Riverside Homes

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• By C J.

  September 7, 2022

  $9,400,000

  This is a case of the textbook "buyer beware". In August of 2022, my husband and I were looking for new construction in the St. Johns area and came across Riverside Homes and their sales rep, Trisha Ziemba.

  During our walkthrough of their model, we asked Trisha how long it would take to complete the building of the home from the signing of the contract. We were told by Trisha that it would be about 14 months so around October 2023.

  We explained to Trisha that we would prefer the home to be completed in August of 2023 so that our oldest could start school at the start of the school year.

  We decided to move along and Trisha explained that we would need to hand her a check for $5,000 to reserve the lot. She explained that the payment was non refundable and was required to reserve the lot. We believed her.

  As we were leaving the sales center, Trisha explained that it could take about a week or more to reserve the lot. Two days later, I emailed Trisha some questions including whether or not it was possible to move the completion date from October 2023 to August 2023. Trisha addressed the other questions in the email but did not address whether August 2023 was a possibility.

  Every single time we requested the complete list of options with pricing, she would respond saying that the list was too long. She eventually sent a partial list of only the structural options.

  Two weeks later, Trisha sent my husband and I the Purchase and Sales Contract to sign. Upon review, we noted that there was no completion date in terms of when the home would be ready. Instead the contract stated that Riverside could take 2 years to even start building.

  Trisha stated that she could not add the promised date of October 2023 to the contract because of COVID etc. Trisha was adamant that nothing could be changed despite her initial promises.

  We felt deceived. Trisha had recommended two preferred mortgage lenders to us. One of the lenders who we applied to and got pre-approved explained to us that Trisha secretly requested that our lender have our file go to underwriting! We explained to the Lender that Trisha (as per the contract) is going to wait another 2 years to even start building, so why would we go through the process for underwriting for a home that would take more than 3 years to complete? Again, Trisha did not explain this extra condition to us and only stated that we needed to obtain a preapproval letter from her preferred lender. All the time, she was requesting that the lender have our file go into underwriting. Very shady. The lender explained to us that this is what Trisha and Riverside Homes does to their customers/clients....they try to push for underwriting without the buyers' consent.

  So, we never signed the Sales Contract with Riverside due to the dishonesty and lack of disclosure by Trisha and Riverside Homes. We asked back for our $5000 lot reservation deposit and....as you can guess.....Trisha and Riverside Homes said no. Trisha pretty much avoided all the promises she made to us before taking our $5000 check and said "oh, it's non-refundable".

  I would like anyone that is considering buying from Riverside Homes to ask for all the information upfront and most of all, get everything in writing before handing over anything.

  My husband and I have purchased new construction homes a few times from bigger builders and have never seen this level of dishonesty. Terrible.

  My advice to potential customers of Riverside Homes:
  a) Before handing over any money, have an attorney review the document to ensure that you are aware of your rights
  b) Before signing any contract, ask to see a full listing of option pricing
  c) Get it in writing. Please do not assume that what the sales agent says is what you will see in their contract.

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