Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mercedes Homes (Melbourne, Florida) Layoffs and Implosion Continues - Headquarters for Sale

Anyone want to but an office building? Mercedes Homes' brand new shiny headquarters is for sale. The remaining troops moved into the top two floors of a building they mistakenly built just a year ago and now don't fill half of.

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well desrved, they treat their employees and subs like dunkies. Companies with little respect deserve this and more. Way to go MERCEDES!!!

Mercedes Homes SUCKS

Anonymous said...

They made me an offer for a home in Aliana,Richmond,TX and said later that they could not honor it. Mercedes Homes stinks

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes Aliana are liars and cheats

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes Aliana, Richmond, TX lied about prices and withdrew their prices from my deal.

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes Company are shoddy liars!!! They made us an offered on a home in Melbourne, FL, when we agreed to purchase the home at the price they offered us, they said they could not honor the price they quoted us. They added $20,000 to the price they quoted us. We ditched that deal and bought a house with Holiday Builders. We got a great deal with them!!!

Anonymous said...

Did you know that buying a home from Mercedes Homes you can unknowingly sign away your first amendment right! This company includes the 1st amendment waiver clauses in their contracts. They have the right to sue you if you complain about your homes construction. Have a lawyer review your contract and remove the clause before signing the contract.

Checkout these web sites for more information

http://www.wesh.com/news/3931117/detail.html

http://www.myleakyhome.com/

Anonymous said...

I was a former employee. Mercedes Homes is much better than most other companies I've worked for and is cutting cost due to the economy. They honestly try there best to please the customers. It is only a few sour employees that are spoiling the company good name.

Anonymous said...

haha, to the mercedes homes employee. Typical. Nice spelling and grammar! "I was a former employee" Does that mean you work there again? try "there" best? "the company good name" lol

Anonymous said...

Wow this is interesting information! I’m new to the Orlando Area and I was looking to purchase a home in a Mercedes subdivision. After reading the post about losing your first amendment and checking out the sites, I will definitely steer clear from a company like that.

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes has been denying almost every warranty claim in an attempt to make sure that the owners still take in several million a year. They don't care about their employees or customers.

Anonymous said...

I have recently attempted to make a deal with Mercedes after a previous attempt in January. In January I negotiated a price of $214,000 for their Pace Palm Deluxe in their Fern Meadows neighborhood, with half off options, and with sales person Dana Timms. I was ready to finalize the deal with Dana until his manager (supposedly) decided to raise the price up $6,000 from $214,000 to $220,000 and they did not allow me to add the options at 50% off. To make the deal even worse, they wanted me to make a deposit of 6% to place a hold on the house during the construction process.
After four months the house is still sitting on the market. For some reason their asking price went up from $214,000 to $243,000 in Florida’s declining market.
This month they have an incentive advertised on their website. This incentive allows first-time homebuyers like myself, to be able to purchase a home with a 5.5% interest rate with ZERO MONEY DOWN, ZERO CLOSING COSTS, NO POINTS, and NO ORIGINATION FEES in BIG BOLD writing on their website. I went to their Fern Meadows neighborhood again to negotiate a deal on the Wesley model and came to an agreement of $224,000 with 50% off options. The sales person acted like she had never seen the ad before (surprise, surprise). Luckily, I printed the ad directly from their website and was able to show her. The sales person had an ad that was exactly the same as the online ad, except it was lacking the ZERO CLOSING COSTS and ZERO MONEY DOWN statement. After the sales rep tried to backtrack and talk her way out of this deal she told me that she would speak to her manager and get back to me the next day. She emails me the following afternoon and tells me that, in order to get this deal I would have to purchase one of their inventory homes and would not be able to get 50% off options, select the lot, and would have to put down 10% to get the 5.5% rate. The ad reads ZERO MONEY DOWN, I asked her why would I have to put down 10%? Sales person response -"Because Florida is considered a declining market.” I'm not sure if Mercedes homes keeps their sales people in the loop, but I would assume that you don't need training to figure out what ZERO MONEY DOWN means.
I don’t understand why Mercedes doesn’t give an inch in their negotiations. On both occasions they gave me a price and didn’t budge at all. In a declining market plagued with foreclosures, a new home builder must offer incentives, more importantly honor their advertisements, and budge a little on their prices to sell houses.
I find it hilarious that the Mercedes’ written banner ad on their website speaks so positively about Florida’s housing market, yet their own sales people call it a declining market. It seems they neglected the fact that there is over 30,000 foreclosures on the market today in Florida and a 2.9% increase in sales (in February) means that investors were purchasing those foreclosures at a discounted rate that is going to continue to lower the prices of homes in Florida’s neighborhoods. Also in Brevard County we are getting ready to cut the jobs of approximately 80% of the 8000 NASA employees. Brevard County is ranked second to Silicon Valley Ca. for engineers in a given area. How does this affect Mercedes Homes? They will have to keep their houses on the market for a substantial period of time to ride out the recession and housing market slump. High-end job losses will decrease the average price of homes in this area dramatically. The housing market will not get better in 2009-2011, at least not here in Brevard County Florida. Mercedes homebuilder is not an honorable company and has certainly demonstrated that on two occasions to me. I would probably be better off talking to Maronda Homes or Holiday homebuilders. Good luck if you plan on purchasing a home at Mercedes.

