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!
AS A RESIDENY OF LIVE OAK I CONCUR 100% WITH THESE VIEWS..THEY HAVE ZERO CONCERN FOR THE VALUE OF THE HOMES THEY ARE BUILDING WHICH ESSENTIALLY EQUATES TO ZERO CONCERN FOR THE FAMILIES LOOKING TO BUY HOMES HERE..IT IS THE SHODDIEST SETUP I HAVE EVER SEEN AND THE SPEED AT WHICH THE HOMES HAVE GONE UP IS STARTLING AND FRIGHTENING..OUR ENGLE HOME TOOK 7 MONTHS FROM FIRST DAY OF GROUND BREAKING TO CLOSING..THESE HOMES ARE GOING UP IN 90 DAYS OR LESS AND WE HAVE 1500 SQ FT LESS ...THINK ABOUT THAT...PLS PLS IF U ARE A PERSPECTIVE BUYER WITH THIS MERITAGE HOME BUILDER BE AWARE AND PLS DO UR HOMEWORK..THESE ARE NOT THE RUMBLINGS OF DISGRUNTLED RESIDENTS..WE HAVE OUR HOMES..ALL WE ARE LOOKING FOR IS THE SAME QUALITY AND THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT THE CASE...
ReplyDeleteI am VERY Unhappy with meritage and have gone to great lengths to talk through the HOA to Meritage. Our concerns are completely ignored and fall on deaf ears of the Meritage builders. We, the current residents, want what everyone else in the previous 4 sections have. Variance, comprable home sizes,colors, quality, etc. Meritage is only concerned about SIZE AND PROFITS. A current meritage customer told one of the residence that " I am concerned about the quality of my Home ". Fast construction( 90 days), big ( 5100 sq ft home on 1/4 acre), poor construction ( some have failed post inspections 6 times).
ReplyDeleteIs this a home that you want to pay 350k for ? BUYES BEWARE !
Why complain about Meritage when it was ENGLE homes business model that failed so miserably they had to file bankruptcy!!! The speed Meritage can build is due to the fact that there are SO MANY vendors with no work that they can hire as many crews as they wish. A dream for buyers as it means they get into their homes more cheapley and more quickly (supply and demand economics!) Quit griping and be glad they are not building 1200 sq foot homes for $85,000 and filling your neighborhood with Neaderthals!
ReplyDeleteActually, it wasn't Engle's business model that failed, but their parent company (TOUSA).
ReplyDeleteThe home size wouldn't be such a big issue if they didn't all look the SAME. The other neighborhoods in Live Oak Reserve have that, and that's what the original homeowners in Hawthorne expected when they purchased their homes. Meritage has wrecked that with their townhouse-looking big-box homes. Find another street in Live Oak that has 6 or 7 houses in a row that all look the same, or so similar you can barely tell them apart.
It's a disgrace. If Meritage was building the community from scratch, they could have built it the way they wanted. But to come into a development that's almost finished and not even try to follow some of the guidelines that make the community unique is simply disrespectful of the current residents and disgraceful from a business perspective.
I won't even get into the fact that the crews working on the homes don't even make an effort to clean the worksites or the street.
Interesting posts on Meritage. We were considering some of the newer Meritage build sites around Oviedo (like Hammock Reserve, or Terralago) for our home. After reading about Meritage's "work" in Live Oak Reserve (and driving by), plus doing a little more research, we have taken Meritage off of our list of potential builders. Low quality construction, and clearly underhanded dealings with residents/customers. You need to trust the company you choose to build your home, and you simply can't trust Meritage.
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