybody have experience with D.R. Horton homes?

I have heard nothing but bad things about them. I told the sob story about my house to this dood and he asked me if it was a dr horton home, haha. Apparently he got swindled by them.

Damn, I think they all suck!! We had a very bad experience with Standard Pacific as well.....

Eh, well pulte got rated well on that link that got posted. I don't think they're bad homes, but I don't remember if I liked their floorplans or not. We've had good experiences with Grand homes though, just make sure you're thorough on the walkthrough with them though. My sister still complaining about her balcony columns being uneven 4 years later, but I can't tell the difference?

the BR's in pulte are tiny, their ratings and price is good tho'. i have heard v bad things about grand homes.

i have owned a Choice, Pulte, Sumner,Centex and now KB. of them, I think Choice was the best believe it or not

This house couldn't be "custom." It may be "customized" where there are variations from the standard tract plan. Many tract houses in DFW are selling for 250K. Even in Kennedale.

As to DR Horton, they rank #1 in complaints compared to other tract builders.

And then we wonder why people like to buy existing houses.

This house couldn't be "custom." It may be "customized" where there are variations from the standard tract plan. Many tract houses in DFW are selling for 250K. Even in Kennedale.

As to DR Horton, they rank #1 in complaints compared to other tract builders.

And then we wonder why people like to buy existing houses.

well the house we were going to build was going to be custom from a "tract" builder due to the odd shaped lot. They actually had to sit down with the scale drawing of the lot and draw a floorplan with the 3 car garage. After all that trouble, the people they recommended for handling the financing would not get us a competitive rate (with mine and my wife's A+ credit), so we backed out. We ended up not loosing a single dime out of it, but we wasted ALOT of time messing with the design and layout. I kinda wish we had just sucked it up and paid a little extra and built it now.

rates have gone up in general, We were planning on refi. but doesnt seem to be the right time.

rates have gone up in general, We were planning on refi. but doesnt seem to be the right time.
yeah, this was 6 months ago. right after the Katrina thing. Rates were still low and our credit is spotless. We were pre-approved from a seperate lender for up to $350K and the lady said if we wanted more, let her know and we could "massage" a couple of numbers and get over $400k. So the numbers were working at $247k they were just trying to F us on the rate. I told the builder when we backed out, that their recommeded mortgage company was the only reason we backed out.