Anonymous said...

What goes around comes around may actually be true in this case...dont feel sorry for Mercedes Homes that is for sure.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the First Amendment issue, Mercedes Homes is not the flag burner that it might seem. For those who are not familiar with the new home sales business, let me bring you up to speed on some of the contract verbage:

ALL new home builder earnest money contracts have a clause to waive a trial by jury in favor of binding arbitration. That does not mean that your case won't be heard, it just means that if ther's a problem, an arbitor (probably a judge or other third party) will decide who's right and who's wrong. Almost ALL new construction contract have this clause, and if a buyer were to try to have it removed, then the builder would most likely not sell a home to that buyer.

Keep in mind, they are not deciding whether what happened was FAIR or not, just whether or not sombody failed to perform under the contract stipulations.

If they Builder is found in breach of contract, the buyer is refunded their monies and the builder is required to pay damages (if allowed in that state the contract was written). If the buyer breaches contract, then they lose their money. It's really that simple. Also keep in mind that unless you are building a custom home and taking out your own personal construction line of credit, technically the home is owned by the BUILDER until after you close.

FYI, most builders have a clause stating the MAXIMUM that can be awarded to the buyer is about $500, and the same clause releases them from paying your legal fees as well.

Anonymous said...

I need current information on reliability of Mercedes Home Builders. We are considering a home purchase in St. Augustine, FL.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have had several problems since I purchased my Mercedes town home a year ago. When Fay came through, the master bedroom window leaked. Mercedes sent a "manager" out to look at the damage and said they would get back to me. They got back to me alright saying that water intrusion was not included in the construction defect policy. What????? Be careful of this company. Not a good one for sure!

Anonymous said...

We were the first couple to purchased a Mercedes Home in the Aliana Development (Richmond, Texas) because of false advertisement.

Or to put it another way we were told more than just one lie. One example in our contract it says the home comes with granite countertops.

The home so many problems from sub-standard contruction it would impossible to list them all here.

We have tired to work with Mercedes Homes, but they have laughed at us (more than once), not done the repair work even though we bought the home in August 2008

They refused to put in the granite countertops in even though the contract clearly states the home had them, which was stated by the sales person and the contract.

This is my first post here but it will not be the last Mercedes Home hears from us.

We have started a blog and have a website coming soon called Mercedes Homes Lied

Beware if you are thinking of buying a Mercedes Home in Texas!!!

Anonymous said...

My husband and I were the first couple to buy a Mercedes Home at Aliana, Richmond, TX

We found this blog too late or we would never have purchased our home from this builder.

Mercedes Homes are indeed liars.
They will tell you anything to make the sale.
They do not honor the contract, and laugh at you when this is pointed out to them.

From this day on we will everything in our power to get the word out that Mercedes Homes in a horrible builder and impossible to work with here in Texas.

Anonymous said...

Anyone reading this blog who has tried or is thinking about a purchase of a home in 'Aliana' Richmond, Texas from Mercedes Homes; please post your thoughts or questions.

Why?

There are five homes built at this moment and only two have sold. Until you know the whole truth about Mercedes Homes do not sign on the dotted line.

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Home just sold one of the three remaining homes they built the first part of 2008 in 'Aliana' by throwing everything, but the kitchen sink to those who looked at these homes.

Whoever this buyer is will soon learn, if they close on the home, that they have purchased a home from a company that will kick them to the curb after closing!

Anonymous said...

To many Anoymous people in the blog. Why not at least leave your name. My name is Jerry and I am a former employee. I must say that Mercedes Homes always went over board for the customers. Even if I was part of the cut backs, Mercedes Homes is still a good company. I wish them well and hope they make it thru these tough times.

Jerry

Anonymous said...

Geeez Jerry,

You sure gave a lot of information about yourself.

How about your last name?
When were you an employee of Mercedes Homes?
What state were you an employee with Mercedes Homes?
What position did you hold while working for Mercedes Homes?

