Problems w/ Ryland (the bluffs @ canyon springs) (Canyon Lake: sales, real estate)

[dcjes]

Has anyone bought a house from them recently? We never can get information from them regarding our house. 2.5 weeks ago we paid the deposit to have them start building, we have not been contacted nor has building started. I happened to stop in there one day, and they said that I needed an additional deposit of $4800 to get everything going. This deposit is for the overage amount on our deco appointment that we had. Here are my issues with this. We were originally told we would not have to worry about this because we were giving $15k off of upgrades, which made us not over. We have already paid about 7500 in deposits, plus we are paying 1100 deposit to have our interest rate locked in. We will also be getting 3800 paid for closing because we participated in the move up program with them. So after all the is paid we will only need about 1600 for closing(this includeds the 3.5% down). They still want us to pay the 4800 deposit. I am meeting all the guidlines of an FHA loan, so why do they need another deposit?? This is getting very agrivating because they haven't even started the house yet. From when we first started the process everything has changed from what we were told. Originally we did not need a deposit to start, just our word and once it was at the Sheetrock stage we then would need the money for the deposit. That changed to we need the money to even begin. Not happy about that one. Just very aggrivated. Any ideas of anyone I can talk to about this or does anyone have any ideas???? Thanks for any help.

[kevcrawford]

If you used a Realtor, get them to get answers for you and get this project moving. Or call the sales person that you signed with.

House construction doesn't start the minute you sign papers. Permits need to be pulled, and that can take a little while sometimes.

You're going to get more answers by going to the office than you will on CD.

[dcjes]

I didn't use a realtor for the purchase of this house. I have stopped at the office, and the problem is he always has to talk with someone else, either via email or he leaves a voice mail. Neither of these help me because I still have to wait to hear back.....which never happens.

[kevcrawford]

What you need to do is be as big a pain in their butt as you can. If you're truly having these issues (the original post is a little hard to decipher what the actual problem is), you need to stand in that office and demand answers. If they have to get an answer from someone else, ask for that person's number and call them yourself. Call and email until they give you an answer. If that's once a day, or 100 times a day, do what it takes. Those who yell the loudest get answered first.

In the future, use a realtor, because someone in your corner can help with these situations. The reason is that the builders do NOT want to turn a Realtor off, because instead of losing one client, they could potentially lose 100. More if word gets out around the community that they treat people poorly, and the word in the real estate community burns like wildfire.

Again, without seeing the contract or knowing what the actual deal was, it's hard to say how to fix it. In fact, nobody should tell you they know how to fix the situation, unless they're involved directly with it. All I can say is if you feel like you're not being heard, or have a problem, go be as obnoxious as you can until they give you a satisfactory answer.

[cheermomof4girls]

Sent ya a dm. BTW FWIW, I think every builder will have it's problems. A friend of mine is having a log home built in Canyon Lake and her builder quit on her without any notice. It's a good thing her husband has worked in the home building business and can do a lot of stuff on his own, but they still had to contract out to the electrician, plumbing, and also hire a helper.