In May of '04, we were out driving and came upon this office for Meadow Run Builders. We had seen their advertisements in the papers..."$169,000 and up". There was a home we fell in love with, so we stopped in.
A woman named "Jan" immediately took us out and showed us homesites. We fell in love with a plot in the Pocono Ranchlands.
Jan then brought us back to the office and we met Drew (office manager). Drew and Jan got us to give them our life savings for the land... With the hopes of building a home in the coming months.
There were no attorneys, we were told that it was something they did for families who didn't have sterling credit... A credit check was never done!
We were told that by putting money into the property, we would be able to use that equity as our downpayment. We were told that the land purchase payments would be reported to the credit agencies to "improve our score".
We were told that our property would also be worth more and they convinced us that we were paying less than value on the property. We were told that any equity we made on the land, would be used toward the downpayment... in fact, we could take that equity back out at closing as cash.
We were told that by purchasing the land it would look good that we own something. It sounded way too good to be true. But they had us convinced that our dreams were about to come true.
I found it odd that they wouldn't even show us home plans, but convinced us that "Ed the Builder" wasn't available to talk about plans.
A week later, we were told that our credit wasn't "good enough" to build, but in a few months we would be where we need to be.
In August, we spoke to Sharon in the Stroudsburg office. She is the credit manager. She told us that the payments were not being reported to the credit agencies, that buying the land would not help our credit, but worsen it as it is a debt.
We finally sat with "Ed The Builder". When we told him what we wanted in a home, he told us the "$169,000 house that we loved, would really cost us $345,000!!!". He didn't even have building plans for the model.
Every little thing was an extra on this house. The picture shows a house with wrap around front and back porches. The porches were extra.
Basements were $20,000! Flooring was extra, baths were extra. The house they advertised for $169,000 wasn't the house in the picture at all! I couldn't believe the audacity.
He then pulls out the plans for a house half the size and tell us that it is a cost of $220,000. Yet, we still can't build anything, without approval. So we sit and wait.
Since then I have been keeping an eye out for Meadow Run homes. Looking around the area, there are very few. And not one, is the model that they advertise.
The plans that are advertised in the paper are actually bought from an online service called Cool House Plans. They don't even build these homes, they are used to entice people into the office to buy property.
Meadow Run has no intention of ever building a home on my property. Not that I would trust them to build a home at this point.
I contacted another builder in the area and was told that I paid 4 times the value of the land. I am sick to my stomach. Because I will need to pay off that land before I will be able to secure a home loan.
This wonderful contractor told me Meadow Run doesn't intend on building my home. They scam people into buying land and overcharge them. They tell all prospective customers they have bad credit and give them this land "deal".
So, now we have already paid Meadow Run double what the land is worth. And we still have many, many payments left until we pay the note off. I am so angry and want to know what I can do legally to either get my money back or to cancel the loan.
These people have ruined our lives. And I don't want anyone else to ever have to suffer the way that we have.
Our first mistake was not researching Meadow Run and not visitng other builders. The second was not checking with the Pocono Builders Association to see if they were affiliated... Which they are not.
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