Home Buying Nightmare - Lennar Homes | Home Buyers Beware! 

We bought in a new Lennar community in southwest Florida. It was the worst experience of our life. We had neighbors crying in their yards and we all have had to group together to help each other. It’s much worse if you use their mortgage company too. All they care about is closing on the homes and none of them are finished or they’ve used unskilled workers and you have to get things redone. We had a page of jobs undone and were pressured to close. So the supervisor signed off on it and Lennar promised it would all be done if we went ahead and closed. That was august and it’s still not finished. They don’t provide enough workers for the supervisors and all they do is push them to meet an impossible quota. We felt awful for the supervisor here. We kept scheduling everything for moving and had to put all the companies off over and over. The same thing happened to us saying we could do remote signing then the day of, they said no, you need to come to our office. Every time they told us to close, we drove over to the home to make sure it was livable and each time it still was far from being ready. Thank God we were close by and could come check. I feel bad for those that can’t. The day of closing they still didn’t even have the certificate of occupancy 😳😳😳. Our next door neighbor had a huge moving truck pull up to her home on their day to close, which was a Thursday and the county told them they can’t unload and move in because they didn’t have their occupancy certificate either. This couple is in their 80’s and the movers told her, sorry but we can’t come back until next Tuesday. She fell down in her driveway and just burst into tears. It was so pitiful.

I’m having almost the same problem right now here in Jax FL in the GREY HAWK community they want to close Friday next week we did the walk through yesterday no one appliance was connected because were not there, the lenai wasn’t screened or frame the pave in the lanai wasn’t completed, sliding glass door no closing hanging in one side. They want us to wait 45 day give it or take to install mirrors, shelves and owners shower closing (glass doors) is pretty upsetting

Thanks for all your truthful information. I will cross Lennar off my list for sure.

Wow! I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. It's January of 2024 now and we are in the market to buy a new construction home. I'm in the process of educating myself on everything about it and the things to look out for. Thank you so much for taking the time and so calmly telling us your nightmare story. Very good information to know "before" hand. Very best of luck to you.

Jim I have just come across your channel while posting my own home build issues, here in Las Vegas. I 'm laughing out loud through the video, we have experienced very very similar issues in the UK. How you are explaining it is exactly how I have felt a number of times during mortgage applications when a "processor" is dealing with it. We also have major issues with how the legal (conveyancing) is processed in the UK. Fortunately, the home builder here in Vegas, Woodside Homes, is not as incompetent as Lennar/UK lenders/builders. They are however struggling massively with the old, site manager and labor & supply chain shortages. We are in a similar position where we would have been "homeless" also. We moved to the US 1 year ago, our lease is up and the owner wants to sell. Our Woodside Home should have been completed this month. So WE FEEL THE PAIN, exactly as you are describing it. This is the first video I've watched and I am only halfway through, so I hope everything has turned out OK now we are in May? Ant

It's not libel if it's true. That's what I would have told the builders and their attorneys.

switching out of the corner lot was your best move. corner lots in a new PUD which consists of non high end homes is a big gamble

Thanks for the heads up. I’m so sorry you had to deal with this nightmare, buying a new home should be a happy time. All the best in resolving everything, don’t let up on them.

I have a Lennar home basically wasn’t my first choice but needed a place to live so we kinda rushed into it but the home is very cheaply made - wouldnt use them again..

Wow! Since Jan of 2021, I have tried to place an order to build a Sunset model at Timber Creek, Fort Myers. Back then they will not take my order. This January I have to put in a bid to build a home but was out bid twice. I will consider other builders. Thanks for taking the time to make this informative video.

You did a wonderful job, detailing everything! It’s funny you said that, we had the same experience! It was a nightmare, but I think yours was worse. We had a water leak in the drywall/baseboard/carpet on the morning of closing! There were scratches on the walls, The sprinkler system was a disaster and flooded the yard which took weeks to fix, postponing closing. The trusses in the ceiling weren’t tied down…..everything! Couldn’t close on this one! Thanks for your insight!

