Once upon a time, Engle Homes built Live Oak Reserve, a nice little community in Oviedo, Florida. Unfortunately, Engle Homes went bankrupt before they could finish the community.
Those of us who built homes in the Hawthorne Reserve and Hawk's Landing villages hoped that whoever eventually finished building homes here would maintain the look of our community. Well, that builder was Meritage Homes, and they have had no concern for the look of our community.
These guys are essentially cheats. They were supposed to offer between 8 and 11 models to prospective home buyers, but only built 2. A single 1-story model home was sold, but that sales person was supposedly fired for doing so. Meritage has strong-armed buyers who wanted a different home into buying one of two 2-story homes, and they're basically turning our community into what looks like townhouse row because of the boxy style with no personality. These oversized homes are also too big for the community, which is why everyone thinks they're either apartments or townhouses.
The HOA has made a number of efforts to get Meritage Homes to build in accordance with the rest of the community, so that the look remains consistent and pleasing to the eye. Meritage's response? The legal equivalent of "tough $hit".
There are a lot of rumors that the HOA here is going to sue Meritage Homes. I've heard 3rd hand that many of the buyers of these Meritage Homes are extremely unhappy with how Meritage treated them during the process. There is also talk that a number of homes went through some difficulty on inspections during the build process -- one home supposedly got failed 6 times by a City of Oviedo inspector.
My recommendation for any prospective buyers of the Meritage homes or lots that are now available in Live Oak Reserve? Do your homework. Meritage Homes is not looking out for you, or for the community. They walked in here to simply build homes as cheaply as they can, strong-arm the buyers into picking one of two models so that they could maximize their own purchasing power with supply vendors, and make as much money as possible before leaving.
As far as home builders go, as far as I can tell, Meritage Homes is pretty much scum. Look, there are plenty of examples of home builders not being honest or fair, but I know dealing with Engle, at the end of the day, they always seemed to try to do what would work for both them and the customer. Meritage? They seem to be all about themselves.
What do you think? I know the Live Oak Reserve residents are wishing for someplace to voice their displeasure. Feel free!
