M/I Homes

There were many dents in my brand new cabinets (highest level we could upgrade to) and the woodwork on the open railing we upgraded to was not properly filled with wood putty so it looked like hell. There was plastic sticking out of the siding and paper sticking out of the brickwork. I was assured this would all be taken care of when we did the final walk through the morning of the closing. Wrong! I was horrified to find that all the painters did was walk around and remove all the tape. Nothing was corrected! So what do I do now? Their horrific contract would charge me $200 a day if I didn't close on THEIR closing day, but my house is nowhere near done! I was assured that it would all be taken care of shortly after the closing which took place on December 28, 2018. My gut said otherwise, but again, I'm at the mercy of this contract. Shortly after closing, I wanted to install a fan in my fireplace to take advantage of the heat.

I went to measure it so I could buy the right model and was horrified to see that I'd paid for a 42" upgraded fireplace and this one measured 36". The foreman came out to measure and his face turned pale. When he got back to us, he assured us that we received the upgrade and that all the base models were 32". Needless to say, I got a check for $1,000 for that misclarification. Fast forward 8 month - I have had the painters out six times to correct all their mistakes. Was it the job you would expect on a half million dollar home? No. I have had the drywall team out twice to fix their awful mud work. The one bright spot with this company was the woman they sent out to fix it. She took her time and it looks great now. The cabinet people have been out twice to replace the dented pieces and I am still waiting on a replacement for the piece that is dented the worst.

The first time the piece arrived, it was beat up more than the piece that is installed in my home. I refused it per the carpenter's instructions. The second time the carpenter came out, he had the wrong piece all together. Will it ever be replaced? At the end of June, we finally got concrete on our front porch to replace the "draw bridge" that they constructed and a sidewalk to the porch. Why that wasn't installed around the time they did my driveway, I'll never know. Within the last month (July), they finally installed landscaping, irrigation, and sod (August). That should have been done in April when the weather turned nice. I have paint spots in about 10 different locations on my siding. The siding is grayish blue and the paint is beige so it's very obvious. That hasn't been corrected to this point. I'm told I will receive a phone call but it hasn't come. What drives me crazy the most is their lack of response to texts and emails.

It takes at least two to three before they will respond that something is in the works. You might see it fixed a month later? There have been so many headaches to count so if I could go back in time, I wouldn't have purchased this property through M/I Homes. You can't make this stuff up. I gave them more than enough time to fix the mistakes before writing this review. 8 MONTHS! 8 MONTHS and my house isn't complete. Do yourself a favor, and look for a builder with good reviews to save yourself the hassle.

Everything was running smoothly after we signed our contract in late February 2019. The sales agent constantly updated us on the home and our realtor worked hand in hand to make sure the process ran smoothly. Our home closing date was set for June 28, 2019. However, in the month of May we found out that M/I Homes was shutting down and leaving the DC metro area effective immediately. This news was first given to us by an associate then officially given by M/I about a week later. Eventually we found out that M/I homes knew in March 2019 that they were leaving the area but they did not inform us until months after. Once this change was announced a series of major issues and enormous deterioration of customer service began to emerge.

To begin, a month and half later, on June 5th, we were informed that our closing was delayed to the first week of August 2019. We were overly disappointed because we had specifically planned to move into our new home by the end of June as promised by M/I. Upon informing us of the new closing date, the communication and service with M/I became very lackluster.

After many attempts to schedule a pre-drywall private inspection, finally on June 8th, we had our private pre-drywall inspection at the property. The inspector praised the quality of the build of the home but had a short list of issues that needed to be fixed by the superintendent. Among the list of issues, the inspector found major contractual discrepancies in the home. M/I homes failed to follow the addendums that were made during the negation of the purchasing contract. Firstly, instead of placing open railing in the home, they placed knee walls. Secondly, they failed to include a storage closet that was included in the home specs and model illustration. (See image of floor plan below).

As per the home model illustration, this closet could be upgraded into an optional half bathroom. During the negotiations, however, my wife and I decided to not opt for the bathroom, and instead keep the standard option, storage closet (i.e. all other closets in the home are not listed on the Brookland standard options list that was showed to us). Conversations of a storage closet were prevalent during the initial stage of our building process as we inquired about the flooring and specs of the closet on several occasions with Diana **. M/I agreed to fix the knee wall issue and other pre-drywall issues.

However, after multiple emails back and forth with President Jerry Berman, we were callously informed that we would absolutely not get the storage closet and that MI would only build the home as contracted -- even though it is clearly represented in the home specs as a standard option and other standard option items are clearly not listed in the contract but yet included in the home. Additionally, we also attempted to add the lower level flex room bathroom after being denied the closet, but that request was also rejected.

Lastly, because we were ill informed about the pre-wiring initially and believed that pendant lighting was included in the dining room as part of the lighting package, we did not include a pendant light in the dining room as result of the misinformation. Diana ** attempted to remedy some problems by promising us via email and in person a dining room pendant light pre-wire. However, after Diana ** and William ** left the company on June 26th, President Jerry Berman and the new sales representative, Ariff **, promptly denied the request for the pendant light pre-wire without any sympathy of all the issues we are going through as first time home buyers. This denial was even after we offered to pay for the additional lighting.

In addition to the negligent contractual issues found during our private inspection, we continue to experience bad service as a result of the M/I’s choice to leave the region. Diana ** and William ** (former site superintendent) informed us that due to M/I “winding” down in the area many people in the region were quitting or given severance packages to leave the company.

This winding down as the previous superintendent, William **, informed me, has also resulted in no one was working on my home. William ** emphasized that the previous contractors would not even come to the building lot anymore because they knew M/I homes was leaving. William ** also informed me that he had never seen M/I do this before and “if I were him he would try to get out of the contract because M/I is not being prompt or professional, and that it may be months before our home is complete”. No work has been done on our homes since May 2019, this letter was written on July 2019.

Unfortunately, as of July 2nd, the customer service and delays have only gotten worse. Our realtor spoke with Ariff ** and we were informed, yet again, that our house would realistically not be completed until September 2019 or later. Our initial closing date was June 28th, so that means that the closing date would be delayed two months later than the promised time. Ariff ** also confirmed to our realtor that no contractors had been working on the home for over a month and that this delay could go on for longer. At this point, M/I is attempting to find and hire a new team completely from scratch and does not know when this process will be complete.

As a result of these problems we believe that M/I homes is purposely hard lining us and offering bad service in an attempt to have us cancel our contract. For instance, on her last day Diana ** informed us that she had a “feeling” that Jerry Berman and Ariff ** would rather us cancel our home contract and resell it at a higher price because M/I only wants “happy” customers. If that is truly the case it is very disheartening to hear. We trusted this company with our new home and relied on their promises since we began this process. We have requested builder concessions on several occasions in order to remedy for all the issues, however M/I Area President Jerry ** has promptly denied all of them, even the ones where have offered to pay.

We are highly disappointed and would not recommend anyone buy from M/I Homes if this is how they treat their customers. It seems they are only concerned about their bottom line and sales numbers and could care less about the experience of two new buyers purchasing their new home. M/I Homes' abrupt exit from the DC area started a domino effect of bad service, mass firings/resignations and complete freeze on building progress. The sad part is that we are only halfway through the process and its one of the worst experiences my wife and I have had to date. We had a vision of moving into our new home on June 28th and celebrating this new milestone. However, we will now have to figure out how to deal with our living arrangements until our home is complete. In writing this letter we hope that some semblance of customer service, expediency, and care will return to the process.