Swamplot Archives by Tag: Royce Builders

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Vestalia Homes: Our Word Is Our Bond

November 25, 2009 – 12:11 pm

A few ominous tidbits from the website of John Speer’s latest building venture, Vestalia Homes, which makes no mention of Speer’s former company, Royce Builders — or the more than $17 million Royce still owes its creditors:

When it comes to homebuilding, we understand that it is not just about making the customer happy. As the expert, we are committed to doing the little things of which the customer may not even be aware. . . .

And on the “Build on Your Lot” page:

It’s about trust.

Trusting your land and your dream home to a builder is a major decision. Placing your trust in the right builder is more than just a matter of choosing a builder who intends to please you. . . .

Does the builder have a reputation for delivering results?

Vestalia’s partners and builders have decades of experience in delivering excellence in homebuilding. Our team has “seen it all” and we understand the importance of communication in building a custom home. Our team’s track record speaks volumes.

Photo of unfinished entry, 18522 Arlan Lake Dr., for sale: Vestalia Homes

12:11 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcy, Homebuilders, Real Estate Marketing
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Thursday Is Royce Builders Turkey Day!

November 25, 2009 – 8:30 am
   

“There are dozens of homeowners, contractors and other consumers who lost money when Royce closed its doors. If you are one of these people or businesses, November 26th is the deadline for filing a “proof of claim” in Royce’s bankruptcy. If you file, you may be reimbursed when any of Royce’s remaining assets are distributed among creditors. There’s no guarantee you will see any money. But it’s a sure bet you’ll never get a dime if you don’t file. If you had a warranty on your home, but you haven’t been able to get the work done because of the bankruptcy, there is a value on the warranty that you are owed. If you put earnest money down on a home that never closed, and you never got a refund, you should file. . . . For now, the Royce bankruptcy trustee says Royce owes more than $17 million; but he believes it’s much more… and that many people just haven’t filed.” [Ask Amy Blog]

8:30 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcy, Homebuilders, Quicklink
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Where Are They Building Now? A Royce Builders Bankruptcy Reunion Tour

November 24, 2009 – 11:32 am

Channel 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis sends a KPRC newschopper to buzz the 80-acre Cypress party pad estate of former Royce Builders president John Speer. More than a year after we featured the innumerable builder upgrades of that Mack-Daddy mansion on Swamplot, it’s still sitting on the market — for the same $9.8 million.

Meanwhile, less than a mile to the west, sales aren’t going so well either in former Royce Homes subdivision Grant Meadows:

“Houses are in disrepair. Fences are in disrepair,” explained homeowner Matt Adams. “The whole neighborhood’s been left in ruins.” . . .

Royce stopped paying the bill for the street lights in Grant Meadows in July 2008.

Reliant recently switched them off, and told homeowners they must pay the $14,000 owed before they can turn them back on.

“It’s pitch black out here at night,” said homeowner Evit Byrd, who planned to retire in Grant Meadows with his wife. “You can’t see anything.”

But there’s some good news: Speer has been building again! His new company, Vestalia Homes, which Speer founded 3 weeks after he closed down Royce, is busy constructing and selling homes a little closer to FM 1960, in a subdivision called the Lakes of Cypress Forest.

Continue Reading This Story >

11:32 am | 9 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Development Strategies, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Cypress, Neighborhoods: Grant Meadows, Neighborhoods: Westwood Gardens, New Construction: Residential
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Monday, November 23, 2009

Comment of the Day: The Royce Builders Legacy

November 23, 2009 – 1:53 pm
   

“I think the real story is all the trades and other businesses who wound up getting stiffed out of tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. Royce was a poorly managed company… especially in its final year. They built an empire building houses on credit and pocketing entirely too much cash. When the loans on new starts stopped, Royce found themselves way over their heads in debt from the thousands of spec homes sitting on the ground. But the cash was in their pockets… so they walked out and left all the trades and homeowners to drown. Anyone ever stop to think how this effected small companies like Conkir Electric or all the painters and sheetrock crews who worked for pennies anyway?” [Former Royce, commenting on A Chance To Relive All the Excitement That Was Royce Builders]

1:53 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Comments, Homebuilders, Quicklink
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Friday, November 20, 2009

A Chance To Relive All the Excitement That Was Royce Builders

November 20, 2009 – 7:03 am
   

Royce Builders alumni and victims: Do you miss all the intrigue that surrounded Royce’s implosion last year? KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis tells Swamplot she’s working on a story about Royce Homes and its various reincarnations. Got any news to pass on about former Royce subdivisions? If you have any information to share about Vestalia, WG Builders, or any other entities where former Royce higher-ups might have resurfaced, she’d like to talk to you. Just send her an email — she says you can remain anonymous! [Swamplot inbox; email]

7:03 am | 7 Comments | Read more about Homebuilders, Quicklink
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Thursday, May 21, 2009

No-Charity Case: Royce Builders Education in Bankruptcy

May 21, 2009 – 10:40 am

Regular Swamplot readers will remember all the fun surrounding the collapse and shutdown of Royce Builders last year. What’s happened since? Chapter 7 bankruptcy! Plus now, says the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff:

Wisenbaker Builder Services, Suncoast Post Tension, Builders Mechanical and Luxury Baths by Arrow are collectively seeking to recover more than $1.1 million from the builder, according to the petition filed last month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Thousands of home- owners could also have claims against the company.

