Eric Vaughn/Windham Mountain Retreat BUYER BEWARE Windham New York
I’ve been house hunting for a few months and took a trip upstate several times looking for a 2nd home for my family.
The last time I came up planning to stay until I find “That special house”. I got introduced to my Broker, Beth Alfred, who showed me 2 or 3 houses.
When she realized what I was looking for she introduced me to a builder Eric Vaughn from Windham Mountain Retreat.
He showed me his unfinished houses and the project of $750,000 house that he was working on.
The house I fell in love with was a 4 bedroom, 2.5 baths with the great view at a Windham Mountain. I spent the whole day with Eric looking at the houses and talking. Originally we agreed without my realtor Beth present to include all season room at the asking price.
That night I called my wife and sent her the link to check out the house and I said that it could be that special house. She agreed to come back all the way from Long Island to meet Eric and look at the house
Mind you, we just returned from the same upstate trip only a week prior…
So my wife, my son and my mother-in-law drove upstate first thing in the morning and we all went to check the house out. Laurie Hanenberg, the in-house realtor for Eric came along as well. My realtor Beth had appointments and didn’t meet us there. My family loved the house. The house was what we pictured in our heads and even though it was not finished yet it was something we would consider investing into…
We spent a few hours in the house and then we got back to the office to finish up the details. I really wanted a sunroom and Eric was willing to include the sunroom into the listing price of $579,000.
The only missing piece was that we really wanted to have a finished basement… We threw the ideas, put the list together, and agreed that we would come back to Windham the next morning to put the offer in… We left Eric’s office around 11.30pm that night.
We returned there the next morning and started the negotiations… I wanted to add the garage as well since there was none. By the midday we came to the agreement: $625,000 including a sunroom, finished basement and the garage.
Laurie Hanenberg from Hunter Windham Real Estate, an in-house listing agent, typed in the sheet with the additional items to be completed before the closing of the house and I left home with the signed binder… The only thing we had to take care of was the broker. All 3 of us tried to get in touch with Beth but she never picked up the phone or showed up once in those 2 days of negotiations while my family was there…
I came home, we started preparing the documents to move along with the bank, we were waiting for a sketch of the construction of the basement and Eric disappeared for 2 days with no obvious reason. No returned phone calls or text messages. At the same time I spoke to Beth a few times telling her where we stood and why she even never showed up… Finally I got Eric on board and now his story changed completely. Laurie was in the background while we were having a conversation putting her two cents in every time. Eric claimed he never committed to a finished basement and that it would an extra cost… I couldn’t understand why and what was going on… Until I finally came to a realization that it was about Laurie’s and Beth’s commission that we were talking about… Either of them didn’t want to give up their “compensation”… I was furious… To me, it looked like I was paying $579K for the house with the sunroom… and now I was paying $625K for wiring and drywall installation in the basement and the garage?! We are talking about $46,000 for that! Are you kidding me?!
Mind you when I gave them the checks with the binder, Laurie frauded the check and added 1 next to 7 on the date, so it didn’t look as April 7, 2016 but April 17, 2016 so they could go around Beth. Laurie also didn’t like the fact that Beth was getting a piece since she was not there for 2 days of negotiations…
Long story short I didn’t want to be fooled around and bounced back and forth… They also told me that they would still showing the house since we didn’t come to an agreement… I told them I would write “a nice review” and asked them to rip up the check. I never heard back from them…
After 5 months of house hunting and several trips back and forth and stay there I have to start all over again.
I want you to beware of these people. They tell you one thing and then they switch the table around you. Please call me at 516 320 3065 if you have any additional questions.
I am attaching the binder and the “to do list written by Eric” that my wife took a picture of…