The worst mistake I have made in my entire home building project was choosing to work with Alchemy Construction. They demonstrably build exceptional homes for the wealthy, but have difficulty working with a limited budget for the average person, in my case roughly $200K. Before signing a pre-construction services agreement with Alchemy, I wanted to make sure my limited budget was realistic, and they told me that it was "totally do-able with my design." During the design phase, the owner made recommendations that drove up the cost of the design dramatically, while shooting down less expensive options. It soon became clear that instead of finding ways to meet my "totally do-able" budget, the owner was simply going about his usual, very materially-intensive and therefore expensive approach to 'green' building, despite saying more than once that he was "interested in [my] house because we want to build something a member of my crew could afford." The owner's first (incomplete) estimate was $391,485 for my 1240 sq ft, 2 bd, 2 ba home. This is well over $300/sq ft for a home with drywall returns on the windows, concrete floors, and similarly inexpensive finishes. At our first meeting after the estimate, the owner admitted his mistake and apologized for telling me $200k was feasible, but did nothing further to make amends. Instead, he began a process to justify his high costs and get me to increase my budget by citing a Fine Homebuilding article with an expensively finished $300/sq ft house, referencing my salary affording a larger loan, sending a Zillow search that showed complete properties selling for more than just my house build budget, and comparing my house to expensive pre-fab Blu Homes that are steel framed, architect designed, and contain expensive finishes. The owner also then stated that in fact it was NOT possible for Alchemy to build my 2 story, attached garage design for my budget, citing a Blu Homes brochure as evidence that I could only afford a 1 story garageless home. Having worked with Blu Homes for clients before, the owner had knowledge of this when he told me the opposite earlier in the year. I would have walked away immediately had I not been locked into Alchemy's pre-construction agreement with the threat of being billed for their time. I tried to find ways to bring costs down so the project could move forward, which consisted in removing all of the owner's recommendations, but also fundamental elements of my original "totally do-able" design, along with paying for things out of pocket or doing the work myself, all of which entailed a costly re-design. Even after these radical concessions, it became clear that the owner's costs were still coming in many tens of thousands of dollars over my "totally do-able" budget and threatened the funding of a construction loan, so I decided I had to have the project competitively bid by other contractors in addition to Alchemy. The owner then unilaterally and pre-emptively pulled out of our pre-construction agreement, though it had no language about exclusivity pre-construction. Alchemy billed me for payments they made on my behalf for permits and design, which I paid them for immediately, as well as $6500 for their consulting. To their credit they state that they capped their hours at 100, but their vague invoice lacked any line-item accounting of their time so even 100 hours seems arbitrary. Since the $6500 consulting charge would go away if I ultimately chose them as the contractor to build the house, I asked that they wait until the bid process ran its course to see if I even had to pay them. They continued to demand payment. When I suggested that their gross professional misjudgements and misrepresentations (as told in this review) led to delays and costs like re-design that were a serious burden to me and should be a consideration in allowing me time to pay, the owner called me 'hostile' and removed Alchemy completely from my project. In this final email to me, Alchemy's owner referred to my home design as being 1851 sq ft. I hope this is just a typo. Though I had to take out a personal loan, which jeopardizes my construction loan, to pay them for their 'services,' they have been paid in full and I am very happy to be done working with them. I have since discussed my house with other contractors, and they confirm that $200K is a reasonable budget, so it appears the problem is not the project but Alchemy's cost of building. Obviously, future clients should be wary of Alchemy's use of pre-construction agreements, and their costly, deceptive, and anti-competitive business practices. Complaints with the Contractor's State Licensing Board and the Better Business Bureau, and a more detailed review on Angie's List, can be found on the respective websites. read more
