Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
First time home buyer here. Okay so this house we are looking at is brand new, never lived in, built in 2007. We live in the desert and there are 2 of these side by side. Gorgeous home. Beautiful. I am not trying to be nit picky, but honestly wondering if these are signs of a larger problem.
Now of course hubby trys to reassure me that he can fix this and that and says that stucco cracks cause there is no give in it and he can regrout the counter in the kitchen, shave some wood off the door, patch the holes in the bath tub, replace the sliding doors in the family room with french doors, etc.
That is a link to the slideshow showing all the "problem area" pics. SOme are 2 or 3 pics of the same crack. I forgot to take a pic of the sliding door but that wouldn't help anyways. I have a link to pics of the house elsewhere, but what I am concerned about right now is this:
1. It is located in a flood zone.
2. The back door to the master suite has a very hard time opening or closing.
You can see the pic at the bottom where it is cracking perhaps as a result.
3. The back sliding glass doors have trouble opening or closing.
4. There are cracks in the ceiling/wall in the master bed room. See about halfway down to the right?
5. The front bathroom there are two holes/huge cracks in the bottom of the tub.
6. When we closely inspected the outside of the house, there seem to be alot of cracks in the stucco. Mainly around the windows of light fixture areas. The front window seemed really bad.
7. The counter in the kitchen, the grout seems to be splitting in one piece
8. The kitchen drawer had a crack in it. Easy fix, but what is the bigger picture here?
9. See the outside window? Cracks all over
My agent said they did not do a very good job at "finishing work", but to ease my mind to have a professional inspect it.
Is this common? Am I just being paranoid? I asked my agent to see if she can find out who the builder is. My fear is they probably went bankrupt which is why the bank is in possession of the house.
The house is 2 years old and never lived in? Guess why. Never mind you cant guess if your willing to buy this lemon that many many others have bypassed. Who is the builder....KB Homes? Kinda looks like their handywork.
I been in this business for 3 decades and I have seen poor workmanship this bad. This one is up there with the worse. My specialty, cabinets I identified the brand as the cheapest trash money can possibly buy. The staple in the drawer box simply was shot quickly by a Chinaman on an asembly line for 10 cents a day. The bottom of the tub, the fiberglass is worn where it was dragged on concrete by one person.
New homes DO NOT need to have doors shaved, cracks filled, holes patched. I defy your claim that the house is beautiful.
The crack in the door casing is just plain "I dont give a flying F" attitude by whatever south of the border illegal alien did it. Hell that is not even door casing. I can see the dirt on the baseboard where they sprayed the home with whitewash and all the dirt left on the unswept floor just blew up with the high pressure paint sprayer. Look at the dirt in the paint!!!! Walmart grade carpeting where you can see the matting through the pile. Glue all over the threshold.
The tile countertop is not cracked. It simply is a lack of grout that some illegal alien floated on incompletely. I can see the tiles are not even lined up !! At least some one took the time to try and get fancy by using a diamond pattern.
Over the window cracks tells me there is an inadequate header that can not hold the load and is sagging. During good times Building Inspectors were doing drive by inspections, never actually looking but leaving the green sticker. The one crack over the patio door and under the patio roof is so serious that I smell lawsuits against the builder as well as the building inspectors. YEE GODS the patio doors are just going to be pinned shut soon by the weight above it !!! And then the glass will just explode and shatter !!
Cracks in stucco are normal but not those cracks. Normal cracking is easily covered by just spraying another coat of paint over it. Any crack bigger then that suggests a structural problem.
If you buy that house you are more crazy then I can say here without getting banned for saying it. Homes all over are losing value by the day, that house will never recover but continue to deteriorate. Who did that home....KB? Beazer? Maybe a local spot builder?
Walk away. No. RUN THE HELL AWAY !!! If you buy that thing then dont even come back here to tell us. Shame on the Realtor too.
I just looked at your slide show. Im half laughing and half crying. It will take the good Craftsmen in this world a hundred years to undue the damage in reputation to our profession that these clowns have done with just one house.
For those of you thinking of hiring an illegal alien over a Craftsmen or choose the crew that works for $50 a day rather then a living wage.....take another look at these pictures. If this home seems acceptable to you then I been saving some large appliance cardboard boxes that Im going to be setting up in an open field and charge inexpensive rent for the privilege of living in them.
Dont anyone come on here telling these people how to fix these problems. These are problems that have to be walked away from, not fixed. 2 year old home that no one bought. That speaks volumes.
The others have said it very well, no need to really repeat.
A couple observations:
#2, cracked wood trim at door. probably split when they installed it. The right person would have replaced it then.
#5, I only see the hole at the bottom of the tub. probably happened during construction, and they didn't call in a guy to fix it. It actually happens a lot during construction, but it's usually fixed before anyone sees it.
#7 small crack in grout at counter. This in itself is not a huge deal. The grout was probably too dry when they were working it. easy fix.
#8 drawer split. Should have been replaced when noticed by the installer.
