Beazer Homes in Holly Glenn

[lifeguard_bss]

We are offering on a home in Holly Glen now, and it has been constructed by Olde South Homes. Maybe Beazer is out for any new construction? I am not sure.

[grandma]

My husband and I are in contract for a new home in Holly Glen. The Builder is Olde South Homes, approx. 3000 sq. feet a few upgrades for 325,000 on just shy of a 1/2 acre. They have won builder of the year a few years in a row now, they have no bad press. The customer service is incredible. My husband owns a construction company in NY and is impressed with there level of service. Although they are a production home, they seem to put out a good product for the price. And Holly Glen is only 5 miles from Cary.

[Rumple Stiltskin]

One family's experience and opinion.
Hometown Hero, or otherwise. Attention!
A new house may be the greatest purchase of your lifetime.
Your power is now, not later. Based on my experience and opinion.

"Beazer Homes includes a ten year Home Builder's Limited Warranty with the purchase of every brand new Beazer home. This Home Builder's Limited Warranty provides you peace of mind, as it is administered by Professional Warranty Service Corporation and backed by Steadfast Insurance Company, a Zurich American company, and it protects your new home from "Construction Defects" during those first ten years of home ownership. The warranty covers materials and workmanship, as outlined in the Performance Quality Standards, for the first year after the date that you close."

Reassurance?

Or, is a new house a potential pig in a poke, with no truly effective, economically reasonable, means of recourse to protect the interests of the purchaser?

Jeopardizing your family's financial and emotional future?

With the passage of The American Dream Downpayment Act, the following is of particular importance to the vulnerable and uneducated new house shopper.

I would like to thank Sanford Homes/Beazer Homes, for providing me with the opportunity to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to contribute the following message.

I would like to thank Beazer Homes/Sanford Homes, for providing me with the opportunity to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to contribute the following message.

I would like to thank Sanford Homes/Beazer Homes, for providing me with the opportunity to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to contribute the following message.

Consider this a public service message:

This could be the highest risk purchase which you will ever make, potentially 100%+. How much are you willing to risk? Your retirement? Your kids' college education? Your emotional well being?

Write to me if you want to know about my experience with, and opinion of, Sanford Homes/Beazer Homes. wilson2207@yahoo.com

Before you sign a contract to purchase a new house, walk through an established neighborhood where your builder has built houses within 1-3 years (5-8 years would not be a bad idea.) and ask the neighbors about any unresolved warranty issues and how warranty matters were generally handled. Do not rely on the builder's representations. Before the contract is signed, it is still YOUR money.

Try to determine the number of new house owners, in your chosen housing development, who are non-occupants, employees, related parties, or country club acqaintances of the corporate/public new house builder. Anything, which gives the appearance of, and may be, bogus demand; as in "flippers".

Ask your builder how many of their valued 'customers' they've required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement as a requirement for the new house buyer to receive a warranty settlement as a condition for having work done which should have been covered under any reasonable warranty by the benevolent, fair minded, our interests are your interests, new house builder?

Do not let your warm, tingly, feelings about your future new house, cloud your judgement. Don't fall in love with something that can't love you back. Until you are a satisfied homeowner, your house is nothing more than assembled building materials with a hefty mortgage, with the potential to become more of a nightmare than a dream.

Ask the builder's representative how many times houseowners have had to file a lawsuit against the builder in an attempt to get warranty issues resolved and how were the warranty issues resolved? Why are there unresolved issues? Be willing to wait for an answer. Then verify the answer you receive independently.

Also, ask for a copy of the Limited Warranty Agreement including all Exhibits and read them. Mainly, get the warranty documents. Do this before any money changes hands. This will show you the position you will be in should problems arise.

Ensure that your new house builder pays THEIR SHARE of YOUR first year's realestate property taxes.

Ask your builder if they are aware if any of their former customers have had to commit some type of fraud in the completion of a Residential Property Disclosure Statement, or to otherwise have to pay for remediation of a house problem which was legitimately the responsibility of the new house builder, and as a result of the new house builder's overt, covert, or subtle act of ignoring a valid new house warranty claim?

