In August of 2019 my high school sweetheart and wife of 28 years died in my arms while my 15 year-old daughter looked on. Suzie lost her year-long battle with pancreatic cancer that night in our dream home.
We started with nothing but fought hard and our lives became a dream come true. We owned a beautiful home on a 5 acre estate overlooking Kingston, Washington and the Puget Sound. When Suzie died I was lost. I hadn't worked in over a year due to the fact I was taking care of her full-time. I knew I couldn't continue to live in our dream home because the dream turned into a nightmare. I couldn't imagine our life would take this turn. I sold the house and moved me and my daughter Brooklynn to sunny Arizona. A huge dose of sun and a change of scenery was in order. Brooklynn was not happy with the move. She had grown up in Kingston and now was going to attend her senior year of high school not knowing a single person at the school. Instead of complaining too much and being angry, she thrived. She made lots of friends and joined the volleyball team, the basketball team and was the captain of the tennis team. While attending Vista Grande High School she started studying for the Real Estate exam which she passed shortly after graduating High School.
My plan was to use what little savings I had and the profit from our home sale to invest in Real Estate. I didn't know exactly how or what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to invest with what capital I had.
I formed an LLC with the intent of building new homes and selling them. I didn't know where to start so I started studying the process online. One day I noticed three men talking next to their work trucks which were parked on the vacant lots next to my house in Arizona City. They were there for quite some time. I decided to walk over and introduce myself. As it turns out, one of the men was a real estate builder / investor and was eager to tell me what he had done in Arizona City and what his plans were. He was happy to show me the ropes and give me a crash course. His name was Rowdy Bristol. He recommended a company called Patterson Construction as he had contracted them multiple times to build homes for him.
Over the next few months I purchased three properties (cash) all within a mile or two from my home. I then reached out to Patterson Construction and contracted them to build three homes. I signed the contracts and submitted my $5,000 deposits for each house. Clayton Patterson suggested I use a lender called "Clear Funds" for the construction loan which was 3 interest only loans at 12%. Being new, I wasn't exactly sure how all of this worked but Clayton explained the process to me and was very helpful in walking me through the steps. The builds would take 4 months from the date the projects were permitted.
This was all very exciting and my daughter and I looked forward to working on these projects together. She secured a position at Keller Williams Legacy One in Casa Grande and she would have three homes to sell in the coming months to get her feet wet in real estate.
The sites were permitted one-by-one and we anxiously awaited the building process to begin. Several weeks passed by and I decided to cruise by the three build sites which were about 1/2 mile apart. There was no sign of any building so far. Week after week passed with no indication of any work being done. It was at month two I started really becoming concerned. Clayton Patterson had previously been good about returning my calls but when I reached out now with concerns about the lack of progress my calls and emails went unanswered.
After numerous emails and voicemails from me (which began to take a more serious tone) Clayton sent an email assuring me that all would be fine and they were "just a little behind but would catch up" (I have record of all communications between us). He assured me all was fine, and I took him at his word, thinking maybe I was overreacting.
This situation continued over the next several months and by October I was in disbelief that none of the homes were anywhere near completion and my emails and voicemails would go unanswered until I was forced to YELL into the phone with my messages. Once again Clayton assured me everything was fine and "They will all be finished by Christmas". Well Christmas came and went... Finally the house on Cove was nearing completion when I got a letter from them (dated July 16, 2022) from APS stating they needed $7,400 to bore under the street at the Rafael house in order to get water to the house. This was a letter that according to Ron Lee of Patterson Construction "sat on Clayton's desk from July to December" and now I was being told to pony up $7,400 for Rafael and $7,400 for Rory Calhoun for APS to bore under the street. This would add several MORE months on to the completion dates (which were already 6 months past due). Patterson's brother Ed (who is the CEO) agreed to absorb the $15,000 for the APS tunnel boring. This was the only act of good faith they displayed.
I could go on and on but the takeaway is, we finally sold the Cove Dr and Rafael Dr homes but due to the increasing market downturn they were sold for MUCH less than what comparable homes sold for back when these SHOULD have been ready, making my profit margin less than zero.
As of April 2024 The 3rd house on Rory Calhoun remains to be sold. The market downturn and interest rates have made it impossible to sell the house for a profit. I am now over $89,000 deficit on just this one house! While Brooklynn attempted open houses the AC went out and it was 100ºF inside the house so it was impossible to hold open houses.
What was once an exciting and lucrative endeavor has turned out to be a catastrophic disaster as I CONTINUE to make construction loan payments (that were scheduled to last 4-6 months) in the amount of $2,450! In total my expenses in lost profits and additional loan costs amount to over $89,000 and counting. My daughter did a great job selling the first two homes (I forgot to mention the second home's AC went out the day the buyer moved in and it took Patterson Construction a week to fix it... in July). Now I watch the last of my savings dwindle to zero as the construction loans eat up everything I have and I try in vain to sell the house on Rory Calhoun Dr. despite dropping the price to $310,000 (this very same floor plan sold for $379,000 a year earlier in the same neighborhood).
Clayton Patterson signed 3 contracts with me stating the homes would be built in 4 months. Had they been built in the time contracted for everything would have worked out fine. Unfortunately due to the fact they all took much longer and the last one THREE TIMES that amount of time, I am left with no other option but to sue Patterson Construction for my losses. I have tried multiple times to try and resolve this with mediation on multiple occasions and every time I am met with ZERO response. I am sending this final message to you Ed, to try and work this out before heading to court. I am just a man who trusted your company and got screwed. I would have NEVER entered into this agreement if the build times were what they were. Now, instead of gaining a profit I have lost majorly. Please reach out to me at 818-470-5988 or glenn@azsouthfield.com if you would like to talk. Thank you.
Glenn