Schuster Homes

Schuster didn't tell us that he had no public report for our phase of construction when he tried to sell us on buying our property. He illegally took a deposit from us, which he was later forced to return. We were told our home would be finished by February 2016. Concrete was poured in August 2015. The house was not ready until June 2016. We were told that we'd be involved in the layout of the kitchen. When the time came, we heard from the cabinet builder that the cabinets were already half done, and it would not be easy to make changes. Our small kids' bathroom has kitchen height countertops, and my drawings of how the kitchen should be laid out went in the trash. There are signs up that a local bank is financing construction. Months into the build, when the home was due to be done, Schuster met with us to tell us that he was personally financing the build and that he was out of money. He asked us to release our $240K loan deposit directly to him. He also showed us a one hundred forty six thousand dollar debt paper that he had on one of the homeowners in the subdivision. He wanted us to buy it from him, at no discount. We declined. During our decision making time Schuster left me a nasty message that if he didn't get money from us, he would put our home on the market for sale. Even after releasing the cash to Schuster, he still stopped our solar company from installing ahead of escrow closure until we paid for the system in full the next morning. He gave us keys ahead of escrow closure, only to change all of the top locks once we started inspecting some of the interior workmanship. When asked why, he told us that things would be completed to his "high standards". Some door handles were installed upside down. Some door hinges were missing. Gouges in walls were simply painted over. Someone stepped through the ceiling and did a sloppy job of covering it up. When I complained that some of the downspouts at the sides and rear of the home were not connected to drains and pointed out other obvious flaws that were not to my "high standards" for a home of this caliber I was told that I've been blocked from his email and cellphone because of my rude attitude. For the release of the funds from us directly to him, Schuster drafted up an interest payment document for us. During escrow signing he insisted that he didn't owe us interest on the money that was released even though he initially agreed to fund the entire build. After the release, our build continued to trickle on with a few subs here and there to do work. Luckily we didn't sell our other home early, or else we'd not only have lived out of boxes for additional months, but would have had to rent. Now, almost a year later, as we're looking to finish our back yard, I found out that Schuster suggested to the owner of the landscaping company that he not work with us, after which we signed up with them to begin work. According to the on site job boss and nephew of the owner, later that week on a Saturday, Schuster drove up to him in front of our home and started a conversation with the worker. Schuster asked him if he knew who he was working for and if he knew what type of people we were. Schuster continued to go on and on about what bad customers we were and made it very clear that he did not like us. If we were at all getting over how we were treated before, we are now irate. We found out that Schuster's problems started months earlier when it was discovered that the emergency reserves on his water and sewer companies for the subdivision were not adequately funded. That was part of the reason keeping him from receiving the Public Report from the Department of Real Estate for our phase of building. The lack of that report kept him from selling lots and finished homes to at least three families, who according to Schuster kept them from closing escrow and moved into their homes without the proper paperwork. We've been nothing but accommodating to Schuster, thought we were done with him, and now it's all being spun into something to make us out to be villains and are being slandered by him. We've filed a complaint with the HOA, which has assured us that he would not be back here, and will pursue all other legal actions against him so that other customers and business partners of his know exactly what's happening.