Ask the builder if they have a 'Standards of Construction' document. Some builders may now call this document, Performance Quality Standards. Some builders may call this document by another name, but its contents will be the same. Obtain this and read it. Pay particular attention to the term, 'standards of the industry' (the lower the 'standard of the industry', the easier it is to meet the standard; which allows for the acceptability of shoddy construction under the protective excuse of the 'industry standard'). This will give you an indication of the quality of your new house deemed to be acceptable by the corporate/public new house builder. Do not assume that your new house will be of the same quality as the builder's models. Some people may view this as being similar to 'bait & switch' practices within the retail industry. Some may claim economies of scale, cost cutting, inadequate quality control, etc., have the predictable results of shoddy/defective construction, which others may view/claim as, "accidents."

An independent, pre-closing house inspection will not protect your interests regarding leaking windows (wind-driven rain is not considered to be a 'defect' according to NAHB Residential Construction Performance Guidelines book [try proving what is, and what is not, wind-driven rain when your house has leaks]), a leaky roof, a faulty foundation, settling/heaving/shifting concrete flatwork, or other long term consequences of shoddy construction and other cost cutting measures.

Ask YOUR ATTORNEY to modify/delete the arbitration clause. If the builder is not willing to do this go elsewhere, or require that monies be escrowed to protect your interests. NOTHING in the documents you sign is designed to protect YOUR interests aside from the transfer of title. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will no longer purchase mortgages when the sale contract contains an arbitration clause. This may speak volumes about the risks involved in the purchase of a new house.

IF YOU HAVE REPRESENTATION REGARDING ANY ASPECT OF YOUR NEW HOUSE,ENSURE THAT YOUR ATTORNEY IS NOT A SHILL FOR THE NEW HOUSE BUILDER. Behavior easily justified as the attorney's best judgement and acting in the client's interest. Ask the attorney if he has represented, or is currently representing, other clients in actions against the builder? Has he ever filed a lawsuit against the builder? Has he ever participated in an arbitration with the builder? Has he ever refused an arbitration with the builder? Has he ever offered his representation to the client pro bono (no charge), if his client agreed to accept the terms of the corporate/public new house builder's settlement offer (the reason being because the attorney "liked" the client)? Has he dropped a case after his client determined that the repairs required were beyond the realm of "cosmetic", as was touted and advocated by the new house builder, and stated a "full schedule" as the reason for dropping the client's case? Has he ever not filed documents in a timely manner, critical to a case, which jeopardized/nullified the validity of the case going forward? Has he ever not collected on a final invoice for legal services rendered because of his CLIENT'S REFUSAL to pay (this may be an indication of the client's satisfaction with the legal services provided or the magnanimity of the attorney)? And, what were the circumstances and results of any of these actions and proceedings? Do not assume that your attorney or the builder will behave in an honorable manner. A code of ethics or standards of conduct is no assurance of acceptable, honest, forthright, honorable behavior. For further insight see kbhomesucks.com, Online Discussion, User Forum, pp. 8,9, Choosing An Attorney and We got ripped-off, but you won't (HOBB.org, Forums)My attorney would never use me as a reference. Was my attorney your attorney? Send their name and I will confirm or deny.

Review your closing documents for restrictions which may prevent you from publicly expressing your pleasure or displeasure with your new house purchase. For example: yard signs, petitions, picketing, Internet posting, letters to the editor, etc.; anything which may be an attempt to confine your experience and opinion to your household.

Do not assume that you are dealing with honorable people. Get an independent, second opinion regarding ANYTHING of substance related to your new house; however, at this point it may be too late. YOUR interests are YOUR interests, only.

Do not let the largest purchase of your family's life become a financial and emotional nightmare. How much are you willing to risk? Financial security in your retirement? Your kids' college education?

Learn from my mistake (One would not think that the purchase of a new house for one's family could possibly be a mistake.) the mistakes of other new house buyers, and the behavior of some corporate/public new house builders.