You appear more like a mole for Mercedes Homes to me, since you posted under Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Jerry, a former employee of Mercedes Homes??

"My name is Jerry and I am a former employee. I must say that Mercedes Homes always went over board for the customers."

Your statement that Mercedes Homes always went over board for the customers, so does sewage out at sea!!!

Anonymous said...

Just a question the link to Mercedes Homes - Headquarter for Sale is gone.
Does that mean Mercedes Homes sold their Headquarters or what?

Anonymous said...

"Mercedes Homes Aliana are still liars and cheats" read that comment made on March 25, 2008.
Nothing has changed! Nothing!! Except some of those that were in charge at the time, are gone, only to be replaced by worse. Whoever, you are that didn't buy a Mercedes Home, you should be counting your blessings 'cause Mercedes Homes builds c**p and kick their buyers to the crub after the sale!

Anonymous said...

My wife and I bought a mercedes home in May of 2008 in Brevard County, FL.

So far, so good. After fay we had a window leak and it was fixed promptly. Every other item on our punch list has been addressed, including fixing annoying but non-crucial scratches in windows.

We plan on conducting a thorough walk through again before our warranty is up, but we've found them so far to be responsive. You just have to be polite, organized and dilligent with follow through.

Remember, it's typically not the builder doing the repairs, it's their contractors. If they do a bad job, report them and have them come back out. They keep track of all the warranty reports and drop contractors who have a high number. So really, anything no matter how small, should get reported to Mercedes.

Anonymous said...

Aliana - people ... you are complete idiots. we are VERY happy with our home and have decided NOT to socialize with sour people like you. Just becuse I negotiated a better deal than you could, we are or MH deserves your redicule? I could be mistaken but I thought I saw granite going into your home recently???? GET A LIFE.

Anonymous said...

I too was once an employee with Mercedes Homes. However, I became a casualty in 2007 and was laid off. I am glad to no longer work for them due to:

1. The inability to advance up the ladder, number one.

2. They did not pay me what I was actually worth according to pay scale.com.

3. They did not honor their benefits as written in their employee hand book.

4. I did not get all of my severance package as listed within their employee handbook.

5. They deferred my ESOP money five year. Chances are, I will never see that money.

6. I got tired of hearing about the rumors of them not paying the sub-contractors.

7. They build a corporate headquarters in the worst time ever. If they wanted a headquarters, they should have built it during the days Bill Clinton was President.

8. They do indeed do good things on the outside, however, what happens on the outside, and what takes place on the inside are two different things. So what if you are on ABC's Extreme Home Makeover. Gotta clean the inside of the cup as well as the outside.

I have a feeling that Mercedes Homes will not survive this economic downturn. In fact, it seems like the Bueschers are premeditating the failure of the company so they can shirk: creditors, sub-contractors, and their former employess who have ESOP.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
My wife and I bought a mercedes home in May of 2008 in Brevard County, FL.

So far, so good. After fay we had a window leak and it was fixed promptly. Every other item on our punch list has been addressed, including fixing annoying but non-crucial scratches in windows.

We plan on conducting a thorough walk through again before our warranty is up, but we've found them so far to be responsive. You just have to be polite, organized and dilligent with follow through.
__________________________________

Mr & Mrs we're so happy with our Mercedes Home, you better move your thorough walk through up just a bit.
Why?
Mercedes Homes filed bankrutcy today January 26, 2009, thus your warranty is worthless.
Perhaps you should seek a good lawyer in FL.

Anonymous said...

To the A-Hole in Aliana about the granite tops. Why don't you tell everybody that you got exactly what you were bitching and moaning about!!!!

Unknown said...

Hi, I'm John, an Ex-Mercedes employee from North Carolina. My current residence is a Mercedes Home. Let me start by saying I've been associated with the construction of more than 400 residences in the last 10 years. Many for Mercedes, many for other national home builders, and a few customs built by yours truly. The philosophy of building a good product at a fair price was the underlying driving force of Mercedes Homes. It was instructed to it's management and employees. It's the practice that I learned back in the day and that I still adhere to today.
But times change as does management and Companies. Construction became a career of liabilities. The job went from what can I do to make the experience better for potential homeowners to whom can I blame if something goes sour. This is because of costs, profit margins and engineering. If I had $10.00 for every time I've heard the phrase "it's built to plan". Gee, Guess what, you may be right but it's still wrong, fix it. Engineers are human, so are site superintendents.
The long and short of it is simple. There are no shortcuts for experience. There is no perfect home. (I've had two come close over the last 10 years and one of those was a Mercedes Home). A qualified site super or project manager usually builds a quality home. Quality during construction translates into fewer warranty requests. Fewer warranty request result in happier homeowners.
As far as promises made by sales? I don't know I'm a production guy.

