This one time, when we almost built a house
…also known as why you should never do business with Beazer Homes.
I’m taking a break from sugar and chocolate today to tell you about a recent experience we had with Beazer Homes. Â I’d love for you to read it so that if you ever find yourself in the situation of building a home maybe you will have discovered new questions to ask or things to look out for (or you will take my advice and search for another builder). Â So indulge my rant, and I promise it’s back to cookies tomorrow. Â I am also going to apologize now for the length!
When my husband and I began our search last Fall to purchase our first home together, we decided to look into new construction.  We liked the idea of everything being brand new and getting to design from the ground up.  Most houses around our immediate area are older, pre-existing homes, so this required us to expand our search location.  After a quick search on the internet, we found an area not too far and in an excellent school district.
Beazer Homes had several lots still available in the community, and had a lot of options to customize. Â The model home was actually the floor plan we liked, but we need four bedrooms. Â The sales representative quickly gave us the pitch that we could customize the floor plan however we wanted. Â We verbally built and priced out a home with four bedrooms, a study (for my office), an upstairs loft (for the girls playroom), and a sitting room in the master bedroom. Â He told us that this could definitely be done, and it was in our budget. Â He then proceeded to tell us of a special promotion they were running through the end of the month that was a “$10,000 upgrade package: granite countertops, recessed can lighting in the kitchen, separate tub/shower in the master bath, stainless steel, and tile in all the wet areas.”
It was then when the sales rep. went to write up the contract that he discovered that we would not be able to do the study, instead it would have to be a formal dining.  Basically the only difference here would be the french doors closing off the room.  While this was definitely disappointing, it wasn’t a deal breaker, and we decided to proceed.  He also informed us that he had to get “special permission” to build the upstairs loft and 4th bedroom option, as starting in November it would be an either or option only.  Okay, that’s great… but this is still October.
We asked about a corner lot, perhaps somewhere with a decent backyard. Â The sales rep informed us that “Lot 27 is the BEST lot left in the community” because it only has one neighbor to the right, there is a private owner behind (so just field space), and to the left is half a lot- not enough to ever build a house on- that will just be a maintained green space, and when they open the 2nd phase of the development those houses back fence will face the side of our house. Â Sounds great right? Â Who wouldn’t love to essentially only have one neighbor? Â So we wrote the check for the deposit and sign on the dotted line.
We go through the design center process and pick out all of our options for carpet, tile, paint, etc.  Which by the way, your options are beige, light beige, dark beige, and medium beige.  This in itself was a huge ordeal!  Apparently our sales rep did not apply the credits correctly, and it made everything more difficult.  Not only that but it was NOT a “$10,000 upgrade”… less than half that actually.  The basic “builder grade” of everything was terrible.  Maroon or green granite? You’ve got to be kidding me.  Paper thin carpet?  Acrylic knobs for all the faucets?  (Note: I’m not judging anyone who has these options in their home, we’ve all had them, my point is it is not something I would expect from a brand new house built in 2013 for the amount of money we were paying)  The point here is that everything “nice” was an upgrade!!
We later learned that the majority of the design “upgrades” we were required to pay more for come standard with other builders in the area.
So now we have decided on the location, floor plan, and design options of the house. Â We are waiting on zoning permits, and then they are ready to break ground with an estimated completion date of mid-March. Â We eagerly drive by the lot to check the weekly progress of our new home, and this is when we discover a heartbreaking problem.
That? That drainage ditch that is going to be a drainage creek? THAT is the “maintained green space”.  That is the half a lot beside our house.  We had no idea about this, and only happened upon it when we drove by one day to see the progress on our house. Our house that at this point now has pipes put in and is ready for concrete to be poured.
We called our builder, who advised us to talk with the developer to see what was going on with the drainage issue. Â We called the developer who quickly sent us over the drawings for the plans, he advised us that it was originally going to be a simple drainage grate (like what you might see in a parking lot) but that the engineer required them to change it to be a concrete creek. Â A concrete slope that STARTED at our fence line and took up the entire “half lot” beside our house.
So of course I call my real estate agent and inform her what we just found out, and she calls the Beazer Homes sales representative.  And he denied knowing anything about it.
