North State Building Corp.

We would not recommend this builder. We had a signed contract and had asked to pay for our permits and let him get those so when we closed on our construction loan we could quickly begin. He refused to do anything for us until he received a 30k deposit. We gave him the $30,000 on closing day and he was to commence construction within thirty days. We read that lumber prices were on the rise again and asked to let us purchase the lumber and store it in a securely fenced area on the home site and he refused, stating that it was consumer driven and would dip again. Lumber prices more than doubled over the next few weeks. He had added a materials increase clause to the contract but conveniently left out the materials decrease clause we had asked for and he agreed to. Three and a half weeks later the permits had not even been applied for in our county and we were four days from the 30 day commencement. We had not been updated on progress and when we couldn’t get a reply concerning any progress from him by text (his preferred method of communication) we texted him again and asked if he didn’t want to build for us to please let us know so we could find another builder. We were accused of being negative/threatening and were told to refrain from that. He talked down to us on a couple occasions and we were treated simply as a project rather than a family wanting and needing to build a home. He finally agreed to dissolve the contract and kept our 30k another month, until we called and asked for the deposit back. When he did return the deposit, he kept $4464 for doing nothing that we could tell. He had quoted the project, which should be considered the cost of doing business, as no one else has charged us for a detailed building quote. He also visited the site twice. He charged an additional 12% for this and 12% for that, plus taxes associated with his hourly pay above that. We could have agreed to pay him a small amount to avoid hard feelings on his end, but he went after every dollar he could keep from us knowing we needed that money for the down payment on the build. Legally, because of the contract, he may have had reason to keep some, but not as much as he kept. In our opinion, morally and ethically, he is very much in the wrong and he felt no remorse the day we met to sign the release and get the refund check. We were warned by our banker and our closing attorney about that extra large deposit and surely wish we had listened to the warning. Jamie and Debbie Keever