Mercedes Runner-up Builder of the year 2002.
Mercedes Customer Satisfaction award winner with 99.28% Customer Satisfaction 2002.

Anonymous said...

I am (as of today, WAS) a sub contractor for Mercedes. I was just informed that Mercedes is unable to pay us the 27,000 dollars they owe us this month because they are in chapter 11. This is the second time in less than a year that we have been screwed by a homebuilder (the last one was Levitt & Sons). Are there any track home builders you can trust anymore?

Anonymous said...

If you are currently a subcontractor with Mercedes Homes, get out now. They are planning to switch you out for lower priced contractors and not pay you or them. They do not plan on stopping construction on any of there houses they are currently on, just not paying any of you doing the work now. They have cut the pay of their employees but the executives are not taking a pay cut!

Beware of Mercedes homes they will be scamming you soon!

Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me why the solid pour walls crack every 3 feet apart vertically?

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes filled bankruptcy Monday January 26, 2009...
You better be happy in you in Brevard County, FL. home, 'cause your warranty is now worthless.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Aliana - people ... you are complete idiots. we are VERY happy with our home and have decided NOT to socialize with sour people like you. Just becuse I negotiated a better deal than you could, we are or MH deserves your redicule? I could be mistaken but I thought I saw granite going into your home recently???? GET A LIFE.

January 19, 2009 5:06 PM
____________________________
Anonymous said...
Aliana - people ... you are complete idiots. we are VERY happy with our home and have decided NOT to socialize with sour people like you. Just becuse I negotiated a better deal than you could, we are or MH deserves your redicule? I could be mistaken but I thought I saw granite going into your home recently???? GET A LIFE.

January 19, 2009 5:06 PM
____________________________

Adhominem toward a neighbor? Wow, "Very" happy with your Mercedes Home and your great deal?

You didn't negotiate anything, they had been planning bankruptcy for months and were desperate to off load your house, before they filed on January 26, 2009.

Your warranty is worthless.

When you start having problems with your house and you will re-read the posts on here. You are in the minority of those who bought a home from Mercedes.

And yes, you are WRONG about the granite countertops that should have been installed in the first place. You didn't see anything going into my home.

Just a word of advise learn how to post on a blog, that way you won't post the same thing twice. You also might want to use spell check or a dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
To the A-Hole in Aliana about the granite tops. Why don't you tell everybody that you got exactly what you were bitching and moaning about!!!!

January 26, 2009 6:29 PM
===============
Get your facts straight before you post. Today is February 6, 2009...Oops still no granite!

What you called me, prehaps you are full of what's in it.

BTW...really love the date of your post, same day Mercedes filed bankruptcy and screwed so many people.

Anonymous said...

We have been in our Mercedes home (Dover, FL) for one year now and couldn't be happier with it. The builder was awesome in his communication and his knowledge. The work was done above our expectations ... as an example, the window above our front door had a typical drywall sill in the plans, however, that was changed to a wooden sill because the builder recommended that would be easier to maintain and would look better!

It is unfortunate that Mercedes, along with many other builders, is suffering in this economy. I wanted to add my two cents to let everyone know, after reading all these negative posts, that I was very happy with everyone I dealt with at Mercedes in Tampa.

Anonymous said...

Just for the new "Aliana...we are VERY happy with our home..."

No matter what you paid for your VERY Mercedes Home, your final sale price, no matter, and we could care less. Just wait till you have your first warranty problems.

New Bankruptcy court order: 1/30/09
For Mercedes Homes
"The builder now has authorization to honor home warranties, but it is NOT obligated to do so. There is a limitation to this authorization – Mercedes Homes CANNOT spend more than 1% of a home’s final sale price on warranty claims".

This should give you some sleepless nights...what is 1% of your sales price? Not much, since you got a VERY good deal. And Mercedes is NOT obligated to even do 1% of warranty work.

Anonymous said...

"Rosalind said...
We have been in our Mercedes home (Dover, FL) for one year now and couldn't be happier with it..."
================
Glad to hear you have been in your home a year with no problems. However, that amounts to a lot of money you could loose big time! Since you bought your Mercedes Home over a years ago, it isn't worth what you paid for it in today's market. And with NO warranty on it, should you needed to sell, no one will buy it.
Assording to the Brevard Court in FL:
New Bankruptcy court order: 1/30/09
For Mercedes Homes
"The builder now has authorization to honor home warranties, but it is NOT obligated to do so. There is a limitation to this authorization – Mercedes Homes CANNOT spend more than 1% of a home’s final sale price on warranty claims".
What is the 1% of your final home sales price?

