Maronda Homes, anyone have info?

[Jimmy9190]

My wife and I are thinking of buying a new home. There is a new Maronda Homes community a few miles from where we live now. I am already pre-qualified both with their lender and my own bank for up to $150,000.00 on a mortgage loan.

Anyone have any input on Maronda Homes? I am looking for info and opinions, experiences good, bad or indifferent on Maronda before we sign the dotted line or make an offer. This would be a new home, brand new construction on the lot we picked out. It's a nice lot, backs up to woods, no rear neighbors, at the top of a hill on a nice-looking street. The other houses all look great, at least from the street and the models look good too. We also toured another house under construction, it is in a different neighborhood but is the same model as the one we have picked out, it was maybe 75% complete and looks to be built extremely well. We both really like this house we have picked out. It's about 1900 sf, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, huge master bath, big kitchen with an island and a lot of counter and cabinet space. It has a 2 car garage and they can even put in the plumbing so I can put a sink in the garage, something I have wanted all of my adult-automotive life...

We have not made any offers or signed any papers other than the pre-qual documents yet. I am wondering if anyone here on BITOG might know anything about Maronda, I am trying to gather all info I can, whether it is good or bad before we buy. Thanks for any insight on this.

 

[Billy_D]

http://www.insuranceyak.com/costner-vs-maronda-homes-builder-out-3-million/

 

[ARCOgraphite]

New construction in FLA?! I know 20 miles from where my retired Mom lives SWF over in Cape coral they have 5 yo houses over 2200sq ft with pool, garage etc for under 80 grand. The market is dead. Focus on the town and community - you dont want that to go down the tubes in the near future. Make sure the HVAC unit is better than a contractor grade mild steel 7 year unit.

 

[eljefino]

Are there a HOA or restrictive covenants?

 

[HerrStig]

Hire a good home inspector for yourself, not the guy the mortgage company uses. Ever watch the "Holmes on Homes" TV show on cable? Mike Holmes is always demonstrating how homeowners can get bleeped and what it costs to "make it right".

 

[Jimmy9190]

Yes there is an HOA but there is no pool, only a park and nature trail so the HOA fee is only $28.00 a month. I do watch Holmes on Holmes, sure wish I could hire that guy so I could know for sure I got a good deal. I hope to find a good inspector here, I will not use the builder's inspector for that.

Wife and I are still talking it over, still hashing out what to do, and we have not signed our life away or made any offers at Maronda yet. I know we could save a lot on the price and payments too if we are patient and try to find the right used home, hopefully one that is not very old and is built to the better energy and hurricane codes. Problem is not very many used homes around here right now that we like. The ones we do like are out of our price range.

Thanks for your info on this.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

I would be very careful if you're choosing a cookie cutter general contractor. I certainly can't speak for all of them, but a good deal of them tend to cut corners whenever possible. I'd look carefully and speak with people who have homes built by them and have lived in them for a few years.

When we built our home we interviewed several contractors suggested by our architect. We found one that had a stellar reputation for custom homes, and did not cut corners. The architect was on site at least once a week, we were on site almost daily, and we ended up with a great experience because we did our due diligence.

There are a lot of good general contractors, and there are just as many sub-standard general contractors. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is which until it's too late.

 

[dishdude]

I owned a Maronda that was built in '94, it was the biggest pile of junk ever built. It was my first house, and even then I should have known better. Construction quality was on the poor side of average - none of the doors were hung correctly so they would swing all the way open or all the way shut - silly things like that.

The worst was the quality of the materials used. Polybutylene plumbing that was already known to be garbage by '94, LP siding that rotted and was also known to be garbage by the time the house was built (there were class actions on these two items).

Dual pane windows that had moisture between them within 10 years, you name it - it was shot by the 10 year mark.

I think they have improved since then, but are still on the low end of the tract home builders. I am in a Ryland now that is light years ahead of the Maronda.

I think Maronda filed chapter 11 last year.

 

[Jimmy9190]

We took a walk in the neighborhood tonight, chatted with some of our potential future neighbors. Everyone we met was very friendly, glad to meet us and they all were very happy with their homes, and just happy with the neighborhood in general. No one we spoke with had any real major issues with their homes or Maronda itself in this development. A very welcome plus to this neighborhood is there are no fewer than three Police Officers living on the same street where our house will be built. A Deputy Sheriff lives just one street over. This keeps the neighborhood safe, the neighbors say there is no problem with crime or thug-punk-wanna-be-a-gangsters there. The neighbors don't have to worry if they leave the garage door open at night.

I read that if you really want to see if you like a house, go look at it in the rain. It poured down rain while we were there at the Sales Office today and I could see through the model home's windows that none of the houses had any problem with their gutters or drain systems. The streets drained right away, there were no puddles or flooded driveways. The place appears to be built correctly and the houses are all very nice and built very well.

We have a few days to think this over before Maronda wants us to sign a contract and pay a minimal deposit to start the process. We may just pull the trigger on this Maronda deal. It may be more expensive in the long run versus buying a used house, but the house will be the way we want it and it will have a warranty. There is a 25 year warranty on the roof, that is worth a lot in itself.