I am so sorry that this happened to you. I would try to talk it out with him first. Express your concerns in person not on the phone. If a salesman was involved other than the owner then he/she should be there too. This economy has the best of people doing things they would have never thought of until late. It comes down to survival and if they are getting squirley now don't give them the opportunity to take you further. You still hold alot of cards if you did not give him a large deposit. If is truly a good builder then he will try to rectify this as well.

Did you give him a down??? Has the builder already scheduled dig? Or is he working on permitting in your area Normally like you said the 3 days buyer remorse period is up and you are stuck. It is unfortunate that you got caught in this but it does happen. I am not saying he is a bad builder only that it seems as you were rushed through the contract. If he is a reputable builder then he will sit down with you and go over the issues and probably work out a resolution. I have run into the misunderstandings before and normally there is a compromise. No builder wants his customer leary of him from start of project. As far as the design. My designs sometimes have items (upgrades) in them at time of sale that the customer does not want to pay for upgrade. It is what is on the contract that holds up in court.

Good Luck,

David

Thanks for the responses. At this point I am very leary of them. We asked many separate times if the things were included because that was our biggest concern. Now there is an extra 3k for this and 5k for that. Knowing that someone can lie directly to your face and turn around a week later and say, I dont recall, it is not on the contract - it makes me wonder if they will lie about what they are building for me in general.

So it sounds like you have experience with people trying to pull out of contracts, David? If no work was done, not even pre-site, do you settle with them?

Thanks much!

Forgot to mention we did not pay anything down.

I had a guy back out of a $168k project a few years ago after 6 months. We signed the contract in the middle of summer and had to wait for the house to get to a certain stage before we could start. Around the first of December The builder of the house called me and told me that the HO decided to go with another PB. We just let it slide because it would have costed us money on a gamble.

The fact of the matter is it will cost him money to pursue. If you don't feel comfortable at this point, chances are that there is going to be conflict the whole way through the project because of how you feel now.

If you didn't put anything down than he is not ripping you off. I am sure it is a misunderstanding because he has no leverage without earnest money. Talk to him in person prior to any legal interventions. Please don't be confrontational because if you take the "high road", he is most likely going to take it with you.

Where in Texas?

I have had to go back and renegotiate many times before. I have to say everytime things worked out fine. It is in the best interest of the builder to work with you. Even though the contract will probably hold up in court. The only one who wins in court are the lawyers. Like Sceadu said. Who still hold all the cards. I am sure that your builder will siit down with you and most likely work out the issues.

Good Luck,

David

I will talk to him tomorrow about our fears and let him know we still want to do the deal at agreed price with some of the upgrades at a lower cost. But we want an addendum to the contract spelling out everything in detail.

thanks again for all your help!

We spoke with the owner and he had no problem spelling out in detail in an amendment to the contract the new change, as well as other things that might have been upgrades but were part of the original design for the original price.

It pays to deal directly with the owner - the design consultant/salespeople are obviously not as interested in the long-term viability of the business!

Learning as we go - thanks for all the input!!

Great job on this. See things do work out. I think you are going to end up with a gorgeous pool. Please post progress and pictures as the project is moving forward. We would all love to see.

Good Luck,

David