Anonymous said...

They build junk, don't own one but know a few that do in my neighborhood and nothing but endless problems!!!

Anonymous said...

"VERY" happy Aliana Mercedes Home owners...here's some news from people the sub contractors in the know!!!
Quote: "The only way MH will honor the warranties is if it does not cost them a penny. If the builder in that community can do it themselves, then it will be fixed, other than that the home owner's screwed.
There are also a lot of home owners who have recently closed getting Liens placed on their properties. Not good!"

Anonymous said...

You guys should pay attention to all the beachfront property and yachts the owners, the Buescher's own to the tune of over 5 Million EACH. The owners used company time, subcontractors, employees all for some of these projects, which they will be able to keep even under a bankruptcy. They are thieves and liars. This is against the law and I don't know why no one is talking about this!

Anonymous said...

My son & his wife closed on a house on Dec31, 2008 in the Dallas area. In early Feb09, they started getting letters from contractors demanding payment for work not paid by Mercedes. It's over $9,000 and rising.

Anybody else out there with this problem?

Anonymous said...

Mercedes Homes is the best home I have ever bought, not only is it a great home but they gave me a great price. The people that are complaining about this are the fucking retards that lost their home because they could not pay for it because they lost their stupid job because they suck as people. That's right fuck you retards.

Anonymous said...

Mercedes deserves to go bankrupt. Prior to our closing on our home, they refused to prep the home prior to walk thru. Their threat was "we have a list of people waiting to buy this house, if you don't want it let us know". Roy and Audrey Shannon had a feast in Tampa selling homes for Mercedes, The table has now turned. I wonder where they are now. Famine??

Anonymous said...

It’s not unusual that Mercedes asked for court authorization. I mean, how many businesses in bankruptcy ask a court to order them to be obligated to their customers? Court authorization on warranties might provide some flexibility for a challenged builder if it also includes some determinative discretion. (http://www.homebuilder-bankruptcy.com/2009/02/what-happens-to-warranties-if-the-builder-files-for-bankruptcy/) BTW, did you get the 1% of sales price figure from The Downturn Analyst (trying to find more sources to better analyze Mercedes’ situation)? It is really a very fluid, declining real estate and finance environment right now. The fact that Mercedes Homes is still selling homes might be encouraging with respect to fulfillment of warranty obligations.

Spanky said...

Holy Crap! I have a new home in Brevard Co. under contract and scheduled to close in a few days. I am VERY concerned to read the last post about the 1% clause of the warranty. Especially since I have been advised by several people (including an independant home inspector) to wait until 6 months into it to have an inspection done to cover the warranty issues. That won't do me much good of they can only spend 1% on repairs and if there is anything extensive I'll be left holding the bag. This SUCKS! I don't believe everything I read on the internet, but there are ALOT of unhappy people on this blog. Is there anyone else out there that is happy with thier Mercedes Product??

Anonymous said...

Aliana - you mean to tell me that you thought you were getting granite counter tops and didn't notice that you didn't have them until after you closed? Are you blind?

Sounds like you failed to pay attention and/or adequately inspect your home before moving in. Your fault, there.

There are quite a few elated home owners in San Antonio that are in Mercedes Homes. I live around the corner from their neighborhood and have a couple of friends that live in them that have been nothing but happy with the home and the process. However, there is one caveat, they paid attention throughout the process.

Anonymous said...

Well its official! We are loosing our ESOP while the Bueschers walk away with everything. I hope Karma gets them! "Under the proposed reorganization plan, one creditor would forgive all of Mercedes' debt in exchange for all the stock in the new company. The other creditor would agree to rewrite the terms on its loans to Mercedes while keeping its liens on the company's assets.

The plan would void all the company’s current common stock, which is held in an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and issue new stock to the Buescher family-controlled Real Estate Investment Ventures, which is owed about $68.5 million in principal and $2.1 million in interest. The debt to the company is secured by the company’s assets."

Anonymous said...

I also worked for Mercedes Homes in NC. I felt underpaid and taken advantage of a few times. But I really liked the people I worked with. I had a great boss and they paid for my school. I felt really sad when I was laid off in 2008 and still have yet to find a job. I think they made a huge mistake to build that 7 million dollar complex. It was rediculous and a bad plan to begin with when they had already had cut backs a year earlier and we lost some good people and bonuses.I know you have to do what you have to do to survive but building that complex failed them as an employer and builder. Bad choices all the way.