Home Buying - Advice Needed

[Lyfisin]

My wife and I have entered into contract on a home we are having built out in Haslet. We discussed a lot of things regarding what was standard and what were upgrades while we were deciding which builder and which house to build.

The contract, as I said, has been signed and when we went to the Design Center to pick out tile, brick etc... an issue came up regarding the appliances.

During the buying/looking process, I remember specifically being told that we could have our choice of gas or electric and I remember how happy my wife was that she'd be able to get gas again. There was no mention at the time one costing more than another and looking at the "features" page of the builder, it doesn't say gas or electric in the description. At the design center, the builder is saying that it's around $350.00 to run gas to the dryer and another $350.00 for the stove and since it's not an electric stove, it's like an additional $450.00 to get a gas cook-top vs the electric one.

The agent for the builder no longer works for the company. We saw her about two weeks ago and she's gone. Her replacement (4 months with the company) is basically saying there's nothing she can do about it.

I'm feeling like this is :bs . Any words of advice here from any of you who have had experience with these kinds of issues?

[Moonshine]

Brook, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but generally, if it 'aint in the contract, it didn't happen. That's why they always recommend having an attorney look over a contract before you sign. But, now that that's all past.......

You can kick and scream and threaten to carry a big sign around in front of the model home to scare off potential buyers, etc. And hope that maybe they'll offer to split the difference with you to avoid a headache. If they'll meet you anywhere near 1/2 way I'd jump on it at this point.

[Lyfisin]

Thanks.

In their defense, they haven't been too bad at this point. I sincerely believe they helped me avoid a $10,000.00 price increase when they moved from phase 1 into phase 2 of the edition. We weren't in contract at the time of the increase and they asked me to back date my check so it would look like I wrote it before the price went up. I'm not going to relate (too lengthy) all of the reasons I believe them, but I don't think that was a sales gimmick to make me sign.

I've already advised them I was unhappy and how I didn't feel I had much recourse other than to relate to others how I felt about this experience. They still said, "We're really sorry."

One thing I think I have going for me at the moment is that one thing that WAS in the contract was a big change we made to the shower and apparently there's not enough room in the bathroom to do what we asked for and they said they could do. Basically the model home (not the design we chose) had this shower and we asked if we could do it in our plan and they said yes and wrote it in.

Now they say they can't. I feel like they aren't fulfilling their end of the contract in that regard.

[Silver_2000]

What you are talking about is the cost of running the actual gas lines
Many houses have BOTH run to the dryer and the hot water and the stove just in case - that way the home owner can pick either - if it really was that expensve my house would NEVER had both

Its a simple plumbing job - assuming gas is already in the house for the furnace and the HW heater - its just running small guage gas line to the kitchen ... seems like they are getting you good....

[Lyfisin]

seems like they are getting you good....

Exactly! It's not about the money. My wife and I were even last night deciding about upgrading flooring in a particular room and adding granite countertops in the kitchen. It's about them not honoring what I'm positive they said, written or not.

There's gas to the furnace. I confirmed that today so it's available at the site.

[PUMP]

Since they can't (or wil not) do the shower as specified in the contract, at this point you can back out of the contract and get your earnest money back. Or you can compromise with them and get the gas and gas appliences in exchage for the shower. You need to read the contract clauses dealing with default.
Having been envolved with building several homes, my only advice going forward is "get everything in writing" and I do mean everything. Also accept the fact that building a home envolves a lot of give and take.

[Lyfisin]

Also accept the fact that building a home envolves a lot of give and take.

I do. I realize everything isn't going to go exactly like I want. This just seriously sets me off because we're positive we talked about it in advance and we're sure about what we were told. It sets a bad tone from the very beginning.

Even the model home there has a gas cooktop.

[David N]

I found out last year buying a new home is as bad as buying a new car..lots of smoke and mirrors and home builders do the same thing as the stealerships... lots of upsale at the back end.... most folks just pay for it... i backout of 3 contracts for the same reasons and the price was changing everyday and the saleman leaving things out of contrats...ETC, ETC...
I found a older home in carrollton and re did everything just like the way i wanted and for much less than a "new" home... All i can tell you don't give in and stick to your guns it is much cheaper to do the upgrades now than later......

[QDRHRSE]

Brook,

Look at it this way- even if they get you for an extra couple grand what's the difference? It's not like you are paying for the house in cash, all upfront. You should focus on the excitement of having the home built. Don't sweat the small stuff. Next time get it in a documented format like a contract or even email. I don't know about Texas, but out here, when you buy a new house you may as well tack on 50-80k for the upgrades. New houses these days pretty much come with fixtures and what not that I wouldn't let my mother-in-law use. It's part of the experience.

