Complaint Review: Schult Homes Dealers

For the past 6 months, my husband and I have been trying to purchase a Schult home. We started the process at Busbee's. Their rep filled out the papers, took our check for the appraisal and app fees, and then ignored our calls and inquiries for a month.

We then went to the Busbee's office on Grand Avenue and began dealing with them. They told us that the appraisal hadn't been ordered yet, and they would take care of it ASAP. That was January. A month later, after several meetings to design the house, and complete the specs, they told us that they had everything ready to go, they just needed the appraisal. What? Oh no, it hadn't been ordered yet. But they would take care of it immediately.

In March, they told us that they had the appraisal back, and we were ready to go. But we had to sign by March 16. On March 16, we went for the meeting to sign, and they sprung the numbers on us: $236K!! nearly 50K more than they had been quoting us all along, and the number on the so-called "Good faith Estimate". All we found at Busbee's was cheating, lying used car salesmen.

Definitely no "good faith" there. We did not sign papers, needless to say. And they refused to give us a copy of any of the paperwork, or refund our money for the appraisal and apps (stated on original contract app as "fully refundable".

Then we contacted HouseSmart in Mesa. Their rep assured us that we had plenty of time, and they could get it done fast, since we already had all the house specs done, and all documentation together. He wrote up an estimate from the specs we sent him, and gave us his numbers: 216K. not too bad, and acceptable to us. He arranged a financing rep and sent all the paperwork in.

After nearly a month of back and forth with the finance company, we found out that the appraisal hadn't been ordered and that's what the holdup was. There's lie #1. They had told us 2 weeks before that the appraisal had been ordered and should be in within the week. Then we were ignored for another week. No one would return our calls, and when they promised to call and give us needed information, they didn't follow through.

my husband called the owner/manager of House Smart and complained about the treatment we'd received. He assured us he would take care of it, and asked if we could come meet with him to go over paperwork. We went. He informed us that his agent had miscalculated the amount and the price would be much higher-$238K. But he agreed that he would cut his profit off it, and eat the additional costs due to the mistake, bringing the total down to $221K. Acceptable and fair, we thought so we proceeded with financing.

But the appraisal hadn't been ordered yet. They'd been telling us it was ordered and should be back "any day" for over a month! So we kept at it, they eventually did order the appraisal, and I kept in contact with the financing agent. All documentation in, just waiting for the appraisal.

A week ago, I called the manager to find out what the status was. He said the appraiser couldn't find comps. SO we decided to go ahead with non-conforming financing. Then he told me that Oakwood wasn't doing financing anymore, and it had to go through Chase. That was last Friday. He was supposed to call me Saturday and give me the permit number from ADWR, and fax over new quotes for some of the site prep. He didn't call. He was also supposed to call me today and let me know what Chase's answer was, terms, docs needed and so forth. he didn't call. I called him 3 times this afternoon, and he never returned my calls. He was out of the office, then on the phone then he'd left for the night. The man I talked to was supposed to call him and have him call me. He never did.

Our situation is this: we started this in early December, so we would be certain to be moved by June 1. A family member lives on the lot next to ours, and is having hip replacement surgery June 18. She is going to need our help. We have excellent credit, money in the bank, and $25K equity on the land. We also have ample income to qualify for a loan of this size and then some.

At this point, after being lied to, multiple attempts to cheat us, and ignored for so long, the move date of June 1 is shot to hell. I didn't get the address and some of the info needed to arrange APS and Qwest until a week ago, and they are running 8-10 weeks to establish service. there was no need for this mess, had the dealers been honest, fair and served us, their customers. Apparently, all any of them are concerned with is making as much money and screwing as many customers as they can.

All we want is our house set, electricity and phone installed, and to get moved. That seems to be too much to ask the unscrupulous dealers we've dealt with. Be careful!!! Don't trust them--they only want to rip you off!


Dawn
Glendale, Arizona
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Schult Homes AKA Marlette Homes.dba Montana Homes of Belgrade