After talking us out of another lot, and selling us on the fact that this was the “prime” lot available… he now claims to know nothing about it?  In fact, he claimed that his superiors at Beazer had no idea, and that because the city owned that land, they could do whatever they wanted with it, so their hands were tied.  Did I mention the fact that the drawings that the developer sent me have signatures from AUGUST!  Months before we even signed our contract.  After pointing this out, Beazer suddenly began to sing a different tune.
They vowed to “make it right” and spent the next week trying to figure out where the communication break down happened.  In the meantime, our house was still being built, and we were receiving NO updates.  Do we have a house, do we need to start our search again, can we get our deposit back?  I explained to them that this was completely unacceptable and that I cannot live next to a drainage creek that starts at my fence line when I have two small babies!  They could either move us lots and build our exact house for the same price, or they could give us our deposit back.
After two weeks, our sales rep finally informed us that they would not be able to move us to a new lot and build the same house because they no longer offer that floor plan and the base price in the community has gone up $15,000. Â They did not make good on their promise to make things right. Â This was just another lie added to the countless more we were told by the company throughout this whole process.
So we have received our deposit back and since put a contract on another home.  I am going to credit this whole terrible experience to “everything happens for a reason” and that wasn’t meant to be our house.  If this is how Beazer Homes does business then I am so happy they did not get our money, and that we will not be living in a house they built.  From what I have seen on their social media networks, it looks like many unhappy customers with long-term issues with the company after moving into one of their houses.
And to the person who ends up purchasing “our” home on Fern Valley Drive… I hope you enjoy the home we designed, but I think you should know that Beazer Homes went on to list the house for $15,000 MORE than what we were going to pay.
Shame on you Beazer Homes.
 *UPDATED: 2/17/14- Looks like I’m not the only one Beazer Homes has lied to. This is an investigation report from NBC DFW regarding a community minutes from the one we were building in. Read the report here: Amenity Center Uncertainty Angers Homeowners
Oh gosh, I wish we had done more research on Beazer Homes before we got involved with them. We are in the middle of a condo purchase with them and they have deceived us from the get go. It’s been awful. They have taken zero accountability for any of their errors. The biggest one being that they are installing 7 smart meters on the side of our garage and right next to our front door. Now they are trying to tell us we chose the kona colored kitchen cabinets and not the white shaker. What a nightmare. Lesson learned! Never ever do business with Beazer Homes again and shout out to the world to not buy a home from them either!!!!
Can we talk? We are having issues as well.
Has anyone gotten money back? They have 12k and refusing to refund after we didn’t qualify after doing taxes. They told us what we were supposed to put in our taxes!! I’m a real estate broker too and they act like they could care less.
Wow. God thing you didn’t immediately said yes throughout the transaction. You could’ve been ripped off hard.
I purchased a home built by Beazer in 2005 in Villages at Lakeshore in Columbia, SC. Have problems with cool air getting to two up stairs bedrooms. Did not find out until we purchased the home this past April. Had four heating and air companies to look at it they all said they put in the duck work wrong. Talked to neighbors and all I’ve talked to said they have one to two rooms that have the same problems. Cannot get in touch with them at all.
Karen Holmes
mskcholmes1@yahoo.com
So sorry to hear of your troubles with Beazer. Our experience was completely opposite. Everything Beazer said would happen did happen. Everything we were told came out exactly as stated. Any concerns we had at the time were addressed immediately and corrected to our complete satisfaction. Beazer was a top shelf company in our dealings and come highly recommend by my wife & I.
So glad everything worked out for you! I wouldn’t wish our experience on anyone, building/buying a house is stressful enough without extra issues.
Wow, I wish I had read this blog before getting us into this nightmare with Beazer. We purchased a home in Orlando, FL as well and the minute they got our first deposit everything went downhill. Our sales person became non-responsive, we had to contact three other people before she finally decided to respond to us. They sold us on lies, our home was supposed to be completed December-January time frame and then it was pushed to February-March. I am expecting our first child in February and I am so stressed beyond belief. We decided we did not want to proceed with the home and after our Sales person advised us we could cancel and get a full refund because we are protected in our 45 day window, we receive a notification they wont honor that. In addition, our sales person who advised us incorrectly has not reached out to or spoken with us in over a month. I have spoken with the Director of Sales who is incredibly rude, I have now reached out to Director of Regional Sales, whatever his title might be, to see if he can assist us with our refund. I will go as high as I need to and make sure it is known on every social media outlet possible that they are horrible people to do business with and their sales team is uneducated and unresponsive.
