
Werner of Dexter, MO on July 8, 2009
We were searching the inter-net and found a KB Home community in Lochbuie, Co., where the homes seemed to be affordable and it is away from the hustle of the city. We called for brochures and were sent the brochures and called the Sales Office and spoke with Sales Rep. Lisa L., very pleasant and very informative. After discussing the options and up-grades, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to return to Colorado. Told Lisa we would be coming to Lochbuie soon.
We were very excited and were celebrating my husband, Werner's 85th birthday and decided this would be a fitting gift for an 85th Birthday. Drove the 1000 miles to the Sales Office in the building site at Lochbuie, Colorado on 3/24/09. Were met at the door by Amy B., with a brochure with a very different price. All homes were increased by $5000.00. When we tried to show her our brochure that had just been sent to us, which brought us the 1000 miles. She said "we have the right to change our prices anytime". We told her this is bordering on illegal and was surely unethical.
Very disappointed, we drove around for a while and cried and got sick to my stomach. We settled down from the shock of this, talked it over and decided that if we went back, surely they would be reasonable. Went back to the office and the price was back down and Amy even decided not to charge us the lot premium. We had originally chosen the "Conifer" but after discussing the up-grades and prices, we thought it was a little much for our budget and Amy showed us the "Conifer" and said the "Aspen", which was the next one on the brochure, price wise was almost exactly the same. Amy said that the only difference was the "Aspen" would not have the long hall way, high ceiling and a few of the interior up-grades. We decided we could live with that and then were told that no picture nor plan existed for the "Aspen". When we came out of the back office, the front office where the informational literature had been kept, was disassembled and all the literature was gone.
Amy took the financial information for CountryWide for loan pre-approval. We told Amy we were anxious to get this taken care of before we had to return to Missouri on 3/28/09. She said that would be fine we could do everything by phone and e-mail. She would call us every week and Matt, the builder, would call for a pre-construction meeting and explain everything to us and call us for approval for every phase of the build. Told us to go have lunch and look over the neighborhood. We did that and came back to look at the lots. Told Amy we would like to stay away from the cul de sac, would like to have our home set back from the street and would like to have a privacy fence.
The lot we chose was as far from the cul de sac as we could get, with the choices we were given. The lot was marked only on three sides. When we asked if the property line went straight back Amy said yes. The lot looked nice and square and sloped slightly to the street. When we asked for something that would show what this house would look like, Amy said nothing existed on that particular home at this time. When we pressed her she finally gave us a copy of a portion of a blue print.
We were told by our Sales Rep. Amy B., that we would have all the information as soon as she could get it. When asked if we wanted to sign the Purchase Agreement now we decided to wait until we could get the earnest money. Amy had asked for $10,000.00 earnest money and when we questioned why so much, she told us we were high risk because we owned a home. That did not seem right since neither of us had ever had a label like that. We were told Amy would set us an appointment for the Studio to choose our interior up-grades on Friday 3/27/09 at 10:00. The Sales Office would be closed on 2/25/09 and a blizzard was predicted to move in on 3/26/09. It was a little disturbing to know we would not get a chance to look the place over again or share it with friends and family. The hardest thing was not having access to the informational literature, which would have given us enough information to know which questions to ask.
We got the $10,000.00 and started the journey to Greenwood Village. The snow was still slushy in places so it took longer that it should have. Once we arrived at the Studio, about 1:30. Udie was able to get to us in a short time but It took a lot of time to choose the up-grades to fit our tight budget.Udie was very patient and nice to us. When we finished about 5:00 we were told Amy was on her way with the Sales Agreement. We waited like what seemed like for ever, since we were very tired and when Amy arrived with the paper work it still took another half hour for her to get the paper work like they wanted it.
It was so late when Amy was ready for us she said since it was so late and we were so tired, we need not take time to read the paper work-it was just standard and she worked with mostly first time buyers and she would take care of us-she would just thumb through and show us where to sign and where to initial and would send us all the information we needed in Missouri.
