Reality Homes Should truly be called Unreality Homes. I currently have a house under construction by Unreality Homes And trust me I'm on wits end just hoping this company can actually come thru with it. The first problem they have is the fact that the contract one signs is truly a rip off. They take away all incentives on there own behalf to finish the job. Then to top it off they request payment even before the job has started much less after it is finished. Another problem they have is the amount They charge the buyer and the salary's they pay the subcontractors often the profit they make is double,For example they charge upward of $9000.00 dollars to frame your house then they pay only $6000.00 to the actual framer.The framer is getting ripped and his incentive to finish get's impeded big time thereby slowing your home down. Reality needs to change the way they relate with there subcontractors in order to continue in business i can see them falling fast due to this problem. The profits this company makes at the expense of the home buyer and the subcontractors is huge. To often Unreality Homes sell's far more houses then they are able to actually build shortly after buying our home we got a letter explaining that our home would be delayed by several weeks due to a shortage of framers The true fact is they just don't pay the framers well enough to keep them, then they use the excuse that there are not enough of them. Customer Service is non existant with this company, they will be the first to call you on the phone when it comes to asking for draws of money to pay for work that has not been completed and in some cases not even started. However if you have a complaint regarding them not starting the job or an issue with the job they have started you will grow old waiting for them to return your call.. All in all i woul never buy another home from this company. They are truly pathetic..

My husband and I have been looking at building a home though reality, I have had my heart set on one of there homes. Is this a major problem or do you think the company is working to fix it?

IM asking you Mr. Jones to PLEASE do a story on similiar companies such as HiLine Homes. I have been searching for affordable stick built contractors for over a year now and your story has scared me. For me it was tossed up between two companies to build our house... Reality and HiLine. Reality is DEFINITELY off my list now. THANK YOU KING 5!!! I really think you've saved me a terrible headache.
~John Broshears

It was a long time coming that Reality homes Inc. has finally made the news. First of all, I was really happy that they are exposed because they pretty much did the same thing to my mom who waited almost two years before she even moved into her new home. Actually, all the things that was mentioned according to the news were very true. From long delays, installing cheap parts that is different from what you have requested, would not return phone calls, to structural irregularities which caused the city to fail the inspection, you name it, we have experienced it too! Reality Homes never delivered on their promise. They kept delaying my moms house to the point that they did not even finished all the things that they are supposed to. It is a good thing that I bought a new house instead of signing with Reality homes to build a new house on my previous property. I can tell you and I agree on the news that the work that they do is the worst that I have ever seen and I would never ever in my wildest dreams get Reality Homes to build a house for me. We will definitely look into joining the long list of people who complained about their business practices to the Better Business Bureau.

As a Licensed Real Estate Broker, I want to encourage anyone that is considering building their own home via Reality Home or any other company for that matter, that before you sign any contract have it reviewed by an attorney. You have rights that the Builders do not want you to know about and most of those contracts protect them - not you. If a Builder will not provide you with a blank (voided) contract for you and your Attorney to review - RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN and don't look back. If a Builder is working with a conscience, ethics and sound business practices they should not be one bit alarmed or afraid to allow you to have a blank copy for you and your attorney to review at your leisure. Know your rights before you sign the bottom line. Hiring an attorney up front may very well save you tens of thousand of dollars down the road.
Cheryl Malicoat
Cottage Home Realty, LLC

I'm wondering the same that Martha Johnson is, when will Hi-Line's story be told. My husband and I had a Hi-Line home built and regretted it after we moved in. We are very unhappy customers and know of others that purchased their homes as well. As soon as Hi-Line recieved their money from us all of their obligations seemed to go down the toilet. I guess they figured that their end of the contract didn't matter anymore. Buyer's Beware!

Reality is out of control. I was leined because they don't know what is going on in their own company. No one showed up for months, and charged for work not done, everything that is said is true,everything. They don't care your getting screwed and your life is in shambles because of them. There should be a law suit, BIG one to punish them. There is way to much to list all that is going on but I can honestly say that they are dishonest and have no integrity whatsoever. They would charge me for the same work numerous times and demand payment for incomplete work. Crews showed up that didn't know what they were doing and would not come back to finish because they had another job to get to. Walls were warped, no insulation and arguments over it, it just went on....when I could finally get ahold of somebody that is. It was the worst experience of my life. There is a guy named Nathaniel who did try to help us out, he was the bright spot.

Shame on you Martha Johnson. This is not a place to post your personal vendetta against a single person or the Jehovah's Witnesses church. This is about construction and a business. He is just representing the company he works for. However, I also agree, Jesse, you should do a story on HiLine as well as Adair. They all have complaints against them. Although if you go to the bbb.org and look them up, you will find that HiLine and Adair have unresolved issues and Reality has resolved issues or has atleast made an attemt to resolve all of their issues. Reality does have more complaints but we don't know the volume of homes they are building compared to the other 2. The reason all of these companies get more complaints too is because they are builder participation homes. That means that the homeowner is more involved in the construction. When you buy a pre existing home, you don't know what happened during construction and you don't know how much of your money went to the construction of the home.

Jesse,
My daughter got Reality Homes to build thier dream home and it has been over two years now and the home is not completely finished. The first problem came up when they found out that Reality Homes poured the foundation in the wrong place on the lot. The foundation was place encrouching the adjacent open lot. The only solution were to move the foundation to the property or buy the adjacent lot, they ended up doing the later. Another problem that we found was the wall in the master bathroom was not even straight, and with that maybe we just have accept it cuz it will never be fix.
They also like to promised work that will be done at certain time but never accomplished thier promise.

This last comment from "UNKNOWN" is obviously from a cowardly Reality Homes representitive trying to hide and point the finger at other companies to take the pressure off themselves. They should be the ones that are ashamed for proclaiming themselves as honest, "godfearing" or not, when in fact they have knowingly defrauded and continue to defraud hundreds of people. The person writes that all thier issues have been resolved, is just more proof of their dishonesty, when they know their are many many people that continue to have issues that they have no intention of trying to resolve. They are getting to the point of believing their own lies.

We have just finished building a home with Reality. We have had mixed experiences.

The contract - as the story pointed out, it's a terrible contract for a consumer to sign. If you are familiar with the building business you can see why they crafted it the way they did. The bottom line is that if you wanted to deal with Reality, you had to sign it. We tried to make modification but they wouldn't accept them.

The subcontractors - many of the subcontractors that Reality uses have grown tired of dealing with Reality and no longer deal with them. One problem in the way Reality works is that they use one or two subs for any particular trade, regardless of where the construction is happening. Our place is in Kitsap county and we had subs from all over the Puget Sound working on our place. This makes getting things fixed very difficult.

Work load - Reality's site supervisors are completely over loaded. Each supervisor has so many houses that he is unable to visit them all for periodic inspections to check up on the work that the subs are doing. When they do check in, if they find a problem they have nearly no power to work with the subs to correct problems.

Schedule - Reality's foundation crew started work on our place on November 3rd, 2005. We are nearly done our punch list. Yes, the Reality contract says "about 150 days" for the construction but we didn't come anywhere close. We had no change orders and no customer induced delays so there is no way that Reality can point a finger at us.

I don't know what to call this one... maybe, "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing". The various parts of Reality Homes seem to work independantly of each other even though they work in the same office. For example, we received a bill for the final payment and that bill contained many many items that were not delivered, installed or completed. We pointed this out to Reality and didn't pay the bill. The folks in billing were surprised and apologetic. We wrote letters, made phone calls and did everything we could think of to get the work done so we could make the final payment. It too 2 months for them to knock out a bunch of little items like mirrors, closet shelves, and door knobs.

Now this Keystone Cops routine can work both ways for a consumer. It's terrible in one way because most folks have the clock ticking on their construction loan and don't have time to fool around with stuff like this. On the other hand, we withheld the final payment (which is against the contract we signed with Reality) for over 2 months and they didn't say anything about it. Also, it took us a while but we finally figured out that we could call into the office and talk directly to the Reality employees that did the subcontractor scheduling and pressure them to get work done on our project.

