Alabama- Here we come!! (Huntsville, Madison: appointed, home, buy)

[madisonmamma]

Originally Posted by Keeper

You might want to check out Arab if you don't mind a small town with good schools... There are a couple of 5 bd/4 b houses listed on ValleyMLS.com. One is on 5 acres on a lake with a community pool

Arab is 20 minutes to H'ville, 45 mins to Research park area.

Good Grief, it is longer than that....it takes me 45 minutes from the Parkway at 565 to get to Arab. You would have at least an hour commute, depending on the traffic, to Research Park. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, it may benefit you to pay a little more for a house to have a short commute. Real Estate is a better investment than gasoline

I would take a look at Athens or Decatur before venturing down to Arab. Athens is up and coming, things from Madison are spilling over into that area.

[Marc45002]

Originally Posted by madisonmamma

Hello! I am a Realtor and know pretty much all there is to know about the E Limestone area, particularily Southern Breeze subdivision.
You need to be VERY careful when purchasing newer homes in Limestone County. There is building code, but no code enforcement. I have had several deals fall through out there for various code violations, major violations. Things like no brick ties, no moisture barrier between brick and frame, inadequately framed roof joists and floor joists, ect. These are things that are MAJOR and will affect the structural integrity of the house. I will tell you, another agent I know has pictures of those houses in Southern Breeze being bricked with NO BRICK TIES right up against the framework. No kidding. If Malone built it, BEWARE!!! He is the worst of the worst, as my home inspector says.
Just an FYI. There are some nice homes being built in E Limestone, and it is very convienent to Madison, but you MUST BE CAREFUL what builder you buy from.

I am interested in Southern Breeze. I have found a couple of homes online but, unfortunately, I have not been able to tell which builder built these houses. Can you provide some verification of builder problems? I have found no other negative references to Malone Construction except what you have written here. Which builders do you recommend in Eastern Limeston County?

thanks,

marc

[madisonmamma]

Let me put it to you this way....

I have a friend who is a Realtor here who had a client contract on a Malone house, but in the contract he stated the builder to prove that the house was built to code using moisture barriers and brick ties. The only way to do that is to pull off a section of the brick, which the builder did. Guess what? Not there. That same agent also has pictures of the homes being built in Southern Breeze by Malone, as well as a few other new developments coming up in E Limestone, of the brickworkers out there bricking the houses with NO brick ties right up against the brick.

The home inspector I use, who is excellent and is used by many agents in the area and is known for being "picky" (which, by the way, I like for my buyers exact words were "worst of the worst" and told me many stories about major issues he found in homes being built out there in E Limestone.

So, yes, people in those homes that are a couple of years old may be just thrilled with them now, but when their framework rots after years of exposure to direct moisture being absorbed by the brick or the brick starts to sag because there is nothing holding it to the framework, they may sing a different tune. The state is getting involved with a couple of those builders.

Use this for informational purposes only, but the ONLY new construction I would buy out there or even expose my clients to is in Newby Plantation, because I know those builders and their reputations.

Oh, and in Southern Breeze there is another builder, Heartland Homes, they are a good builder.

[madisonmamma]

The thing that irritates me the most about how these builders are skimping is that what they are skimping on is IMPORTANT, but does not decrease their bottom line by much. So why not go ahead and build it right, instead of cutting major corners to save a few bucks?

These builders are giving a very bad name and reputation to all the new construction going on out there....one bad apple spoils the bunch, so to speak. But there still are some there that are quality builders that build quality houses.

[Mawoods]

madisonmamma, could you give me the name of your inspector that you use? We will be moving to the area whenever our house sells here and I know we need a good one. The one we used previously in Madison in 04 was only ok. Missed a few things he shouldn't have as found out later.

[Seth Parker]

Originally Posted by madisonmamma

Let me put it to you this way....

I have a friend who is a Realtor here who had a client contract on a Malone house, but in the contract he stated the builder to prove that the house was built to code using moisture barriers and brick ties. The only way to do that is to pull off a section of the brick, which the builder did. Guess what? Not there. That same agent also has pictures of the homes being built in Southern Breeze by Malone, as well as a few other new developments coming up in E Limestone, of the brickworkers out there bricking the houses with NO brick ties right up against the brick.