It did not seem wrong to put all our trust in Amy but when she got our signatures on everything and our earnest money ($10,000.00), she said that she only represented KB Home and not us but that she would help us through the entire transaction. She said that we weren't entitled to representation since we had not brought a Realtor with us when we came to the Sales Office and that KB Home would not pay for us to have representation. Amy assured us that it was okay and she would take care of us.
After taking two days to return home to Missouri, we began to look at the contracts and the first page had errors. That distracted us from reading on. We began to call to try to straighten out the errors. Wrong lot number. #7 instead of #9 and the wrong filing. After we thought that was taken care of with an Addendum, the paper work kept coming with the errors still remaining and as we read more we found where one of the financial documents said we had only put earnest money of $1000.00 instead of 10,000.00. The paper work tug of war began and as we read we found things that we would never have agreed to. It was anything but standard.
We continued to beg for more information on our property and the volumes of paper work continued to arrive and much of it didn't make sense or we didn't understand. Even though Amy told us we would get the original price quoted us before we went to Lochbuie, on the Sales Agreement it had the inflated price with the $5000.00 added on and a lot premium of $4000.00. Then that was taken off as a discount. They were not very happy when we called their attention to that. What would prompt them to do that? Unless they were trying to inflat the appraisal. When we asked Amy why so much paper work to purchase one house she just laughed and said that is to keep the lawyers busy. They would send bits of information but would not send us a picture of the home or the layout of the home on the lot. She finally sent a layout of the inside but no layout of the house on the lot.
Then we received an Addendum, which Amy referred to as a "Sales Summary" and we didn't like the wording on it and refused to sign it. It said that they were adding to our total and that any oral representations and promises were not valid. Most of the representation was oral. The description of the home and lot. Even the pre-construction meeting was going to be by phone. Amy continued to call and coerce us to sign the Addendum and said they couldn't get the permits to build the house if we did not sign that document. Amy went on vacation and we called Michael Veliz to try to get the information we needed. He did not return the call.
Called the office and spoke with Lisa and she sent a picture of the house and it was just a blob of black ink with no detail except on outline of trees. You could not tell it was a house. I called back and asked Lisa to edit the picture and resend and she said she would send it by snail mail and Lisa said they had the permits and set the pre-construction meeting for 12:00 on Friday May 22, 2009. We thought it was very strange since Amy had told us that they couldn't get the permits without our signature on that Addendum.
Amy returned from vacation and set the appointment back for the pre-construction meeting until the end of the business day going into the Memorial Day Week-End. When we got on the phone for the meeting they sent the picture of the lay out of the house on the lot and it did not resemble the house we ordered and the lot tapered to the back and the house could not set back as we ordered. The biggest surprise was the drainage ditch going along the property line. The entire transaction was misrepresented and unrecognizable. Again Amy told us we must sign that Addendum that she called a Sales Summary.
This time she said they couldn't get an appraisal without that document signed. She said if we refused to sign that document we would have to sign another document that would be drawn up by their Legal team. We did not wish agree to sign a document that we had not seen. Since we trusted Amy enough to let her talk us into signing the Sales Agreement without reading it that we would agree to sign anything. It did not make sense to us and we began to mistrust them and told them to stop, that we did not wish to move forward with this transaction.
Now it was the end of the business day and going into a three day week-end so we were afraid that we were missing some deadline. So we began to search for someone with a fax machine. The only one we could find in an office was a young Attorney in Bloomfield and asked him to send us a quick letter to KB Home. After the week-end was over and Fed-Ex was opened we sent a back up letter. We did not retain an Attorney and was not charged for the letter that was written for us.
Told Michael V. when he finally returned the call that we did not retain an Attorney and he said Amy would not be talking to us. Then we received a call from KB Home's Attorney saying that we would have to retain an Attorney and they refuse to communicate with us. Now they have our $10,000.00 and won't talk to us. We feel like we have been robbed. We have no idea what is taking place there and have no one to talk to. Don't know what to do. Please help!