let me start off by saying that if i had a chance to buy another home from Blackberry Custom Homes located in Glenview, IL, i would rather be homeless. they could give it to me for free and i would still reject it. the owners of Blackberry, Nick Philippas and Joe Baldo, were an absolute nightmare to deal with starting day 1 after we signed the contract to buy a home they built.
my story:
after living outside of Philadelphia for 5 years, my family decided to move back to the Chicagoland area to be closer to family. after looking at some 60 plus houses over 9 months, we finally found one in which we liked the design. the house was 95% complete when we made an offer on the house in may, 2006. as part of the offer, we added 10-12 items we wanted done to the house in consideration of buying it. this addendum list consisted of a particular model of refrigerator, washing/drying machine, intercom system installed, etc.. nothing required a structural modification to the home. the biggest item we required was having a custom cabinet built and installed in the mud room to serve as a pantry. other than the addendum list, the only thing the builders needed to do was carpet the bedrooms and basement with the carpeting of our choice, finish the mini bar in the basement and finish the master bedroom closet. we required final approval on all the remaining items. Blackberry accepted our offer which had a closing date of July 31st, 2006. then the fun really started.
it first started during the lawyer's approval process. Blackberry wanted a closing of June 30th, 2006 instead of July 31st. then they requested a phone conversation with me in which they tried to get out of some of the items listed on the addendum in which they agreed to. we told them that if they finished completion on the house before the July 31st closing date that we would consider closing earlier but we were not going to close on the 30th of june since it was only a month away. my family still had to sell our home in PA and arrange for a mortgage for the new one. we felt that a 2 month closing was pretty aggressive on our part. the lawyers approval process ended with everyone in agreement with what need to be done and the closing date.
for the next 3 weeks, my wife was emailing the builders every other day to find out when we were going to get drawings on the custom pantry cabinet for approval plus some other items. we got no response. she even left phone messages with them. we finally contacted our real estate agent who called the selling agent to ask what the F%& is going on. we finally got a call from Nick Philippas who left a voice mail in which he was laughing in the phone saying "i heard you guys were worried about us. dont worry everything will be finished" all during the month of June, i would have my parents swing by the house to see what work was being finished. the month ended, the house was in the same condition as when we came to terms with the builders a month b4. the little voices in my wife's and my head started to get louder and louder, we started to think about trying to get out of the contract. since it was still a month away from the original july 31st closing date and that any serious organized builder could complete the remining items in a few weeks at most, we decided to not listen to our little voices and forge ahead. i cant tell you how many times i regret this decision.
during the first week of July, we started to get some movement from the builders. they finally started to communicate with us and started to send some of the items needing our approval. during the second week of July, my wife had some business in Chicago so she decided to stay out an extra day to meet with the builders and their landscaper to go over any and all items. the date was July 12th. i got a call from my wife 30 seconds after she walked into the house. she said "NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE STILL! THE HOUSE IS IN THE SAME CONDITION as when we put in an offer." to add salt in the wound, the landscaper called after being an hour late to say that he would be there in another hour. my wife waited the hour since she was still going over items in the house. the builders landscaper never showed.
at this point we realized that the house wouldnt be ready in time for the July 31st closing. we couldnt believe how unorganized, unprofessional the builders were. they kept giving us stories trying to placate our anger. every single one was an outright lie. to compound matters, we had sold our house in PA and had a closing set for aug 10th. we had no idea when the house was going to be ready. we immediately called our real estate agent, attorney and mortgage broker to let them know what was going on. the mortgage rate that we locked in was going to expire and without having a clue as to the completion of the home, we were going to possibly have to start the entire mortgage process over again with higher rates. our lawyer, who is only a closing lawyer, told us that even if the builders are in breach of contract, we still couldnt just get our escrow money returned to us and walk away. it was a nightmare. we were at an impasse. we couldnt get any answer from the builders. these idiots believed that we would still close on the house even if it wasnt totally finished. we point blank told then if you dont finish with the house we arent closing. about a week b4 closing, a light bulb went off in their head. they realized they werent going to be able to complete the house by the specified closing date. we scheduled a teleconference between the lawyers, the builders and us. i told them flat out that because they were in breach of contract that they were going to have to pay for our housing and storage of our things until the completion of the house unless they wanted to return our escrow and call it quits. after a private conversation between their lawyer and Joe Baldo, one of the builders, they decided to offer a choice of a few homes for us to stay. i told them that we would look at them and see it they were satisfactory the following week since my wife was planning on leaving for Chicago with our son . their lawyer went ballistic and called me an ingrate. i laughed. i just loved when lawyers think they can intimidate a party.