I just went to see some Lennar model homes this weekend and saw similar issues with what was mentioned in this video. Left over Paint marks left, caulking left over, it just didn’t look like a good job done on the finishings.

Point taken Jim, sorry to hear about your experience. I’m in the market and will now NOT consider Lennar.

I’m glad you have a platform to tell everyone the truth. It seems to me that companies will only do the right thing if they are forced to. You make me want to make my own RU-vid channel. It is only libel if it is a lie. Just show the truth. So many are afraid to tell the truth because they think it is slander or libel. That is for a lie only. Good luck to you.

Sadly all new builds are built with issues no matter the builder. Having a realtor with you at the closing is such an asset because they fight for you and are tough with the builders when it comes to proper repairs and correct paperwork and letting you know when to walk away and when something can actually be changed. Make sure you go through each room and test all appliances, ac/heater, sprinkler system, and check high and low meaning get on a ladder and look around the room and also get on the floor and look around the room, you will catch things this way that you normally would not see at eye level. Make sure all your wet areas are properly sealed and have grout. I speak from experience. I've built two new homes with different builders (not Lennar). Good luck and I hope your family makes some beautiful memories in your new place.

I was looking around to purchase a new home and found a couple of Lennar designs that I liked. However, they had used carpet in the family room and bedrooms and we wanted Harwood throughout. They wouldn't make that change. We could change it out after we closed. Why pay twice for flooring when all they had to do was lay all the hardwood at once? We wanted some upgrades in lighting and plumbing fixtures and we wanted upgrades and windows. Every thing was no, no, no. And we said no and walked out the door. I hear stories like yours all the time.

We closed on a Lennar home in Parkland, Florida on August 30. It's been a pretty good experience. A lot of small stuff wrong but they fixed it. The pitch of the pavers were wrong and it lead to flooding. Also, there was a small hole in the roof and they fixed it. I'm going to call them tomorrow to request them to replace the drywall that got wet due to the roof leak. Let's see if they actually do it. I think they will actually. But likely only a 60% probability.

Third time "New Home Orientation" is postponed ... Hoping this time isn't postponed >.< New Dates: June 14th @ 10:00 AM | June 16th @ 10:00 AM | Closing - June 17th , 2022 . THE WORST PART is that our interest lock expires on June 28th. Our renter's lease expires by the end of June. We went to the house and noticed water leaks in the house! I tried changing my mortgage lender company and they keep saying since we are within "30 days before closing" you cannot make any changes... that "30-day window" keeps getting pushed. SO FRUSTATING.

Thanks you for the advices was interested to buy home in little Elm tx from this company but this change my interest to work with them 🙏🙏

Omg what this poor man has gone through my heart goes to yall I would have had a heart attack or got into a physical altercation with one of those employees Lennar needs to compensate for all the inconveniences you went through thank you so much for bringing this awareness to everyone 🙏

Just knowing that they asked you to delete certain portions should be warning enough to any potential buyers. 😡

Thanks for this video. I bought a Lennar Townhome in Miami back in 2016 and the experience was pretty much fine, thankfully I dealt with competent people. Now I am shopping around in that same area or Orlando, St Cloud for a similar Next Gen unit, I think yours is the Freedom, right? I like that one. The difference now is due to demand they are using cheaper materials and workforce. They feel in a position of doing whatever they want, if you don't buy it, there is a line outside. Results, that beautiful customer service that you mention, incompetency and bad work. This is a big red flag for me to continue shopping around a Lennar home under these conditions. I will stick to an already built home in order to have more flexibility. Thanks again and push them to repair all their mess.

Hi, Jim, thank you for your video, I am actually touring a Lennar home in Phoenixville PA this Saturday, and I guess I will stay away from this builder. May I please have your permission I want to share your YT handle on my blog I have zero tolerance for these people profiting hundreds and thousands of dollars and giving consumers crappy homes

Thank you, I WAS interested in purchasing a lennar home in Vegas or Port St Lucie now...I don't 🤔 THINK SO!!! Guess I'll just keep on looking. Definitely going to enlist an agent.

