One Loudoun Home Buying, Part 2

After making the decision to purchase the Miller and Smith home we went for one last visit with the sales rep.

We were looking at a corner lot to purchase, however someone had beaten us to it by a few hours and the sales rep showed us our another lot and explained to us that this one doesn't have a lot premium whereas the corner lot had a $5,000 premium. Our lot would be overlooking the only green area in the development, so we agreed to  it. The elevations for all of the lots are already selected (which we were unaware of) and ours was beautiful with a nice, arched entry. Not knowing, I had asked the sales rep what the different elevations were and he said that if we wanted ours to look like the other model with a peaked roof it would be $11,000 more, so we decided we would just stay with our elevation with the arched entry.

We decided on the lot and gave the sales rep our earnest money to hold the lot until we signed the contract. Since we were one of the first few homes sold, they gave us a free finished rec room and half of the bathroom in the basement which equalled about $14,000.

A few days later we showed up with our real estate agent to sign the actual contract. My wife and I were very excited to start on this new venture and had already decided a lot of the options we would add to the home of our dreams. The sales rep went through all of the questions etc. and finally printed out the contract and started going through it with my wife and I to sign.

I noticed that there was a $5,000 lot premium on our lot and asked the sales rep what the heck was going on. He responded that he was honestly unaware that there was a lot premium for our lot and apologized. Next I noticed that they had charged us $8,000 for the elevation on our house when what we gathered from our sales rep it was included in the base cost of the house. The contract even stated in writing "Included In The Base Cost Of The House," but had an $8,000 charge attached to it.

When I questioned the sales rep he said that each house is different and you have to pay for certain elevations. Well, we are new home buyers and were never explained this when asking the questions about the elevations. Now that we had just added $13,000 to the price of our house, we were over our budget on options and would have to decide whether we wanted to keep the house or not. The sales rep said we could walk away since the builder had other people waiting for the lot.

Well, my wife and I weren't going to walk away from our dream home over $13,000, but would have expected that Miller and Smith would own up to there error and take care of us. We signed the contract, but the enthusiasm we had prior to going in disappeared. That evening we had the Realtor write up a letter to ask Miller and Smith for approximately $11,000 in options to make up for the "misunderstanding."

The next day one of the head honchos from Miller and Smith called me on the phone. She was not very friendly and basically told me that her sales rep and I were lying as he knew that there was a lot premium on our lot. She also said we don't negotiate with customers, so you have two options ... either take it or I can rip up the contract. I told her that we want the house for our family and will not walk away, but just expected a company to do the right thing.

I am on active duty and have been in the military for 25 years. We live by the Army Values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage, and for some reason I thought the rest of the world at least had Honor, Integrity and Respect but was mistaken. Stay tuned for the next fun installment on our down-payment and selection of our options.

[Editor's note: This blog is the opinion of the writer, based on his experience buying a home.]