it was now the first week of august and the original closing date came and went. my wife was out in chicago now staying at my parents house with our son. i stayed behind in PA to take care of the other house. my wife went with our real estate agent to look at the homes Blackberry offered us to stay in. the houses were like crack houses. the kitchens were completely gutted, the bathrooms had no toilets in them, there were huge holes in the walls with insulation sticking out, electrical wiring was pulled out and cockroaches running wild. it turns out that Nick Philippas of Blackberry had gutted the places in preparation of demolition and never informed his partner Joe Baldo. my family had had enough. we immediately hired a litigating attorney to deal with the situation, rented an 1800 sq ft loft for 2 months and put all our belongings into storage. when i went by the uncompleted house for the first time since we signed the real estate contract, i could believe my eyes. it was in the same condition from over 2 months earlier with the exception of the carpeting being installed.
a few days later, our litigating attorney held a meeting with all the parties involved. it was a scene out of LA Law. the bottom line was that Blackberry agreed to pay for 2 months of our rental housingand all of our storage costs we came to agreement on some other outstanding issues and Blackberry game us a new closing date. with the new closing date we attached a $$$ per day penalty clause for every day they missed the new closing date. the new close was 3 weeks away. Blackberry missed the close date by a week and ended up paying $500 a day in penalties. we also put money away into escrow for any item that still wasnt completed. the home was finished to the point so that we could live in it and the bank would allow a closing. our closing lasted over 4 hours. the reason it took so long was that the two partners of Blackberry, Joe and Nick couldnt even agree on things. they squabbled like an old married couple in desperate need of a divorce lawyer. unfortunately we still had another year to do with these bozos since the house had a 12 month guarantee because it was new construction. Nick Philippas stated at the close, "I know we had a tough time getting this all done, but what happened wont take place during this next year." this turned out to be yet another empty promise from Blackberry. without going into detail, we had items on the walk thru punchlist that were never addressed by Blackberry after 9 months. the final 12 month punchlist was never completed.
we are currently in the process of suing Blackberry for monetary damages so that we can hire people to finish their work. in my opinion, Blackberry is the most unprofessional, unorganized and dishonest organization ive ever had the displeasure in dealing with. i have wondered many times over the year how they can even be in business. my family isnt the only ones that have gone thru an ordeal dealing with Blackberry.
never again would i ever consider buying a home from Blackberry or its two partners Joe Baldo and Nick Philippas. in my opinion, i would advise against anyone else doing the same. there are too many good houses from quality builders out there.
ive gone on long enough. i dont want to start talking about the quality of work performed by Blackberry contractors. let me just say it isnt good.
BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in my experience, BLACKBERRY CUSTOM HOMES of Glenview, Il is a nightmare waiting to happen to you.
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3 comments:
Just happened to see your blog post today, 2+ years after we moved in to our house built by Blackberry. Let's just say our experience, starting from acquiring the lot from them, was your nightmare times 10. They couldn't complete the house in 12 months, we had 2 rounds of damage caused by their oversight negligence and we also had to rent for 9 months waiting for the home to be completed. We didn't, however, engage attorneys and we dealt with them ourselves -- mostly by befriending the sub-contractors and getting them to act for us. We didn't even try to get them to act on the 12-month warranty given that they couldn't get the house even near completion at the onset. Joe, Nick, and their 3rd partner Mark, from what I understand are now out of business with several incomplete projects in the area, covered in liens and they have their share of lawsuits pending. That said, now that they are BK, there's not much recourse for many of us.
Same nightmare in Naperville. Closed on a home in Dec. '05 that was not totally complete. Even after we completed the remaining items ourselves through other contractors at our own expense, we were unable to get our escrow dollars released. To call these guys incompetent would be an understatement. Fraudulent would be more appropriate. They dragged us through 9 closing dates, hunderds of unkept promises and over $100K in costs to fix their mistakes. Sued, and 2 years later got a judgement against all 3 owners: Joe Baldo, Nick Phillipas, and Mark Donafrio. Saddest part is that due to the myriad of corporate entities, nobody can get to the money they stole from all of us. These guys lived the high life: Trips to Europe and Hawaii; Range Rovers and Hummers; opulent homes. Some of them I understand they still have. How do we get this group of homeowners together to go after these criminals? If interested, please post again, and we will figure out how to get in contact.
Well, it turns out that karma is indeed a motherfucker. Just found out about the sudden death of Nick Philippas formerly of Blackberry Custom Homes. Turns out, he had turned over a new leaf and decided to go on the straight and narrow. In doing so, picked up and headed south to his birth soil, Little Rock, Arkansas. About 3 months ago he completed the construction on his newly built home. Not sure about what exactly went wrong, but it turns out that the home caved in on him in his sleep, killing him.
R.I.P. ol' friend....
you had it coming!
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