So funny. An "independent inspector" missed a giant hole in our AC ductwork that led to (so far) over 15k in repairs. Replacement unit, new ductwork, new insulation, still not fixed.
@@cstuartdc Who TF cares dude, if the property isn't right don't buy it, it really is that simple. It's not a sellers market anymore, it's foreclosure and short selling season now, try to keep up.
It is. Cheap labor to keep cost down. Most homeowners don't have the knowledge to actually force the builder to correct. Especially after they sign paperwork with no inspection. Look at these homeowners. "Hired an inspector A YEAR after moving in".
Really sucks to be a homeowner in the country right about now. You can't trust builders, inspectors (who miss more than they find), code enforcement or the counties. It's really the Wild Wild West out here.
Builders can pay off code, inspectors, and the HOA. The homeowners see zero tolerance code and/or HOA rules enforcement, as well as crappy quality construction with nasty consequences.
No kidding, my neighbor decided to become a "contractor", I worked with him on a few jobs and was horrified by the shoddy work he does. Worse is how much he charges people, it's like the entire country has just gone nuts.
Isn’t it crazy how mortgage rates continue to rise with higher imports and declining exports? meanwhile the FED is yet to lessen cost. Something will eventually break if they keep raising interest rates and quantitative tightening
Right, since 2020 amid rona-outbreak, I've avoided the drawbacks of trial and error simply by FA assistance. I'm semi-red now, and only work 7.5 hours weekly, with over $600k pulled off after subsequent investments to date.
@@LionTowercoporation huge gains! most finance youtubers said the housing market would be fine few months back, but its been a major downturn... mind if I look up the advisor guiding you please? in dire need of portfolio allocation
have my portfolio overseen by a US-based wealth advisor ''Colleen Janie Towe'' she's well established, and shows quite a great deal of expertise, you'd most likely find her basic info on the internet.
I am grateful for your assistance. My finances have been in disarray, and I have experienced multiple losses in my 401k, IRA, and mutual funds. I hope that Janie can provide me with the guidance needed to rectify the situation before it reaches a critical point.
When my home was being built I hired a building inspector to work for me, he inspected everything every step of the way. He was expensive but thorough. This guy climb, crawled and measured everything. He checked cabinets if set properly. He took pictures of everything. He made sure the material I was paying for was used instead of cheaper material since I upgraded all building materials. Everything was fixed before I signed the papers including two crooked walls.. Where one side of the room was 8 inches in difference from the other in living room and family room one side of wall was 10 inches in difference from the other wall. I kept thinking this money was well spent what I paid him. Because he actually dealed with everything.
Same! I'm building remote in Myrtle Beach (from New England) and hired a PE and building inspector to monitor the construction. A few $ thousand for peace of mind on a $600k home is worth it to me. Builder is completely fine with it, in fact it is standard language in his contract.
@@gaugengotm2307 not the way my home was designed, but he checked every single wall in the house to make sure that they weren't. Especially every outside wall.
Make sure to hire the type of inspector who does more than a visual inspection.... I hired an inspector who finished in 30 minutes (15 minutes talking to me). All he did was look, take pictures, and checked off a check list. I could've done all of it myself and more. The inspector completely missed the A/C unit not working and no vents in one room. I refused to pay but they were going to send me to collections because their website clearly states "Visual Inspection" only.
CHANNEL 12 NEWS!!! Can you do part 2 or this issues with Landsea Homes? I volunteer my house. We closed January 2021, didn't move in until July 2021 due to all the work they had to do. My house is a mess, cracked kitchen granite, stained baseboards, crooked walls, blocked no access to attick in Casita, subfloor creeking and badly sloping, 2 weeks after moving in we started getting sick. There was a gas smell in the house, I told Landsea and they blew me off. My family and I kept getting worse, we kept contacting Landsea that we were getting sick. They ignored us. We had to move out of our brand new home 5 months later. We moved in with different family members because we have dogs and a toddler. It's been a nightmare!!! I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. Please please if you could contact me, Landsea has ruined our lives.