In the end we have a nice house. I guess we were lucky. We have learned the hard way that the squeeky wheel definitely gets the grease from Reality. If you sit back an wait for them to do their job, nothing will happen. But if you get on the phone and politely work directly with the employees that do the scheduling with the subs, you can get things done.

I'm curious, though, about the home warranty. No mention has been made about the warranty that Reality provides. It appears to be held by a third party company. Has anyone had experiences, good or bad, with the warranty company?

sounls like a good time to call in a special deputy attorny from Washington state to put the finger on Reality homes...why is such a scam allowed to happen or to continue to have that buisness licence to washington state..unless reality homes has a pack of lobbyists in Olympia.

guess there has not been enuf victims before the state steps in to correct this behavor from a buisness...

My husband and I have been wavering on the thought of having Hi Line build our home. This story has opened my eyes. Please do an additional story on other "affordable" home builders like Hi Line. This information needs to be readily available to the consumer before they are locked into a contract. I was only able to locate one complaint against Hi Line at bbb.org.

The only thing i can tell you from experience is they at this time don't really seem to think on customer service maybe they will change after hitting the big time (The nightly News) But something else that has not been said is the ridiculous prices they charge for everything for example they allow 25 yards of concrete for the foundation and footings sometimes you could need more if you do be prepared to pay, they charge 300 dollars for each extra yard of concrete. Again Unreality to the rescue.. Considering a yard of concrete if you were to buy it cost's somewhere near 80 to 90 dollars again you do the math! They allow you if i remember right 3 phone jacks if you want another one you will pay an additional 150 dollars per phone jack now trust me you could put it in for about 20 dollars yourself but your contract will forbid it Why? again Unreality to the rescue.. Should you choose to go with your unreality dream home remember you could be in for a nightmare!

amoral, arrogant creep WOW

Jesse,
I'm sorry I wasn't also contacted for your story on Reality Homes. Our story is clearly in the same catagory as those you reported. Reality took three months to begin the foundation once we notified them we were ready following the dig out. Seven months later they still had not passed the framing inspection or the plumbing inspection, and it took them three tries to pass electrical. Along the way the home was red tagged by King county, there were structural defects they refused to repair and the permit had to be extended as well as our loan which was good for only eight months, usually enough time to build a home. We had three framing crews, and three 'Project Supervisers'. When their 150 days from the start of framing ran out in June we were forced to find another contractor we could afford and are doing much of the work ourselves, racing to meet the next closing date of the loan extension. Reality has also put a lien on our property. That is the short story. This experience has been a nightmare for us.
Craig Lazarus & Family
Vashon Island

WOW! Martha I Guess You Covered it all.. The sorry thought is i have to agree!!

I've considered building a Reality home so I am glad to hear some truth revealed. I have already built a Hi-Line and was completely satisfied with the service, and quality of work. Of course there were a few issues along the way but I guess one might need to consider that you get what you pay for.

DON'T BELEIVE THESE PEOPLE
HERE'S THE TRUTH

ABOUT OUR COMPANY
The principles of Reality Homes, Inc. have over 70 years of construction experience. As natives and family members to the Pacific Northwest they recognized the need and market for affordable new home construction. From our very beginning we were able to draw from our years in the business and surround ourselves with a team we feel is second to none. From our subcontractors and suppliers, to our knowledgeable sales staff, scheduling and on site field superintendent personnel, we demonstrate professional excellence.

We take great pride in building homes of exceptional design and value. We are also committed to providing a pleasurable experience for all involved as we partner together with you on your new home.

“We look forward to building with you soon!”

This is in Reply To Unknown! you claim that the homeowner is more involved in the construction. You are correct the homeowner who purchases a reality home is responsible for the hard part of the construction Water,septic,and power. Reality homes will not even start construction til water and power at least, have been put in. So that makes reality homes responsible for the easy part and as you can see by the very comments written here they are not able to even do that! As far as having more complaints then anyone else and you not knowing how many houses they build in comparison. I have to ask why would that matter? You can either build the houses you sell or you can't. It is that simple, and as far as that goes if you can't finish the houses you start then the common denominator would tell you STOP selling houses till you finish the ones you have started is that such a hard thought to figure out? The bottom line is Reality homes is nothing more then a Reality ripoff whether they are Jehovah Witness or not! My suggestion would be to fire the entire management and rethink the entire approach to customer satisfaction ( oh Wait what am i thinking they have no such thing as customer satisfaction!)

What I find extremely pathetic about this story is obviously the media has nothing better to do... The fact of the matter is in any business there is always complaints and unhappy customers. As we all know there is other builders out there and I am sure they all have unhappy customers. I work in the car business and as we all know it has a bad wrap. If we actually take what every unhappy customer said about car dealers, then we might as well close the doors on selling cars too. Point being is it is impossible to make every customer happy and I really think King5 news has spend to much time on the Reality Homes story. Come on it was mentioned on your station for at least a whole days before it was aired. If you are going to do a story like this then maybe it should involve ALL builders. ( Lets be fair about this) It is completely ridiculous to pin point Reality Homes when if you did some research you would find that there is other builders out there that have unhappy customers too. How about we focus on some real stories. Ones that are of real importance.....
One more thing what does religion have to do with any of this. Whomever is bringing religion into this is one extremely desperate individual that needs to focus on the real issue at hand.

If anyone wants to sell their Reality Home for what they paid for it please leave a post.

Wow. My husband and I were considering getting a home built by Reality. We had not read the contract yet. I'd be loathe to sign a contract that gave a contractor an open-ended check with no liability for lack of performance AND that requires payments to be made when not tied to completion. How does the construction loan allow this...I thought it is tied into completion? Remember that I am new to the concept of building a home and am learning so can ask such stupid questions I hope.

One lesson learned though: Have good attorney review contract. I wonder again if we are going to wind up going with a manufactured. I know they carry stigma for not being as good as "stick built" but if stick built means covered up mistakes and incorrect fittings, wiring, etc. along with ridiculous delays, the mass production of manufactured home construction begins to sound better.

I shall have to discuss the contract with the Reality sales rep. How does one find out the name of other companies that construct on one's property?

That's not the point! Just because housing prices have gone up and Reality makes an affordable home that is worth more than you pay for it doesn't account for the hassle! Having a custom home built should be as easy as buying a new car. Pay your money and walk away with a new house.

Okay! Okay! to be fair to this attempted to build homebuilder Reality Homes, Let us hear from the satisfied customers (if there is such) this would be in reply to Heidi's request as she points out King 5 has put alot of time into this so far one sided story. So therefore i would like to hear the positives of this company.. lol yeah right..

Jesse,
Thank you so much for exposing Reality Homes. My story,while discussed on your report, is so much more involved and really needs to be told.I will try to list the main issues here and let any future home buyer decide for themselves if Reality is the builder for them.
I will start at the begining of my Reality experience and just state the facts from my lawsuit for all to see. First my contract was altered by Mr Jamie Hankel of Reality without my knowledge or approval and this eventually led to their price increase of $9,747.00 ( with no justification, none). Second, the drawings that Reality based my home on were not designed to meet even minumun Building Code Requirements, and even if they had been, Reality did not follow those drawings, such as using 12'-0 floor joists instead of the drawing specified 34'-0 joists.
The framing subcontractor, Jacob Myers framed my home but was not a licensed contractor thru WA. State L&I. Reality said they "didn't know", but
one has to ask,why not? Third, they failed framing inspection 4 times over the next 3 month
period, and finally "terminated the contract" with the home still in a failed condition.
I had to quit my job in the Seattle area and move to Grapeview and finish the home myself
(along with my son,Brian). Less than a month after they left the site, they filed a lien on my home and then finally file a lawsuit as if I was the guilty party that breached the contract.
I can tell all that are interested to not sign a contract with Reality in which "Mandatory Arbitration" is a requirement. I think you will lose every time! And if you are smart you will
run not just walk away from Reality's contract in general!
If anyone desires more information about my experience feel free to call me at 360 275-8050.
Hopefully the Attorney General's office will
finally understand what the people of this state have been going thru and will do something for the people of this State. Only they can persue a Consumer Protection Act violation against Reality, I tried and lost. The Attorney General CAN put a stop to this fraud and they need to do it Now!

