The Rumors Circling Around Royce Builders

Information Center, SouthFork Subdivision, Manvel, Texas

It sure is hard to keep up with all the rumors being floated about Houston-based Royce Builders over at the Implode-Explode forums. Has Royce Homes declared bankruptcy? Have recent Royce homebuyers in SouthFork been having problems with undiscovered liens? Were company parties truly that wild? Are layoffs imminent? Is Royce about to move its offices to a more . . . uh, residential setting?

An abortive news report by Fox 26 Reporter Isiah Carey, scheduled to air last Friday, doesn’t appear to have cleared up any of the questions. The Fox 26 news site reported that Carey was threatened with arrest by a Royce employee — identified by some posters on the Implode-Explode forums as VP Shawn Speer, son of company president John Speer. It’s likely the threats didn’t end there, however: the story has since mysteriously disappeared from the station’s website.

As one poster on the forum angrily suggests, it’s all probably just a big misunderstanding:

Just like the analogy of a run on a bank, things like this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy when too many people buy into it and effectively give up – blowing off walks or closings, and otherwise just flat not doing their job. Did you not get paid today? If these things I have read posted are truly your beliefs, at least resign and stop being paid for nothing…

Photo of SouthFork Information Center: Royce Homes

4 Comment

  • I was still waiting for my home to close. THEN, the news that my home had a lean and I would not close until October. October is fine with me, being the lease at my apartment is not up until the end of October. BUT, now I have to come up with the 3 or 4 percent down. That is about $3500.00 which is not bad, but… I do not have it. I blew all my extra cash on summer vacation.

    So now what? There does not seem to be any alternative. I do NOT want to live in an apartment again! But all the good homes from other builders are gone.

    The end of September is almost out, and so will the “No money down, move in for nothing” incentive.

    Why, oh why. Boooo!

  • Um… I sure hope that was an attempt at humor.

    If you can’t come up with $3500 at the drop of a hat, you have no business buying a house. Wait till something important needs to be replaced, like the A/C or the roof. Or the washer, dryer, and refrigerator all decide to die in the same month. That $3500 will seem like a pittance.

    BTW, my house has a little bit of a lean, too, but that’s because it’s 70 years old. Perhaps you meant lien?

  • Preident John H Speer of Royce homes $3,349,311 value on HCAD