HOME CRAFTERS

One word answer, horrible. We entered into a contract with HomeCrafters, Inc. to build, deliver and set a 1200 sq. ft. modular home in October 2007. We paid them $54,000 in December 2007 to begin construction. The remaining amounts paid up to $170,000 were paid as draws as requested. We were told that it would take between 12 to 16 weeks to complete construction. Therefore the house should have been completed in March and delivered and set no later than the end of April. They did not finish construction until Early August. Did not deliver the house to the land site until September. Because of flaws in construction and other corrections a Cert. of Occupancy was not received until October 1, 2008. Therefore one big complaint was the slow pace of construction. We locked in a fixed mortgage interest rate that expired 6/15/08. We had to purchase 5 rate extensions at a cost of over $2,000 because of their delays in construction. Our contract with HomeCrafters included the foundation. It appears that they lowballed their bid and contract for the foundation price. When they contracted with a subcontractor to build the foundation, the price was more than $9,000 greater than the amount in the contract. HomeCrafter defaulted on the contract and said that they did not have the money to pay the foundation subcontractor. To avoid a mechanics lien we paid the foundation subcontractor directly. The contract with HomeCrafters, Inc. included transporting the house to the site, including all permit fees. They failed to make a required oversized vehicle deposit with the city. We had to pay the $5,000 deposit which will be held for 6 months, plus a $500 penalty for one day. We were notified of the problem by the City the day that they arrived with the house. We had to scramble to get them $5,000 to avoid further $500/day penalties. Our contract provided that they were to hire and pay the crane setting company. We received a call the day after the house was set by the crane company that HomeCrafter, Inc. did not pay the crane operator the day the house was set, as required by the contract between HomeCrafters, Inc. and the crane company. The crane company came after us for payment, which we finally paid to avoid another lien. This cost us an additional $7,800. We had to pay an additional $3,000 for onsite plumbing to correct flaws with the original plumbing. This was necessary to obtain the Cert. of Occupancy. Our contract included appliances. HomeCrafters said that they did not have money to buy them but would reimburse us later. We purchased and installed the appliances. Now, $2,500 later we have seen no money from HomeCrafters. HomeCrafter did not remove the construction trash that they generated. We had to pay another $400 for trash removal to obtain our C.O. This is just the tip of the iceberg with these guys. They are slow, expensive and very much not trustworthy. One big DON'T - Don't ever use these people.