Jesse,
My wife and I are currently awaiting Reality to finish our home out in Fall City. Our story is similar to everything I have read so far. We started in July of 2005 and we are now working on our punch list items. When I say working on that really means I call and find out what should be happening but nothing does. I really doubt they will ever get finished. It took phone calls to just about everyone in the reality homes company on a daily basis to get this far. In fact the only people in the company you can regularly get ahold of are the people doing the bank draws (Go figure!!!)and these people are pro's at transferring you to other people's voice mail. I went through 4 site supervisors and all of the blamed the delays on the person they replaced. The only people you get the actual story out of are the disgruntled subs (the ones that speak english anyway). I could go on and on but it would just be the same story over again.

We too have a Reality experience to share. We waited for 2 months just trying to get plans. Over that time we had 3 sets of plans that were all wrong. When we made calls to our preconstruction supervisor, calls were always returned to me, but never to my wife.

Eventually we were hit with a $5,000.00 bill for cost increases in cost since we didn't start construction within the 45 day start up window. I assumed it was a mistake and started making calls. I eventually ended up talking to Pat Epright, who told me that it didn't matter that it was their fault that we couldn't start construction. He basically told me that we signed a contract and were obligated to pay the money. When I protested he shot back with "What do you want us to do. . . build your house for free!"

To make a long story short I demanded a recision letter and eventually was released from our contract. They were a nightmare, and ultimately the thing that bothered me the most was the feeling of dishonesty and underhandedness on the part of Reality.

Luckily we just lost our deposit. Based you your listeners comments we could have lost a lot more.

I am having a home built by Reality as we speak. The process has been a good one and their is no way I could have had this built by anyone else for the price that I paid. Plus I have 3 friends that are also building with Reality homes and their process is also a good one. This sounds like a story of people that have nothing better to do than put a buisness down than follow up with it by spitting on their religion is very sad you should be ashamed of yourselves.....Robert

I don't know who "unknown" is, but my name is Jared and I am not ashamed or afraid to say that I have worked here for 3 years. This is a great company to work for and we build great affordable houses. Many of the comments on here as you can read are from customers that are very unhappy with our homes. There are homes that have some issues with delays. Is Reality Homes not at fault? Of course not. We have made mistakes as any construction company or any type of business will make. There are also many issues that the homeowner’s bring upon themselves whether it be intentional or accidental.

What was seen on KING5 was for the most part "one-sided" in my personal opinion. With all the customers shown in the interview, they all have an issue that assisted in bringing this upon themselves. For example, one of them had, not one, but TWO chances to get out of the contract with I believe not owing anything. They refused those chances. How much more can we do then offer to rescind the contract and not owe more money are part ways. That seems pretty generous considering the circumstances.

As for Mrs. Johnson remarks, I agree with Heidi. Why bring religion and beliefs into this. Pat is a very honest and trustworthy man. He is a Witness and I am a Christian and I respect him and his beliefs. I simply don't care what others say about him.

There are some people that don't understand the pricing on some items. I know this is a small one, but with the TV jacks. $150??? Please, we charge $75. And yes, you can install your own for probably $25-35. But when you pay for that and pay the electrician to install it and of course you have to have profit....you see what I am saying? As with the concrete, concrete by itself is approx. $90 per yard, but think of the extra forms, extra rebar, the labor....again, see where I am going.

As for people who are debating of using Reality Homes, please make an effort to call a sales associate or even me at the main number. Give us a chance to explain our side of the story. You have one side from KING5 News, customer, competitors, etc. Now hear our side of the story.

KING5 said they had dozens of complaints, well out of at least building 1500 homes, don't you think you would have some unhappy customers? We don't want that here, but it is practically impossible to please everyone all the time. We do strive for that though continuously.

I feel very passionate about this. With working here for 3+ years, everyone here is like a Christian family (yes, even the JW's) Everyone here is honest and respectable. We are humans, believe it or not and do make mistakes, but we continuously strive to make it better for everyone.

As I have said, please call for the other half of the story. I will shed some light on what is happening and where RHI and other customers really stand. This is my personal thoughts of this situation. And I stand behind them and Reality Homes 100%

Come on, guys. This story was a hatchet piece. The reporter was out to get these guys, and gave them very little chance to respond. We used Reality Homes and found them to be very business-like. They said what they were going to do, and did it. I think most of these people who are whinning didn't know what they were in for in building a home. It is tough.

To Ms. Johnson & Mr. Jeff, This is "Unknown" I am not an employee of Reality Homes, but my husband and I wanted to build a home but couldn't afford some of the pricier builders so we researched all 3 companies, which is what you should do before you purchase anything. I am actually a stay at home mom that runs a buisiness out of my house. My husband works full time so we decided that we didn't have the time or dedication to build a homeowner participation house. So we bought an existing house, which we have had problems with too, but realize that we are home owners and we will have problems. My parents live in a million dollar home and have had problems. We can't just call a landlord to fix them. We have to take some responsibility. I am also not a Jehovah's Witness, I am a pround Christian but that has nothing to do with this. In response to Jeff, the comparison is if Reality built 100 homes & had 5 complaints & HiLine built 5 homes with 5 complaints I think I would probably go with Reality. That is the comparison I was talking about. I am sure that Reality has some happy customers but that is not what the media wants to focus on. Have you every heard them focus a story about a home builder that didn't have any complaits?

In response to Joe B. remark. We do not like to raise the price on customers. It is a hassle for us and especially them. We have to mark it up because our prices went up. We build houses for around $45 - $52 per sq.ft. We do not have alot of overhead calculated into the cost. If materials cost went up on a contractor who charges over $100 per ft, then they could absorb the cost. We can't unfortunately. And we were not asking for payment right away. Also, assuming I have the right "Joe B", when there are extensive changes to the plans it will take time to draw the plans. And it was just over a month. Plus I sent copies to confirm and got the ok to move to get them done.

Thanks to the others for the great comments!!!

Thank you for your story and the blog. We are just about to start a new home in Lewis County and had thought about Reality Homes. But not now!! We will look to local contractors and definatley inspect any and all contracts so that our experience doesn't end like some of these heartbreaking stories. Thanks again.

I have not read every blog here but the few I have read regarding sub-contractor charges are being made from a position of ignorance. One example was on framing - the sub was paid $6000 and the general (Reality Homes) was paid $9000. This is a 33% margin, many businesses run on higher margins than this. As a general I try and have a minimum of a 35% margin on my projects. Also you must remember this, the sub-contractor agreed to this price, no one had a gun to their head. A general contractor has far more overhead than a sub-contractor and therefore they need to make money, and lot's of it. Did you know that the liability insurance for a general contractor has gone up enormously over the last five years? I am a small contractor and for the exact same coverage I have today I paid $2000 annually five years ago - that same insurance today costs $41,000 and I have had NO claims. I contractor like Reality probably pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for their liability insurance, not counting bonds, health, and other insurances.

I am not saying that Reality hasn’t done people wrong but before you start complaining about how much money they or their sub-contractors make I would do a little more research.

I am not saying that Reality has not done people wrong but before you start complaining about how much money they or their sub-contractors make I would do a little more research.

Let's face it - the evening news wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't entertaining, would it? What good is a story that says, "Here's the problem, but the answers are right here, so it's no big deal?"

Reality Homes built my house for my family, and we love the end result. Were there delays? Yes. Where there inspection issues? Yes.

You can talk to a small custom home builder who builds two homes per year, and he will tell you he has scheduling problems with subs. You re-schedule it and move on. Or that sometimes something doesn't pass inspection. You correct it and move on.

You can talk to any of the area's largest general contractors that build bridges and roads. Are there delays? Yes. You re-schedule and move on. Do inspections sometimes fail? Yes. You correrct it and move on.

When you are coordinating with many different companies to perform work in one location, you are bound to have scheduling issues and delays. And if everything always passed inspection, we wouldn't need inspectors, would we?

I've had the opportunity to speak personally with quite a few other Reality clients on their take of the process. Most are very happy, and they are very thankful with the great value they obtained. A few others are upset, but I take exception to most of their complaints.

