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Typical KB Home Responses |
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Typical KB Home Reponses 1. Question: Does KB Home prefer to sell homes to buyers from out of town?o KB Response: KB Home will gladly sell a home to anyone who is interested, and we do not prefer one type of buyer over another. We treat all buyers equally. o Reality: Out of town buyers are more likely to purchase a home from KB than a San Antonio resident because they are not familiar with the strong history and track record KB Home has regarding their poor development and building practices. Secondly, KB Home in San Antonio will leverage the good reputation that exists in other markets such as California. 2. Question: Does KB Home prefer to sell homes to buyers without a Realtor? o KB Response: KB Home is very receptive to working with your Realtor, and it does not cost the buyer anything because KB Home pays the Realtor commission. o Reality: Many Realtors in San Antonio will deter their clients from KB Home due to their poor building practices and track record in the greater San Antonio area. However, KB Home has tried to increase referrals from local Realtors by raising the commission payout above the typical 3% Realtor fee. KB Home sometimes doubles the commission to 6%, or will pay the traditional 3% with an extra $5000 bonus to the realtor. 3. Question: Why did KB downgrade the neighborhood with cheaper homes? o KB Response: KB Home continues to build an outstanding product, including offering more diverse floor plans based on customer feedback. o Reality: No other home builder in the $350-474k price point has abandoned their product line mid way through the development process. As KB has downgraded multiple neighborhoods throughout the city, consumer awareness is heightened, and sales are worse with each new lesser series offered. On December 18, 2008 the Express News reported a 4% decline in the median home prices for San Antonio, and MLS data from San Antonio Board of Realtors shows that the Stone Oak area experienced a 5.74% increase during this same period. Unfortunately, despite the market strength of the Stone Oak area, the actions of KB Home have devalued the community to a point where the difference in median pricing on its current offering of third and fourth generation home series is 10.25% less than the second series Liberty, and 20.61% less than the Estate series initial product offering. The common link that separates the homes in the Quarry at Iron Mountain from the rest of Stone Oak is that these homes have all been built and devalued by KB Home. 4. Question: Why did KB Home reduce the structural quality of the homes at Quarry Iron Mountain? o KB Response: KB Home builds to the building code requirements of the city of San Antonio. o Reality: Originally, the homes in Quarry at Iron Mountain were built to a high level of structural integrity because of the dynamite blasting that occurs once weekly form the adjacent rock quarry. Since the current homes are built to the minimal structural standards, there is a possibility that these homes will be plagued with construction flaws that are present at Sundance Trails and Sundance Ridge. 5. Question: Did KB Home also downgrade other neighborhoods throughout San Antonio? o KB Response: KB Home doesn’t downgrade neighborhoods, we build quality homes throughout San Antonio at different price levels o Reality: KB Home performed a bait and switch in many San Antonio neighborhoods in the past few months. Some neighborhoods are on their fourth product line. KB allowed homeowners to finalize their purchase rather than disclosing this information and having the homeowners make an informed decision. 6. Question: When KB Home decides to abandon a home collection in a neighborhood, why doesn’t KB notify the pending buyers about the bait and switch while their home is still under construction, and allow the buyer to make an informed decision? o KB Response: We try to provide information that might be important to our customers. KB Home does not feel that when we change product lines and discontinue previous series that it is significant information to our customers. Therefore, we choose not to hassle them with insignificant details such as this. o Reality: If KB Home were to inform their customers about this information prior to their purchase they would not have been able to sell these homes. KB Home knows what their plans are for a neighborhood 5-6 months in advance and will withhold this information to make a sale today. 7. Question: Did KB Home really sell all of their lots in the sister neighborhood across the street at Iron Mountain? o KB Response: KB Home sold all of the lots to Pulte because we were ready to launch Quarry at Iron Mountain, and we didn’t want to compete with ourselves. o Reality: KB Home was only able to sell ~15 homes in Iron Mountain, and abandoned the development because of their poor sales. This was their first attempt to build homes above the median price point in the Stone Oak area, and they failed despite the strong real estate market of that time. 8. Question: Why does KB Home have such a bad reputation of building poor quality homes? o KB Response: KB Home acquired this reputation when we bought Ray Ellison, or Rayco. o Reality: Reference the web links under ”Resources” for recent questionable KB Home building practices, or ask residents of the greater San Antonio area if KB Home is a good builder. Construction defects span all KB neighborhoods. The deceptive development practices are recent at Quarry at Iron Mountain, Saddle Mountain, Sundance Trails, Fox Grove, Auburn Hills, and Trails at Herff Ranch. Woods of Alon is the newest KB Home community in San Antonio, and is still on its initial product offering. However, sales there are extremely poor and it is a matter of time before KB Home downgrades the homes or sells the lots to another builder. 9. Question: Why did KB Home destroy the aesthetics of Quarry at Iron Mountain by demolishing the trees on the vacant lots? o KB Response: It lowers our construction costs to prepare all of the home sites at once. Secondly, this will allow us to complete the homes faster once they sell. o Reality: KB Home chose more profits over preserving the trees. The construction practice of demolishing the trees to clear the land is called “clear cutting.” 10. Question:Does 1203 Ashbury Bay in the Quarry at Iron Mountain really have foundation defects? o KB Response: After we partially built the house, we realized something wasn’t right. KB Home builds a quality product, so we wanted to fix it properly. We demolished the house and poured a small layer of concrete on top of the foundation to level it. It shouldn’t cause any problems, but if it does, you will have our 10 year warranty to rely on. More importantly, two foundations are better than one. o Reality: KB Home partially constructed this house with framing, roof, and siding. Once they realized the foundation was defective and not level, they demolished everything except the problem itself. This problem was fixed the least expensive way possible. If the owner of this house has foundation issues while living there, the owner will have to suffer through the inconvenience of repairs when the problem occurs. Secondly, you would have to disclose any foundations issues when you sell the house which could drastically affect your resale value. You should exercise caution when buying an inventory home from a builder because they are not held to the same standard of disclosure that a homeowner is. 11. Question: Do you have any comments in regards to KBLies.com? o KB Response: KBLies.com is causing the property values to go down, and not KB Home. We have a financial interest to protect the property values, and not degrade them. o Reality: Before KBLies.com was launched in January 2009, property values in Quarry at Iron Mountain have continued to erode and depreciate at a rate that exceeds the San Antonio area, despite being surrounded the strong real estate market of Stone Oak. Secondly, KB home is interested in preserving profits and not property values.
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