Comments:

A Builder to Avoid? unless you have infinite Time and Patience The Builder: Ron Hargrove, DBA Hargrove Construction, 5117 Lowell, Overland Park KS Basic Facts: Contract signed: August 20, 2003 Original Move In Date: Jul 1, 2004 Revised Move In Date: Sept 1, 2004 Actual Move In Date Dec 1, 2004 Ron Hargrove builds a beautiful house. That much is indisputable. That will probably be the last positive thing you read. His inefficiency, poor planning, and basic untruthfulness in dealings with us led to my family selling our house (when we were supposed to according to the agreed upon move in date) and being forced to store our furniture and live in an apartment for four months until the new home was ready. This was a 15-month exercise in home building, where 6-7 months is the norm. The problems we witnessed are: ? Ron is unable or unwilling to schedule more than one crew of workmen at a time.. Everything happens in serial fashion. ? With the exception of the wall prep crew, trim carpenters and the painter, his Subs were uniformely sub-par. Specifically: 1) Plumbers switched from ?? copper pipe to ??copper pipe in spite of the fact that they were servicing five plumbing outlets- resulting in inadequate water pressure on one side of the finished house. 2) Electricians were unable to correctly install Cat 5 wiring and instead of setting up a hub, dropped the wires outside the house without protection from the elements. Jacks containing Cat 5 wiring were installed with the wrong faceplates. Also, they were unable to correctly install a system of heat strips in the driveway. 3) The Cabinet maker was Ron?s Equity-Partner, and was not able to deliver custom cabinets to the homeowners specs until threatened with firing (on Sep 9th, by written notice). He also lied to the homeowner on numerous occasions about the installation of custom items and failed to complete installation of these agreed upon items. The homeowners had to arrange installation at a later date. ? Ron relied upon his Son to be his on-site Superintendent. The Superintendent has an ?Attitude?, doesn?t show up at the job site before 9:30-10:00 at the earliest, and only provided excuses about why things don?t happen- or his pat refrain ?I?m on it?. It would have been nice if that were the case. ? Ron relied upon an architect who delivers drawings which other building professionals could not decipher- or even use to make bids (for kitchen counter tops). A drawing which would be suitable for homeowner Review was never provided- and the house that was built did not match the detailed plan provided to the builder in August. The architectural drawings were so bad that changes could not be identified until too late.. ? Ron?s list of Subs to work with was incomplete, However, he was flexible in allowing the use of other qualified installers. ? Although Ron delivers homes in the $300-500,000 price range, our experience makes you question how ?custom? these homes could be. Specifically, in addition to the cabinet issue mentioned above (where the cabinet doors did not meet (approx ??) as is common for cabinets in this price range home, it was clear that Ron?s crew had never participated in the installation of a granite kitchen counter top. The Superintendent didn?t know what needed to happen- or when. Further, he was not open to listening to others who could have helped him get it right. Accordingly, it took several sessions to get the counter tops installed. ? Ron was not candid and honest with the homeowner. Specifically: 1) It should have been obvious to him that the lot the homeowner agreed to buy would not hold the house plan which he was presented at the beginning. If this was not obvious in August, it should have been when he was forced to obtain relief from an easement on the front of the house with the City of Basehor. 2) If it was not clear at that point, it should have been even later when his request for a 5 ft easement at the rear of the house to permit the construction of a deck was disapproved by the City in May 2004. The City?s Disapproval of the easement request was never communicated to the homebuyer. However, the Builder amended the plan to put in a much smaller deck based on the smaller lot size- AND did not tell the homeowner why. A bit of detective work by the prospective homeowner turned up what had happened. It was through the efforts of the homeowner working with the City and Developer that the 5 ft easement was eventually approved- and a suitable size deck was eventually built. Throughout this entire process, the builder never once was candid about the fact that he was unable to finish the house he had committed to build. ? In June 2004, prior to the sale of our current home, Ron committed to paying all storage costs of our furniture until our new home was ready. At that time, the Move In date was supposed to be Jul 1st. As the time dragged on, and the Move In date slipped, Ron ?reneged? on his promise to pay Storage expenses. He capped what he would pay at $500. Our total storage costs were over twice that. ? Ron and his Son seldom returned calls. Accordingly, Faxed Summaries of phone messages and ?To Do? Items were provided to the builder on 10 different occasions. It became apparent that neither Ron nor his Son bothered to read the Faxed To Do lists, or if they did, they failed to act on them until weeks later. ? Although the concrete foundation of the new home was completed by Memorial Day, 2004, and the framing was completed in June, 2004, absolutely nothing was done during the balance of the nice Summer weather. The house was completed in late Fall with a lot of bad weather (and mud) involved. This would never have happened if the house been completed using the Summer months. ? Comparing notes with others who live in homes built by Ron Hargrove, a common theme is that everyone moved in with major items still uncompleted. All complain about that. If they were like us, they moved in as soon as possible after enduring months of frustrations waiting for the home to be completed. In summary, if a Ron Hargrove house is completed, and a prospective buyer enters at this point, go for it. On the other hand, if you are counting on this guy to build your house on time- and to your specifications, HE IS NOT YOUR GUY. If our experience is typical, you and your family will endure tons of frustration (and expense) should you choose to deal with Ron Hargrove.