The Cardinal Soul

Review of Southern Homes of Polk County,...

We were rushed, lied to, and ignored. All of this...

We were rushed, lied to, and ignored. All of this even before construction has even started on our new home. We went to visit the model home at the end of December 2016, to make plans of building with their employee, Catherine Serrano. She gave us a lot of information including our choices of lenders, and that the builder will be paying closing costs, as well as a lease termination in our current rental apartment. We told her what we wanted, as well as verbally agreeing mutually that we would also need for them to pay for our lease termination when the house was finished. We discussed our current renting situation and were told by Catherine that this was a program the builder was providing if and when we chose to build with them.

A few weeks following, she then proceeds to rush us through the contracts, because she said the current price for the home we chose will be increasing. She also forced us to choose a lender at a higher rate. From a list of about 5 different lenders she gave us to choose from, we were forced to use the one we originally were required to provide to her even before shopping around. So between all discussions and her rushing us because "she needed to get all paperwork in" Catherine forgot to also put the lease termination agreement in to the contract. This is what we specifically wanted and what we had agreed to.

5 months later, we had a construction closing, and left our down payment on the loan. It has now been 3 weeks and nobody has any knowledge as to when the construction of the home will begin. It is also next to impossible to reach anyone by phone from Southern Homes once the contract was signed. I had left several messages to speak to a supervisor because I didnt want to deal with the further incompetence from their salesperson. After finally being able speak to a sales supervisor, she proceeds to tell me that they are not willing to honor the verbal agreement made by their own representative to pay for our lease termination. Since it was left out of the contract by Catherine, they are unable to help us in any way. So we are stuck paying the termination fee ourselves as well as unable to plan ahead for the completion of the home.

This has been a terrible home buying experience thus far and bad representation of a company. If I could, I would cancel the contract completely with them to build my home. I can only hope that the building process will go a lot smoother. I will update this review once the construction has been completed if and when they start.