Lux Builders

If I could give Austin and Lux builders zero stars I would. We closed on a house in LoHi that was finished but needed a LOT of work (walls had to be repainted, floors redone). We were moving from out of state and drove cross country. We closed on a Friday but told them we wouldn't be getting there until Sunday. We ended up making decent time and got in a day early. The house was OURS. We had closed and when we arrived, it was in COMPLETE disarray. We even found a gigantic poop left behind in our toilet. The floors were covered in dust and paint. Nothing had been cleaned. It was awful - especially after paying almost a million dollars for the house. (some of this is on our realtor) but when we brought it up to Austin he simply got annoyed that we had arrived early.

The rest of the year was hell. We are constantly finding things wrong with the house. The porch doesn't slope right, so the railing keep swelling. They didn't use the right wood on the front of our house and it's already falling apart and warping after two years. Tiles are cracking. Our sup pump wasn't tested and the pipes weren't even connected in the wall so our entire basement flooded. Everytime we contacted Austin it was like pulling teeth. He was condescending, rude and completely clueless about anything. I'm not sure how he does this for a living because he literally knew none of the answers to our questions and all his responses started off with blaming us for doing something wrong. We love our neighborhood and the aesthetics of our house but it was built with such poor craftsmanship. I would never buy a home from Austin again.

Once I signed a contract for a new build with Austin Schmidt & Lux Builders, (with a August-October 2018 closing date), my life changed drastically for the worse and - they literally stopped communicating with us and continue to misrepresent and omit details about the reasons for the 8 month (and counting) delay.

In December 2018 Schmidt provided our realtor with a 60 day notice. March comes and goes and Mr. Schmidt ghosted us until after almost 90 days later.

On April 2nd we know that Schmidt failed a wastewater inspection. How? My wife contacted the city and pulled the records. Schmidt was still playing dumb and gave us a rare update, advising us: “Waste water is the only think still not approved Meet are bugging them Austin Schmidt” Well, we know you failed it AND now we know you are lying to us.

April 10th: Noticed that Schmidt has placed a speed bump in the driveway leading into our back alley of the property. Schmidt claims that “it’s the City of Denver that made us put it there.” However, my car can’t clear it. According to Acura, the manufacturer of my vehicle, the Acura RSX has a clearance of 5 '9 inches; however it cannot make it over this new “speed bump” that the “City of Denver put there.

June 6th: Drove by the development today and noticed the installation of 8ft x 6ft sheets of plywood are nailed over the front doors of each unit. Emailed Austin Schmidt about it- no response.
June 18th: Fired Austin Schmidt and terminated contract with Luxe Builders. Awaiting return of $18,000 earnest (deposit) money. Schmidt should have not given a us a 60 day notice. My wife and I took Schmidt at his word on December 19th (and lack of denial) and on March 1st instead of moving into our new home-we are homeless with still no communication and closing date. Our lease on the apartment expired and the company rented it to new tenants. We moved all of our stuff into storage and are constantly being bounced from air-b-n-b because Schmidt will not communicate with us- about ANYTHING.

So, not only does Schmidt have our $18,000 deposit, he has our credit hijacked, we can’t run credit to rent an apartment with destroying our credit score, and now I’m learning about 12 new homeowners won’t be able to park in their $600,000 driveways.

Lux Builders is a joke.

Austin Schmidt is the most incompetent, dishonest, and condescending person with whom I have ever had the displeasure of working.

I am currently locked into a real estate contract with him and he has been misrepresenting every detail from the start. I signed the contract in September, he promised the (95% done) property would close in mid-October. Six months later, there isn't even a closing date. Getting any communication from him or anyone on his team is worse than pulling teeth. He either coaches his associates to feign incompetence to take the heat off himself or he surrounds himself with people who are terrible at their job. His company failed a roof inspection twice in four days. I have waited over 30 days for responses to emails. Despite multiple promises for better communication, I have to harass them for any update whatsoever, despite the fact that he has a death grip my $12,000.

He seems to be affiliated with a lot of different companies; his email signature lists Vision and also Childs and Schmidt. If you follow the link for the latter (again, this link is in his professional email signature), it leads to a dead link and the only sign of the company on the internet is a scathing BBB review about his incompetence and dishonesty.

Also, he flat out refuses to communicate via email, claiming he doesn't have access to it during the day (In 2019. As a real estate "professional"). He instead insists on getting on the phone so that he can make whatever dishonest representations that come to his head and he won't be held accountable for them because they're not in writing. Luckily, CO allows for the recording of phone calls with the consent of only one party. If you ever have the misfortune of working with him, definitely record your phone calls.