Iron Gate Heavily Rusted After 4 yrs

Facundo Home Builders (Miguel Facundo) built a custom home for my family that we closed on in 2014.  The iron driveway gate installed by Miguel a mere 4 years ago has extensive rusting and pitting.  I had installed an iron driveway gate at my prior home over 20 years ago that is still rust free and has never required touch-up painting or surface treatment to maintain.  Trust me, I’ve never seen an iron fencing rust and pit this quickly.  The workmanship and quality of my prior home’s gate was superb … you can judge for yourself where the Facundo gate quality ranks based on pictures attached below.

The Facundo Home Builder website claims, “We take pride in every home build and remodel project that we do and we love to show off our work.”  Take a closer look at my gate pictures below and you can decide for yourself what “pride in every home build” means to Miguel.

When Miguel was selling us on building with him, he drove us by many Facundo homes in the vicinity of our future home.  I recall him commenting on two of his prior homes we drove by that didn’t look to be in great shape.  The essence of Miguel’s comment was that the owners didn’t perform basic maintenance and that is why the homes were not in great shape.  I believed what he said at the time, but my iron driveway gate experience forces me to reconsider Miguel’s comments from a much different perspective.

Facundo mentioned in Garden Oaks lawsuit post

We saw this post by Susan on Facebook about a homeowner and GO board lawsuit. The homeowners won this phase as the jury agreed with them. Here is the post. https://m.facebook.com/groups/35914307130?view=permalink&id=10153193916457131.

The first quarter of the post contains some interesting data - the connection between Facundo and the GO board member was repeatedly brought up at the trial  as an example by homeowners to prove their case.

Cease and Desist Demand

I just received this email from lawyers representing Facundo and serving notice to immediately Cease and Desist false and defamatory postings. We have simply been telling the truth about our personal experience and those that we heard from others. We have removed the latter from our posts so as not to not put other people who made those comments in a spot (as these were conveyed in confidence verbally by them to us). We are not sure where this will end up but I hope we don't have to get into a legal back-forth just to protect our rights to free speech!




Letter

Local Realtor Input

Note: Originally posted 06/12/13 - moved to this new location due to high spam volume.


This is an email from a local realtor that contacted us.

“I finally got this listing agreement scanned that Facundo coerces the elderly to sign. I tried to post it on your blog, but it would not let me post it under comments. This is the agreement Facundo used to get a retired couple to let him tie up their property for 4 months. They are still afraid to sign a contract for $30,000 more money, and lost the log cabin they were going to retire in. They could not close in time.

I will be getting some flyers out fairly soon, warning homeowners to not sign an agreement with him. Thank you for talking to me.”

Run Away!

Note: Originally posted 10/12/12 - moved to this new location due to high spam volume.

Here is my side of the story…

I thought I’d dealt with stress in my life, but this was a whole new level. We have NEVER paid SO MUCH money and been treated SO badly by anyone!! He was very unprofessional, very moody, very deceptive. He kept saying “I’m different than other builders”. We realized that meant “the rules don’t apply to me”. We had two close friends building with other builders at the same time as us. We constantly compared notes and they (and we) couldn’t believe how unfairly and unprofessionally we were being treated.

One big issue was not being able to go through the house whenever we wanted. No one we’ve talked to during or since had ever even heard of a builder who won’t let you go through the house whenever you wanted. If we showed up unannounced, we were met by his “bouncers”, who would physically prevent us from coming on the lot and immediately call him to warn him we were there. We were then turned away. If they weren’t there, the property is surrounded by a locked gate to which you will NOT be given a key.

More great quotes: “I’m free to interpret the architectural plans any way I want.” He never called us to ask “How..”. He just did whatever he wanted. Then when we pointed out he had not followed the plans, he would use this phrase and then say “If you want it changed, you pay”. When we commented it wasn’t a change, but a “correction”, he once again stated “I’m free to interpret the plans any way I want”. Our architect tried to reason with him, but gave up. He said in all his years of dealing with builders (and they can be an interesting bunch) he never had these kinds of problems.

Toward the end things were completely out of control. We finally just closed and got him out then spent even more money finishing the house, correcting problems, etc…

We wondered why he had targeted us, but after we moved in and began to talk to neighbors, we realized it wasn’t just us. We heard (and continue to hear two years later) story, after story, after story of people who had bad experiences with him. Funny as he kept telling us how the neighbors all loved him. Just ask the couple next door to us who complained to him when his people knocked over their fence in the process of putting ours up. He promised to fix it, never did, and then when they pushed the subject again, he questioned whether his people had even done the damage. Needless to say, the fence was never fixed.

After we moved in, a couple contacted us who were building with him and looking for advice on what to do as they were at their wits end. We compared stories and found our experiences were quite similar. They even got to the frustration point where they considered selling their house (which they designed to be their “dream house”) just because of all the bad karma they felt the house now had. They ended up doing the same as us, get him out and then suck up the add’l money to finish the house correctly.

I could go on for pages. He is definitely a wolf in sheep's clothing. He’s all smiles and nice when he’s selling, but a whole different side comes out once your name is on the bottom line. His signs were the only ones in neighborhood when we began the process, but now there are many quality builders in the area so move on to one of them and save your sanity… and your money!!!!

Nightmare

Note: Originally posted 10/12/12 - moved to this new location due to high spam volume.

It has been almost 2 years since our house was finished and I’m finally getting around to writing this. Mainly due to lack of time, but also because I can be a little clearer in my thinking and less emotional. A little because another piece of metal fence rose from the grave and the sink sank some more, but more on that later! Finally, because I see more of his houses going up and I feel we should share some of our experiences. If it just helps one person, then it would be worth it!

I am putting this on a “blog”. I’m not sure it is the best medium, but thought it is the most convenient to keep adding to as new, old memories come up. Of course, other people can share their experiences, which is even better.

So, our builder is Facundo Home Builders, the same person who built the Little Couple’s house on TLC. He is local to our area (Garden Oaks) and is “known” as a high-end artisan builder. Over time we learned from our own experience and some of it from others, he should also be known for:

• Being a Jekyll and Hyde. All sugar when trying to sell you something, but a true red pepper once the deal is done, especially when he does not agree with you on something.
• Being a bully and totally unprofessional, especially when he can hide behind a phone. He’ll call you a liar, yell at you, has zero idea of professionalism or customer service, but don’t tell him that!
• Not letting you see your house being built except on his schedule, which is very infrequent. DON’T show up unannounced!
• Recording what you say while on that property
• Conveniently not responding to anything in a timely manner, if at all, unless it helps him.
• Horrible integrity. Will even say “yes” on paper, but not deliver;
• Hiding behind a lawyer and threats to cover himself

We were first time builders. Most other friends who had built homes had some bad experiences with builders and they told us to expect the same. However, when we started describing our experiences, we were in a league of our own!

Here is my advice if you are considering him.   Some of this we knew even before we started. It was common sense, but we choose to ignore it.

1. Run away if you want a good experience throughout the process. Especially if you don’t have any previous home building experience!
2. You’ll have better luck if you do cost-plus, since the pressure is off him to stick to a budget.
3. Go through his houses and you better like the traditional style. It is the only one he knows.
4. Check references of experiences with other recent customers who built with him from the beginning (not ones who bought spec homes from him). Do this by knocking on doors of houses he’s built.
5. Buy the lot and have a provision that you can visit anytime you like, unannounced!
6. Have the contract looked over by a lawyer and protect yourself very well in case he decides to hold your house hostage near the end on what you owe and what is considered “complete”.
7. Did I say check references?