One person said they tried to make changes to the house by adding additional lighting inside the house - and doing it themselves. Guess what? That homeowner's work failed inspection! Did that cause a delay? Yes! Reality Homes then promptly told the future homeowner that by performing this work themselves, it violated the contract. Uh, yes, again. Why would Reality have this in their contract? To avoid the kinds of delays this customer caused in the first place. Did the issue get resolved, and did the homeowner enjoy their new house at a fraction of what other builders charged? Yes!

Another homeowner with whom I spoke tried to have the subcontractor make changes to the framing - changes that weren't in the plans or in the contracted budget they had already agreed to pay Reality. So, who pays for those changes? Reality Homes is the general contractor, so they would have to, even though it's the homeowner's request. Of course, these changes would cause delays, and the additional costs would have to passed on to my fellow homeowner.

Do you know who the happy homeowers are that I talked to (you can tell I did my research!)? They were the ones who performed on their part of the project, let Reality build the house, and just let the process get done.

It's always easy to pick on the larger companies. After all, you never hear a news story about John Doe complaining about his hourly pay from the local tavern. But you certainly hear the story when it involves a group of people at Wal-Mart! I'm sure there are some customers out there who have legitimate complaints that go beyond just the expected delay, inspection, and other issues. But, you would expect that with 1500 homes built, a few people would not be happy - just as Jared B said. Not everybody is going to be happy.

I think it's all about a person's expectations. If you are expecting your dream house to be built in 3 months with no delays, every inspection to pass, and so on, then your expectations about construction are not properly set. Talk to any person in the construction industry, and you'll begin to understand.

So, are there delays in construction, are there inspections that fail, and are there items that need to be fixed by the contractor? YES! It's a natural part of the process.

Am I satisfied with my Reality Homes house? Yes. In fact, I'm building another one right now.

Wow. Now I know why I can never get Reality homes to return my phone calls - they're always too busy playing on the computer and attempting to defend themselves.

My story:
Signed paperwork Feb 2005. Promised plans in 10 days.

Month and a half later, finally rec'd plans.

After the City requested additional information from Reality, Reality promised to have it in a couple of days. Another month later and we finally rec'd the revised plans. As well as a bill for a "price increase" because things hadn't started within 90 days. Yet I get punished for Reality not being able to keep their own promises.

Took them a month after the site was ready to finally pour the foundation.

Upon framing inspection, it was determined that the main support beam between the 1st & 2nd stories as installed too low. It took them FOUR MONTHS to fix this problem. Rather than fix it right the first time, they decided to monkey around with a bunch of other band-aids first.

So, started framing in November 2005. Final inspection in August 2006. Quite a far cry from the 150 days that they promise.

Paid an extra $1600 for a jacuzzi tub that we can't use because it doesn't have power to it. We have a garage door that doesn't work properly. Sliding glass door doesn't shut properly. Two months later, we're still trying to get a hold of Reality to get contacted by the sub-contractors.

We're now on our 4th site manager. 2nd punch list coordinator.

The only people who will actually return calls are the billing and sales people as they are the ones looking for your money.

This company has poor communication. This company is highly ineffecient. If you choose to do business with this company, I sure hope you have much better luck than I did - I know I wouldn't touch these guys with a 150 foot pole.

We used Reality homes and had a 18month nightmare on our hands. Our electrical failed three times and set us back months. Our cost went up in the lumber because of delays. The sales people were not helpful with what you do and don't get with the house. So our double shower has no doors...extra cost after the shower had been installed. During building we had beer cans, saw blades and other unmentionables left all over for US to pick up and throw away. Our home was left filthy daily, when I talked to the Reality owner he said it was not his problem. He also said that the sales personnel work independent and NOT for Reality Homes. Anything "our sales person promised was not done with Realities knowledge".
We have many problems in our home and know that in our one year walk through it will be a joke. Because the company accepts no responsiblity for anyone elses work. We will never recomend this company except for terrible business practice.
T.Wood--Eatonville

To B Ewing and others that think all of us are just complaining and don't know anything about construction: If you are having a good experience with this company, consider yourself very lucky. Our experience with Reality Homes was horrible. Their project managers didn't two weeks. Many of those occasions was because we pleaded with them to come out to look at another mistake. Their lack of attention to the project made them unaware that many things weren't getting done on time or were done incorrectly. My Wife spent many months screaming and yelling to get them to show up and address serious issues with construction and quality. It is only thanks to her that the job got done in the time it did. She also spent hours and hours re-patching and re-caulking and doing other fixes because some of their subs did such poor work. You would think a 3rd grader did the caulking on our sinks, for example. They do not take responsibility for either their own mistakes or those of their subcontractors. Their standard response to us: "But you have a beautiful custom home." They are a churn and burn builder and have no sense of responsibility to their clients. Here are two examples of our experience with Reality Homes: 1) During framing they installed garage trusses that were obviously built incorrectly. This was apparent because they extended above the bottom of a 2nd floor window. They never took responsibility for this mistake and went through multiple "fixes" including moving the window up so that the top of the window was against the ceiling. This was not acceptable, and after much work and frustration, we now have a window that is much shorter than it is supposed to be to avoid the roof. 2) We had our home painted within the required window of time according to the contract. However, it was discovered that 2 of the door frames were built wrong and the doors didn't close properly. After a great deal of calling and waiting, Reality had them fixed, yet one of the door jams was broken during the process requiring replacement. This also required repainting it and I initially got verbal approval from Reality that they would pay for the painting. Then they changed their mind and decided to lie about that agreement saying, "We don't paint." After several months of frustration, working first through the BBB, and finally threatening to sue them, they finally agreed to pay for the painting.

In the middle of the process, we got so frustrated that we called a meeting with their management. One of the owners, Jaime, was 45 minutes late to the meeting. You know why? Because he was down checking on the house he is having built for himself. That is how little they care about customer service. They did meet with us and listened, but nothing changed.

The bottom line is that yes, on paper, Reality is cheaper, but with all the things they don't include and for the sake of your sanity, I would strongly recommend against them and I do that to everyone I can. It would be better to rent that go through that much aggravation. We are now building another home with a good builder and it is like night and day!

P.S. **To the person looking at Hi-Line as well, please investigate them thoroughly as Reality Homes management was formerly part of Hi-Line.

In Response to Jared and Unknown! First to Jared i think you better research your comment on the cost of your concrete that supposedly includes additional rebar and extra labor etc etc. You know as well as i do that when your laborers pour that concrete they use a boom truck,the most likely reason someone would need more concrete and you know this, would be due to the fact that since your company is homeowner involved as one of the other bloggers wrote here
the homeowner's contractor who would prepare the site for them would not leave the building site completely level and in a lot of areas it can be difficult to make the site perfectly level. If that would happen even after the rebar had been put in because it not being level and the fact that the forms your concrete contractor may or may not put as close to the ground as they could the concrete could blow out of the forms resulting in additional concrete if that were to happen it would cost the home buyer 300 dollars for an additional yard of concrete forget the added labor there would be none Jarod forget the added rebar there would be none Jarod. The only thing at that time that would be needed Jarod would be concrete and you know that so quit trying to put the untruth spin to it! So then how can you truly say your company is honest with that kind of charge? Further more I inderstand you proudly sticking up for your company that you have been at for 3 years however did i or anyone else expect you to say anything different? As far as the 75.00 charge you say for the extra phone Jacks Maybe you had better make sure your salesman understand the pricing instead of the actual people paying the price i know for a fact they cost 150 dollars I had to pay that much (or are you now saying because of maybe this story coming out you have dropped the prices?) Please Jarod be honest with yourself even if you don't want to be honest with everyone else. As as far as Pat Being an Honest Man i don't know him well enough to Judge butreading what most people have been writing and there have been several, In my mind i have to wonder if there is anyone honest at all in your whole company. I mean all these people writing in hear in negative paragraphs about your company can't all be liars. Oh yeah and i understand that had you not written nice things about Pat or your company the unemployment line could have been your alternative. But since you do work there and you did feel compelled to defend your company why don't you actually put your prices here on this blog including the just recent 4000.00 dollar price increase on the homes that haven't even been started and try convincing some of the people why your company raised the prices stating materials had gone up when in fact wood is at an all time low? or tell the people how your company raised the fuel surcharge by about 400 plus dollars even when gas prices are dropping come on Jarod tell us more about yourself and your company!

