Complaint Review: Raymond Rau - New Braunfels Texas

My name is Lara Smith, I hired Raymond Rau in August 2017 after doing some research on building a barndominium. I found his information on the milam county buy, sell, trade page on Facebook. I googled his company name raubuilders LLC and only 2 negative reviews popped up and some good reviews as well. When I met with him for the first time, in July, at my property I confronted him about the 2 bad reviews I had found and he claimed that one of the people had stolen their own material and it was later found on the persons property, and that the other person had just been unhappy because their job had moved slow due to him going through a divorce and having had a motorcycle wreck. At the time those seemed like legitimate excuses at the time, as I understand things do happen. So I decided to go ahead and hire him. I paid my earnest money and signed my contract with him at the end of August 2017. He broke ground on my job and drew out the first drawl from my bank on Sept 26, 2017. Dirt work was done, post a were set, and slab was poured. Trusses went up slightly after and then metal went up all by the end of December 2017. Rough wiring was done in January 2018, then insulation was halfway done in February 2018. Beginning in January things started to really slow down and I began questioning Raymond as to when someone was going to be out to do work. After messaging him and calling him several times someone would finally be scheduled to show up. Sheet rock was delivered mid February 2018, and I still didnt even have exterior doors. I asked Raymond several times when my doors were going to be there and installed, his reply was always next week. After sheet rock was done at the end February 2018, he sent his ex mother in law Patricia (Wells?) to come out and paint my house at the beginning of March 2018. I was told by Raymond at this point that my doors and cabinets would be there the first week in March. Nothing was ever brought out.

Finally around the 2nd week of March, on a Tuesday, a total of 11 cabinets were brought out to my house, I was then told that the remaining cabinets and my exterior doors would be there the following Thursday. Again nothing ever showed up and Raymond was no longer answering my calls, texts or emails. After calling him multiple times over and over he finally answered and told me that his partner Mike Frazier was coming out on March 27, 2018. On that day around 11 no one had shown up yet so i again called Raymond to see if someone was still coming. After calling Ray multiple times again he finally picked up saying Mike had a stroke that morning and was in the hospital but was fine and would be released the next morning. Two guys showed up to my house about an hour later but had no tools so they weren't able to do any work. The following Tuesday April 3rd the same 2 guys along with Mike and Caryn Jones (Mike's gf?) showed up. Cabinets were still not delivered nor my doors, cabinets that were already here were moved around and the 2 guys "cleaned the floor" and unpacked the cabinets that were here. Basically after this point maybe a total of 2 more days since that has someone actually shown up but work has not been done. Raymond does not answer my calls, emails or texts. He finally replied to an email that my loan officer sent him in which he promised a schedule, and that my cabinets would be out on April 24, 2018. He also stated that I he was sending over a list of change orders, which he finally sent to me on April 23, 2018. The change order list was a list of things that has not even been done and that he was just trying to get extra money for.

After that my loan officer requested Raymond come out and meet with us on April 23, 2018, but Raymond never showed up or replied. My loan officer had a local builder do an inspection on my house, from which we were given a 2 page report of all the things that were wrong and needed to be fixed. One of those things being our slab was to short and our house was hanging over it by 3 inches. There's also really bad washout where our house pad was done incorrectly, windows tear the sheet rock when opened, no insulation or decking in attic, metal is missing fasteners everywhere, and many other things. Raymond has drawn out drawls for many things that aren't done and supplies that aren't here. He has taken $249,000 of my $289,000 loan and left me with not nearly $249,000 worth of work and materials. I have sent him a certified letter, which he received May 1, 2018, asking him to come talk with me in person as the president of his company and discuss the situation with my house and what his intentions were of finishing it. Raymond has not answered my letter still. I went to the news station and a reporter did a story, he called Raymond on the phone and Raymond told him that my build was moving slow because of all my "change orders" but the only thing I changed was extending my garage and that was brought to Raymond's attention in November of 2017. Raymond also lied to the reporter saying that he has never had a lawsuit against him, which was proved to be a lie on the news. After seeing that he was exposed on the news he sent me an email claiming that he has all intentions of finishing my house and threatened me saying " The things that are being said about me and our company are false and I will take action no matter what the cost is." This was on May 5th and still no one has shown up at my house since April 24th. I am now left with between $80,000 -$100,000 in with to be done with only $40,000 left of my loan to do so.

Raymond Rau and Mike Frazier (raubuilders LLC, rustic ranch homes, national polebarn co) are crooks. They take peoples' hard earned money and leave them with a nightmare of a mess to deal with. They need to be exposed and they need to pay everyone money back to them. They need to be in jail locked up where they can no longer scam and take advantage of people. Please dont let yourself become their next victim. He is a smooth talker and will lie straight to your face. If you have any questions and/or want to know more, please feel free to contact me. (((REDACTED))) Larariannsmith@gmaildotcom