That is unbelievable. I have heard horrible stories regarding that Chinese owned company. We ended up going with Fulton homes. You need to lawyer up. No way should they get away with putting your family through that. I guess this the new America 2023.
In the news story, they recommended hiring a house inspector. Although we paid for a custom home, built by a small builder, there were a few items the inspector found that were addressed right away by the builder; however, even the inspector missed a big item. Evidently, during roofing, the roofers didn’t like the placement of the furnace flue, so they kicked it apart, and left the pieces laying in the attic recesses and insulation, without notifying the builder or the HVAC guys the need to reposition the flue. Three months later, our furnace kept shutting down after 15 minutes of run time. The builder sent the HVAC guy out and discovered the shattered flue. Every time the furnace would run, our attic was loaded with carbon monoxide! The furnace would turn off whenever it sensed a high level of the toxic gas. The HVAC guy was livid to see his work busted up. He had to schedule his repair to coordinate with the roofing crew in order to make it right. I called our house inspector, and texted photos taken by the HVAC guy of this most definite ‘miss’ on his part. I told him to always make an exterior visual inspection, looking for the flue exiting the roof, as we could have died if this wasn’t a newer furnace with sensors to switch it off.
@@Plutogalaxy Anyone not blind could see if a flue didn't go through the roof. That inspector needs to be sued and his license to grift people permanently revoked.
@@chillwill5080 We never thought about a lawsuit because we’re just not litigious folks. Our builder ended up doing some extra finish carpentry, installing additional library cabinetry and shelving in our home office, without charging us. He never used the roofers again.
My husband and I bought a Landsea home April 2022 and also ran into TONS of issues! We kept having them to come back and fix all these problems and half the time they wouldn’t even show up. You had to become persistent, and fight for them to do everything they were supposed to do. We had so many issues with our electricity (still do) that are brand new refrigerator broke after only having it for one week! They would not replace the refrigerator because they said that it was under warranty so we needed to have it fixed under our warranty, knowing that it was their fault that the refrigerator broke! For a full entire year we kept having them to come out and fix issues consistently! I wish I could provide you a full list of everything that needed to be done but if that was the case, I would probably take up half this page. I will never ever purchase a home from Landsea ever again! I have warned others to not buy from them as well! I don’t even understand how they got the award of being the number one builder?? Just because they sold a lot of homes? Well, they may have sold a lot of homes, but they sold a lot of low quality brand new homes with tons of issues. This is very unfortunate considering that this was me and my husband’s first brand new home and it was the biggest nightmare that we’ve ever experienced!!! If you know anyone that is interested in purchasing a Landsea Home make sure to show them this video.
Most companies get these “Best Home Builder” or “Best Place to Work” awards because they paid the awarding company for it. It’s so cliche at this point how meaningless these “awards” really are. If anything, when a company has to pay someone else for a reputation, instead of building a good reputation from being competent - you know that alone is a huge Red Flag!
@@Jayjoe1006 It does have to do with them as well. My husband is a project manager and the workers will not show up when they are scheduled, cut corners, do things incorrectly because they don't know the regulations and proper way to do things, not have the tools they need to do things correctly, buy the wrong materials. They make mistakes and there are communication errors because a lot of them are a crew and only one of them speaks english so it's hard to communicate with them. Unfortunately the problem is on every level all the way from bottom to top. My hubs gets very frustrated because not just the workers but his bosses do things in the most inefficient, lazy way, with no accountability. His workers work hard and fast but you do have to watch them because sometimes they don't know they are doing something against reg or incorrectly.
NEVER NEVER NEVER buy from a national builder ! Buy from a small builder who actually works on the home and lives in the area. Never close on a home before ALL issues have been completed.
I built TWO homes in different SC cities from national builders and had great experience with well built homes. You are spot ON about NOT closing on a home until the issues are completely repaired.
