You were correct....Very long post :) Well we are having nightmares with our builder and I can tell you know to heed the advice that has been given, RUN...dont walk and get out of that contract asap. If I only had that option know I surely would take it. We can honestly say we would never build with our builder again nor advise anyone else to. I will say exactly what it is and if the builder and builder's agent are lying to you know, believe me it is only going to get worse. It is a good thing if you do have the emails showing what the agent stated to you was included so you do have a paper trail to prove a breach of contract. If the realtor gave you misinformation then that should be on the realtor and builder to eat those cost, not put back on you with a sorry that was incorrect. You may want to check out other builders as well and see what their cost are for upgrades. Not sure what type of gas fireplace you were getting or where you are located but $3,500 sounds expensive for a gas fireplace in a tract home (not custom). Just for reference our builder charged $1,490 for a gas fireplac. If you look at our blog I do have upgrade sheets and prices listed there just to give you an idea of what our builder charged. The information you received that builders don't make any money on upgrade is a straight up lie. That is exactly where builders make money because they know they pretty much have you where they can increase the cost because a) people want to finance upgrades and don't want to pay out of pocket for them later b) somethings are just easier to add on the front end rather than doing demo/remodeling to put them in later & c) alot of people want a turnkey house that when they move in they don't have to do anything to. For these reasons builders know they can and will charge you more than you would normaly pay. It really seems like its a part of building and thhere is not alot you can do about it so you have to make decisions on what you are willing to pay for. The realtor quoted you $300 for LED under cabinet lighting? I wouldn't have believed that to begin with just for the fact it will cost more than that for me to buy my own led bars discounted and do it myself. Did the builder not have a pricelist that you could physically see what you were purchsing and what the actual cost were? I also believe that you need a new agent representing your best intrest as well. Seems like your current agent is more concerned with getting a sale than putting your best interest first. If you do have all the things you mentioned in writing I would see a lawyer quickly before they proceed any further. Building a house is a stressful journey (well it was for us) and to have a builder who doesn't care will only make things worse! well just my .02 cents FWIW, hope it helps Here is a link that might be useful: Our home sell/build blog

I was 38 yrs old and my husband was 35. We were married for almost 13 yrs and together for 18 yrs almost also. We had the best marriage anyone could ever have. We had 1 son 13 yrs. old together. We both had great jobs and a loving family. One morning I woke up, year before last, which was April 2014 to finding my husband in our house. He had past sometime during the night of a heart attack. His heart was enlarged and exploded. He was kneeling in a praying position over the side of our tub in our main bathroom. I found him at 8:35am that morning. Our son had stayed on our living room couch watching a movie that night. When I found my husband (my soulmate) I had to call my mom about 8 miles from me to tell her my husband was dead. She immediately said I will be right there. Then I had to go outside and call my neighbors 32 yr old son to come wake my son up and take him out the backdoor of my house to their house and keep him there. Then I called 911 and I told them I found my husband dead in our home and I didn't want them to show up with their sirens on or to be seen by my son that was at my neighbors house behind my house. When the police questioned me some, which is their protocol to do when something happens like that, I felt like I had done something wrong, which I totally didn't. They told me, they had to send his body for an autopsy. Well I found him on that Saturday morning and the results from autopsy came back that next Monday a few days later, saying he died of cardiomegaly. Anyways all that being said, almost 5 months later I met my friends brother and got with him and 1 month later which was almost 6 months after my husband past away, I got pregnant with a babygirl. Thats apparently what happens, when you try to fill a void in your life after such tramatic experience. My mind wasn't at all there, until I was 5 months pregnant and I told the guy sorry I can't be with you cause I don't feel right. Anyways my son was so upset saying it's dad's baby, mom. I felt so bad and still do for the additional pain I caused my son which was the only child at the time. It took until now for him to accept my babygirl. The father hasn't been around since I was 5 months pregnant. The judge knew and the attorneys what I had went through. So when I went to court when my babygirl was about 6 months old, the judge and the attorneys favored me with child custody and everything else. The guy I had the baby by, had to start spending time with my babygirl and paying me to help raise our babygirl. I felt bad for him but it took 2 to make my babygirl. Anyways anything can happen after losing your soulmate. I used to say how in the world can so and so go out so soon after there mate passes. We'll now I know. I would never judge any widow for what they do. So no one knows until they lose the love of their life what they go through. Anyways I am doing fine and I can honestly say I'm blessed to have the babygirl my husband always wanted but due to his job and health I never gave him one. My babygirl is like none else. She is the best babygirl I have ever seen. God was always there through everything and still is. So I hope yall take my advice and run with it cause you never know if your in my shoes one day and Gosh I hope not. I might add there are several phases for some with greiving. First phase I didn't know myself. Second was k was extremely mad that he left me with so much like raising our son on my own, bills and so on. 3rd was I felt alone 4th was I'm gonna have to learn how to make it with my babies. 5th one is I'm still holding on and I know what's going on some now. I'm working and striving to keep our home and food on the table for my kids. They are my world now more than anything. I'm blessed as I could of really went off the deep end and at times I did but my family and friends helped me so much to get by. So it's different with every spouse whom had lost there lover and soulmate.

Lets look at this from a bit cold blooded strategic planning perspective ... a business decision ... for indeed what you decide can either enable opportunity or destroy your life position and functionality and opportunities. Say he was a CAR ... and he had bad inherant design, multiple malfunctions that might temporarily go away with operation under specific conditions for a short unspecified period of time, but was it was obvious from the design that he would break down from time to time rather dramatically and expensively, and you have finally gotten up the courage to pay the cost to dump that lemmon of a car and either get a new car or a bicycle ... something that left you with better health and peace of mind and financial stability. Would you want the lemmon back? Why? It would be a completely irrational act. Ditto a human being who has inherant brain and behavior defects ... Answer ... absolutely NOT ... you take back such a person into your life you are a complete and utter fool. that clear enough?

A couple of quick thoughts: 1) If I were you, I would explore what it takes to get your "earnest money" back. Your best leverage is the willingness to walk away from the deal. 2) You should not allow yourself to be held financially responsible for their realtor's mistakes. 3) The rush to have you make decisions is a calculated (or at least well practiced) attempt to get you to make mistakes and agree to things you wouldn't otherwise. 4) You should require your realtor to stand up for your interests rather than (hint, she'll do more if you threaten to walk away from the deal) 5) If you go through with the deal, I would strongly suggest a pre-drywall inspection. I would have little confidence the builder isn't cutting corners on the build. 5) This sounds like a crappy situation with numerous bad actors (the builder, the realtor(s), and likely the subcontractors working on your home), but to get an acceptable outcome, you need to take ownership of the situation. 6) If you're enough of a pain, stand up for your rights, talk about a pre-drywall inspection, lawyers to force builder to perform, they will likely be willing to give your deposit back.