Complain about a product or service

Woodside Homes

Rose of las vegas, NV October 4, 2009

HOME BUYERS BEWARE! If you plan on buying a home from woodside homes LLC know this. If the bank that approves your loan goes out of business or you loose your job or any other reason you can't close say goodbye to your ernest money, because woodside will not give it back to you.

They are in bankruptcy and don't give a dame about you or your problems. It's happening to me right now (5,000) and many others.

Rose of las vegas, NV September 26, 2009

Paulene told us that Mike K. now wanted 15K earnest money down and was [upset] because we took longer then the 24 hrs to pick another home. So now the terms have changed and Woodside wants to hold 20K of our money until closing. Woodside is in bankruptcy - What happens if Woodside closes its doors - they would have 20K of our money. Never thought that a huge lender like Taylor, Bean and Whitaker would close its doors, but it did resulting in us loosing our previous loan and therefore Woodside keeping our first 5K.

Can't blame us for feeling uneasy about a company like Woodside holding 20K of our money! And now the offer is gone...but we would never want to buy a home with woodside again. Return my 5,000 ernest money.

Rose of Las Vegas, NV September 26, 2009

This an up-date to the problem we are having with Woodside homes LLC. After numerous calls, I was given Woodside sales managers name and phone number. After several attempts and only getting his voicemail, I finally recieved a call back on 9/7/09. After a lengthy conversation and a detailed explanation of what we have gone through with Woodside and the loss of our 5000 earnest money, he made us an offer. MIKE K said he was understanding to our situation since we lost our loan due to no fault of our own (Taylor, Bean and Whitaker was to fund our loan and it closed it's doors the day we signed our loan documents). He said Woodside's contract stated that the earnest money would be non refundable if a loan was not obtained, and it was not our fault that the bank went under. Woodside would not give us more time to secure a loan without 87 a day "holding fee".

Mr K agreed that if we purchased another home with Woodside (within 24 hours) they would apply our previous 5000 earnest money toward the new home upon closing. After finding another home, in another Woodside Development - Canyon Creek, we agreed upon a price and the lot (on 9/12) and were told to bring another 5000 earnest money to go to contract. This was a Saturday and since our bank was closed until Monday, we told Paulene we would bring in the check on Monday - 9/14/09. Pauline, the sales person we were working with informed us that Mike K needed to okay the sales price before we bring in the 5000. We went to our bank on Monday, got the 5000 cashiers check payable to Woodside Homes - Canyon Creek as instructed by Paulene and then called her to confirm the time to meet that day.

Zina of Los Angeles, CA September 10, 2009

On March 2009, I signed a contract to purchase a home in the Woodside Finisterre community in Las Vegas,NV. After paying 7,500.00 earnest deposit and 500.00 for the appraisal fee, I was informed by my employer in May 2009, that my employment would be terminated. I immediately informed my realtor who informed the sales associate, M. Teemer.

Initially, she said that I was in control and to let them know what I wanted to do. However, after I signed the form, stating that I would no long be able to purchase the property, I was informed that I would only receive a credit for a future purchase and that I would not be allowed a refund. M. recommended that I call the corporate office to speak with the Sales Manager, M. Kearns. After several unanswered phone calls to Mike and messages left on his recorder, Marty informed me that Mike sent an email to her stating that he was unwilling to speak with me and that it was her job to deal with me.

A week later, my realtor was informed that the property was sold and more earnest money was provided by the new buyer, than I had put down and that maybe I would get my money back. In addition, Marty read a letter to me that she had supposedly wrote to Mike recommending that under the cirmustances that it was not right to hold the money of someone who had lost their job.

I have not received a refund of my earnest money. During these difficult economic times, I can not believe that a company would keep the money of someone who has lost their job and I can not imagine wanting to do business with them, when I do find employment. I also filed a complaint with the Division of Mortgage Lending, who recommended that I take Woodside to court.

Afterwards, I received a letter from Woodside stating that I was in default, because I had not provided current evidence of loan approval. How can I get loan approval when I am no longer employed? I would like to know what options I have to get my money back. I lost 7500.00 in earnest.

Rose of las vegas, NV August 31, 2009

Woodside Homes WON'T return my 5,000. earnest money deposit. WOODSIDE HOMES FORCED US TO USE THEIR LENDER WHEN WE ALREADY QUALIFIED WITH OUR OWN! J. ARAMBEL INC.(Woodside"s lender) STRUNG US ALONG FOR 6 MONTHS ONLY TO FAIL IN GETTING US A LOAN. WOODSIDE IS REFUSING TO RETURN OUR 5,000. DOWN PAYMENT! On February 21st, I signed a contract and put down our 5,000 earnest money with Woodside Homes - Pebble Creek. I was pre approved (letter was faxed to Woodside office stating so) by our lender. I was told that we could not use our lender because there was a lawsuit against him. (We did not find out until months later that this was a lie and there was no lawsuit.) We then were referred to Met Life one of there preferred lenders.

After supplying all paperwork asked of us, Met Life, after several weeks told us that the loan was not possible. We called Woodside and they referred us to J. Arambel inc. mortage broker there other preferred lender. J., after another 3 weeks said I was approved by (Amtrust bank) and we would close about May 1st, then it went to May 15th. I already got/paid for the appraisal (340) and had done our walk thru of the house.

