Complaint Review: Meritage Homes Of Arizona

Meritage is still up to its false advertising and other dirty tricks. We just purchased a home and found several false promises.

First, the homes are advertised as 100% CFL lighting. Wrong. You get NO bulbs in the main fixtures, and only regular old bulbs in the fancy ones (ie chandelier type). The reason that we were given--"because people come around and steal the bulbs". So give them out on final walk-through...Duh! Obviously, that lame excuse didn't hold water for us. New house, no light bulbs.

Second, when you select your "Dunn Edwards color scheme" for the exterior, they are a heavy sell on the "Dunn Edwards" part. Guess what? They are Dunn Edwards "colors" all right, but they do NOT use Dunn Edwards paint! How completely fraudulent, to insinuate that you use DE paint by selling DE "color schemes" (color names/codes) but actually use a lesser brand of paint, having that company color match to the DE codes. Unbelievable.

Third, many of their subdivisions now offer Solar panels included in the price. They will also tell you that you can upgrade to "Net Zero" for additional $10k or so. Only after you select your home design do they tell you that YOUR home choice can not fit the upgrade. Worse yet, many of their homes will not even fit the standard array, so you will get LESS panels than other buyers, for the same inclusion price. This part they won't tell you at all, you only find out after your house is finished and you have FEWER standard panels than everyone else. The solar is a sales gimmick, nothing more. The actual amount of panels that they put on your house do NOT provide the energy savings they advertise, because they are basing their analysis on the panels fitting on the largest side of the house, but none of their lots face the right direction for this, so they just decrease your panels, or place them on a less efficient side (not south)!

The landscaper they use (exclusively, you have no option) will give you a beautiful architectural rendering of where all the various plants will go in your yard...yeah, right. Their crew just throws the plants in anywhere, regardless of what the schematic shows. It looks horrible.

Finally, you WILL need to hire an inspection service, because the builder defects are many and varied. If bad enough, you will need to contact the AZ ROC (Registrar of Contractors) and bring it to their attention.

We are recent buyers; knowing what we know now, we would have chosen a different builder.
FYI: you can have solar installed on any new construction house and have the cost worked into your loan, just like a swimming pool! We found this out after the fact :(  so don't let the solar suck you in to using this builder!

Yes, I did buy the house anyway, my bad for sure.  But, when you have a family, you must provide housing no matter what the time or market.  Four kids and a wife are good reasons!   Funny thing was;  that salesman  "Darren" had also purchased a house in the neighborhood that we bought in.  Shortly after we moved in, he had his up for sale.  

Shortly after that, he abandoned the home and was the first foreclosure in the neighborhood. Thanks, Darren of Meritage Homes.  They say Meritage is a combination word that blends "heritage" and "merit" - neither of which you or Meritage demonstrated to customers.  I guess I am just a fool for being taken by a company like the one you work (or used to work for).  

by the way, the home we purchased for 418k in Spring 2006 is now (and still available) for 225K  summer 2012.  The bank is holding it, waiting for the market to recover some more.  

I learned a good lesson.  And I hope other AZ peeps realize that when investors buy in AZ they do not sell.  And when they sell, they don't necessarily "buy" so this creates shortages and excesses in inventory that wreak havoc with pricing for people buying to live in a home.  

I too got in on the Arizona housing rush, and encountered similar slimy tactics. Fortunately, i bought a house at the beginning of the rush. The builder advertised a base price of 287K. However, there was a mandatory lot view premium. It was 15K to 100K depending on the lot. I got the 15K lot.

Then, they actually increased the base price by 2.5% and doubled the earnest from 8K to 16K if you didn't use their lender, which hit you with a zilion fees, then immediately sold the mortgage to Countrywide, which wouldn't have charged the ridiculous fees in the first place. I paid 345 when it was all said and done, and it rose to a value of close to 600. Suckers at the tail end in 2006 paid close to 600 for the same exact house in my neighborhood.

And now if could sell it, I might get 380. IF I could sell it.

So, unfortunately you just experienced the slimy tactics used during the Great Arizona Housing Rush where Californians from near and far drove AZ housing costs through the roof.

You thought they were "ripping you off" and "bait and switching" you BEFORE you bought the house, YET you went ahead and bought the house, at an inflated price anyway. Here we are over two years later, the value of the house has crashed and now you're complaining. Read an artice about a high rise condo in FL that sold for $400,000 on Jan of 07. The same exact condo, in the same high rise was selling for $300,000 on Jan 08. What did you pay for the house, what is the builder selling it for now and what are they selling for now?

Tom,

The only wasy I was able to get any response from Meritage was to park my vehicle in front of the sales office with signs all over it. They are still selling houses in my division so that got their attention. City code is the vehicle has to move once every 48 hours.