C.P. Morgan ReduxIt's been most of a week since one of the nation's 30 largest home builders threw in the towel and the thoughts on what happened are still being debated. Several things seem obvious to me through the haze of frustration for the former employees and 'caught in the middle' customers of Morgan.
1) The company's press release was an out and out lie. The release stated that all homes had been completed and there were no outstanding build projects ongoing. Wrong. Numerous homes are standing unfinished and that doesn't count the people who have made lot deposits between $1000 and $4000 to begin the build process.
2) The employees were told that their health care was going to be cancelled as of midnight of 2/28. Nice. They get canned and their insurance gets cancelled with no advance warning in 48 hours. How considerate. What's still up in the air is whether ALL employees even got paid for the 13 days of the pay period in which they got gassed. As of their dismissal, they had not.
3) Does anyone now doubt that 'no down' and 'low down' payment homes with 300 lots in a development are a BAD IDEA? I worry there will be tumbleweeds blowing through some of these neighborhoods before the foreclosure monster is through. You can't sell them with no equity and the sheer quantity of properties will make it even tougher for owners who are in distress to work the short sale option.
4) I'm treading on thin ice here but I don't frankly care with the way in which people have been hurt. C.P. Morgan always prided itself as being a 'Christian' company. I'm all for people's faith, in fact it's the most important thing in my personal life. My issue is how dare a company's owner allow that type of 'marketing' or 'presentation' of his company take place and then be off in Florida buying a massive new boat while his employees are getting laid off and his customers are left in the lurch? Understand, it's not the faith, it's the abuse of faith that is unconscionable here. When I see a woman on the news saying she signed a Morgan contract because she believed they were a Christian company and then she gets burned for the previously mentioned reasons, it makes me sick.
5) If you are a Morgan homeowner, review your paperwork carefully. Understand who is repsonsible for your warranty. Get involved in your neighborhood association. The future of your neighborhood and your homes value is on the line. Don't get blindsided by being unaware of what's going on around you.
What will come of the future of Morgan's previous clients and employees remains to be seen. What is certain is that they're demise and how they handled it as a company is a burn on the trust of consumers. It's a burn that will not soon heal here or for other home buyers across the country in the wake of the current housing collapse.
