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America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

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Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#11

Post by HFguy »

bayarearefugee wrote: post #7
gcanyon wrote: post #2

This is not new. I just watched a video a few days ago talking about Levittown, built in the post-WWII boom, where the house lots were just big enough to build septic systems for each, given the current state of the ground/drainage. So as the soil compacted/absorbed the output of the houses, and as people installed washing machines, and and as people converted their attics to additional bedrooms (which they were orig…

> This is not new. Nothing under the sun is new, but we do currently live in a time with unprecedented levels of open corruption where nobody seems to feel the slightest amount of guilt for clearly immoral behavior as long as they get away with it. And even in cases where what you do is explicitly illegal legal enforcement is largely contingent on whether or not whatever corrupt thing you did made you rich enough to…

I suspect it is higher than it was 20 years ago and significantly lower than it was 100 years ago.

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#12

Post by FireBeyond »

Wouldn't surprise me. I live on a small loop that had a vacant lot next door to me (home burned down in the 80s shortly after construction and had stayed vacant until 3 years ago).

One of the big name builders in our county bought the land (we had only just bought our home next door and wish we had been in a position to buy the land) and through up the usual cubical blob with no eaves, no personality, and maximum possible square foot.

It's been three years and not two-three months has gone by without contractors being there to repair damage... fix the fence, fix the foundation, lift the foundation, repair drywall cracks, repair sagging floor, fix HVAC issues. All for the bargain basement price of $600K "builder grade" (Hah, once upon a time I was naive enough to think this meant high-end, not "cheapest shit that will pass code").

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#13

Post by roysting »

gcanyon wrote: post #2

This is not new. I just watched a video a few days ago talking about Levittown, built in the post-WWII boom, where the house lots were just big enough to build septic systems for each, given the current state of the ground/drainage. So as the soil compacted/absorbed the output of the houses, and as people installed washing machines, and and as people converted their attics to additional bedrooms (which they were orig…

For additional context; Levittown(s) were named by William Levitt the guy that is considered the creator/initiator of the archetypal suburb concept that would become one of the biggest destructive forces and cause of endless misery in American society.

They were the very basis of the subject fraud too, the incremental, cascading slide and destruction of quality through fraud, even if it took time for the incremental, “salami slicing” to get to this point where contacted, foreign national, fly by night operations underlying all the corporate builders are throwing together what in some cases are literal paper houses where even OSB sheathing has been replaced by what can only be called fancy cardboard.

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#15

Post by Cyclone_ »

I recently bought a home built by Lennar. The project manager kept telling me up until closing about how great the warranty was. He said that the drywall in the hallway going to the basement was going to be finished. When I reported this to the person who handled the warranty he said that the basement wasn't going to be finished. I reported some issues with the cabinets and he said they wouldn't fix it until the 11 month period since he said other things could break until then. He also tried to discourage me from getting an 11 month inspection. When I moved in the grass was almost a foot long and there was a vole infestation in the backyard due to the grass being long. Whenever someone talks about how there is a warranty I usually chuckle a little. The companies know how much it would cost you to sue them.

To be clear small builders have done things far worse in Minnesota. There's a builder on the South side of the Twin Cities that has left many homes with foundation issues. They're no longer in business. My issues look tiny compared to theirs.

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#16

Post by topgrain2 »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #8

I bought a home a few years ago. We chose an older 1940's wood home near downtown in a California town. Its solid. Meanwhile, friends of ours have bought newly constructed homes with all the modern features, and the horror stories they have...

It’s tricky. Buy 1970s or earlier and risk asbestos and lead issues (look how late asbestos was still used in a few things! It’s surprisingly late). Buy later than about 1985 and all the good old-growth wood was gone so it all sucks in different ways.

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#18

Post by thehoff »

bagels wrote: post #10
lolpython wrote: post #3

For anyone who wants to see clear examples of these defects from an inspectors point of view… For a while I was completely addicted to watching inspection videos of brand new homes where the inspector shows poor craftsmanship and sometimes even dangerous defects - the best in the genre IMO is Cy https://youtube.com/@cyfyhomeinspections?si=zldoP3BpzK6mUzDc check out his YT shorts. Example after example of terrible def…

It's shocking how poorly built these houses are. No insulation, broken roof trusses, gas leaks, concrete property walls falling over. It's not like houses were always perfect in the past though. My 1953 house has construction debris mixed in to the concrete foundation in the corner of the garage, where I assume they ran out of concrete, and knots in the roof planks patched with garbage as well.

Sure maybe they weren't perfect in the past but were they this expensive (compared to income)? In the Cy videos I can't believe how much some of the homes cost and the things he finds wrong.

Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers

#20

Post by rawgabbit »

FireBeyond wrote: post #12

Wouldn't surprise me. I live on a small loop that had a vacant lot next door to me (home burned down in the 80s shortly after construction and had stayed vacant until 3 years ago). One of the big name builders in our county bought the land (we had only just bought our home next door and wish we had been in a position to buy the land) and through up the usual cubical blob with no eaves, no personality, and maximum pos…

Please name names.
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