Wow, this was my first visit to this site, I had the opportunity to catch this story and wanted further information. We built a Hi-Line home is 2003 and I would say we are satisfied with the result. People should consider that when they take on a project such as this, and participate in it, it is a very stressful situation. Every business is in business to make money so we should not hold this against them. Educate yourselves and don't sign any contract you do not fully understand. Good luck to all the companies out there that are trying to make every customer happy, it is an impossible task to be sure.

One more comment:
I will say to King5, it would have been refreshing to see some information on their success stories, they would not still be in business if they did not have satisfied customers as well.

I am the former Project Manager for Reality Homes. I was interview by Mr. Jones, but you did not see my interview. I was fired from Reality last May, when they found out I was trying to start my owne company.

I, will tell you this the reason my interview was not aired was because I would not lie about Reality Homes. After Mr. Jones interviewed me I had the feeling he was not going to give a objective report. So, I called him and asked if he was going give all the facts. Mr. Jones became very upset that I would questioned his integrity and told me the facts would tell the story, and I said as long as it is all the facts. I then told him that a journalist should be objective and tell the story not just part of the story. As I said to Mr. Jones there are journalist that only tell one side of the story just to make a story and not give all the facts. He then asured me he was not that kind of journalist. Well I waited to see the report and it was exactly what I thought it would be one sided. Where were all the facts?

Facts like Reality Homes has houndreds satisfied customers including other contractors who come to build with Reality for quality and timely construction, customers that built multiple times with Reality not just once or twice but four or five times and more. Another fact is the great value and equity these homes have customers move in with anywhere between $50,000 and $150,000 in equity at closing. The fact is Reality Homes is good company that is trying to get better.

The other thing Mr. Jones did not say is that two of the customers interviewed on air were involved in the same lawsuit and lied under oath. The fact is this so called investigative reporter was contacted after one of the parties lost the lawsuit. I know this because I there during the arbitraton Mr. Jones was not.

I am not a TV reporter but, I do know that if you are going to give a report you, should be objective and give all the facts not what will just make a good story. Otherwise your just a story teller and a bad one at that. Not a reporter.

Just so it is very clear I do not work for Reality Homes anymore In fact I helped start the company and put my own time and money into Reality just to get a job. I expected much more. So if anyone sould be upset with Reality it would be me. I left with nothing after five plus years of work. But the fact is the true is the true. Reality Homes is one of houndreds of builders across Washington who has the same issues as Reality.

So, be the smart people that you are and realise there is two sides to every story. And don't beleive everything you see on TV even the news.

Sincerely,
Eric Everett

We also are dissatisfied with the service that we have received from Reality Homes. Overall, I feel that the home is of good quality, but the timeline was absolutely deplorable.

To put things in perspective: Two months after we signed our contract, we got pregnant. When our baby was a month old, we moved into our house. My daughter is now eleven months old, and the punchlist items are not all fixed yet!

I believe this falls far outside of the 150 day timeline that the Reality salesperson and the superintendent lead us to believe was very probable.

It is only because my husband was in the construction business at the time that the project got done at all. He was (and still is) CONSTANTLY calling our super and demanding that the next phase be scheduled. As mentioned earlier, the squeaky wheel gets the grease when it comes to Reality!

My advice to any potential customers: don't plan your family around the Reality Homes timeline!

It is definitely about time someone investigated this company. We recently built a home through Reality and it was a total nightmare from foundation up!! They NEVER did complete the work. My husband had to do so much himself or we would have NEVER had a completed home. We fixed up botched work as it went along because each time we contacted the company, we did not get responses and would wait weeks for any contact and that would only be when we yelled or payed a personal visit to the office in Fife. Many many mistakes were made and even though the home was paid for cash up front, they were way over their contract time. We called for final inspection because we couldn't get them to take care of it and several months after moving in, Katy from Reality asked us why we were living in the home. So what were we to do? Did they really think we were still waiting for them to complete the home? They NEVER did correct many items in our home. My husband went to the showroom to take pictures of the model and they told him to leave and he could not take any pictures. If they were not worried that they had misrepresented, why would they tell him to leave?
Shame on Reality homes!!! I did send a report to the BBB and was going to file against their bond, but several people had already. We had several friends interested in building a home and after seeing what we went through, said they would NEVER use Reality Homes.

Please forgive my grammar and spelling as I was in a hurry to submit this. Thank you
Eric Everett

Mr. Everett,

We decided not to use any former employees.
The reason: we could not verify why you or anyone else was let go.
I spoke to a number of former employees. Most were not happy with the company and most had some real volitile things to say.
I left everyone out.
So now you say you were let go for trying to start your own company.
Please explain why you would be let go for that?

Jesse Jones

Fact is this, Reality Homes is in this for the quick buck, all they care about is making money at innocent peoples expense. They prey on the weak, chosing to work with those that typically dont have the financial resources to fight to get what they paid for or for what is right. This is just the tip of the iceberg, most of the people out there they have worked with are broken and have given up. They have hurt untold people financially and emotionally. They have shattered dreams and ruined lives. They must know that what they are doing is hurting people, while they are happy driving around in their hummers and sporting their gold rolex watches (sad but true), while the people are forced to accept less than they were promised. Hopefully their negligence and potential fraud will not go undetected by the authorities that should step in and stop this type of business practice and make them responsible to all the people they have hurt. Reality, start shredding your documents, becuase i am certain they way you have conducted yourself, my guess is there is more than meets the eye here....follow the dollars, maybe the numbers dont add up?? maybe the accounting is off??? overbilled??? discriminatory billing?? double taxed??paid all the taxes youve collected?? Ever had an audit?? What comes around, goes around.

Hi Everyone! This sure has become an Interesting blogger site. First of all i want to say to the people who have had a miserable experience My feelings of hope are with all of you i hope you all can come to some reasonable settlement. Second i want to say to Reality all the complaints these people have had If you are the reputable company you claim to be and i THINK you are it is simple Take care of the problems. That is the only way your reputation will survive
As for my situation I have a house right now that is under construction and as i write this it is raining extremely hard here and out my window of my fifth wheel i see the framers on the rooftop working. This company to this point has delivered in fine fashion for us, my husband has been out after these framers have left for the day and he has only seen superb work from these framers. (to quote him he wishes there work ethic and professionalism on everyone) they have been great! We have looked at the job these folks have done and we are in awwww at the many negative comments, we can't relate. Maybe we have just been lucky to this point but so far as the way things have transpired for us we have no reason to doubt there future work with our home. In our case we have had just one superintendant and she has been stellar in as far as her communication with us just this morning she called us to let us know the next stage of construction our roofing! It truly surprises us to hear the comments we have been reading because we have been just pleased (to this point)
with the work they have done. As for the rest of you folks that have had problems we wish you the very best as it is never fun to hassle over such an important investment as your house. In no way are we trying to portray this company as perfect because we have had some front office situations at the first of our construction, however they were resolved rather quickly. But when all is said We think reality has done nice job for us and would like to thank them for such i just hope they can resolve the issues with everyone who has them.

I have worked in new home construction for about 35 years and people like me know that the building industry has good times and bad times. During the good times construction companies spring up and take advantage of cheap money and booming local economies. Lets not be fooled here, this is about making money. If you want a good contractor look to see how long they have been around under the same name. Good times and bad. Reality Homes is a very new company whose problem is that they took on more work than they could handle professionally. Follow the money trail. I don't doubt that there is a lot of good people working at Reality Homes with good intentions, but I think people need to look deeper than that. There are ways to tell if a company is here just for the good times. Someone mentioned warranty, in my opinion, a third party warranty means you can go anytime. An "in-house" warranty means you here for the long hall. Most people involved in this type of building concept with owners doing part of the work, have never build anything in their whole life. It is up to the profesional contractor to guide these people in this process for it to be a success. That, you can get up front before you sign your contract. Start with one person and finish with that same person. Establish TRUST!! Don't assume it is there. If your a good person working at Reality Home, then live up to your promises, don't pass the buck. YOU make sure it gets done.

