Author: /u/kwikbette33

I’m sure this question has been asked before, but curious for anyone’s experience with new home builders in the Houston area? I’m looking at two spec/already built homes…a David Weekley in Cypress and and an Ashton Woods in Katy. Most complaints I’ve seen have been from people disappointed in the build process/upset that things weren’t 100% done at closing. Both understandable complaints, but they won’t apply to me. I’m more concerned about build quality. Anyone heard good/bad things about these builders or any others? Thanks in advance for any insight.

I wanted everyone to know the dent repair scam is alive and well in Houston. I saw several threads about it here, but none recently. It sounds like this one typically involves parking lots, but today my mom was a victim of a door to door version in Katy. Three guys knocked on her door and said they could fix her dented car cheaply. She told them she only had $300 (don’t get me started…), and they began work. Thirty minutes later they told her it was going to be $600, but they’d give her a $100 “discount.” It was only then that she called me, and I told her to do whatever she needed to get the band of guys who now know where, she an elderly single woman with cash, lives to leave. Turns out she didn’t even have the cash on her and was planning to DRIVE TO THE ATM TO PAY THEM. I called my MIL who lives in the area and arranged for some friends to at least go with her to the ATM. I talked to her a few minutes ago and she, chipper as could be, explained that her car is all fixed…there’s just some “dust” that she needs to wash off in 24 hours. She still doesn’t believe that she was scammed.

I guess in retrospect I should have called the non-emergency police line the first time I talked with her. I was on the fence because I guess technically it could have been legitimate and they hadn’t yet done anything explicitly illegal. Hopefully none of you would have fallen for this, but what advice would you have given a family member mid-scam? It may help someone else achieve a better outcome.