The home inspector I use, who is excellent and is used by many agents in the area and is known for being "picky" (which, by the way, I like for my buyers exact words were "worst of the worst" and told me many stories about major issues he found in homes being built out there in E Limestone.

So, yes, people in those homes that are a couple of years old may be just thrilled with them now, but when their framework rots after years of exposure to direct moisture being absorbed by the brick or the brick starts to sag because there is nothing holding it to the framework, they may sing a different tune. The state is getting involved with a couple of those builders.

Use this for informational purposes only, but the ONLY new construction I would buy out there or even expose my clients to is in Newby Plantation, because I know those builders and their reputations.

Oh, and in Southern Breeze there is another builder, Heartland Homes, they are a good builder.

I used to be one of the agents representing Southern Breeze. Malone is the ONLY builder that I've seen in the East Limestone area that doesn't use (at the time) brick ties, moisture barrier, and anchor bolts. I'm pretty sure he does now. Plus, he's only building in two developments. The rest of the guys in Southern Breeze (3 other builders) build everything to code. I've watched every step of the construction process for all of these guys. Southern Concepts, one of the builders out there, built my home with no trouble at all after a year and a half.

East Limestone new construction is fine. I've never had trouble with any other builders in the area, and I've sold a ton of them.

[Seth Parker]

Originally Posted by madisonmamma

The thing that irritates me the most about how these builders are skimping is that what they are skimping on is IMPORTANT, but does not decrease their bottom line by much. So why not go ahead and build it right, instead of cutting major corners to save a few bucks?

These builders are giving a very bad name and reputation to all the new construction going on out there....one bad apple spoils the bunch, so to speak. But there still are some there that are quality builders that build quality houses.

Hit the Nail on the head.

[madisonmamma]

Originally Posted by level10

I used to be one of the agents representing Southern Breeze. Malone is the ONLY builder that I've seen in the East Limestone area that doesn't use (at the time) brick ties, moisture barrier, and anchor bolts. I'm pretty sure he does now. Plus, he's only building in two developments. The rest of the guys in Southern Breeze (3 other builders) build everything to code. I've watched every step of the construction process for all of these guys. Southern Concepts, one of the builders out there, built my home with no trouble at all after a year and a half.

East Limestone new construction is fine. I've never had trouble with any other builders in the area, and I've sold a ton of them.

Good to hear about SOuthern Concepts, as I have never heard good or bad about them, so I won't speak of them. However, I still am extremely cautious with my buyers out in that area because sometimes you DON'T know, there are many small builders out there, and the others are souring the area. Every time I show out in E Limestone, I stress and wonder about the integrity of the home that my buyer could possibly consider purchasing. I want my buyers to find the home they love, BUT I also want to insure that the home they purchase is well built and will not affect their resale. My job first and foremost is not to make a sale, but to serve my client's best interest, and I take that responsibility very seriously, mainly because when we moved into this area, my agent DID NOT. We had extremely poor representation, I could sue his E&O on two issues, and we had to do most of the work ourselves and at the time I had little knowledge on Alabama real estate laws. All that man cared about was getting his commission check, and in some ways we are paying for that now. But I did choose him, I trusted him, and he completely failed us from day one, except for the fact that we made it to the closing table. He did not advise us to do a home inspection, we were completely unprotected as far as our contract was concerned, and the first 3 days we spent in an area we told him repeatedly we were not interested in looking at homes $25k to $40K over what we wanted to spend.

[Marc45002]

So whats the bottom line? I am flying to HSV tomorrow. I am starting looking at homes over the weekend. Is it worth looking in East Limestone County? Is Southern Breeze a good community? Would you buy a "newly" built Malone Contracting Home? Or, should I stay in Madison County?

thanks,

Marc

PS Valley MLS is still down; not a good way to run a service.

[Southlander]

I'm having no problem accessing valleymls.com.