Family and I was looking for a contractor in the area that can build a home within our price range. We met David and he showed us a house in our price range that he was almost done building. He seemed very nice, and we appreciated him showing us the home. We agreed to a few changes of the home he already built. We had a meeting with him and an architect he recommended and agreed on all changes for the built and price.
After the meeting I literally asked him, "There will be no surprises on changes and on price, correct?" And he advised "there will be no surprises I do not do business like that". We loved everything and it appeared to be working out great.
After our meeting, my wife and I started to make some financial changes so that everything can be smooth in the loan process. In order to pay for a couple of things out of pocket during the build, I sold one of my vehicles. I also had to pay some of credit cards off so the loan process would work smoothly and credit score can go up for a better interest rate.
David told us originally after the meeting (with architect) he would send his contract within a week. In the meantime, we continued our loan process.
After a couple of weeks, we didn't hear back from David. After approximately 2 weeks, David answered his phone and advised that he apologized and that he went on a cruise with his family. Which was totally cool with us, we just wanted to make sure he was still on board on building our home. He advised that he would send the contract in a couple of days.
Another week went by, and I called David again. But this time he said he was sick and apologized again and said he would send contract the following day. We told him no problem we understand.
In the meantime, we completed everything needed for the loan (which was a huge process and lots of documents and paying down credit cards and other items) and all the lender needed was a copy of the plans and signed contract to complete the loan process.
David sent an email of the contract, which was approximately $50k more than originally stated. His response was " I apologize, I just sent an email to about 6 other clients advising of the price hike due to labor and Contruction costs". I explained to him everything that we had to do to make it work, but he really did not seem to care and did not honor his word. In which I reminded him that I asked him before the process started if there was going to be any surprises and he said no.
This is the second contractor that has done this bait and switch on us, which crushed our dreams of building a new home on our lot. My family was going with smaller home to make it more affordable and thinking it would take less time to build since, David already built the same house a few times before in the area. I believe he said be built about 4 of them that were completed.
Every time we go to our lot, it just reminds us how wrong we were treated and not one attempt to try and help us build a new home.
The only thing David said was that if we wanted him to, he would call back when prices of materials went down.
This is not a way to do business. I just want to spread awareness that something like this can happen to anyone. And even after years of preparing to get ready to build your dream home, a contractor can shatter your dreams too.