If the builders didn't do a good job with the little, cosmetic issues, it's terrifying to think what they may have gotten wrong with major issues like wiring, plumbing, structural issues, etc. They need to be held accountable and make sure these issues are fixed properly.
I really feel for these homeowners. I recently rented one of these new homes in Goodyear and can confirm there are major issues with these homes! I was gone in 6 months!! Soo sad such a beautiful community!
Never close on the home until everything is to your satisfaction. Once they have your money they don't care. I was a Realtor for 9 years selling resale homes and new homes. i even represented a couple of builders dealing in high end homes. I was always insistent on having a pre close walk thru and not closing until satisfied. Pissed off some builders but my client got a home that had no visible defects at closing. Sold 400 homes in 9 years.
A lot of old homes have structural mold issues from things like crawl spaces, etc. Lack of building regulations before 1970s means you’ll find hazardous building materials everywhere - Radon, Asbestos, Lead, etc.
This is actually pretty common with new builds. They rush through doing everything with low skill workers when possible, cut as many corners as possible, and use the lowest quality grade materials they can unless you pay more for specific materials/items. My brother went to school for architecture, and he says that newly built homes (since the 80s/90s), were really only made with the idea of lasting 30-50yrs in many cases. This is even more so the case now as the quality of items was better in the 80s than the 90s than the early 2000s than now (in a LOT of cases). An old home built 100yrs ago with old growth wood and quality craftsmanship that is maintained and cared for is probably still going to be around in another 100yrs, while the plywood garbage we make now will be failing due to the inferior materials and shoddy lack of craftsmanship. I grew up in several new homes in the 90s, and there were always problems with the new homes. It was extremely common for even a well built new home to have lots of settling and foundation issues in the beginning even with soil testing and following all protocol correctly. Remember with a lot of new homes you are also responsible too for paying for upgrades, putting in all drapes/shades, making back patios, making fencing, and landscaping at least the backyard entirely from dirt (if not the front yard as well), and usually adding a sprinkler system etc. Per my experiences with new homes and how quickly they went "out of style", as an adult I have always owned 100yr+ old homes that were in good shape. I have enjoyed the architectural details, the quality of the builds, and providing you pick one without things that need fixing that you do not understand, they are great once fully electric/plumbing updated and to par. When you live in old, historic homes in an up to date, but still historically accurate fashion, things remain "in style", and do not need to be constantly changed out as often as each new fad comes due to the classic design/period appropriate underlying design. A well maintained, historic home (pre 1960s/50s) is going to hold up and save money in the long run especially when cared for and updated appropriately, while needing fewer renovations due to its classic materials and details than a new house now made from shoddy materials.
Older homes have strong bones and structurally solid foundations bc they were built to last by skilled craftsman sometimes using old growth timber BUT the exchange is that they are also full of toxic chemicals that will eventually kill you such as lead and asbestos
we ve built several homes since the 1990s always had them inspected by an independent inspector, havent had any issues with any of them. Presented them with the items, and they were fixed....
New homes often have problems like this. Other than the leak / mold and garage door falling off, the issues appeared relatively minor. I have seen other homes with structural damage - large cracks, often the result of inappropriate fill under the foundation. Worst cases have been homes ripping apart and falling down hillsides (in Utah). In many cases, most homes - "new" and existing - do not provide adequate drainage for heavy monsoon rains. That's up to the homeowner to fix.
As homes are built, they require state inspections. Inspectors must sign their names on structural, plumbing and electrical to guarantee compliance. How did any of this pass inspections? Inspectors names are documented. This would be the perfect place to start.
The inspectors take small payments to let things pass. There is NO recourse for the homeowner with the city/county inspectors unfortunately. Just like false seller disclosures on not new homes, the owner lies and nothing can be done even when you take them to court as they have NO money for the judgement you get.
They all sleep in the same bed!! We took our complaints to the stare!! They kiss each other's butt and laugh at you. Who knew that you would buy a home and start fixing all their mistakes! Never buy a BEAZER home. Right Julie? Right Bobby?
