Stone Bridge Realty Group

The easiest way to explain our experience with Stone Bridge is to attach a portion of a letter we wrote to the Owner of Stone Bridge, Kelly Ritz. It's very telling that we NEVER received any response. Very disappointing. Trying to get the build of our house started was our first indication that this was going to be a difficult process. We were told by Gary that Stone Bridge would have preferred lenders get in touch with us, and offered a discount if we were to select one of those vendors. That never happened, so we took it upon ourselves to find our own lender. We had our lender, ************ in place with all our pre-approval paperwork by June 2. The appraisal was ordered and came in lower than the price we agreed on with Stone Bridge. We were afraid this might happen, as I stated earlier, our house was substantially more than the comps in the area supported. It was then, that I noticed the numbers that Eric had initially given the appraiser were incorrect. He had not included $3,000 worth of upgrades we had added. While I feel strongly about being honest, Eric quickly had us sign a corrected copy with the corrected price. We felt a company of integrity should have thanked us for our honesty and perhaps absorbed the cost. It was a mistake, but it was not our mistake. We were never offered an apology or a thank you for pointing out the error. Eric took it as an opportunity to go back to the appraiser and ask for a review of the appraisal. Amazingly, the appraisal came back with exactly the amount we needed to purchase the home. The house was finally started on June 27th, more than a month after we put our deposit down and signed the paperwork. This was the first of many delays that not only impacted our quality of living but cost us significant additional money in rent. The building of the house went along at a pretty quick pace. We upgraded many more selections on flooring, lighting, landscaping, but since we were at the top of what our lender would allow for our home, we had to come up with that additional cash each time. This amount was substantial, over $10,000 out of pocket. This was about the time we found out that Stone Bridge did not intend to honor the Intel Passport credit. From the first time we looked at Pacific Crossing, we informed Gary that ******** worked for Intel, and that was why we were moving from Vancouver, WA to Forest Grove. However, Stone Bridge said that we had not informed them we at the time of signing and so they would not honor that $2,000 toward upgrades. After much discussion, Stone Bridge finally allowed the $2,000 credit. While it is true that the credit was finally granted, there is no excuse for the amount of effort or anguish that were required for something that should have been so simple and straightforward. We did everything in our power to keep the process moving quickly. We went by the house and caught as many mistakes as we could. We hoped that to correct a mistake right away would save time, but that was not always the case. For instance, we let them know they had framed all the doors at the wrong height. Those mistakes take time to correct and we waited until they reframed the doors and then waited again until they delivered the correct size doors. By September we were starting to get anxious. We had been living in a rental home for three months and our home didn't look close to being completed. Mistakes continued to be made. They poured the driveway incorrectly, the front porch was done completely different than the plans indicated, the wrong height master shower glass was installed, and the wrong kitchen sink was put in. We expected mistakes to be made, but the frustrating part was Stone Bridge's uncaring attitude about the mistakes. It was costing us time and money while we waited. For instance, we felt the master shower glass was a builder mistake. The shower was an important item for us, so we spent a great deal on upgrades on the shower. We enlarged it, added a rain overhead shower head, tiled it and added pebbles to the floor. ************ is 6'4?, so we had the shower head raised to 7'. However, when the glass was installed, it was only 6' tall. We realize that is the standard height and would not have been a problem had they put in a taller base to the shower. The base of the shower in the model homes were 6? tall, the one in our home was 1? tall. ********* had to bend down to get into the shower and then if he was to use the shower, water would go all over the sheetrock. So, it had to be replaced. Even though we were inconvenienced, Stone Bridge simply said if we wanted it changed out, we would have to pay an upgrade fee. We were given three options, ranging from an additional $790 - $1,040. We chose the $1,040 dollar frameless shower dooroption. It would be four weeks after we moved in before we received our new shower door glass, after being told it would only be two weeks from the time we made the change. We had to call the glass company ourselves to get the shower glass ordered and while we were waiting we were told not to take a take a shower in the existing shower or we would be charged for the existing glass as well. Another example of a mistake that StoneBridge did not own up to is the kitchen sink that was put in. We informed Stone Bridge September 11 that the wrong sink was put in. It was not switched out for the upgraded sink until October 15th.At our walkthrough the Contractor that was responsible for our house told us that the upgraded sink change was on the fourth page of the addendum, so is it any wonder he missed it. This is a good example of how the attitude of Stone Bridge being one of not caring and being not committed to either quality ? if something is part of the contract it needs to be done, regardless of where it is on the contract. There were many occasions where we were told to read the fine print of our contract when it was in Stone Bridge's best interests, but here something as simple as which sink to install was treated with disdain. He also informed *********** during the walk-through where builder mistakes are highlighted and corrected that he had done enough of *********** ?honey-do? list (when asked to correct yet another mistake). A final example of Stone Bridge not seeming to care about customer satisfaction, would be the front porch area. At first, it was just three tall beams. We then informed Stone Bridge that the plans show half rock, half large beam with railing between the three. They fixed the columns and added the rock, but we choose not to get the railings, in large part, because we were so pressed for time to get into the house we didn't feel we had time. However, no credit was made to us. The interesting thing is, if we had decided to ?add? railings to the home, we would have to pay for that upgrade, but taking something ?out?, because the builder missed it on the plans, did not result in a credit. We finally closed on our house on the 17th of October. That didn't go smoothly either. Apparently, half of the paperwork sent over by Stone Bridge to our lender had the wrong street name on the paperwork. Instead of Falls Street, Stone Bridge had put Fall Street. This is yet another example of the lack of attention to detail that cost us time and money and added to our dissatisfaction with the build process. This mistake by Stone Bridge caused the entire closing to stall to a halt and was probably partially, if not completely, responsible for our loan to be flagged for audit. That caused a later delay. We had out walk through on October 10th, but were not able to close until October 17th. By late October we were finally moving in. But we continued to see a lack of concern for providing a good experience for the home buyer. When we moved in, the house was not terribly clean. For instance, the windows needed to be washed, and the floors still had dust on them. Also, both adjoining lots still have building debris on them, even though we've asked them to clean them up. The window and door screens were not put on. The lock box was not taken off. We only had one garage door remote. In fact, we still only have one garage remote. Even simple workmanship quality seemed lackadaisical. ********** has adjusted most of the doors in the house, because they closed, but did not close completely in order to lock the door. We are also still working on getting glue off countertops, touching up scratched cabinets, and keeping a list of things that need to be repaired at our three month warranty list. Again, we realize there are always minor adjustments to be made but it is clear that Stone Bridge did not care about customer service, at least in our case. We do love our home. But the path to getting here should have been more of a joint effort. We always felt the attitude of Stone Bridge was that of doing us a favor by allowing us to buy one of their homes. There was not a feeling of respect for us or consideration of what we were going through. We appreciate the options that Stone Bridge offers. We also appreciate people are human and there are always going to be mistakes. However, it's how you handle those mistakes. Simply acting as though it's not a big deal and not owning up to them or considering how it is affecting your clients/customers is what distinguishes between a bad company and a great company. We would not recommend to any of our friends they build with Stone Bridge. Which is a shame because, as I stated before, ******* works for Intel and there are always people moving in or changing homes. And it's purely because of the way we were treated throughout the process. I don't think that is what you envisioned for your company.