Richmond American Homes: A First Time Homebuyers Journey from Delight to Distress

by Ian Roodt / April 25, 2022

Fourteen months removed from signing the contract for our first home, my family of three is approaching a very real possibility of being without a place to live.?This is the firsthand account of my wife Shannon and my experience with Richmond American Homes, how they repeatedly failed to complete projects, and pushed back settlement dates that they have scheduled repeatedly.

Purchasing your first home should be exciting

It took Shannon and I years to be in the financial position to finally purchase our first home.?We saved our money, watched the market, and relocated to an area of the country that brought housing into our comfort range.?In March of 2021, we finally had the opportunity to purchase our first home from Richmond American Homes.?The excitement and nerves around the largest purchase we have ever committed to had us riding a high.?We were finally going to have a place that is all ours with Richmond expecting completion in nine months (their timeline, not ours).?Being realistic to the supply and labor challenges that many industries were facing, we planned for completion to probably push back a couple of months.?Shannon and I thought this would be manageable, and we would be into our home by the end of 2021.

Delays begin

Right from the get go we were soon informed that planning delays from the Richmond American Homes corporate office had delayed in getting our lot submitted for permitting.?Building permits were not completed until the fifth month after.

Our design center appointment, to pick our flooring, cabinets, and other interior components also took two months to be scheduled.?The actual appointment did not take place until the third month after our signing.?This is probably not abnormal, but as first time homebuyers we were in the dark for the first two months wondering if anyone would ever give us proper information.

It is worth mentioning that we constantly were in direct contact with the seller agent, our only Richmond contact, as was our real estate agent.?However, he could only convey that planning decision and timeline are set by the corporate office, and he did not have any further information.

Timeline

March 1, 2021 - Contract initiation with deposit paid.?The estimated completion provided by Richmond American Homes was the end of October 2021.

October 8, 2021 - Concrete slab poured with framing not yet started.?Key conversation had with our sales agent and project manager that we would no longer have our current house to live at the end of April 2022.?The updated completion timeline was six more months (March 2022).

March 1, 2022 - One year anniversary of being under contract.?Home still not completed and original timeline of October 2021 exceeded by four months.

March 21, 2022 - Amelia Walk Settlement dates email received stating "New Homeowner Orientation/First Walk Through" Thursday, April 14, 2022, "Re-inspection/Final Walk Through" and "New Home Settlement" Wednesday, April 20, 2022.?With these dates were received a verbal guarantee of settlement in the month of April.

April 13, 2022 - One day before the scheduled "New Homeowner Orientation/First Walk Through", notified via phone that the walk through would be canceled for Thursday, April 14, 2022.?Reason given was power has not yet been switched on at the property with no ETA for either connection of power service or a rescheduled walk through date.

April 16, 2022 - Confirmation via phone call that the settlement date would be canceled, no ETA as to when it would be rescheduled.

April 19, 2022 - Email received with new First Walk Through date April 26, 2022, and Settlement April 29, 2022.

April 24, 2022 – Email received stating that the First Walk Through has been moved to May 4, 2022, and Settlement May 11, 2022.

Quality of work issues

We understand that home build projects are completed in steps, and that what you see during the process may not directly reflect the finished product.?However, installing drywall and trim around a piece of rebar sticking sideways out of the framed wall, then cutting the rebar and leaving the hole open past the scheduled settlement date seems a bit odd.

We also observed the shower in the owner’s bathroom started six weeks ago, only to be left 60 percent completed.?What is worse is that the work has been done incorrectly and will need to be partially removed, and then completed.?The guarantee of completion of this project was also exceeded as of writing this.

The real kicker is the home still has no electricity meter, which means no power.?At fourteen months into the build, and a week after the original settlement date it is hard to comprehend how scheduling the county inspection to have power turned on was missed.?This inspection was only passed Tuesday, April 19, 2022.?After passing this inspection, the power company scheduling lead-time is eleven days or more.?

There have been more, like the installation of the incorrect street number on the front of the house, our appliances being delivered, then mysteriously disappearing (either stolen or used for a different house settlement), and a hood vent being cut through the wall and tiled around in the incorrect location (off center).

Broken promises

At the end of the day, the building challenges of labor and material are understandable.?What is not digestible is that we still have no home to move into now six months after our original nine month build timeline.?The undue stress of realizing that we may need to move twice.?Once to place all of our possession into storage, then a second time into our new home once it is completed.?And, that we will need to find temporary housing for our family of three for an unknown amount of time that is still within distance of our second grader’s school, that is also accommodating to our family dog.

When we expressed we would need to be into our new home by the end of April 2022, Richmond American Homes responds that there is a guarantee of settlement in April.?This is the straw that broke the camel's back.?To add insult to injury, last week we were contacted by a Richmond American Homes customer relations manager stating “Thank you for providing the additional information.?I have conveyed your concerns to members of our Division management and passed along your contact information.?Though you may hear from them earlier, please let me know if you haven’t heard from anyone by Wednesday.”?

For the record, we are still waiting to hear from Division management and may well be homeless at the end of the month.

If nothing else, hopefully someone will be capable of using our experiences to help prevent their home purchasing experience from being as disappointing as ours is shaping up to be.

#Richmondamericanhomes #homebuying #NorthFlorida #homebuilding #AmeliaWalk