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I suspect there is something about the project the OP has not been informed of. There are reasons that a project runs into difficulty and its best to move on if you are fortunate to have that option. It was a simple fix they would have long done it, they make no money having the project drag on like this and alienating the buyers.
They're offering you the refund because they know legally the law is in your favor. Take the money and find something better. If there is truth to the investors buying the bulk of the lots waiting to be built, then you are indeed very fortunate. No one in their right mind would want to buy property in an area that is going to be mostly rentals.
"Too many rentals in a neighborhood generally means homes that are unkept and uncared for, and contribute quickly to declining home values."
Because 99% of renters do not care how the house looks. They don't care if the grass is too high or if it looks good in general. They will mow it as low as possible (which in my area is the best way to kill it) and let it get as high as possible and mow just before or after they get a notice from the HOA or city. They will let weeds grow in concrete joints in the sidewalk and driveway. If the shutters fade they don't care. They leave their baby toys all over the lawn. They usually have more cars than an owner. They don't care about parking in a way that inconveniences others just so they can fill their garage with their crap they are too lazy to unpack because they plan on moving in a year. And these are the generally good ones that aren't tying to scam the landlord.
Most landlords only care about bottom line dollars and are not about to do things to make the house look nice because they do not see it everyday or live there.
It's not a good combination to live near if you are the kind of person that has any pride in ownership.
I ran into a similar situation when we were building a house in Florida -- young and stupid. :-) Signed the contract in January, told that the home would be ready "mid summer". So we put our house on the market in February, and to our surprise, it sold in two weeks, and closed four weeks. later. So we rented a house on a month-to-month off-season, with the caveat that the owners were snowbirds, and were coming back to town in November for the winter.
To our horror, they hadn't even broken ground in March. Or April. Or May . . . Finally in late July, they broke ground. By late October, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be finished in early November. Luckily, our landlord wasn't in a hurry to get to South Florida, but said that he wanted to be in the week of Thanksgiving. In mid-November -- still no house, and I swear, days went by when no one even looked at it, much less worked on it. We had to move from the little house we were renting into a studio apartment, and immediately encountered the South Florida "seasonal rates" phenomenon -- our rent went from $600 a month to $550 a WEEK. We were frantic.
Finally, in mid December, the builder tried to tell us that it would be January before it was ready. "Why is that?" we enquired. "The bank said that they couldn't have it ready to close before Christmas, because they are already booked."
Oh, really? Funny, that -- I was a vice president in the mortgage division with that very same bank, and I happened to know that that was a flat-out LIE -- they were ready to close this loan on the drop of a dime and had been for MONTHS. Which I pointed out to them. :-) Suddenly, we were looking at a closing of December 19th.
We did a walk-through on the 18th at 5 pm, and I went back to the studio apartment in tears -- there was NO WAY that house was going to be ready to close at 10 am the next morning!!! Fixtures to be installed, mirrors were not installed, microwave still in the box, cabinet hardware not installed . . . the list went on and on. We went out for a final walk-through at 9 am, before the closing, and I was prepared for the worst. To our surprise, everything was DONE. Polished, pretty, and ready to close, right down to the sod and bushes by the front door. When I asked the contractor how on earth he did it, he said, proudly, "Oh, we were out here with an entire crew at 5:00 am to finish this up!" That comment still infuriates me to this day -- they could work under a deadline and do that much in 24 hours, but dragged their feet for almost a year before that . . .
So, OP, I feel for you. A good real estate attorney will be able to help you negotiate through this -- you may be able to negotiate some extras for the trouble -- we ended up with a jacuzzi thrown in for free, along with upgraded pool tile. Good luck.
You lucked out with that one. I was to close on a new build this past Dec. 31st. Couldn't do a home inspection until that day because power wasn't on until the day before. At 9AM we did the walk through & my inspector went through the house and checked what he could. All three bathrooms had holes in the drywall and in all there were over a dozen holes in various places in the house. The house was missing drywall along the patio slider; there was trim missing and unpainted trim throughout. The cooktop and exhaust were not in. The sink was not plumbed/disposal was not in. AC next to the washer had to be moved over because it had been placed too close to the water inlets for the washer & the trim piece would not fit. Tons of painting needed to be done. Over a dozen other small items. There was some problem with the sewer pipe outside. The place was a mess. Two ceiling fans had been delivered to the house by mistake. The warranty guy offered to give them to me & have the electrician install them while he was there. My realtor & I went to a long lunch and stopped to buy the additional ceiling fans I still needed. When we got back 4 hours later, the cooktop & kitchen sink were finished and the fans were up. The drywall guy had patched the holes. Most of the rest still needed to be done. It actually still closed on New Year's Eve at 6PM. It took about a week to finish most of the rest. What a pain.
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