This is sad. Homes are being thrown up to fast. Also you have to wonder who is being hired to build these homes. I mean there are certain standards homes need to be built under and hopefully all employees are doing that and not cutting corners. If these homes are having this issues they are not being built well. Homes are way to expensive out here in AZ to have these kinds of problems. I hope they can get their issues fixed.
@@ksmith2852 My dad was a residential carpenter back in the 80s Back then it was meth, lots and lots of meth. Now it's cheaper to use people with questionable paper work. So either these are illegals doing the work or meth heads , some times both
This is why I built my own home. Active oversight from the foundation to finish trim, that is if I wasn’t actually doing the work myself. Time to roll up your sleeves people.
This is a problem all across the US. The quality of new construction is terrible and the prices are very high. In the US, you pay the most and get low quality. But the US doesn't train people to build homes. We don't care about our communities. So, this is what you get.
The US doesnt train people to build homes? The trades are saturated with foreigners because the youth of America doesnt want to do physical labor. They are living off the parents fake equity from the inflated prices of homes since 2012. Welcome to Bidens America.
Best thing to do is bring in couple of beach chairs and some bright light and just stare at the walls and floors looking for anything wrong, do not sign unless they are fixed. The builders want to to close on the first day, if they can't they will panic.
We did something similar minus the beach chairs! We checked in on our new build weekly and let the builders know we were watching them. We’ve had far fewer problems than our neighbors 😅we wouldn’t sign their papers until everything was fixed
I would never buy a home built after Covid (2020-Present). The demand for housing is so great that builders are taking major shortcuts to meet the demand. They’re turning the American dream into a homebuyers worst nightmare. Sad. I’d wait for the housing market to slow down significantly then pay for my own inspector to visit the site regularly throughout the building process.
People still have pride in their work Those people do not work in production house building- go take a drive out to the subdivisions out here in the west. Take a good look at the workers- THOSE men are not craftsman. They are low paid, low skilled laborers. Even in the upper middle home building business- The tradesmen don’t always deliver good products. I saw a crew of electricians getting high all day everyday. Do you want your new custom house wired by them? Arizona is way below paid scale compared with other states nearby. Good tradesmen will just go to the money. Arizona is starting to catch up. Those production houses are a joke. People are gullible.
And they keep building them! My house is only 20 years old and has tons of electricity issues. There's new apartments that went up on Bullard Rd. and I know they definitely cut corners and threw the houses up quickly. In about 6 months, they went up. I live nearby the apartments and saw they were literally made from plywood.
Unfortunately, a lot of home builders hire illegal immigrants to build homes now. The homebuilders are saving quite a lot of money by hiring these people and they are not passing on the savings to homeowners.
Fast talking contractors hire the cheapest non-union labor they can find with little or no experience and pay by piecework and what else do you expect.
You do great work out here informing homeowners about shoddy workmanship and defects. I never would have known that so many homes have no gfci in bathrooms! 😬
Beazer too. We had built a home here and we had alot of issues . My husband started to talk to the neighbors and sure enough , They were having issues too. The house has been falling apart fast because of the lousy building material and alot of things didn't work . We had water rot on our porch . They told us we should get our insurance to pay for it. Dont buy Beazer. We thought it was a good company, Not.
The whole world is failing. Over 8 billion people on this planet. All white resources. Meanwhile, we are destroying nature. We will get what we deserve.
In a hot housing market, don't expect integrity or accountability in any of the players in construction, finance, or realty. The one and only mission is to move the product, get that commission! Get that revenue!
In Ontario,,,our province fixed this problem by making all new home building companies hold insurance,,,,when there are problems with a new home,,,the insurance companies pay Called Terrion home insurance.
That’s why I live in a van down by the river. Don’t have to worry about shoddy construction, raising property taxes, HOA fees, home insurance, and all the other bills that go along with owning a house. Just occasional maintenance to the van. When I get tired of the van life I plan to move to the Philippines where I can get me a young honey and live my remaining years in peace and love.
