Homebuilders cancelling contracts to sell for more on market

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Hanna James signed the contract with the contractor in February 2021, for $295,000, to build a brand new house, in a brand new south Fulton County subdivision, just off of South Fulton Parkway and Highway 92.

The home was supposed to be ready for her to move in by September 2021.

She visited the construction site often, watched her new home take shape, took photos of every stage of the build and paid nearly $5,000 for various additional optional upgrades.

Completion of the home was delayed repeatedly. But she was scheduled to close in January 2022.

One week before the closing, her agent told her the buyer, Heatherland Homes of Atlanta, was suddenly backing out of the contract and raising the price by tens of thousands of dollars.

“The message from my agent at that particular time was that the builder had decided to terminate all existing contracts,” James said Wednesday, “and he was increasing the price of the home, and if we wanted to move forward we had to enter into a new contract with the new price of the home.”

The new asking price then, she said, was $355,000, which she could not afford. And now, online, the price is posted at $370,000, 25% higher than James’ original contracted price of $295,000 from a year ago.

“I was hurt, a little bit of disbelief,” she said, and she understands that the builder was within his legal rights to do what he did.

She added, “But I think ethically, no, he’s dead wrong.”

James did receive a refund of her earnest money, $3,500.

But two months after the builder canceled her contract, she still has not received a refund for the nearly $5,000 she paid last year for the upgrades.

“To wait a week before closing to tell someone that you’re going to increase the price of the home I think is ethically not--that’s just not right.”

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