Brian McNeill reports in today’s Daily Progress that Robert Hauser Homes appears to be in some financial trouble. One homebuilder is suing Hauser, alleging that Hauser was contractually obligated to buy $2.56M in lots, but didn’t, and the builder is now stuck with the land (and mortgage payments). And one of the developers behind Old Trail has sued Hauser over a similar matter, in that case nine lots worth $1.4M. And a county flooring company went after Hauser in court for unpaid bills, though that’s since been sorted out. Like many local businesses (especially developers), they’ve laid off employees, shut down one of their offices, and dramatically scaled back construction plans. Bob Hauser tells McNeill that “it’s been slow…it’s been very challenging.”
This is something I’ve had my eye on for a while now. To my eye, Hauser was hugely overextended when the bubble burst. They’d expanded to construction in developments near Fredericksburg (Fawn Lake and Somerset, if memory serves) while riding the bubble hard here in town. I’ve worked with and gotten estimates from a bunch of guys in the construction business in the past year, and more than a few have told me that they’re hurting because of outstanding debts from Hauser.
Disclaimer: My father-in-law worked for Hauser for some years. How that biases me, I couldn’t guess (he was perfectly happy working there), but it’s worth calling up.
I think Churchhill Homes is filing for bankruptcy protection too…
Was Church Hill and Hauser Homes involved in Belvidere? Or was Hauser connected through Stonehaus?
It is so unbelieveable that such experienced builders ignored many in wise people in the real estate business and speculated so deeply.
Bob Hauser is the “haus” in “Stonehaus.” (Frank Stoner is the “Stone.”)
Cville Eye –
Church Hill (now Eagle)and Hauser are the builders in Belvedere and Stonehaus is the developer.
Simple, right? :)
I doubt there are any home builders in America not going through significant financial troubles right now. We hear a lot about auto makers in trouble and the number of jobs at risk, but there are significantly more jobs at risk in the home building industry. Since 2006 there have been more than 1.5 million layoffs from home builders – that’s more than 3x the total number of UAW members (and that 1.5 million figure doesn’t include suppliers). So if Detroit just flat-out went under, it would affect 1/3 the number of families already impacted by the housing crisis.
Smaller builders like Hauser are at great risk. Many will not be able to survive this. Many have already gone under.
Thanks fro the info. I guess that’s why multi-project corporation form LLCs and LLPs, limited liability per project.