IN MY OPINION, WHICH IS BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE, THERE IS NOT A LEGAL PRODUCT AVAILABLE IN THE MARKETPLACE TODAY WHICH CARRIES THE DEGREE OF POTENTIAL FINANCIAL AND EMOTIONAL RISK FOR THE PURCHASER AS DOES THAT OF A NEW HOUSE. And this does not consider issues in the mortgage industry.

Your control is now.
Many web site references have been modified by unknown systems/parties making web site access difficult. A little persistence, ingenuity, and creativity in a search engine may help with access.

Visit Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, HADD.com, HOBB.org, Homeowners For Better Building, WESH.com, Building Houses: Building Problems, Consumer Reports' research study: Housewrecked--link available at the HADD web site, 10 Things Your House Builder Won't Tell You, [URL="http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?st..."]www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?st...[/URL] 10 Things Your Attorney Won't Tell You, [URL="http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?st"]www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?st[/URL] ctober03, How To Prevent A New House Nightmare, www.lakesidepress.com/dreams/section4.ht (broken link) Shoddy Building in the Housing Boom? Business Week April 25, 2003, www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr (broken link) _1874_db035.htm, Exposing New Home Builders, exposingnewhomebuilders.typepad.com/newhomebuildersnew s blog/, ourrylandhomes.com(use google.com for this one: our ryland homes), paltryhomes.com, jdpowers.com, kbhomestink.org, The Pulte Home Experience, www.trendzweb.com/pulte/.,or, (broken link) http://home.att.net/~pulte/,lakesidepres... (broken link) paylessbills.com/richmond_american.htm, drhortonlemonhome.com, drhortonsux.com, mybadhouse.com/pages/1/index.htm, Home sweet crooked house, money.cnn.com/2004/06/09/real_estate/buying_selling/ho m edefects/index.htm, bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20040812a1.asp, Monday, June 21
New-home warranties not what they are cracked up to be bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/BuyerGuide2004/fthb- b log-archive.asp, webgripesites.com, mymccrearyhomesucks.com/, w3.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff76506.htm, Home-building report/broken system, [URL="http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2..."]www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2...[/URL] /504200384/1030, www.screwedcentral.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/0 (broken link) http://keepernsol.com/RyanHomes/Ryan_pag (broken link) www.constructiondefects.com, (broken link) NPR.org, All Things Considered, 7/8/04, Your Money, "Confusion, Ire Over Lemon Housing Law", Building with Richmond Homes, http://www.orion77.com/,http://sat (broken link) hive.html, Saturday December 17, 2005, June 21st entry, "Home Builder Reviews" http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.c (broken link) choicehomescomplaint.com, myrottlundhome.com, missouricitychatter.blogspot.com, denverpost.com/search/ci_4822234,Flatiron's Geology Lesson, Your new house?Cosmetic? biz.yahoo.com/hmoney/070214/02130, defectivehomes.us, lennar-homes.info, hobb.org/index.php?option=com_mambook&Itemid=224,[View complaints April, 5/07,Beth Lamey, searchhutto.com/huttoparke/index.html, warehamsux.com/Wareham%20Development%20SUX.html,around t hehouseinspection.com, poorlybuiltbypulte.info/, camplemonadestand.com/warnings.ht..., and ANY search engine (new house construction, lawsuits, defects, complaints, etc.), to examine the 'ISOLATED','ANECDOTAL' nature of this issue, to separate 'FACT' from 'INNUENDO', and to gain insight into the business practices of some members of the corporate/public new house building industry, determine and evaluate the 'weasel' factor, and to protect your financial and emotional interests. Reading the court cases available on-line is a good idea, too.

Your due diligence is only effective BEFORE the fact.
I wish you well.
Read more: To access the following, copy and paste the quote below into a Google search.

www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/7... (broken link)

"Hovnanian's letter to the homeowners claims that 'when there is a problem, we make things right,' " Spatz said. "After several years and a long legal battle, I am still waiting for that to happen."

Believe what you want to believe. Protect your interests before the fact. Do not make the mistake that I did. Justice delayed, justice denied?

"Freedom, democracy, rule of law, these are the safeguards for coping with human nature",Clifford May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.