This will be long, but it is an important warning to anyone considering buying from Toll Bros.
-We sold our home in and in August ?08 and we wanted to buy a home at Toll Bros. Heritage development in Vista Del Verde (Yorba Linda). We signed a contract with Toll for a home priced at $814,995 with $20,000 in incentives. We paid the required deposit of $40,778.00. Days after signing this agreement Toll asked us to come in and pick the first options because they told us that slabs were to be poured within the next few weeks (the beginning of September). We felt pressured to give additional money so soon, but relied on the information we were given (that they would be pouring soon and didn?t want to miss out on the options we wanted.) Additional deposit required for options was $15,625.00 bringing our deposit with Toll to $56,403.00. A month later Toll lowered the prices of 6 remaining homes in our phase on or about 9/24/08 (they still hadn?t poured slabs at this point on our home or any others.)
-We asked for the same price reduction ($30,000) they taken off the base price of the other home identical to ours (ours was on the street side of the development and the other home was on the golf course). Toll said they would only give us $20,000 off and we were required to use it for more options AND pay them an additional $20,000 deposit.
-We, along with our Prudential agent met with the project manager and we asked for all $30,000 plus a price guarantee that would protect us just till we closed escrow. At this point we discussed our reservations about the delay in construction and the money we had already given them for a home which had not even been started. We also showed him information about price guarantees being given by other builders to insure consumer confidence and protect the buyers home value.
-Toll countered with the $30,000 reduction being given in options and no price guarantee, plus we would be required to pay another $30,000 up front for the options being offered. This would bring our deposit to $86,403.
-We canceled our contract because we were worried about the home losing value while they still hadn?t started construction.
-Also, Toll promised to build pool and recreation area in the first phase, our early purchase was influenced by this information (now they say they will build it sometime in 2010)
-Toll said they would subsidize HOA until build out, but we are not sure they can or will keep this commitment
-We recently learned that Toll is being sued by shareholders for insider trading (Standard Law Review info)
- In light of the fact that Toll stock has declined dramatically and Toll executives took huge cash bonuses despite shareholder protest, we were concerned about the financial stability of the company and didn?t want them keeping more than $80,000 of our money!
-As of this writing the homes are finally being built and the home we backed out on is being offered at about $60,000 less than our contract price.
_We obtained a real estate attorney who got our option money back from Toll, but they kept our $40,000 as liquidated damages even though when we cancelled the contract the lot was undeveloped (no power lines, phone, concrete..nothing) The attorney said Toll is notorious for keeping deposits because they know they can run you to the ground legally with in house attorneys.
