Celebrity Home Builders

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• By Muadin L.

  June 9, 2021

  This company is the equivalent of watching a little kids soccer game when you’re expecting to see real professionals. I have done business with new construction and existing home sales and never have I dealt with a more incompetent group of people. The people that represent this company need to reevaluate what line of work they are in. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with 3 out of the 5 people this company employs, Monte Williams, Kathy Clinton, and Donna Cinicola. Monte Williams represents himself as the VP of this builder and is too much of a coward to deal with me person to person. Kathy Clinton is the agent with 20 years of “experience” that doesn’t understand the meaning of simple real estate terms. Donna Cinicola is the bookkeeper that needs help understanding what check fraud is. It is no mystery what so ever that this builder has nothing but negative 1 star reviews across every website you can find them on. I wish I had done my research before even dealing this company but I didn’t and don’t want anyone else making the same mistake.

  It all started after I toured one of their almost complete homes in the community that they took over from KW Homes called Stone Chase. It was a Saturday and after touring it, I decided to put in an application to purchase the home. Before I began the paperwork, Kathy stated that because it’s a weekend, they will accept all applications until Monday morning. I thought that was odd for a new build so I asked some amplifying questions to better understand her statement. She said that they take all applications and turn them in to the builder Monday morning and the builder selects one. I asked how does the builder select one and would we be dealing with a bidding war. She immediately said that it would NOT be a bidding war and that the she didn’t know how the builder chooses. I asked if putting more money down or going up in price would affect the outcome in anyway and she shook her head to signal no. I took that to mean that they would take all the applications, review terms such as: closing date, down payment, lender, etc. and whatever they deem more desirable, they would choose that applicant. So with that being said, we proceeded with the application and I submitted the $1,000 binder fee with a money order from Publix. I made it out to Celebrity Homes Builder Inc like directed by Kathy. We joked with Kathy about not showing the house to anyone else until Monday morning so that they wouldn’t receive anymore applications and went on our way.

  Fast forward to the next day, Sunday, I talked to my agent to see if she had heard from Kathy regarding other applicants for the same home. My agent said she hadn’t and would reach out to Kathy. When she did, Kathy responded with, there is another applicant. This is where it gets gray because I didn’t speak to Kathy personally but Kathy claims she told my agent that they are requesting my best and highest offer. My agent stated that those words were not used. When my agent notified me that there was another applicant, I asked what I could do to appear more desirable on paper to the builder. I already went with their preferred lender, I agreed to their listing price, I was the first applicant and I was fully qualified. I suggested going up on their listing price by $3,000 to $5,000 and wasn’t sure if that was possible due to the fact that this is a new build and new builds are nonnegotiable when it comes to price. My agent reached out to Kathy and got back to me and said that Kathy was okay with us increasing our offer. So I did just that by a small increment to stand out. Now if you’re even remotely familiar with real estate, you’re probably asking why she would claim that she asked for my best and highest offer because that by definition, is a bidding war. Exactly, “A bidding war occurs when there are multiple, competing offers for a piece of property or item that escalate the price. This usually results in a happy seller. A bidding war may begin with the first bid. In the real estate market, when an agent knows that someone has put a bid on a home, he or she may call other interested buyers to solicit their bids.”. This is interesting because Kathy specifically mentioned to me, in front of my agent, that there wouldn’t be a bidding war. I put in an application, not an offer, as did the applicant after me. For Kathy to claim that she solicited a higher offer from me demonstrates that she doesn’t understand what a bidding war on a property is. This is extremely frustrating as the buyer because had I been expecting a bidding war, I would have treated it such. I was told and reassured that it would not come down to this so I didn’t treat it as such, hence only increasing my “offer” by a minuscule amount above their requested price.

  Monday morning comes along and still no word from Kathy until my agent reached out to her again. Kathy told my agent that the builder went with the other applicant because they had a higher offer.

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