Ryan K.
1/5
Our family contacted DB Custom Homes in early 2021 as first-time custom home clients with a modest budget and a challenging property that required rezoning to build our forever home. Dave was incredibly responsive and reassuring at the beginning. He told us that despite being near the lower end of his typical price range, he wasn't a "Lamborghini dealership" and could work with us if we were careful.
Based on that trust and Dave's encouragement we signed a contract early in the process and paid a $60,000 deposit, despite not yet having a design, finalized budget, or permits in place. Less than a year later, we were invoiced an additional $30,000 “delay fee,” as no construction had started and we were still tied up in the rezoning process. We had been upfront from the beginning about the rezoning timeline being uncertain, and we continued to manage that process ourselves entirely.
As cost estimates provided kept climbing, the project became unworkable. We were left with no flexibility to recover our investment and felt continually boxed in by a one sided contract and in the end squeezed out. We lost $90,000 for what turned out to be a dream that simply wasn’t feasible and were left holding the bag. No materials were purchased, work completed, shovels put in the ground, left my family without anything to show for the money paid.
We made multiple attempts to resolve the situation privately, but were met with a flat refusal. We’re sharing our experience to help others ask the right questions before signing early commitments, have lawyers review things, to be cautious about promises that may not match reality, and to hopefully avoid the kind of financial and emotional losses we endured.
Update
Hi Dave,
We feel it’s important to further clarify our experience, as your recent response to our comment seems to minimize the serious concerns we faced and the financial losses we incurred.
When we questioned the delay fee clause at the beginning prior to signing and knowing rezoning could significantly impact timelines it was implied this wouldn’t be an issue. Yet less than 10 months later, to our surprise we were invoiced the full fee, even though we had been completely transparent about the rezoning unknowns from the outset and as they evolved
From that point on, your estimated construction costs escalated dramatically increasing from $350 to $500 per square foot within just nine months of signing, far beyond the original range we had trusted and been told was feasible to build the home we needed. This left us effectively locked into an unworkable situation with no realistic way out.
Despite paying $90,000, there was no construction started, no permits submitted, no materials purchased, and no viable build plan finalized. Regardless of what the contract says, this outcome feels deeply unjust given the minimal work delivered on our project, the money went elsewhere.
It felt as though, once we signed the contract, the water level started rising through fees and cost estimates, that ultimately left us with no meaningful off ramp without losing everything. We were boxed in.
To your comment about committing a “build slot” or that you turned away work for a project that was still highly conceptual and in such early stages with so many unknowns ahead of us and then distancing yourself from the planning realities we consistently flagged as being an obstacle, is hard to reconcile and raises some questions. Especially coming from a builder with far greater resources, experience, and access to industry contacts than we had as first-time potential homebuilders. Yet because of the contract we regrettably signed, you imposed a $30,000 delay fee and then this became solely our $90,000 problem.
We stand firmly by our review and our decision to share this experience. We hope it helps others avoid the mistakes we made, by asking the right questions, insisting on clearer safeguards, and avoiding the financial and emotional burdens we ultimately endured.
Ryan and Mandy Kennedy