It is real simple. When a company you work for finds out that you are trying to start a like company they might think that there would be some conflict of interest. Aside from my misspelled words and grammar, the fact is what I wrote and what I told you in my interview with you was the truth and you know it. Part of your story was based on two parties who lied under oath and one of the relatives of those parties, who you spoke with because you asked me what I thought of that person, has a serious criminal record. This shows that you based this part of your story on people with serious credability issues. Although I have some personal issues with Reality Homes, I support the company and I am very proud of its success.
Sincerely,
Eric Everett

I would really like to know why Mr. Eric Everett's interview with Jesse Jones was not aired at all? I would like to hear both sides of this story not just one!

Whew! Is it just me, or is it getting a bit hot in here? Before commenting, I invite you to review our comment rules, a link to which is directly above the "post a comment" form at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy the blog, whether or not you decide to post comments.

Best regards,

Dale Steinke,
www.KING5.com staff

I want to add a few more thoughts.

First, in my dealings with Reality I have only met one employee that I would consider less than helpful at times (it happens to be the guy that replaced Mr Everett). I have found the folks at Reality to be, as individuals, wonderful folks.

Second, after over a year of working with Reality, I have a house that is so close to complete that it isn't worth arguing about. However, I'll bet that the last items on the punch list never get done.

Third, yes, the resulting house is worth far more than the sum of what we paid Reality, plus the cost of the land and what we paid for additional labor and materials.

Fourth, I'll defend Reality in one other area and that is cost for additional and/or change items. Reality's business model is to deliver a home at low cost based on using a small set of simple house plans. To add the infrastructure to accomodate wide scale changes would drive costs up significantly. The fact is that Reality allows far more flexibility when it comes to changes/customizations than either Hiline or Adair. But to accomodate that flexibility Reality has to charge a stiff premium. Let's all face facts, if you want a custom home, you need to pay custom home prices. If you want something that costs less, you'll need to compromise.

But...

This is a business for my wife and I. This house is going to be a rental. We have lost between $8,000 and $10,000 because we had to carry the construction loan for 7 month beyond the contractual completion date without having rental income.

We have two properties that we are waiting to build on. Reality, or course, blew their chance to sell two more houses to us. We have had to delay construction until the Reality project was complete. So we had to carry the cost of those lots for 7 additional months. On top of that, real estate prices are softening all over the US. Thankfully we are still stable here in the Northwest. Should values start to slide here as they have in other parts of the country, Reality's schedule delay will cost us tens of thousands of dollars. So I'm sure that Reality has quite a few satisfied customers. I'm not one of them. I've tried to be objective in describing why I'm dissatisfied. Using them again is a risk I'm unwilling to take.

One more point. Someone said that any business receives complaints. That's true. My parents owned a jewelery store and I saw it first hand. But some folks get more and/or tougher complaints than others. I spent a few minutes looking over the Better Business Bureau website. Here is what I saw:

There are three listings for Reality Homes. Across those three listings there are 23 complaints that were resolved in one way or another. It's worth noting that across all the businesses I've researched on the BBB website I've only seen 1 unresolved complaint. I don't know why. They have to be out there. Since there are so many businesses with no complaints, I view complaints to the BBB, resolved or not as marks against that company.

So how does Reality's 23 complaints stack up against BBB complaints for other builders?

Appleton Homes - 0
Evergreen State Builders - 5 (1 unresolved, 1 no response)
Fox Homes - 1
Hiline - 5 (one unresolved)
Premier Communities - 5
Adair - 5
Quadrant Homes (I hear their commercials on the radio all the time - they ought to be a fair target) - 0
Regent Homes - 0
Soundbuilt Homes - 23
Stanbrooke - 3

I'm not going to claim that my list is exhaustive. I will say that I'm lazy so I just found a list of area home builders and looked them all up on the BBB website. I didn't pick and choose.

I'm sure someone will argue that maybe Reality built more homes than anyone else on my list and therefore would have more issues. Don't know if it's true but it's a good point. So as I thought about it, I tried to think of a business that gets a LOT of traffic and had a lot of opportunity for upset customers. Auto dealers popped to mind. Now I'm not going to go and list every area auto dealer. OK, this is a small sample but I've done business with the following dealerships in the past few years and here are the complaints listed with the BBB for each:

Mallon Ford - 5
Titus Will - 8 (note this is across 7 different businesses listed under the Titus Will name)
Courtesy Ford - 5
Robert Larson - 20 (this is across 8 different dealerships with the Robert Larson name)

I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.

Eric,

The person with the criminal record was the son of one of the people we interviewed.
He was not listed in the lawsuit.
Lied under oath?
There are a number of he said she said issues on both sides.
I went by the arbitrators decision. The person who decides the facts in that case.
In 27 paragraphs of facts there is no mention of anyone lying or being untruthful.
The arbitrators decision went to Reality.
I reported that.
I'd rather base my report on the report of the fact finder, not someone who wants me to blindly report something they believe.
If you want to be transparent, name the people who you say lied under oath.
Please, put their names in writing.
I'm not going to get into a flame war with you, but I will say this:
You were let go.
You are giving us your version of the firing.
Be careful throwing stones.

Jesse Jones

I have also had a home built with Reality Homes. Thanks goodness that someone is finally sharing the truth about Reality and it is reaching a large audience. I know a number of people who have built or are thinking of building and I always tell them, "don't build with Reality." Then I go on to explain why. I tell them the same thing that is pointed out in the blog posts above. Like most, we were charged extra, we had building delays, nobody seemed to know what anyone was doing, the people at reality were for the most part not helpful when I called and several times rude and insulting. And, like others, we ended up finishing the work ourselves to avoid costly fees from our bank for a loan extension. As far as I could tell, the only thing Reality Homes was interested in was taking our money and selling the next house. Building a house in a timely manner and having satisfied customers was certainly not on their top ten list. I do think that we were foolish by signing the contract, but as first time home builders who were "sold" on a house and didn't know better. Now we do. I hope others out there don't make the same mistake we did.

The Better Business Bureau complaint system is a very lengthy one at best. You can’t just file the complaint, you must follow it diligently and continue to respond or it will be closed as “Satisfactory”.

Ok... so this blog is turning in to the typical "he said, she said". If you've never worked for Reality or never had a home built by them, your opinion doesn't carry any weight.

Let those that are working with or have worked with Reality weigh in. The truth will show itself merely by the number of postings by such and what THEY say.

I moved into my finally finished Reality Home 180 days after they poured the foundation on 03/25/2005. We were very excited and happy to be in our new home. Then the problems arrived several months later. The dry wall company, which is owned by one of the owners of Reality Homes did a poor job on our sheet rock. We had ridges all over our ceilings and on the walls. We fought, fought, and fought with them to fix it and they just finished with it September 2006. We also have many squeeks in the floor and they have been out several times, but nothing is improving. They will not even call us back now. 20 months after moving in, we are still left with things to be fixed. My recommendation is not to build with Reality Homes and pay the little extra money and go with a private builder.

We considered reality homes but we decided on Fox Homes LLC instead. Just as big of a mistake. We paid them $3000.00 for plans and only received one incomplete set of plans. This was 8 months ago. Now we are acting as our own general contractor and they want to sue/lein us. We have hired an attorney because they breached the contract by never delivering architectural plans w/engineering for us to obtain the building permit. Same type of contract, they can sue and lein us, but if they breach the contract we can only take them to mediation. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!

DO NOT USE FOX HOMES LLC

ERIC EVERETT
SHAME ON YOU!!! Your grammer and spelling; you were in a rush. Please your comments and work ethic are exactly the same, in a hurry to get on to the next thing, incorrect, mistated and flat out wrong. Maybe you should tell everyone the name of your new company then we can be aware of it too.

What about all the elderly that I am sure Reality has taken advantage of, where is there spokes person or the people that don’t have computers, I guarantee a full investigation to all the people that had homes built by these so called builders would show a majority with major problems and are definitely not satisfied with their homes. These issues should make up a very small percentage of their homes, but I am sure it is much greater than that. I challenge all the people that are so happy with their homes to put their name and where and when they had their home built, i dont buy it, since I have yet to meet anyone that has had a home built by them and is happy with the result. So far I personally know of 5 people who had a home built by Reality and ALL of them hate the company. I am sure that there are those out there that did get a good product, believe it or not there are subs out there that build a good product in spite of Reality, but when you have common issues like the ones here, it is NOT by chance! Chances are without help from the authorities or the government, Reality will get away with it, is it possible to stop them? Possible to get the Feds to invesigate them??