Lennar and DR Horton are two mass-production builders that take shortcuts during the build process. It appears they are hiring shoddy contractors. Buyers need an aggressive agent to monitor each major stage of the build, particularly the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. Once they finish up and begin the drywall process you have no idea what you are buying.

I was looking into them but forget it no way and I have heard that the houses are built using cheapes materials too thank you for this video.

I found this to be high entertainment (and very educational).

To be fair I've owned 5 houses in my lifetime. These new home builders all have a goon squad to contradict your grievances. It's how they save money.

I work for one of Lennars subcontractors here in Southern California, we have serviced Lennar for the past 25 years, I cannot speak for the rest of the country, but here in So Cal Lennar builds a quality home and and goes out of their way to make sure every one of their home buyers are satisfied with their investment.

I have to say, our Lennar experience wasn’t NOTHING like that. Boy, am I sorry that you had such an ugly experience. We just closed on ours 3 weeks ago, and any extras that needed to be addressed, that are on top of it. Our experience with Lennar financial and tittle company, was pretty smooth, a few hiccups, but over all not bad. Wish for you to have a successful outcome. 🌺🌺🌺

My brother-in-law bought a new Lennar home in Florida. It has a dangerous level of radon which cannot be dissipated. The hot and cold-water pipes were reversed among several other things. BUYERS BEWARE!

My closing date with Lennar is next week. I've been giving Lennar hell. They didn't tell me the windows don't open in the living rooms. I found this out 2 weeks before closing. I am still mad. They are pressuring me to close. Again, I am ragging them. The work looks very shabby. I told them they should've called me to paint the home myself. They call them fixed windows. They tried to offer me after-market appliances. Lennar is terrible.

This is SO helpful. Thank you!

This is freaking scary. Hopefully our builder wont be this bad. *fingers crossed*

I'm curious to learn if the items that where listed as needing attention... "during your final walk through". Where taken care of by Lennar?

Thank you for sharing your expierence about Lennar. I will get precautions about thinking a buy my future house

It's varies from different places and areas. We've checked out some other houses and they looked good.

I see crap and complaints about lennar.its a wonder the county allows them to build anywhere

SO they threaten you to remove these or they would sue... that sounds like blackmail I think.. Which is illegal.

Over here south of San Antonio TX the only issues I had was with the construction manager and their half ass work they do on these homes. I guess they hire contractors that don't know what they are doing. Then they send someone to fix it. I guess they like to do double work instead of doing it right the first time. I had a lot of cosmetic issues about 3 pages long. Just an inconvenience when you gotta set appointment to get things fixed. I would not recommend anyone of my friends or family to buy a Lennar home.

Get a lawyer before signing a contract. It's 94 pages . Should i say more lol

Home construction is not the only place contractors do shitty work. I'm a Chief Engineer hired for a major hotel brand putting up a new hotel in Melbourne. To say there is no pride in craftsmanship is an understatement. The list is so extensive of issues ranging from small to big and I cannot even list them all here. I also have my own property maintenance company and work on multi million dollar homes on the island in Vero Beach and would not even sub out or recommend any of the trade companies being used on this hotel project. I do not charge my customers by the hour and take my time to make sure the jobs I do are completed properly. The customers appreciate it and I get no call backs to correct issues.

and their houses looks nasty too! I also wrote a very bad survey. they were forcing me to buy a house straight a way at my first visit to their office. I snapped back and told them that it was supposed to be "consultative meeting" not buying. Lennar sales folks behaves like auto salesmen

I'm about to close on my 4th Lennar Home. We have never had any problems with quality of the home or any issues with Lennar Title or Mortgage Companies. The advantage of having your home with Everything included is second to none. When looking for a new home, first two questions should be. 1) what does the home include. 2) how many pages of designer upgrades do you offer (if more than 50 RUN!!!).

Thank you for the answer, can i lost that money or they return itif something goes wrong with the papers they ask or something else?

