ADAIR HOMES INC

We have 6.5 acres of bare land that has a balloon pymt due end of Apr. The value of the land is less than what we owe, despite the amt of funds we have pd on it. We had about $15K to put as a down torward building. We have been trying to pay the land down and save up $$ for the last 3 years, but the value is dropping faster than we can pay on it. We have had no success with finding a construction loan although we have good income and credit. In Feb, we thought we finally had found a contractor and financial company who could help us to realize our goal before the balloon was due. Adair Homes and their Financial branch seemed to be the answer. The Home Counselor we spoke to was extremely positive and reassuring that this company was different from any other we spoke to. Initially we were very impressed and relieved to find a business that seemed to actually care about people and not about numbers. The Adair Homes counselor was helping us to navigate thru the Adair process. We made it VERY clear to Adair our situation and finances available and was assured by the Home Counselors all through this process: 'not a problem' 'zero to little down', 'your credit is excellent and we can make this happen. We've helped lots of homeowners in your situation to build'. and other very positive reassurances that all will be well. Their process was so optimized that the cost of building was much less that other builders and in fact we could have equity when we actually moved into the completed home. We spent almost two months working through the Adair process - passed through the pre-pre qualification, selected the home plan and the carpet, cabinets, tiles, etc. Plotted the home layout and they did a site survey and collected initial bids. We were approved for the home construction loan. The final piece before approval was finalized was the home mkt appraisal of the value for the home for when it was built. We were assured again "we work closely with our appraisers and they go out far (as far as Eagle) and they don't consider distressed sales' and 'the appraiser will take into consideration what is in the house', blah blah. So we were very hopeful that Adair was different from other financial lenders and home builders. All along we had expressed concern and skepticism that they could really help us and was constantly reassured they were special and different and that that we would be moving into our new home in August. In the end there is nothing special and their financial group had to comply with the same rules as other banks. They just wasted weeks of our time, building up our hopes that our dream would be realized. The financial arm will only loan 75% of the estimated assessed value of the home before it is built. The appraisel DOES NOT include the upgrades or the property size. It goes off of the last 4 mths of sales INCLUDING distressed sales and only looks at property within a certain small mileage out. In fact the Appraiser didn't even complete the process so we weren't charged because his findings were so dismal. So after all the reassurances and promises that have been given, by the Adair Home Counselor, she had to return to us and inform us that in order to build we need to fork out $50,000 of which she has been told all along we do not have. But our Home Counselor isn't done with giving out false hope - she tells us that the entire office is trying to brainstorm on how to make this work and she is going to try to find a different appraiser and by going to a lesser tier plan it might work....So I call back the next afternoon as per her request. It is pretty obvious from her comments that 'the whole office' wasn't brainstorming a work around, and she found that any appraiser has to work with the same rules, and going with a lesser plan tier wasn't really going to help cause we were still stuck with 75% of the expected mkt appraised value... So what can I do to come up with $50K? We are very disappointed and disgusted that this whole process has been a total snow job. The model is unrealistic to today's actual market reality. Had they had us select the plan up front and NOT gone through all the bids, onsite and materials selection but went straight to the Mkt appraisal BEFORE we had invested so much time and hopes into this business, we could have not gotten our hopes up, gotten the real expectations set and moved on sooner. I think our Home Counselor needs some business ethics training to learn to be more open and honest with customers and not build up false hopes and make so many inaccurate and misleading statements. She may have had good intentions, but misleading statements are not helpful. Our particular Counselor needs to understand Adair's processes and business rules better instead of speaking to things that she had no knowledge of whatsoever. I feel like her approach was to get our excitement built to such a level that when the bad news dropped we'd be extra driven to somehow magically find funds we didn't have. Now we are within 3 weeks of the balloon pymt date and hoping that the bank will work with us so we don't lose our property, the $ we invested in it so far and our good credit. Had Adair been upfront with us on the reality, we could have initiated this sooner without spending so much time going through their processes. , The Adair Home Counselor set the expectation that at this time we would have been signing the construction papers and they would be obtaining the property title so we could launch off to complete our dream.