My wife and I just moved in to our Hi-Line Home, we had problems as well, BUT are very happy with our location and the house we built. I could complian about alot but I understand delays and most of all the sqeeky wheel gets the oil. If your first contact doesn't call you back talk to the branch manager then talk to the Corp. Take pictures of everything!!! show them to the managers. print them, document everything. The contract is almost air tight for all builders. We finished a little late due to the foundation not being poured when promised and going through 3 framing crews. We have been in for 30 days now and it is home. I am sure Adair, Reality and Hi-Line could all use a Customer Service Department with people that cared and called you back but that cost money to make people happy.

All in all if I HAD to do it again I would.

My husband and I have been considering Reality as our home builder. We personally know someone who had Reality build their house, finishing it in just under a year, and they're happy with it. Reading all these comments has given me a lot to think about. I'm stunned by the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., in these letters. Do I use these errors as a guideline for the intelligence of the people why wrote them?

If you are going to make criticisms of grammar, then try looking at your own.

"... intelligence of the people why (who?) wrote them?"

Karen, give me a break. The last thing these people care about is spelling, grammar, and punctuation. They are a little more concerned over getting ripped off of tens of thousands of dollars, endless nights of no sleep, and sickness to the stomach due to stress or forced to live in a house that they don’t want. Karen I DARE you to build a Reality home. Go for it and we will all laugh when you end up the same way!!!!! Be a part of our reality!

JESSE,

I have to say, I used to be in the radio business and your story was a little one sided. Not completely, but a little one side. Honestly, this blog shows more the of story in complete. Take a couple of points from 60 Minutes. Sure 60 Min loves to skewer a company's GM on camera, but they do offer them the opportunity to see the other side of the coin.

Your interview with the GM of Reality showed him basically being stumped by one major question. Where did the rest of the conversation go? On the editing floor? :-)

I understand that your piece was probably allocated 2 minutes on the news, but that's hardly enough time to present the full picture. Even 60 Min allocates around 18-20 minutes, which is still not enough time to show the whole picture.

You should allow equal time.

Just a thought.

Where are my blogs? Do we not have freedom of speech or is everything one sided

In all REALITY, No pun intended lol This company will in the future be investigated further, there are far to many complaints from ordinary people to simply say that people got what they paid for. Because as we all read here not many people actually got anything that they paid for, they were supposed to get a livable house per the contract whether the contract was a good one or not. they all had the same language related to actually getting a finished product. And upon further investigation if it is deemed that these people who have complained, truly did not get what they paid for it could border on plain and simple theft. Another charge that could be a possibility would be deceptive practice in regards to promises of a complete house only to get a house that is not. I'm not anything close to an attorney nor do i claim to be, however it just seems very suspicious that nothing can be done to these predators that masquerade as homebuilders with all the deceit and lies they have used to rake people out of money. I don't believe the story ends here with this investigation by King-5 don't be surprised if a class action lawsuit isn't started at some point and time..

Karen! Im still trying to understand the fact that you are stunned by the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation etc in these letters. What i can't understand is how you could come up with such a stupid question! Asking if you should use these errors as a guideline for the intelligence of the people WHY wrote them? I suggest you not worry so much of others grammer and get back with your husband and figure if reality will be you builder or not. That is the true guideline to any intelligence you need to know not others grammer..

"we TRY to do the right thing"

AWKWARD..............................

I had a Reality home built and all I got was a lousy robe and a couple of pieces of gold.

I just came into a field for 30 pieces of silver from this Potter guy. How long would it take you build a home on it? Rumor has it that I don't have a lot of time.

My parents went with Reality and I watched them fight not only Reality but after awhile each other. They hardly ever showed up and my mom started pressuring my dad who tried in vain to get ahold of anyone. Meanwhile we lived in a trailer and I couldn't have any friends over except during the day. My Uncle is a builder and would come out and shake his head at what he saw. Reality would tell my parents a move in date and it would pass, over and over again. I was getting pissed because I hated living in the trailer while nobody showed up.I watched my dad work so hard every day trying to get things done and he was always fixing stuff that was not right. I don't think people realize how much it affects the entire family.

We had our house built in 2004 by Reality Homes. That's when we met employees Jim and Jared. They were always pleasant, listened to what we wanted and were very accommodating when it came to making some changes to make the house our own. Sure the permit process took almost 6 months. Sure it took Reality longer than the 5 months that they said it would take. Sure there were frustrations, delays, failed inspections, and things that needed to be fixed. However, this is true in any new home construction or remodel. The whole building process may have been slow and frustrating but it's been almost 2 years since we moved in and our Reality house is now our dream home and our family enjoys it tremendously.

I have witnessed the building of a home. It is a very time consuming and tedious job. I have heard a great deal of slamming Reality Homes.
Its too bad more truth isn't being posted, such as the concrete strike almost totally halting the
residential constrution verses the commercial.
The home builders were put on hold. You say you were being charged $300 per yard of concrete.
Thats not JUST concrete, whos paying for the labor for that added yard and additional materials?
You buy a house from top to bottom for @$100,000,
You end up with a $300,000 home.
So, when you're done nit picking, I suggest you
do a little research and see who's calling the kettle black.
Truthfully, I would invest in Reality Homes with
Great expectations from past construction exp.

Who ever wrote that last comment has no idea what these people have gone through, i bet its a Reality Homes employee.....Like I said, buy a Reality Home, I dare you!

You lose more than you gain in value building with these guys, go with a reputable builder where you have seen their other homes and seen others in construction. Get references of local owners. Promise it will save you from a disaster.

Come on you guys!!! Anyone can pick any builder apart that has built this many homes. I have built 3 spec homes through Reality Homes and the home I currently live in. Of course no construction project is perfect, no office personel is perfect but my overall experience was great. I'm currently looking for more property to build more spec homes with Reality Homes. My home is beautiful and far more than I would have gotten through some other builders for the price.

Hey Jeff, get a life you've blogged 5 times in less than 24 hours. I smell and instagator

My brother and I just had homes built by Reality. Lets just say it didn't work out. The inspection just passed by its hair of its little chin chin. My older brother went with another builder. We are now living with him.

I had a home built by one of the other "On Your Lot" builders. More like the BMW of builders, you know BMW's cost more than KIA's.

Anyway, while a lot of you saw that ad that read... "Built On Your Lot" for $38 per sq ft you got sucked in! My home was more like $80 per sq ft and what a difference. They have a complete "Customer Service" dept that followed up with our questions & concerns. Yes, we had some issues, as does EVERY SINGLE HOME PROJECT, but they worked with us to resolve every single one.

So... the next time you want a bottom of the barrel deal, just remember that most quality homes built on your lot start in the $150 per sq ft range and go up from there.

America's rife with people that want a deal!! Walmart doesn't build homes. (well not yet anyway) You get what you pay for.

End of story.

I won't bore you with the details of my own Reality Homes horror story, but may we all keep in mind that if we succeed in slowing Reality's sales or shut it down entirely we will only be hurting the hardworking employees and subcontractors. If you want to take the fight to the people who are really responsible you must bring suit against the owners themselves. They have already spent our money building their own dream homes.

Todd

Here's one last thing that most people forget to realize. You shop at Nordstrom and you get great service! But you also pay $125 for a pair of shoes. You shop at Payless Shoes and you get a pair of shoes for $29... and no service.

You buy a cheap home, you get a great price... SO DON'T FREAKING EXPECT GREAT SERVICE!!!!!!

You pay $150 sq ft for a custom home and you'll typically get great service.

But with all that being said, you should expect for your builder to respond to problems and issues. If they can't do that, they need to get out of the construction business. Building homes is NOT like selling espresso. You sign a contract with a customer and you both are married for the next 6-12 months. If you can't take care of your customers, go sell espresso.