May 15th came and went. J. emailed me and said there was a problem with the lender. Everyday he said, "two more days, next week, next Monday!" At this point the house we rent was half packed up and I had given notice to our landlord. J. finally called and said that the division of the loan company for my loan was with just closed down, so the loan would not be funded. He later said, they changed criteria with no explaination. Whatever the reason, we still did not have the loan.

J. said he would submit to another company. Luckily my landlord gave us more time - until the end of June to move out before the new renters moved in. June 31st came and went....still no news on the loan. I was getting nervous so I questioned Jared and he said things didn't look good, so I insisted he go to another company...we were running out of time...this was insane!! How can a loan take so long!

J. got us approved..finally again! This time he added my grandson on the loan (per J.'s urging to more easily qualify), I had to pay for another appraisal (400) and pay off about 700 in debt to improve his credit score (again J.'s directive). Another 3 weeks of waiting and finally the loan papers were signed on August 4th by me and my grandson was to sign the next day August 5th at the Title Company. On the morning of Aug 5th J. called and said, Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp had just went under and The loan was dead again! this time 2 days before we were to move in.

By now, we are so frustrated and fear we are not going to have a place to live since the landlord has rented our house. J. spent another week and told us that Wells Fargo now had our loan and we should know soon...."tomorrow....a couple days.....next week?" He never returned our call and we felt used and abused and cursed at this point. He finally admitted he could not get the loan from Wells Fargo.

August 18th we called up our original lender (who Woodside) would not use because they insisted on their preferred lender, and asked to please help us get this loan. We got them paper work at 7pm that evening and within 24 hrs they gave us an approval. Our original loan company called Woodside to say we were pre approved and told them they were trying to close quickly and are trying for funding in 2 weeks. i received a letter from Woodside that week stating that my contract was cancelled and the 5000 would not be returned to me.

I contacted B. Skaggs and C. Gerenstein at Woodside and they said they would hold the house for us at a rate of 87 per day until we got our loan. We paid Woodside another 609.00 -recieved by B. Skaggs. Two days later, our loan company told us that our loan would be approved with another 10K debt buydown. There is no way we could come up with that amount of money in 2 days and Woodside was not willing to extend our contract withour charging us 87 daily until the loan was funded.

We feel like Woodside extorted money from us when it was their fault we never got the loan back in May and again in July. I do blame Woodside for referring us to J. Arambel who did not do his best to secure a loan for us. The fact that we could not use our lender was crucial in this scenario. Had we been able to use the William Zeigler Group initially then the loan would of been funded months ago. John (salesman at Woodside) stated there was a lawsuit against our lender. This, we found out later was a lie and in actuality, there was a feud between this realtor and our lender. The feud was over Woodside's questionable appraisal.

WE SHOULD GET OUR 5000 earnest money back as well as the 609 holding fees! 6 months of HELL!

Susan of Las Vegas, NV July 10, 2009

My husband and I bought our first home. It was to be our last investment. A new home particularily first should be a happy experience. We have had stress, lies, and problems. The company's mission statement is Value, Integrity, Quality, and Service. All lies.

During our less than one year here many service people have come to our home. The appliances are problematic, the outside paint and stucco has huge issues,the salesman did not disclose to us that the company had filed bankruptcy previous to our escrow closing,the power was off when we went to move in, our upgrade of tile 3200. has bad tiles and after 3 visits to our home agree the tiles are bad, gave us only 2 replacements and now, actually immediately after we bought the home could not match the tile. We had to have our entire house of carpet and padding replaced, we bought upgraded padding they put something else in with bumps and lumps and dirty. When they switched the carpet and padding they used my vacumn without permission and left a mess. Our home has probaby 100 cracks in the stucco, needs paint and is only 10.5 months old.

I'm on social security disability and the extra work for me is aggravating my problems. So much for the American dream. The have changed reps and now anything that was offered and mentioned is no more.

Dominick of Las Vegas, NV March 21, 2009

Dominick of Las Vegas NV (03/21/09)
Information in Las vegas review journals directions to woodside homes was inpossible to find. An 800 number, with no one to give you any informations or derictions to Woodside Homes.

Spending 45 minutes going around circles due to a fact that [they] gave a wrong directions in the news paper.

Susan of San Antonio, TX November 21, 2008

Susan of San Antonio TX (11/21/08)
Most people I have dealt with have been polite and courteous but I have come to wonder if that is just a Southern cultural way of behavior. The cosmetic finishing of the house is poor, with caulking being the best friend of the laborers. Moving to Texas from the northern part of the country, I find it quite interesting how the culture and standards are very third world...(I lived in Mexico City for two years, and it is very similar). Nearly every worker who came to work on my house was exclusively Spanish speaking without legal documents. While they are very sweet and nice people and eager to please, they bring with them the knowledge of their home country as far as their skills, and are not taught the higher standards that should be in place here.

I have documented some of the sloppy work with my camera. After reading the horror stories from this website, I shudder to think of what might be hiding in the structural integrity of my house...(I had no independent inspection done as it was a new house and I naively assumed it would be structurally sound)... Wow...all I have to say is be very wary about Woodside Homes...

I have been here less than three months...hopefully I will have no real harm done by Woodside. If there is more, then you will hear back from me. At this time I will not pursue it further...except by blogging.

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