[Lyfisin]

if they get you for an extra couple grand what's the difference?

A couple of extra grand.

It's not about the money. It's about them saying one thing and doing another. It's an integrity and trust issue.

[QDRHRSE]

I've learned to expect that type of thing everytime I buy something. Call me a cynic. Everytime I have bought a home it's been a bad experience, worse each consecutive time. Just remember to get what you want. Otherwise you will not be happy. Most sales people have no integrity. There is no issue.

[dboat]

I've learned to expect that type of thing everytime I buy something. Call me a cynic. Everytime I have bought a home it's been a bad experience, worse each consecutive time. Just remember to get what you want. Otherwise you will not be happy. Most sales people have no integrity. There is no issue.

Interesting, could be a Kaliforny phenonmenon. We built up here in Erie and it was a pretty good experience. Service after the sale has been pretty good too. There have been one sub that has been a non-responsive a$$hole jerk, but everyone else has been great..

[Lyfisin]

It's not a California thing. I bought two homes (not at the same time) in California and the experiences were fine. People are just people and some are going to be more difficult than others.

That also includes us buyers. ;)

[Lyfisin]

Well it's all over.

It was Goff Homes. I'll try to relate as fairly as I can what happened.

We initially called the new rep and asked her about the oven and she basically just said, "I'm really sorry, but the standard is gas, and there's nothing I can do about it." I called my realtor who conferenced him in with the Goff rep and he asked her if there was anything she could do. She said it wasn't a decision she was empowered to make and had to go ask. That set me off because she never offered to do that when just the two of us were talking and, believe me, she knew I was upset.

She comes back a day later and says they said, "No." Electric was the standard and if we wanted gas, we had to pay the upgrade. She further said that it was written down. When I asked for a copy of what was written, she referred me to the standard features sheet which we had a copy of from our first visit. On that sheet, it only says "Built in GE cooktop." It doesn't specify whether it's gas or electric. She actually said that the E in GE meant that it was electric even though GE makes gas ranges as well. /sigh

Since we still believed it was unclear and since we were never shown any upgrade list at the time of the contract signing, we asked again to take the issue up with their management and again they said no.

I was still irked through the whole thing, but I didn't want to let $1000.00 break the deal. I mentioned to my realtor that we were still strongly considering additional upgrades on the kitchen counters, flooring in one of the bedrooms and some other kitchen modifications. I didn't want to tell him or Goff that because I wanted them to fix the stove issue because it was the right thing to do. Not because they knew that their loss might be lessened if they helped out.

Monday, I got a call from my realtor, 10 days after this all started, who told me that Goff would pay for the extension of the lines to the cooktop and dryer if we paid for the cooktop. Unfortunately for them, by that time, my wife and I had talked about the whole deal, which included other issues besides this one and we just decided we didn’t like the way it was all working out. We informed our realtor that we were going to go a different direction and to inform Goff that we wanted to terminate the contract. Since we weren’t very far in the process, he doesn’t believe I’ll have any problem getting the earnest money back even without bringing up the shower. We’ll see. He has a lot of experience and I’m confident in his ability.

Regarding their offer, I still don’t think it was much of a compromise on their part. If we had decided not to pay for the upgrade and just taken electric, the house came with a standard cooktop, which they would have had to pay for, but now don’t. In addition, the one we wanted was $400.00 and it’s likely some of that cost would have been profit for Goff. The money they saved by not having to buy the electric would have gone toward running the gas line so their out of pocket money would have been very little, if any. An offer they should have made on day one. Not 10 days later.

I know this is really lengthy and thanks to all who responded.

A couple of parting comments I meant to get around to earlier, but never remembered or remembered at a bad time.

Moonshine, you couldn’t have been more right. Early on if they had made some kind of offer, we probably would have taken it and moved on. As it turned out, because they took so long to fix the problem, it gave us time to think about the big picture and just felt it wasn’t right. Writing stuff down and getting them to sign it is obviously key.

PUMP, there wasn’t a reason to compromise and exchange the gas for the shower. IMO I had already paid for both of them. I could have not done the shower upgrade, and put that money toward the gas, but that still would have been wrong.

Again, thanks to all who responded. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Sorry for the long post. :rolleyes:

[dboat]

no need to apologize for the long post.. it was concise and well done. It told the story and your side of how you felt the situation was handled.
Sorry things didnt work out for you, but there's probably a reason that it didnt.
Dana