I know three people that are building homes right now with reality homes and all three are paying penalties fees to their respective banks because of reality's late time frame. Two of them have been building since 2005. I will never ever in a million years build with reality again. I'm actually using a competitor this time around. Reality head honchos are over their heads and their employees and the superintendants are taking the heat for it.Everything in the king 5 story is true and i've personally experienced it,i've even got friends who can back me up. Reality homes need to scale back big time. They need to try to remember why they are in business today and the little things that customer appreciated back in the day that kept them open today, because right now the company is goin down the drain.

I am shocked by how these people are responding to this story. I built with Reality Homes and I've been living happily in my "Reality" home for two years now. I also know others who are happy with their homes built by them. I of course had a difficult time with construction too and I had to pay loan extension fees & other costs that I didn't budget for, but I realized that Reality had nothing to do with that because I had land/city problems. The bldg process seemed long, but that's probably because I had finances on the line, which made me impatient. But, my home got finished within their 150 days and I even had custom changes. I am very happy with them because I know there's no way I'd have over 80k equity if it wasn't for them. I'd like to say Thank You to Reality Homes and I'd encourage anyone who's wants to build to consider them!

You know all you fools who are comparing houses to shoes should get a clue, You dumb fools everyone has problem in their development projects but you have to experience this to see how crazy it is. This aint not store , we are paying hundreds of thousands just like everyone else. But hey snub your noses at this all yall fools got ripped when you built your great overpriced custom houses.

Reality homes.

I would like to respond with the fact I had so many complaints to our department (Skagit County Planning and Development Services) that I had to call Reality Homes in to my office to make sure they understood that something had to change.

It became quite clear to me that their clients were very frustrated with Reality Homes business practices.
Reality Homes clients are Skagit Counties clients as well. Way to much of my time was being spent on trying to help customers deal with their nightmare that was getting out of control. The nightmare was not only at the beginning of the permit process but at all stages of the construciton process as well.

I was so frustrated to find a grown man to the point of tears when I was arrived to perform an inspection. He was absolutely crushed over the constant nightmares and costs that just seemed to be totally out of control.

It almost seemed like some of the clients felt like they deserved the abuse because they chose the lowest bidder.

And the list of issues could go on and on and on.

Just thought I would drop this 2nd note. There was a someone on here bashing Pat the general manager for Reality Homes and the owners of the CO. It sounds to me that you must of needed your hand held through the whole process and if this was the case then you probably should of went with a builder that charges 125.00 a sq. But the reason why you didn't go with the higher priced builder is because (YOU COULDN'T)And all the other people on this board Bitching and moaning poor old me let me ask you all a question.
When you closed on your loan your home was appraised and you all know what it appraised for! Does Jesse Jones know? I doubt it because if he did then he would of taken this stupid story and threw it out the window. The bottem line is this if you had a home built by Reality Homes and did not completly load it to the celing with options you can sell it for a MINT! Some people just like to Whine and complain .............Robert

When I saw the ad for the King5 Investigators report,I looked at my husband and said "I bet that is about Reality Homes" and BINGO, I was right. For everyone out there who thinks this story is one-sided,it is because there isn't another side!
We built our home with Reality because they promised exactly what we wanted: a quality home at an affordable price. Yep, I guess you get what you pay for!
I will not bore you with the MONTHS of stressful experiences and failed inspections. Honestly, our stories are almost identical to the ones posted here. I will add that, on final inspection, it was found that there had been no insulation put in (and it was under 25 degrees for several weeks and the workers had to have the heat on, so our heating bill was almost $850 dollars). It took them 3 weeks to get someone out to fix that "little" oversight. Also, our kitchen wall is not square. The Lowe's guy who delivered our refrigerator couldn't figure out why it look crooked when he pushed it back until we looked harder and discovered it was the stinkin' wall, not the position of the fridge.Wait, my kitchen countertops were not glued down correctly, so they bubble in different places. We were promised new ones about a year ago. Oh, and there was the little problem of us signing our contract based on the home plan we chose, and then the fact that they altered the home plans before they started framing, so when we came to take a look at the jobsite, we couldn't figure out why our powder room had moved and a wall was where our office door should have been.
Yes,when you build a home it is stressful. Yes, you get what you pay for. But, I have to agree with the person from Skagit County and say when you see your husband on the brink of tears and frustration because for the 3rd time your home has failed final inspection, you are 7 months overdue on when your house was supposed to be finished, and Christmas is 2 weeks away with 3 kids looking at you and asking why we can't move in yet....well, it just makes you wish that Reality Homes cared a little bit more about the customer then they appear to. After all, word of mouth can make or break a company,as see here.
We have a house that we can live in and enjoy. But we wonder what is going to go wrong with it and when. Poor framing, shotty plumbing and electrical work, squeaks all over the floors, bubbling countertops.....ahhh, the list goes on.
Please do your homework when building a home. We thought we had done that.
I will add in my final comment that we even went with a bank that Reality puts on their list of "recommended" lenders. They were truly fantastic people. Extraordinary in their helpfulness and understanding. They helped us to fight Reality when they requested payments on jobs not completed. Our loan officers were also very frank during the delays and failures and overruns: Reality Homes has huge problems with customer service and with quality of work. The bank manager told my husband that they do not want to stay on the "recommended" list much longer if the troubles continue to arise.
Thank you for your time. Please do your homework and know that even though Reality builds many homes and you are hearing from a small percentage, that it is because they are overloading themselves on homes that such poor customer service, shotty building practices, and major inspection problems are happening. Look into hiring a slightly more expensive builder with a decent record, and you will end up saving in the end.

Oh, and Robert, I am not one of those people bashing the CO of Reality.I have never met the man so I do not have a personal opinion of him. And you are right, we couldn't afford to buy a home priced more. Sorry that our income doesn't allow for that.Obviously you are of the means to be able to afford much more than my family. And, no...considering the fact that there are many cosmetic as well as structural problems with our home, we couldn't sell it for the "mint" that you advise us we could.
I can tell that you have never built a home with Reality Homes, so I feel bad for you that you feel the need to pass judgement on those of us who have and feel that they did not do some basic construction correctly, nor did they offer much help when our homes took months to pass what should have been pretty routine inspections based on how many houses they have built.
Thank you for your comments, but it seems that it is you *itching and moaning about something you do not know very much about.

ok if you build a home and contract reality homes to be your builder just keep an eye on you inspections(as you should be with anny builder) thin inspect it your self if somthing was missed you call the instector back pay the WHOPING $150 to have him (or her) come back out and check it it they will rewrite it if there is a non compliance issue.. if there is no correctiopns to be made the only problem is your perception of what a 500 dollar home is as compared to a 130 thousand doller home is because if you paid 130 you end up with a 240k aprasel so quit complainging and do somethig to protect you investment that is just plain busness smarts..

FINALLY!!!! I just knew there were other people "out there" just like us. I wanted to call the TV station months ago. We also went to an attorney, but we were told just about the same thing by him as what the legal advisor stated during the interview.

I don't care what religion they are, or that some say we invested in a cheep product & got what we bought. If I bought a coat from Wall-Mart or Macys, if the zipper doesn't work I want to have the right to get a refund. If not, then I feel I've been robbed and Reailty Homes ROBBED US. We too, watched our framed house (without a roof) stand in the rain with four inches of water on the floor for three months last winter. Calling and calling the office trying to get someone out to work on the house. We had four different project superintendents. They were all very polite and helpful; that is, if I could trick them to take my phone calls. I could go through the whole story, but I just read my story over & over. I'm just like the rest of unsatisified customers naive enough to sign a contract that is ONE SIDED. All for Reality Homes. We paid over $7,000 Late pentlies, and the added intrest costs while waiting an extra three months to get in our house.

All of us ripped-off customers need to ban togeather and really squeek, scream, picket Olympia, work on a class action, something. Something to put these theives out of business. I want my money back they cost us from their greed and incompetence.

My question for those of you who say, "There is bound to be complaints in any busines," Why are all the complaints close to being identical and if they only build a few designs over and over again, why can't they ever pass an inspection? They should know the rules by now, I understand the rules by just working on this one house, how many Agustas have they built by now? Every inspection was red tagged, then it took weeks of calling ten times a day, SQUEEKING, to get someone out to fix the problem. Throught the whole process, I dou