Facebook
X
Pinterest
Copy Link
My house is now planned for the middle of my biggest, bestest pasture on my farm, with the promise that it will save me some money. You know when people to tell you that if something is too good to be true, then it probably isn’t? That ABSOLUTELY, MOST CERTAINLY applies to builders. I don’t think that it is really there intention to lie to your face, though. I believe better of people, whether I should or not. What I think really happens is that they don’t know what they are talking about, so they make it up, or say something that they think is true. We’ve all done it. I know I used to do it a lot. Maybe it’s my age, but I find myself more often now being able to say “I don’t know, but I will absolutely find out for you.” When the builder told me moving the house would save me thousands because it wouldn’t need a special foundation, and then they charged me a change order for $16,000 because the foundation was “over-height”, I didn’t accuse Daniel of lying so much as just not knowing what he was talking about.
The biggest problem in ALL of this is the MANAGEMENT of the entire process!
Here’s how this builder’s (and others like them) business model works. You work out a “plan” for the cost of the things you are going to be responsible for in what they called a HOE (Home Owners Equity Sheet). They help you plan for the cost of the septic, well, permits, clearing, landscaping, etc. And when you do that work, you can submit to the builder to be reimbursed for the amount you paid, or at least the amount you estimated, because it is figured in your loan. My HOE was somewhere around $25,000. I had no intention of asking for a reimbursement for any of those things. I was going to pay them out of pocket and know that amount off of my mortgage. Then came the change orders. This is the part they don’t really explain. It’s in the fine print of the 85 page contract, along with many other things that it would behoove you to read. I had 3 choices for the change order. I could pay it in cash up front. I could add it to the loan. Or I could take it out of that HOE. BUT the builder, Shannon in particular, told me my only option was the first. They would not continue working on the house until I could pay that.
I don’t know at what point the internal systems of ValueBuild Homes triggers to do certain things, mainly because no one ever agreed to share a build schedule with me. Maybe they didn’t have a set schedule and were just winging it! But at some point during the foundation build, the wood for framing, the roof trusses, and the floor joists were ordered and delivered. Yay! Right? My home was sitting in the middle of the pasture on pallets. I was so excited! We would have a home by Spring! And then nothing.
Daniel was the only truth teller in the group. He showed up one day and we sat down with the computer and he shared that Option 3 with me, where I could just let the HOE cover the change order. He showed me exactly the cost that went into that $16K. And we worked it all out. I signed everything and we were on our way. But, he shared, there was one problem. He did not have a framer available to start on the building. It shouldn’t take long to find a framer. It was the middle of COVID. People were begging for work, right? It won’t be a big deal.
The framers showed up about 4 weeks later. Those beautiful piles of wood sat in the rain and even snow for about 4 weeks. Do you know what happens to wood when it sits, uncovered, in wet conditions for multiple weeks? Mold and mildew! Do you know how I know that? Once the framing was done, many weeks later, I walked the framed house and found black spots and green growth everywhere on the roof trusses and floor joists between the 2 floors. There was nothing on the walls. Maybe those were treated better or covered in the stacks better. But the roof and the floor were horrible. And I was not paying this much money for a home with mold, mildew or whatever. My hubby was furious!
We were at an impasse. Time #3 of when we should have walked away! I am a solution driven business person. I believe in my heart that every problem has a solution. I have been able to negotiate and save many deals where people think that there is no way around dissolving the transaction. So I put my business brain to action on my own deal and tried to find a solution for this problem. Every time I run in to this type of situation, I am amazed at how many people do not try this type of conflict resolution. I asked the builder management to help me clean the mildew and mold off of the wood. Their solution was to hire a company that could treat the growth with a chemical to kill the growth and make sure it didn’t grow back. I was a little hesitant to accept that. And actually the first company that they suggested that came in didn’t seem to know what they were doing. So, being the DIY-er that I am, I got my tea tree oil, bleach and ladder and started scrubbing the beams. That may have been the hardest job I have ever attempted! I lasted about 4 hours. And only got through the trusses in my office. I immediately called Daniel and told them we would go no further in this build until they had a good solution! They eventually found one (another 3 – 4 week delay).
I think I’ve said this before, but the biggest problem in ALLLL of this is the MANAGEMENT of the entire process. Whoever ordered the wood obviously didn’t know that there was not a framer ready to get started. The sad part is, almost every person that I tell this story to in home construction, with the exception of one person, has said to me “that’s just how it is”. That excuse is just that, an excuse. Do your job better! I bet if it was your house, you would find a way to protect those materials, conserve the stress and time that it takes to fix stupid mistakes and make sure trades are where they are supposed to be when they said they would be there. At the very least, you would lift a finger to make something happen. But they don’t! Contractors are not looking out for their clients, they are looking out for their bottom line…end of story!