Attorney David Jones, who is representing Royce in the bankruptcy, is compiling names of potential creditors that lists more than 12,000 people.

“Homeowners are the biggest portion,” said Jones, a partner with Porter & Hedges.

Oh, but there’s more! In a separate legal action, an educational charity that Royce owner John Speer used to promote his businesses and solicit contributions from customers is claiming that Royce failed to deliver funds raised on its behalf. A struggling charity that renamed itself the Royce Homes Foundation for Youth in 2003 — after Speer apparently promised to deliver several hundred thousand dollars a year in support — says Royce still owes it about $400K:

Continue Reading This Story >

10:40 am | 18 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Hazards, Homebuilders
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Friday, March 6, 2009

Comment of the Day: Welcome to Westwood Gardens

March 6, 2009 – 3:33 pm
   

“The neighbors are starting to join together to remove the graffiti. Not many kids are on the blocks but they do range in age from babies to happy teens. You can see them outside at times with their parents, riding scooters, riding bikes or just playing around. The neighbors even have indoor small pups, not those that you see on the news that maul on people or those that are seen used to fight. They are small well cared for happy dogs. Never without being on a leash when they are outside. A few neighbors have been seen flying small model airplanes. Everyone is friendly. Try it, if you see any one of the neighbors outside just wave and you will get a smile and a wave back. Hopefully one day we see you, if so Welcome to Westwood Gardens where you are Not just a Neighbor, Your Family!” [We Are Family!, commenting on Westwood Gardens Still Life: A Photo Tour of Half-Built Houston Homes]

3:33 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Comments, Neighborhoods: Northwest Houston, Neighborhoods: Westwood Gardens, Quicklink
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Friday, January 16, 2009

Westwood Gardens Still Life: A Photo Tour of Half-Built Houston Homes

January 16, 2009 – 10:48 am

So where are all the half-built homes? That question, asked by a Swamplot reader last week, prompted a slew of comments from other readers eager to identify pockets and neighborhoods in and around Houston where construction has come to a halt because of problems connected to the nationwide housing-market collapse. (As well as a few where construction stopped for reasons of a more local nature.)

Swamplot reader subprimelandguy suggested looking at Northwest Houston:

You need to go to the suburban areas, particularly the non master planned communities between the Beltway and Highway 6 / 1960. The most aggressive one is actually inside the Beltway near West Road and Gessner - a former Royce Homes (go figure) development called Westwood Gardens. It is a bombed out poster child for the subprime fiasco.

Then late yesterday, subprimelandguy sent in photos!

Continue Reading This Story >

10:48 am | 88 Comments | Read more about Cancellations and Delays, Financing, Homebuilders, Neighborhoods: Northwest Houston, Neighborhoods: Westwood Gardens
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Monday, November 10, 2008

New Homes from Royce Builders: Back from the Dead and Available for Sale!

November 10, 2008 – 10:41 am

Map of Royce Homes Neighborhoods

What’s a failed homebuilder to do when it hurriedly goes belly-up . . . but still has a huge chunk of inventory on hand?

Welcome to the Royce Builders Already-Gone-Out-of-Business Home Sale!

How’s it work? Well, if you’re a lucky real-estate agent, you receive a mysterious message with a couple of attachments listing the more than 300 homes in the Greater Houston area the . . . uh, former company still has available! In 49 different neighborhoods around town! And all at discount prices!

Included with the list: a map of the neighborhoods Royce graced (shown above), demonstrating the company’s vast exurban spread.

Of course, the email message doesn’t come from Royce Builders, because Royce is . . . no longer with us. (And, to judge from the comments coming into Swamplot from recent Royce buyers, employees, and vendors, it is sorely missed!) The list comes instead from an email address on the h-smith.com domain. That hyphen, of course, stands for “ammer.” Didn’t Hammersmith Financial, Royce’s sister mortgage company, also go out of business?

But the property list is so much more fun than a collection of random way-far-out addresses:

Continue Reading This Story >

10:41 am | 43 Comments | Read more about Hazards, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Openings and Closings
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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Royce Home To End All Royce Homes

October 7, 2008 – 12:07 pm

16427 Telge Rd., Cypress, Texas

What’s this 15,811-sq.-ft. home in Cypress doing on the market . . . for a fat $9.8 million?