If anyone has any advice as to how to resolve this situation, get our money back, and just move on with our lives to find a nice home for my growing family, I would be forever indebted to you.
Thanks!
I am so sorry you had such an awful experience. I have sold new homes for 10 years and haven’t seen one quite that bad. A lot of the problems were created by your sales rep. He clearly was fumbling around making promises he couldn’t keep tarnishing Beazer’s name. Should you ever choose to go through the experience again one day you will bring a lot of questions to the table 🙂 Glad everything worked out in the end. Best of luck.
your blog is very pretty.good job!
I am friends with 50 plus people in our Beazer neighborhood and WE LOVE IT! We had a great experience; our community is a tight group of people from all over the countty brought together in a Beazer neighborhood. The builders and reps are awesome; our home is beautiful. Did we have a problem or two during build time? YES….but after building 7 homes with other builders..it’s part of the process. WE are very pleased with our quality and our home prices have increased in our area so we have a nice equity nests egg. Would use Beazer again and are in the process with Beazer house number 2!
***WARNING!!!***Do NOT go with Beazer if you are looking for a builder!!! They are so disorganized and lack internal communication. My wife and I signed paper work in July 2014 with a promise of completion of Dec/Jan time. Let’s just say, they haven’t even started because they sold us land/lot THEY didn’t own!!!!! Yes, that is correct, they didn’t own the land in a new phase that they were selling!!!! We have been ignored and lied too when trying to get updates. It’s mid-feb and still no date when construction will start. All the sales rep ever say’s is they are sorry and they want the best for us. They continually blame 3rd parties and don’t take ownership when they do not follow through on their promise. We have to reach out to find updates after they promise to contact us weekly. Look else where who will treat you right when you are willing to spending a quarter+ million dollars on a home.
I purchased my Beazer home within the last year. I have had numerous issues that were completely ignored, or glossed over, by the builder overseeing my home. Drywall seams and arches that were never sanded but were painted, rails that were stained the wrong color, furnace and duct work undersized, and now we just figured out that there is no insulation in our attic. At the very least, how did our home pass inspection AND why was the attic access sealed shut? Beazer prides itself on Energy Star certifications, but doesn’t give attic insulation that is part of the contract? How many other people are currently living in a Beazer home without attic insulation and are wondering why their homes are so cold in the winter, or hot in the summer? Do they also check their attic access to find it sealed and just think that it is sealed to keep the blown in insulation in tact? Beazer Homes is a joke! Run as fast as you can away, and do not look back.
Hi Emily. I’m so glad when fellow bloggers write review posts. We were considering purchasing a home with Beazer, but wanted to check the reviews first. This post was number 2 on my Google search. This also shows the power of blogging. I’m so grateful they gave you your deposit back. I hope you are enjoying the house you chose instead of this one. I was curious, I haven’t had a chance to read through all of the comments, did you purchase a pre-existing house instead? Did your realtor find the Beazer home community for you?
This is a lovely blog! Have a beautiful day! Shan
Hey Shan- We are loving the house we chose, thank you! We did end up purchasing a pre-existing home, different builder, in a different neighborhood that is just a few years old and had everything we wanted. We contacted the realtor after finding the Beazer community. She was extremely helpful during our experience dealing with building/ new construction. Even if you don’t go with pre-exisiting, I would highly recommend finding a realtor to help represent you! Good luck!! 🙂
Also had a terrible experience with Beazer in Indianapolis. The quality of the home is fine. The customer service is terrible. Worst people to deal with. They do not care about their customers. The entire construction process was a mess. I went 3 months without a phone call from our construction manager, so I complained to the corporate office. I had a call from the construction manager within 10 minutes telling me to never do that again. We are in the house now but had to escrow some items. These items have not been addressed now 6 months into living in the house, I am the one who has to pester them and nothing is getting done. Completely frustrating experience. Would never recommend Beazer to anyone.
We are in the indianapolis area and recently spoke with Beazer. Everything seemed ok, but everyones’ comments are concerning me. Would you recommend getting a realtor for representation?
I am currently looking in the Indianapolis are, which neighborhood did you choose??
Email: taylodam000@gmail.com
Interesting…they have an answering service that won’t put you through to a person. Seems like they lack a lot of customer service too.
Moving onto the next builder.
