I recently asked if any members of the Dumont Condos Contract holder’s group wanted to share their story on this blog in addition to ours. I received this post.
My wife and I both lived and worked in Alexandria Virginia and always enjoyed coming to the district for the culture, sights, and dining. When my wife landed a fellowship at Bethesda Naval hospital we thought it karma — we needed a place located between Bethesda and Alexandria and the Chinatown/Gallery Place metro location was perfect. The plan was we’d walk to the metro and she’d get on red and me yellow. This was around winter 2007. We found the Dumont and it seemed perfect. Seth from McWilliams-Ballard was the perfect gentleman and, in retrospect, said all the right things. He told us we should “move fast” because they were just weeks away from moving the sales office into the building and when that happens there’s always a “spike in sales”. This was January 2008 and the target date for occupancy, we were assured was April. Of course April turned into May, which turned into June, etc, etc. I phoned the office atleast weekly and every couple weeks we’d go to the worksite to check on progress. Often we’d run into Seth who’d always give us the vague, yet reassuring estimate of “any day now.” My wife’s fellowship began in June and with her demanding schedule there was no way she could commute from Alexandria to Bethesda. So we moved into an apartment with a short-term lease (re: premium of $400/month). It was for 90 days and I thought to myself “I’m going to end up closing on Dumont and having to pay a month of rent too.” I told Seth we were on a 3 month lease and he told us “No problem, we’ll start closing in a few weeks and I’ll just put you at the back of the line. We can slow-roll it and make sure it’s timed with the expiration of your lease.” He said to just make sure you “..work with me closely on this because sometime things slip through and the closing agent will call you directly.” “I’ll hand massage this”. We were confident we were in “good hands” and that things were still on-track based on reassurances from Seth. I figured we’d made a good decision because it seemed things were progressing really slowing. We went down there on Labor Day weekend and noticed no one was working. Construction is all about time and money and it concerned me no one was working over the holiday which indicated they weren’t in any paricular hurry. While we were there we ran into Seth. I said “Seth, I thought you weren’t working this weekend, I called the sales office and the recorded message said they were closed.” He told me that was because they were in the process of moving the sales office into the building. And, “Oh by the way, I don’t work there any more, I work at Remax.” I thought, great! He was suppose to work this personally to ensure we weren’t called to closing too fast and have to pay on my 3 month lease and a mortgage. I thought, whatever, people have lives and I’m sure there are more important things for him to worry about than me. He just had a job change and the last thing he’d be thinking about was us. Afterwards, I would call the sales office and get a recording that told me they’d moved to “425 Mass Ave”. For two weeks I left messages and no one would return my call. Finally, I went down to the worksite. The building was wide open and a few workers were milling around planting mums or something. My wife, her dog, and myself walked around the building looking for the sales office. No one approached us. That’s when it struck me “We’re screwed!”
Despite all this I’m still a big believer in Karma.
The District Chatter 