Looks like the seller might be needing to do a little downsizing!

Continue Reading This Story >

12:07 pm | 27 Comments | Read more about Home Decor, Home Design, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhoods: Cypress
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Friday, October 3, 2008

Royce Builders: Back in Business?

October 3, 2008 – 12:34 pm

A couple of tipsters are telling us that Royce Builders is back in business, only a little more than a week after shutting everything down! Members of the Speer family, say our sources, have started up a new company with about 10 employees in the same Royce Builders building on Beltway 8, in the space formerly occupied by Royce’s sister company, Hammersmith Financial.

Even more fascinating is the name of the new company, which one of our sources says is Vestalia. If that’s true, it’s a terrific choice! In ancient Roman mythology, Vesta was the virgin goddess of hearth and home. How appropriate!

Well, sort of. Vestalia is actually the name of a holiday that celebrated Vesta. Wikipedia provides the . . . uh, gory details:

On the first day of the festivities the penus Vestae (the curtained sanctum sanctorum of her temple) was opened, for the only time during the year, for women to offer sacrifices in. Such sacrifices included the removal of an unborn calf from a pregnant cow.

Can’t wait to hear what sort of business this new company will be!

12:34 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Homebuilders, Openings and Closings
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Monday, September 22, 2008

Royce Builders: It’s All Over But the Refunds

September 22, 2008 – 5:03 pm

Royce Builders Building, 7850 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. West, HoustonRoyce Builders has finally shut down. The company slipped out somewhere between gusts of Hurricane Ike, leaving only a note on its website.

Looking for an earnest money refund? Try Royce’s handy new sounds-like-spam Gmail address! But do it before October 1, because . . . well, just because.

Got a home warranty issue? Well then, just . . . read the warranty!

A reader comments:

My concern is for the people who closed on one of their poorly built homes in the last 365 days. Royce was the backer of the new home warranty for the first year of ownership and now they are gone. My friends who used to work for them tell me there are thousands of unfinished warranty requests that were never completed or even addressed. I wish all the home owners good luck on getting things fixed. At least they will have the Two to Ten Waranty beginning in the second year (if Royce paid the premium).

Royce’s happy farewell message is after the jump!

Continue Reading This Story >

5:03 pm | 12 Comments | Read more about Hazards, Homebuilders, Openings and Closings
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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Staff and Paperwork Reduction at Royce Builders and Hammersmith Financial

September 4, 2008 – 4:03 pm

What’s in the Swamplot inbox? More fun news and comments about Royce Builders and mortgage-y sidekick Hammersmith Financial:

According to a source all sales was finally let go yesterday. . . . Subdivisions have been completely stone cold. In addition, Hammersmith finished up last Friday. Between both, lots of shredding going on. The remainder of Royce is in the Hammersmith offices as well. Also, many who may be interested, [Royce Chief Operating Officer James] Hunter’s last day was a week ago Friday.

For any buyers out there who feel the have been defrauded by Royce, all they need to do is contact the Consumer Fraud Division at 713-755-5836. This is the DA’s office and there is the possibility that criminal charges may be filed if Royce knowingly defrauded consumers, but they MUST make the call.

A little bit more on the shredding:

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4:03 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Hazards, Homebuilders
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Friday, August 29, 2008

Royce Builders Watch

August 29, 2008 – 3:24 pm
   

“They have been moving the remaining 11 [employees] down to the first floor. . . . They told them it has to be done this week. Also, they were seen moving stuff out of the building and loading box trucks. Only two remaining project managers and one remaining sales counselor have been spotted.” [Swamplot Inbox; previously]

3:24 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Hazards, Homebuilders, Quicklink
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

17 Problems with Royce Builders: Lavish Spending, Loose Keys, Roaming Rats

August 27, 2008 – 4:18 pm

Royce Builders Building, 7850 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. West, HoustonWhat caused last week’s big implosion over at Royce Builders? And what’s happening now? A Swamplot informant tries to clue us in with this rich, extended view of the company’s problems:

Fact #1: Lavish spending by all of the Speers. At any given time one of two Bentley’s, Ferrari, Escalade or sports cars belonging to the family would be parked at the office. Shawn Speer and his wife Shonna were known for bragging about their lavish spending. Certainly, if you’re making money spend it, but when times are tight they were the only ones still spending money like water.

Fact #2: Example: Shonna told another employee about $30,000 shopping spree to New York and only a purse and few other items were on that steep tab.

Fact #3: As employees were crying and leaving Shonna and her best friend and manager Nicki K. were talking about moving forward with their new clothing line. This conversation opened up speculation that monies had been moved to accounts in Nikki’s name for this purpose.

Oh yes . . . there’s more!

Continue Reading This Story >

4:18 pm | 13 Comments | Read more about Financing, Hazards, Homebuilders
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