HOBB Community

RE:
As a member of HADD and HOBB, I’m well aware of issues all builders have. I’m aware their lobbyist groups, particularly the NAHB, have sought protective legislation that allows disasters and defects to go unanswered, in cases where the builder doesn’t want to deal with them, generally due to profit issues. They’ve also successfully blocked any real consumer protection legislation brought up, as have many big business during the Bush years. There is very little distinction in dissatisfied people and truly wronged victims in this age, when it comes to protecting profit and investments.

Hopefully you’ve not read my entire site, in that you would reduce our issues to, “but you can't make all of the people happy all the time.......”  It’s not about simply being dissatisfied; it’s about having virtually all our property and home destroyed by a code violation, and several shoddy building methods that multiplied the error. It’s about being forced to live in an apartment while paying for a destroyed home due to health damages it caused, some that became permanent, and Ryan Homes refusal to help in any way. It’s about arrogant, even threatening customer service, which flatly refused to do anything while knowing in detail exactly how they were at fault and criminally negligent.

I agree that people get emotional about a defective home, and they do blow things out of proportion from an outsider’s perspective, because they’re responding emotionally first, not logically. When the Ryan Homes rep commented “They can destroy you, if you don’t stop complaining,” (referring to their parent company, NVR Inc and my site) I’m sure that was an emotional reaction to a problem his Richmond division created. Emotional reactions cause distortions of truth but don’t erase it in all cases, as with no emotion, people have little motivation to do or say anything of consequence. 

I have not listed even half the negative comments I’ve received. You’re only one of two comments in favor of Ryan Homes. The other (not posted) was from a Ryan Homes subcontractor, who accused me of deliberately destroying my health and home for monetary gain, disregarding documentation from experts posted on the site. I will post your comments on an open forum though, as you’re entitled to your perspective. All I have learned from your e-mail is something about you personally. There is nothing enclosed I didn’t already know about Ryan Homes or statistical rationalizations in home builder defects.   

Ron

Ron,
Wonder why I have  a problem when I see letters like the one from Jodi and Steve (they sound like a realtor team)
Maybe because in my mind they have a connection to the builder.  Maybe they are realtors selling Ryan homes and doing damage control or maybe they, or one of them works for  the builder or maybe they are friends or relatives of the builder. Lots of scenarios to choose from.
Maybe they are happy because they "only" have settlement and nail pops.  Must not have had their own inspector.
If they did have their own inspector maybe they could post their inspection so we could see how well their home was built.
Oh well, just call me a cynic.

From the shill's letter: "All of these negative comments don't mean a thing to me because I have educated myself as a homebuyer"     :D  What a freaking stupid statement.  LOL!    For someone to see the signs of problems and ignore them, is stupid, not 'educated.'  Sounds like someone with a vested interest in Ryan Homes the company, OR someone who's trying to sell a house built by Ryan, and afraid of seeing the price drop.

Thanks for the support! I do know for a fact since my site is on the front page of most search engines with Ryan Homes as the keyword, their sales people have had to frequently make excuses to concerned buyers who see it, and no doubt have lost a few. Lately that hurts them more than it did during the boom years. Their sales people are Ryan Homes' employees, and typically own a house(s) built by them. They no doubt get a big discount and special service treatment over walk in buyers.   

What is most impressive to me and infuriating to my "wife", is the statement they didn't care one bit about the negative comments. The documented permanent health damages, 10's of thousands in property loss, the slow destruction of our financial security, criminal negligence, are all easily nullified because their house was okay. It takes a soulless, self serving, greedy human being to think like that. IMO. So yeah, I assumed she works for Ryan Homes, with an attitude not unlike any big tract home builder employee.

Their tactic is a common one, but Ryan built the house wrong, you had damages, and that those damages were the result of Ryan's actions.  To go further, Ryan knew (or should've known) that what it was doing would cause those kinds of damages to its customers and Ryan did it anyway.  It does not matter one iota if you were the ONLY person in the world with a defective Ryan Home, you still have damages as a result of Ryan's actions, entitling you to a legal right to try to get compensation.  That's how we're raised to believe the legal system works. Then we grow up, buy a house, and find out there is no practical, affordable legal recourse, and/or that arbitration stripped us of the few rights we had.

The best thing a home buyer can do is learn something about construction so they can see which builders to avoid.  That's great for prevention info but what about for those already in construction disputes? For them, and that included me not long ago, the choice is to learn the system and dig in your heels.  I was lucky that it worked for me. Not all will win even if they should.  But thank God some choose to fight it.  If they didn't, there would be no info out there to help others prevent it.  Eventually, I hope you get some satisfaction in this case.  I know you've been at it a very long time.

why aren't more people motivated to help their others? The purpose of this website is "to help others prevent it". If EVERYONE out there was concerned with shoddy construction, and warned others about their bad experiences, then it may not happen in the future to YOU or YOUR loved ones.

It amazes me how people do not believe the hazards of new construction. I have been on boards with links to numerous boards and websites showing the pitfalls. People ignore the warning. They keep posting about good builders. Only numbskulls would believe such posting as "I have heard wondferful things about (Builder's name here) and they do fabulous work." "I love my (builder's name here) home. We recceived first class service and our home is defect free."  If you go on city-data under Houston , Tx.it is like a realtor's board.
As I have stated numerous times had I been aware of hobb and hadd before the fact, I would never  have bought new.
It is usually after the fact we find these websites.

I don't know why they aren't motivated.  I could never have sat around at done nothing or kept my mouth shut.  the word "lazy" comes to mind.  But I think right now a lot of them are foreclosing, too, and don't care if the house ever gets fixed.  So, a whole new crop of victims: subsequent owners.

People do not believe this could happen to them. When it does they will be here.
What's that old saying: "If you build it, they will come."  :D
I also believe a few years ago when we had such traffic on the hobb and hadd boards there was so much more building going on, therefore more defects.
As Jane has indicated  today, it is not the building but the foreclosures that has taken the limelight. More  people are now dealing with that issue so that the defect problems are taking a back seat.