When I had my house built in 1997, I asked the construction crew how well built homes from $200-500k were built compared to mine. They laughed and said mine was probably better as more shortcuts are taken on expensive homes. Any problems I found were taken care of within a month. 26 years later no major issues with structure, haven't even had to replace shingles yet.
These home builder companies are hiring the CHEAPEST labor they can find so they can make the highest profits. This is nothing new and has been happening for decades in many states. NEVER EVER buy a home from these "cookie cutter" companies that promise quality homes but only deliver shoddy workmanship like what these homeowners have experienced. Even worse is the HORRIBLE "customer service" that these companies promise to deliver but rarely do since they just do "band-aid repairs" if that until the warranties expire. Class-action lawsuits sometimes happen with these homeowners who feel betrayed by the lies of the home builders. And sometimes, they have problems even suing since the homeowners usually sign waivers saying that they cannot sue the builders if there are problems with their new homes. One solution is to buy an older home that is well-built and passes inspections or a new home from a custom home builder with a VERY reputable record IF you can afford it. Anyhow, my heart goes out to all of these people living through their home nightmares instead of their new homes giving them the joy that they had expected.
This is because we have a system that allows people with money to finance and invest in building homes, and they’re fairly confident enough to change a toilet roll of paper. When incompetent people were money, is job one priority one, and they have risen to the level of their incompetence, and cannot even perform the task that they’re asking employees to do for them should be removed from their position and not allowed in the trade . The largest turd of excrument is at the top and excrument rolls downhill . Track homes are known to be the lowest quality homes amongst the professional contractors in the industry. Everybody knows they are built with the lowest skilled individuals managed by the least qualified supervisors, contracted out to the lowest bidder. . This is how the system works .
I worked customer service for a large builder for several years. Defects were fairly common and could be repaired with a little skill. One of the guys had absolutely no skill whatsoever. He'd get a work order, look at the problem and sometimes cover it over with caulk. His main ability was to be able to vacuum the floors of new homes and leave a pattern on the carpet. Otherwise, he was stupid. My partner and I had to go over all his failures and make repairs.
Your comment seems misinformed. In my experience as a contractor, some of the most skilled subcontractors I've worked with are Hispanic, and many have learned their trades under my guidance. While I understand that job competition and demographic changes may concern some, claiming that a Spanish-speaking electrician can't understand current building code is simply unreasonable.
This is so disturbing and so very sad..wow!! This generation is pathetic, no work ethic, no compassion, no concern for another...my God please help rectify the disgust going on in this world.
New homes built today are built with the cheapest materials and shoddy construction. My home is 53 years old, solid. I have done most of the repairs myself. Just because something is new, doesn't mean it is better.
Amen! It is so true! I grew up in new homes since my parents seemed to love them in the 1990s. They weren't as well made had tons of issues the first few years, and they constantly needed updating when things went "out of style". I have owned 100yr old homes my entire adult life because the quality of the materials and craftsmanship, as well as architectural details is unparalleled. You just have to know things about houses to make sure you don't buy a poorly cared for old one that has expensive things needing updating. But if you pick a good one, they will last another 100yrs while these "new builds" I was told are designed to crumble within 30-50yrs at most.
It isn't just greed that fuels this. Up until the mid 2000s, Habitat for Humanity had a serious problem with construction quality. It likely stemmed from the founder, Millard Fuller. He was constantly pushing this goal, "Help more families! Help more families! Help more families!" And one main way he and other leaders sought to do this was by cutting corners. In 1993 there was a report of several chapters in central Florida trying to bypass building codes meant to safeguard against hurricanes. Their reason, to "help more families". That still scares the crap out of me. Things finally came to head in 2005 when it was discovered an 85 home blitz build in Jacksonville was done with substandard materials on top of an old landfill. They've made a lot of improvements since then, but with the affordable housing crisis I've seen a few instances of them slipping back into old habits
I've seen developments dig big holes and haul out the good topsoil to sell then dump toxic garbage from the houses into holes and bury with clay dirt and then the house settles into the debris as it rots
It's a problem nationwide, the new homes on my block in citrus heights, ca. Are crap. I feel bad for who ever buys them. They are going for over 500,000. I wouldn't buy a home that was built in the last 15 years.
