Mavrek Development

Directly from Mavrek's website: "We strive to meet?and then exceed?our clients? vision for their homes." Below, we will describe how this is not the case, especially with items they overlooked, and or did incorrectly on our home. We reached out to Mavrek Development to rehab our house in June of 2012. They were outstanding from the beginning by providing assistance in the process of finding a suitable home. September 2012, Mavrek found a home, closed on it, and shortly after started rehabbing it for us. The initial phases post closing went smoothly and we requested to be kept in the loop regarding costs/budgets or other miscellaneous activities/expenses. We were given a detailed budget sheet and were informed we would have meetings regularly to update current costs versus budgeted. We felt it was important to be a part of this process because our budget was not unlimited, which Mavrek knew from the beginning. (It is important to note that Mavrek needed our banks approval prior to starting the project). After agreeing on budgetary terms, Mavrek made it clear they were building a custom home for us and we would be active in selecting finishes. In actuality certain finishes, were NOT selected by us, rather Pete [insert Pete?s title] thought it was acceptable for him to select. For example, our shower door in the master bath, door hardware (non cabinets), front door, and back door were all chose by Pete without previous discussion and agreement. The front door used during construction phases ended up remaining in place as the final door full of dings and scuffs. These are all small items, but it would have been nice for us to select these items and be incorporated in the decision making as agreed upon from the start, but unfortunately were never given the option. The end result was that these items were installed and after final walk through were told by Mavrek those items were final. The area phase of construction where problems started to surface was during framing. Framing began middle/end of November 2012, and continued into December 2012. We actively asked Mavrek for meetings to see how the house was going, and were never granted them. January 2013, we were finally granted a meeting, and it went terrible. We were told that we needed to come up with an additional $10,000 because framing costs were higher than they anticipated. We did not have the $10,000, but were willing to help out where we could in order to save some costs. (A quick note about this meeting, Bobby [insert Bobby?s title] admitted after the meeting that he did not look at anything prior to the meeting, as he was just getting back from traveling which was a common practice during the building of our home). Also keep in mind, we were told multiple times that our house would appraise out for far more than what we paid and that Mavrek could get a lot more for the house than what we had agreed upon if they sold it on the open market. Not sure how this statement was relevant to us, and why we needed to be told that, but it was a comment we heard quite frequently. In continuing the building process, we volunteered to paint the house and obtain quotes for other items that might help save costs. When we started obtaining quotes we promptly passedalong the information to Mavrek but were always told we couldn't use those contractors because Mavrek did not insure them. It is understandable that there are some contractors that might not work but, Bobby and Pete were the ones that recommended for us to obtain competitive quotes to help save money. Aside from obtaining quotes we purchased all the paint, paint supplies, light fixtures, picked out cheaper tile, and cabinet hardware. We also agreed to have a friend install all the plumbing fixtures, but that eventually became an issue when Pete thought a water heater and the humidifier were part of the fixture package. We eventually resolved that problem, but once again highlights another issue and habitual miscommunication between the Mavrek team. Back to the budget, as I said we were given budgets for finished items in the house. Pete, with his track home experience, thought that it was okay to pick out the finishes himself without discussing with us. The tile in the house was an issue because they were not happy about the overage and we were instructed that we needed to find cheaper tile. We accommodated their request and Pete made sure to share his thoughts about how he had to drive all over the area to procure the material. The stores Mavrek bought material from were too expensive, so what were we to do? The cabinets we personally chose came in under budget, not by the dollar amount Pete wanted and he felt the need to point out how much money under we came in. Pete also designed the cabinets himself which was done so poorly the lady at Studio41 even made a comment. Bobby did surprise us with having the basement and upstairs painted which was a nice touch, but I believe it was ultimately decided that they needed to do it in order for us to close faster. Another area that was eliminated entirely from the budget was landscaping. We were okay with this as we wanted to do something different anyway from what was proposed. Although with that being stated, there were some difficulties in regards to the yard. When they were demoing the house, all the windows were thrown in the back yard and the entire yard was covered in glass. We asked Bobby if this could remove the glass, and he brought his crew out to ?clean" the back yard. We also asked for a small patio to be removed. While Bobby was at the house (after we closed and moved in), he actually had the nerve to tell us that our deck steps were not done correctly, and there should be a block of cement under the current frame. It was very difficult for me to keep a professional stance on this, because my builder just told me our deck was not installed properly, and he was the builder of my house. Front and back side of the house there ended up being holes in the foundation. Spring of 2013, we had a ton of rain storms, and the house inevitably took on water. Before rehabbing the house, there was an entrance into the basement, from the front and the back, and after rehab, neither were sealed properly. We actually have a 1 foot deep hole in the back of our house, why it was left that way, who knows, but again Bobby said, "yea, that shouldn't be like that". This was ultimately Pete's decision to leave it this way. He did have a contractor come out and patch both areas, but said at some point we would need to fill it in because it will still take on water??? Finally, what brings me here today is a week ago, I was measuring for some landscaping, and I looked up under our front porch and found that our bay window is exposed to the open air. There is some BAT insulation poorly/improperly installed, and when I say poorly, it is just jammed up in there with scrap pieces of ply-wood holding it in. You can see and touch our subfloor in our living room, FROM THE OUTSIDE. Our living room floor is freezing because of this oversight and faulty patch job. We informed Bobby and asked him to send someone out to take a look. This was his response, "based on the pictures there is BAT insulation and backing under the bay window. If you want to seal it up a little tighter I would recommend getting a can of great stuff insulation from Home Depot or Menards and sealing the area. Here is a link to it - http://www.homedepot.com/b/Building-Materials-Insulation/GREAT-STUFF/N-5yc1vZasbsZ4nh?cm_mmc=SEM|G|BT2." I wish I could attach pictures, because it is terrible. The problem area certainly was noticed early by one of Mavrek?s contractors but instead of properly fixing someone just decided to "cover" it up. It is in an area that no one can see, which made it difficult for me to notice, and it was actually a fluke that I discovered it. It was extremely frustrating to get a response like I did from Mavrek, because once again it was our problem, and it had nothing to do with the builder. Bobby sells himself as a charmer and would rather talk to you on the phone, because he can charm his way out of a situation. Just be careful when you talk to him on the phone, one point during the process, he went on a 5 minute tangent about his personal life, yelling at me, complaining that he had to pay for his wedding, and how he had to pay for our neighbors siding (the demo team for our house damaged the neighbors house), it was a very strange and unprofessional phone call. The final piece to construction was the punchlist items which took forever to get them to fix anything eventually leading to us telling them, ?forget it, we will do the rest.? The frustration was becoming too much because they could not send someone out to spend 1 hour at the house to finish stuff. An example of this is that our front deck was missing a few screws on one of the steps...it was a month and a half, and still not repaired. Anyway, I do not know if Mavrek was over extended when they were building our house, or not but all Bobby cared about was closing on our house. They rushed the building of our back deck in order to get the appraisal done in time. We believe the majority of our issues with them surfaced when money became an issue. If you use them, I would not plan on getting timely answers to your questions, unless it involves money. Pete has no filter, and will make off hand comments frequently. Bobby, does not hold people accountable for their actions, and it always seems to be someone else's problem. It is unfortunate that this was our outcome.

It went poorly. They did not do a lot of things they should have done. It took them 2 or 3 times to do something correctly. They did not take or pay attention to directions well. They did not order items they should have. Overall, it was painful. They lost house keys and we had to put new locks in. They did not respect the condo association. It was just a continual fight, one thing after another.