Wow it sounds like Lennar does this way to often, I too have had a bad experience with them not only did we lose the house we had a contract with them but lost our $10,000 earnest money in which they are not willing to give back or work with us in purchasing another home with them. We were suppose to close in December 2022 when in late November we were told that our loan hasn't been approved as of yet because it was contingent in us selling our current home. In our signed contract with them under the Contingent Clause it clearly states "this is not contingent on selling your current home". I couldn't believe this was happening. They would not take responsible for their mistake so on December 20, 2022 we lost the home we had them built along with the earnest money. The very next day our home was on the market, for them it was business as usually and a slap in our face. How can a big well known company get away with this, take what was not their from regular people (little fish) that have worked their entire life's so that one day they can retire in their new home.

This is horrific! I'm so sorry to hear about what you went through. I made one or two calls to a Lennar Home build site in Texas. I can tell right away that they are unprofessional and untrustworthy. I went with KB Homes instead, and I'm really happy about that.

Issues like this are unavoidable once a company reaches a national size. Quality will very from market to market, just have to hope you have good construction crews building your home and competent lennar employees. Sorry you had to go through this nightmare.

Thank you for the info . Sorry you had to go through this 😓

Wow, what a headache, I have met people in different lines of work that are totally incompetent and yet they still have there jobs. This guy went thru inexcusable agravation due to incompentence. Depending where his house is of course you have different contractors so you will have good and bad. The pictures he showed of the new home are absolutely awful , these people don't have experience and they hire cheap labor. I would have walked away from that house after seeing that. I wish him luck.

Yikes that does sound like a nightmare, sorry you had to go through that & thanks for the informative video. If we choose this builder we’ll keep an eye out for flags.

We looked into Lennar and also DR Horton who also has a horrible reputation. Glad we didn't buy.

So messed up. I'm definitely staying away from them.

Holy! After I see how bad of the quantity on the finished House, How Can I back out with Lennar ? I had put in 10% of the deposit. I'm in the process of waiting for the approval letter from the underwriter. I am praying that they denies my application so I can get a refund !!!

Wow. I think it says something that they asked you to edit your video! This is not a good time for home builders to be getting ripped! They are about to have alot of homes that need buyers and with rates going up it’s getting ugly. At least out here in arizona 😊 I hope everything works out for you I haven’t seen the video til the end yet but thank you for the information!

We are currently in contract with Lennar and they are doing some questionable stuff with the house we are purchasing.

This Saturday we have a meeting with Lennar. Hope we have a better experience. Sorry to hear what happened to you.

I bought the house from Lennar And still waiting for the title. I don't Receive it yet I will like to know how long I have to wait.

i would have never gone through with the purchase after seeing the mess inside and outside.

Good I didn’t buy Lennar, did see some model townhomes in Valencia CA and my husband did notice the shoddy work

I had a similar experience with Lennar I was trying to buy a house and they didn’t even ask for my ability for the final walking or closing day like a have a scheduled can’t miss work I end it up not buying that house

I agree with you Jim. The whole process of buying a home with Lennar is a complete joke. We are in the processing of buying a Lennar home, and I can say 💯 the entire mortgage process has been a true nightmare.

It was a terrible experience dealing with Lennar, especially post closing.... I will never buy a house built by Lennar once again! I recently had a leak from a crack over the concrete window frame on the upper level that resulted in water coming through and damaging the drywall. When I called them, they said it was a "maintenance issue" not covered by the warranty and referred me to the insurance instead. Terrible Experience and that wasn't the first time to turned me down, it happened with my backyard again, where rain water will set for over a day creating mud and killing the grass, they refused to deal with it because I had planted some trees along the end of the fence. They will always find ways to get out of dealing with their mess and never showed any interest in addressing their defects.

Thank you for this!

So I guess this has nothing to do with build quality? Just messing up on paperwork being late?

Nightmare is an understatement

So glad I saw this before I got a lennar home no wonder their cutting 40 to 50k off asking. I would be suing if they lied about thay much and didnt have the space that was contracted.

Has anyone ever had issues with Lennar in the Central Valley CA.? I really enjoy the houses but this video scared me! Lol

I will skip on Lennar this is horrible experience

Surely not only Lennar has these problems. It's sadly often a matter of bad employees nowadays... I think some decades ago this was different. People where much more motivated to do a good job. Finally it's often better to do the homebuilding with smaller regional companies.