I read a book about ten years that also said that the quality of building materials after the 1960s got worse and worse. He said he would never buy a home built after the 1950s. I believe him, my home was built in the 1940s. It has solid high quality materials that are built to last. I have a steel I-beam through the floor of the first floor. The new construction I see looks like toothpicks. The walls are 3/4 inch thick with a layer of cement and one of plaster, not like the new walls that are made of cardboard and melting chalk. How can workman be proud of their work?
Why are other stations in our area not reporting on this issue. This is a major issue through out the valley with all these slap up and get the F out homes
South Florida is notorious for these type of new home building practices too. They wanna build quick, have contracts signed and get to the next project before these issues are discovered.
As a retired building contractor, let me give new home buyers some advice. Drive through any housing development that you plan on buying in and see how many of the workers are Hispanic. Stop and talk to some of them and if they don't speak English, that means the builder hires sub contractors who only employ illegals. While these workers might appear to know what they're doing, they are building your new dream home according to the way they learned in the 3rd world country they escaped from. Quality will be less than sub-standard and don't count on building inspectors to remedy the situation. It passes inspection if the workmanship passes code, regardless of how it looks. During my 50+ years in construction I saw many changes that were solely to adapt to the way illegals build things. I tried to hire on with several major home builders as a supervisor, but was turned down. I was told I needed to speak Spanish fluently to communicate with their workers. Greedy builders who only hire contractors who employ illegals have decimated the home market and now they're crying because they managed to run off all of the skilled American workers. They get ZERO sympathy from me!
in Canada even "sub contracting" has given the guys a place to hide: no enforceable warranty, no way to find these underground guys. And they drive some pretty nice jacked up balloon tired big trucks. They even speak Engrish.
I expect this is a result of sales people getting paid on commission. They say whatever they need to in order to seal the deal, collect their commission, and move on. Actual repairs are someone else's headache.
When I was young and naive I used to buy new homes, thinking new is better. Now I don't look at any home less than 10 years old. By then the home as settled and any major issues will be apparent to an experienced inspector.
I know someone who had a new custom home built, but it was by a local builder with not the greatest reputation. 10 years in every carpeted floor squeaked, and some of the tiled floors had cracks. Almost every room had worryingly large cracks in the drywall. Half the doors stuck. The basement had flooded, badly, because the sump pump was never actually connected to the discharge pipe. Sills were rotten because windows weren't installed properly. That's just the things I heard about too. The next owner got a home with all those issues due to builder incompetence and settling taken care of.
These new communities are where new homes are being built. The homes are being built in only a couple of days, and they go onto the next home. The question is why are not these homeowners watching as the home goes up and keep inspecting as the home is being built BEFORE just going ahead and moving in and signing the final papers. NEVER sign those final papers until everything is correct. If it is not correct make sure the corrections are done OR say NOPE and do not take the deal. Do not just sign the deal and then after signing the papers just try and get them corrected later.
But new homes need permits and must be inspected as they are built. What's the use of having building code laws if they are not enforced? Oh wait, it's 2023. The only laws being enforced are anti hate and gender affirming speech.
Always hire your own inspector for the final. Do not allow the builder to use their inspector. Then ensure all cited items are fixed before you sign any documents.
This is what we can expect from construction in the future. People these days don’t have the kind of craftsmanship pride of decades ago. Faster is how the builders do it now.
Yeah, these builders are so short sighted. Just build them as fast as possible at the lowest cost to maximize profit. It's literally a race to the bottom.
