M / I Homes review: New construction on avalon west - barcello bonus - a 99 hillshire place spring hill

On 7/22/2023 we signed a contract with Mike Clark, your New Home sales consultant to purchase the property that was being build on 99 Hillshire Place Spring Hill FL. During our meeting with Mike, we discussed selling price and promotions and other construction details such as promotions. While the new home consultant was knowledgeable, he seemed to have gotten the promotion details wrong. He printed another package for us and we finally agreed on $539,350 selling price. The promotion details were a little fuzy and the selling price steep so we agreed to get bare minimum upgrades.

Mike Clark proceeded to take 20% as down payment since we would be cash buyers and once the contract was signed the builder applied for the building permit and got to work. Some time in October the builder made some changes to the building materials which we agreed to, then on November 3, they applied a promotion of $20,000 discount which we believe we should have received when we initially signed the contract and that would have given us a change to select the needed upgrades. Although this new amendment put our initial deposit higher than 20% percent we agreed since the price went down. However, due to a family emergency we requested a cancellation of the contract later on in November, 2023 and were recently told that due to contract terms we would lose $20,000. We tried to reason with the builder to understand the family emergency and were told that we would forfeit $20,000 regardless of our situation.

We as buyer believe that the builder manipulated the selling price margins from the get go, got more than 20% of the sale price as deposit, used the money for several months and now is keeping $20,000 dollars as part of the liquidation for a home they haven't yet build and a contract which they had to amend several times, not to mention the fact that the quality of the homes no longer warrants the agreed selling price as they look like apartments with so little space in between and very little back yard.