Goodness – Emily! So sorry for your horrible experience. I was looking into Beazer homes and was about to go ahead. We went with a builder 4 years ago and loved the experience. The only issues we had on some items that the Sales agent fast talked us into some things that were all false promises. However, overall the experience has been great which was leading me to get into another new construction with Beazer this time. I will research throughly before making a decision. Thank you for sharing with us! So helpful!
What everyone needs to know about this headache experience is it’s very rare. There are many divisional offices around the United States you speak of who receive very high reviews in most cases. Do not insult the company as a whole, but for the builder who didn’t do his job like you planned. The lack of communication between salesman to builder has much to do with problems arising. I feel this rant to be very disrespectful being the first picture you see on google when you search “Beazer homes”. There is no way in hell something like this would happen within my community.
After reading through the comments on this post and a quick check to the Beazer Facebook page you might notice that issues with this company do not seem to be “rare”. However, as I stated in an earlier comment, Beazer is a highly ranked company which is one of the reasons we decided to go with them in the first place. Let me be clear that I had NO issues with the builder, he was great and communicated with us. The builder has nothing to do with the drainage ditch, as you read in my post that was something decided between the city and the land developer. Regardless, it WAS communicated to Beazer, in writing, and then was never communicated to us. I’m sure the people in the community mentioned in the link I added to my post by the NBC News story never thought it would happen in their community either.
We have had numerous warranty defects, structural defects and life safety defects that were reported to Beazer during the warranty period. Beazer has FAILED TO REPAIR THEM AFTER ALMOST 2 YEARS. Many of my neighbors have defects too.
Now, we have turned to the Maryland Department of Consumer Protection and the media for help. Get your neighbors together and contact your county consumer protection office, state and county representatives, the TV and and the newspaper! Schedule a meeting in your community clubhouse and have copies of consumer protection claim forms to distribute. It is helping us get the word out.
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BEAZER PROBLEMS IN MARYLAND? FREE HELP HERE. Please read
HELP FOR BEAZER HOMEOWNER’S WHO HAVE DEFECTS:
(This information is for Maryland homeowners but you can use your State consumer Protection and delegates for help)
Even if you think your warranty is up, you may still have rights.
The Montgomery County MD office of Consumer Protection is offering a FREE Buyer complaint process to affected Beazer Homeowner’s and is encouraging you to file your complaint NOW! SEVERAL HOMEOWNER’S HAVE ALREADY FILED. Get your complaint form located online here.
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OCP/consumer/filing_complaints.html
Montgomery County Maryland Department of Consumer Protection
100 Maryland Avenue
Suite 330
Rockville, MD 20850
240-777-3636
YOU MAY FILE IT BY EMAIL -or- FAX:
Email to: consumerprotection@montgomerycountymd,gov
FAX:240-777-3768
ALSO: Montgomery County Council President, Craig Rice’s Office wants to hear about your Beazer complaints. They are helping owners now. Please contact:
Sharon Pierre,
Legislative Assistant to Craig Rice
240-777-7951
The GAZETTE also wants to hear about BEAZER homeowner problems. Call:
Virginia Terhune
Reporter
301-670-2048
We are currently building at The Villages at Lakeview and our Beazer experience started out wonderful but things are starting to make me nervous as we are closing in our close date and there are still a number of things that need to be done that were promised and have not been done yet. We recieved an emial Friday stating the drive way was poured only to drive out there and see that it was not. There are cigarette butts on the floor in our home that already has walls up and the contractors are constantly peeing in the master bathroom even though there is a portable potty on the lawn. Our neighbors have a home with no dishwasher and an oven that was installed wrong along with sinkholes on their property. All this plus we have a non responsive construction manager makes me really nervous. We have already started looking for comps in the area in the event we have to buy something else.
Thanks so much for your blog. It totally helped us from going into the contract with Beazer. We are so close to sign the contract with Beazer for Stoney Creek Community in Sunnyvale TX. I am already settled with my bank and ready to go. I thought I did some research online about the developer and I found your blog. The way you described the issue with your property, I am almost certain that you had your property here as well. We probably looking for other deal at this point. Thanks again for saving us potential big headache.
Not only bad builders, but also liars. Came into settle community stating no disruption to our area, but our streets are tore up, no traffic thru our community but TWO of their streets dump directly on ours. They are building over creeks and drainage. Flagman they hire have almost gotten me hit twice, they twirl their sign at will. I pray they take a bath on this project.