Avoid home builder rip-offs

Attention New Home Buyers

Are You REALLY Prepared
to Deal with the Kinds
of Problems Cited Below?

Or Will Your New Home
Just Become the
Next Headline on the List?

	“Dream home is nightmare for Chesapeake family” Chesapeake New, March 15, 2006

	“Family buys brand-new, uninhabitable home, Home owners plan to sue builder” PostStar, March 14, 2006

	“Dream home is a nightmare” Fayettville Observer, March 5, 2006

	"Housewrecked: Serious hidden defects plague many newer homes" Consumer Reports, January, 2004 (Some information came from Home Building Pitfalls)

	"Luxury By Design, Quality By Chance: Home builder leaves a trail of bitter buyers" Boston Globe, April 29, 2001

	"Dream Home Becomes Nightmare: Their new home had $70,000 in problems. Now they are taking their builder to court." St. Petersburg Times, October 22, 2000

Want to Learn How to Avoid Making Similar Headlines??

veryday, in communities across the country, there are dozens of similar articles printed about the headaches, heartaches and shattered dreams of homeowners. And these stories are NOT just from "fly-by-night" homebuilding companies, but range from small, local builders to the large, so-called "Wall Street" industry leaders.

	Imagine your large, stable, reputable home builder going out of business while your house is being built.

	Imagine the horror of moving your couch to vacuum and finding toxic mold growing on the walls of your 6-month-old house.

	Imagine your kitchen floor slowly heaving because your builder ignored a natural spring and built your house on top of it.

	Imagine placing your trust in a 10-year warranty, only to find out later that the warranty is worthless.

	Imagine having a government inspector ignore blatant code violations in your house because your builder was giving him materials to finish the room addition on his own house.

These scenarios are all real.
We have witnessed them first hand.

So who is looking out for you when you build a new home? Real estate agents? Home inspectors? The local government? The truth is, none of the above.

You have to protect your family and your investment.

Here are the things you must know in order to be on equal footing with your home builder:

How to avoid the “model home trap” used by every big builder

How to prevent your builder's assembly line construction techniques from getting in the way of the quality and craftsmanship you deserve

How to discover if your builder is telling the truth about claims of superior quality and customer satisfaction

How to prevent damaging mold growth that has become common in new homes

The tactics used by new home sales people to "up-sell" and persuade you to unnecessarily spend thousands of extra dollars

How your builder’s attorneys are working overtime to make sure they have the upper hand... and what you can do to foil their efforts!

How you can protect yourself from the exclusions and exceptions in most new home warranties. These are exclusions that will cost you thousands of dollars when a problem arises with your new home.

How to avoid the biggest scam you will encounter when buying a home - The Home Inspector Scam (and no, it’s not what you think)!

Here is how we can help…

Home Building Pitfalls by Lawrence Thomas will educate you on all of these topics. Lawrence Thomas has seen the best and the worst in the homebuilding industry. Among his other positions, Mr. Thomas helped oversee one of the largest residential mold restoration projects in the country, and managed the warranty department for one of the nation's largest builders. Also contributing to the book are several other industry insiders, including attorneys and former builders.

But don't just take our word for it....

Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (HADD) is a large, nonprofit organization dedicated to educating housing consumers and promoting better building practices. This organization is made up entirely of volunteers who have had a new home built and have been burned to the tune of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands of dollars) in the process. Here is what HADD had to say about Home Building Pitfalls:

"Written with first-hand knowledge and expertise of a home building industry 'insider', Home Building Pitfalls offers details for what can (and should) be one of the most exciting events of your life. Mr. Thomas familiarizes readers with 'must do' research and actions that should precede any decisions regarding the purchase of a newly constructed home. Lawrence Thomas expertly iterates items that should be part of every potential home buyers arsenal".

Hiring the a good builder is one of your most important tasks.This 71 point checklist will assist you in organizing your thoughts and ensure that you cover all the important topics when you interview builders.

A 180 point checklist of items that you should consider when building a house. Assuming you are hiring a builder, almost all of these things should be the builders responsibility. However, this comprehensive list will give you the ability to monitor and double check what your builder is doing or should be doing. It’s an invaluable aid to assist you in monitoring the progress of your builder and your house building project.