2.5K views
2 comments

My new wife and I have been living in an apartment while pondering where we wanted to live as a couple. When we saw the flyer from LGI for the Maple Park development in Gainesville, GA, we decided to check them out.

Neither of us are first-time home buyers, so we didn't fit the mold of LGI's target customer. Our credit is excellent, or income is above average, and we could commit to a significant down payment at closing. Regardless, we sat through the canned presentation before being shown any homes.

We made it clear to the sales agent that our interests were in a low-maintenance house with a nice fenced yard suitable for our dogs. The development was almost sold out, so our choices were going to be limited. While we would have preferred a single story home, the only lots available with that floor plan were unacceptable to us, as were most of the lots with the smallest two-story home floor plan. We finally found an acceptable house on the right lot. I asked to review the deed restrictions (CC&R's) for the Homeowners Association and was told that I would get a copy at closing. Unacceptable, but we had delayed lunch and didn't want to fight that battle at the time.

Now the fun starts...

In order to enter a contract for the house we chose, LGI wanted $500 earnest money in the form of a money order. Unconventional, but we agreed. The sales agent drove us to a Walmart so we could pay for the money order with cash, then returned us to the sales office. We agreed to go with their preferred mortgage broker to save on the closing costs, but the saying "Nothing is Free" never rang truer as it turns out. (More on this later)

After completing the basic application paper work, we returned to the house to place a "SOLD" sign in the yard and given a projected closing date a little over a month away. We mentioned to the sales rep that the two small sapling trees right up against the new fence will need to be removed before they grow enough to damage the fence. Why anyone would not remove these trees before putting the fence up is a mystery, but he said that they would be taken care of.

Not being novice home buyers, my wife and I began gathering documents and information that we knew the mortgage broker would require, and were able to quickly provide almost everything requested at our initial meeting with him. The remaining items were provided the next day, which was still more than thirty days from the projected closing date.

Living near the house, my wife and I would stop by on occasion to take measurements of rooms and even let the dogs check out the back yard. On every visit we noticed that the trees remained, and the back yard had a large area that was essentially a swamp. The cause was obvious in that the downspout on the rear corner of the house drains over 60% of the roof and the grading of the yard does not provide for adequate runoff so the water pools up. The new fence wicks the water from the saturated ground and walking on the grass leaves your shoes an inch or more deep in water.

We brought the situation to the attention of the sales rep, and were assured that it would be "looked into". The next time that we noticed the problem still remained, we asked about it being "looked into" and were told that the air conditioner condensation probably caused the soggy grass. Really? A house that no one is living in with a brand new heat pump system is going to produce enough condensation to produce a thirty foot wide puddle? If so, they had bigger problems than a soggy backyard.

Hearing nothing from the mortgage broker ("No news is good news", he says), we contact him late in December and are told that they are busy closing out the quarter and the year, but he'll follow up on our loan after the new year. The appraisal surprisingly gets scheduled the next day, two weeks prior to the scheduled closing. The writing is on the wall.

Once again reminding the mortgage broker that the closing date was approaching and that we needed confirmation of the date to schedule time to attend, he finally admits that the projected date will slip and he hopes that we can close a week or two later. Things now begin to get contentious because I do not suffer fools lightly, and anyone who thinks they can disappoint my wife is a fool. I laid into the sale rep about the yard issues still not being addressed and about the poor customer service from the mortgage broker he saddled us with. He said that they needed 72 hours without rain to be able to remedy the drainage issues with the yard, and I reminded him that they had had several 72 hour windows since the problem was brought to their attention and they hadn't done anything. I made it clear that if the yard is not fixed to our satisfaction, we will not close.

The week prior the the original closing date, we start getting requests for additional information and letters of explanation from the loan processor. These were priceless, such as "Please ask the applicants why they have different phone numbers" (cell phones), and "Please ask him why if they are married, he claims 'Single' on his tax withholding status", and "Please ask why they show different addresses prior to getting married."

We'll get through this, and laugh about it all in the years to come. I just wanted others to know that even when you're experienced in the home buying process, LGI and their partners can certainly test you.

Reason of review: Poor customer service.

Location: Gainesville, Georgia

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

This entire post is ***. Did you close on the house or not?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1212261

Yes we closed, and have been living in the home for almost 18 months. The purchasing saga posted previously was intended to enlighten people about the challenges that they might encounter.

The quality of the home construction has been mentioned in other reviews as being "poor", but it is what we expected for the price of the home.

We knew what we were getting and expected to have to replace the builders' grade flooring, light fixtures, appliances, etc., and we've been doing so. Sure the continuing "nail pops" are annoying, but we would rather fix them ourselves than let LGI's incompetent warranty work crews do it.

My wife and I have also offered to fix many of the same defects on some of our neighbors' homes since as first-time homeowners, they aren't as prepared as we were.

LGI does a big dis-service to the first-time buyers when they fail to educate them on what homeownership entails, how to be a responsible and courteous neighbor, and how things like property taxes and HOA assessments are not "optional". We have already seen a few homes in our subdivision foreclosed on through the ignorance of these facts by the homeowners.

LGI Homes Reviews

  1. 174 reviews
  2. 57 reviews
  3. 17 reviews
  4. 9 reviews
  5. 27 reviews
LGI Homes reviews