Outside stucco cracks????? Flood area????? Time to get the running shoes on.
The others have said it very well, no need to really repeat.
A couple observations:
#2, cracked wood trim at door. probably split when they installed it. The right person would have replaced it then. #5, I only see the hole at the bottom of the tub. probably happened during construction, and they didn't call in a guy to fix it. It actually happens a lot during construction, but it's usually fixed before anyone sees it.
#7 small crack in grout at counter. This in itself is not a huge deal. The grout was probably too dry when they were working it. easy fix.
#8 drawer split. Should have been replaced when noticed by the installer.
Outside stucco cracks????? Flood area????? Time to get the running shoes on.
Ya know what that looks like? I know you know what a one piece fiberglass tub surround looks like. That front face really has no support at the bottom, that side is quite thin. Look at the way it is rounded. Its not a crack. It looks like the tub was dragged across the street pavement and the tubs fiberglass just wore off.
Hey just getting on. Thanx for all your comments everyone, I really appreciate. it.
desertsun41
Thank you! I do not know who built this home. It is in Pinon Hills, Ca. It is not a tract home. There are 2 of them. Like I said all this is new to me. Yes the home itself did look nice. But I was trying to look past that and look at all the details. I was very concerned about all these cracks and inconsistency's which is why I asked here.
I appreciate all the expert advice. Thanx for clearing all that up. The agent tried to tell me it was just "finishing work" that didn't get done.
Quote:
Walmart grade carpeting where you can see the matting through the pile.
Yeah I don't know if I mentioned the carpet or not. But I noticed a huge line thru it where my agent was standing.
Quote:
YEE GODS the patio doors are just going to be pinned shut soon by the weight above it !!! And then the glass will just explode and shatter !!
The sliding glass door? Yeah that we had a hard time just opening and closing it!
Quote:
Over the window cracks tells me there is an inadequate header that can not hold the load and is sagging. During good times Building Inspectors were doing drive by inspections, never actually looking but leaving the green sticker.
Yeah that is what I keep thinking, there is supposed to be an inspector, but what if they didn't do their job?!?
I drove by a different new house today and specifically looked at the windows, I didn't see ANY cracks!
That builder might be Patti Harris Homes. They have more complaints against them then you can shake a stick at. Im still cracking up over the poor workmanship. That house will never ever sell. It is probably owned by the bank anyway. No builder can sit on inventory for 2 years even if they are playing with old money.
One thing Im worrying about. You did not say you will walk away from it. Most first time home buyer develop a love for the first house they like and begin to defend it to the death. Do not treat a house like a first love or long lost love. It's just a house and there are over a 25 million of them listed for sale at this writing. More then half of them are owned by banks and selling for 40 cents on a dollar.
Walk away. And if your Realtor trys to convince you not to I would not only be suspicious of her/his bonus for selling it but I would send them back home and call an honest Realtor.
That builder might be Patti Harris Homes. They have more complaints against them then you can shake a stick at. Im still cracking up over the poor workmanship. That house will never ever sell. It is probably owned by the bank anyway. No builder can sit on inventory for 2 years even if they are playing with old money.
One thing Im worrying about. You did not say you will walk away from it. Most first time home buyer develop a love for the first house they like and begin to defend it to the death. Do not treat a house like a first love or long lost love. It's just a house and there are over a 25 million of them listed for sale at this writing. More then half of them are owned by banks and selling for 40 cents on a dollar.
Walk away. And if your Realtor trys to convince you not to I would not only be suspicious of her/his bonus for selling it but I would send them back home and call an honest Realtor.
Oh no I am walking away. LOL That one is owned by the bank. They got it back Feb 17, 2009. I am not in love with that house.
The house I was in love with we just lost. I found it when it was empty and waited 6 weeks for it to hit the market. It finally hit and we offered $180,000 and it wasn't enough. (We got approved for up to $245,000 but that is insane!)
The list price was $228,900. Within days there were multiple offers in , including a full price offer. I am not surprised. It was worth it but payment wise I just can't do it.
It is gone. The home was built by Moses Inc. That was truly a gorgeous home. It had all the extra touches, arched doorways, crown molding, granite counters, walk in glass door pantry. It was truly a work of art and that was my dream home. But it is gone.
So we are looking for something else. This other home didn't hold a candle to it even before you look at all the shoddy workmanship.
Are you familiar with Moses Homes? He seems like a quality builder. I can't seem to find any other homes he has done though. We are looking in the Phelan/Pinon Hills area.
My mom used to always say
Quote:
wine taste on a beer budget.
Do you think the market will drop more? Are you familiar with this area? I am on another board and they keep saying to each other April 1st, the spigot gets turned back on in Cali.
I hope so. Otherwise we are looking at less sq ftage or less acreage or less of something. We really don't want to be in Victorville or be in a tract home.
Last edited by Desertrose34; 03-15-2009 at 06:22 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We really don't want to be in Victorville or be in a tract home.