This builder should be checked out, too many issues and taking over Florida property very concerning

Oh my gosh! What a mess!!! Hopefully things have fallen into place and you see it as “Home Sweet Home” now. But what an awful experience you went through!

Would it be possible for you to send the unedited version or upload for private viewing for others? Please PM me. I need to know what kind of issues you faced with Lennar builders. I am on the verge of buying my first home with them. Please.... Thanks.

I’m sorry that house is a total loss. Would have to be stripped to studs and rebuilt

I'm looking for more homes to NOT be cookie Cutters. I'm in the NW Washington State there is another builder called Quadrant Homes they are buil very nice however they have too many cookie cutters. I can recognize a Quadrant Home just as A Lennar Home. My very first home purchase was from a private Builder/Contractor and to this day have not seen but 3 homes built like mine. One was 35 miles away in another City. The other was online in another State. As for Financial Reps at Lennar we had the BEST. THIS guy was amazing. He convinced us to get pre-qualified when we were just looking We were VA didn't really need pre qualification but I adore this guy.

Lennar vs Maronda Homes in Tampa? Sounds about the same.

I’m in contract for a lenar home in Texas.. it has failed many inspections & is already 3 months past the close date assigned at time of signing… no close date in sight. Not even dry wall up yet… 3 MONTHS PAST CLOSE DATE 😂 not to mention they won’t lock my rate in till they give a close date… it’s raised 1% in interest.. never again

Valuable video…thanks

Maybe it’s related to DEI hiring. It doesn’t matter that they are not qualified just that they have a body in the position. Could that be possible?

I know quite a few people who have had terrible experiences with Lennar, their homes come loaded with quality defects

What a nightmare! I would have found a good real estate attorney and had them handle the sale! Also, they have no right from keeping you from telling the truth, and I wouldn't have never removed anything anything from my original video, I'd let them take me to court. What a mickey mouse outfit. I'm pissed just watching this!

What state was this in im in nashville and just spoke with an agent speaking with others also

So many horror stories about this company. I saw a video of one of their on-site people...in the blue shirt with Lennar on the pocket...harrassing and attacking a real estate agent, on a public street, as he was *promoting* the homes they had for sale in San Antonio. This is just staggering...

What kind of mortgage?

I'd rather buy a lot, get a house built from scratch with quality materials and skilled labor, and just have a house that never needs renovation apart from sanding and resealing hardwood floors, and replacing carpet and pad every 15 to 20 years.

Thanks for sharing this information was invaluable

I built track housing back in the eighties and nineties and we had a little more pride in what we built . nowadays its sad to see how these houses are built , you have much better materials nowadays but applied properly most of the time and these carpenters are not trained very well , they just don't care just like the builders its all about the money . I'm looking at a outside corner on this video and they have a California corner where a stud block stud should be or turn it the other way LOL

Jim..can I connect with you I have few questions as I am in the process of buying a home. Please pm your send your contacts. Really appreciate your effort. 🙏

I’m sorry but Lennar has a track record of threatening with legal all the time and is not fair. They say we’ll improve but nope. Their 1st quarter end is Feb. and their quota was probably lower for the month so that’s why they were desperate to push you to close in Feb instead of March. Sorry you had to go through this and great you are using your 1st amendment right to alert the public.

Did anybody have any similar issues with Starlight homes. I had to undergo a lot of trauma with theirs sales rep, lender & title company. who wants to know?

Wow definitely not using them as a home builder going forward.

Thanks for sharing

Show us the new home difference e specially the garage

all of them are incompetents..

Lennar is on my shortlist. Their bait and switch got me to stay away from them last year.

If what you said was true than, why take it back because your experience is your own .

I don't understand why they asked you to edit. They need to fix what is wrong and move on. You are not the only one who has posted about Lennar Homes

If you don't get it in writing upfront it doesn't exist,,,

Lennar is the worse home builder and home lender of all time!!!

Lennar Homes? I'll pass thank you. David