The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1742 - New Build NIGHTMARE? The Scheme That Is Ripping Off Millions Of Americans
27 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What consumer protection issues are affecting home buyers today?
It's not often that I do monologues where I talk about consumer protection issues or how to avoid getting scammed or anything like that. But when it comes to buying homes, So many people are now getting ripped off in ways that are, frankly, hard to comprehend in some cases. And it's clearly time for a deep dive on that topic. And we'll start with the numbers.
Now, ordinarily, hearing the news that many more single family homes are being built in the United States would suggest a good sign for the economy and for young people, many of whom are struggling right now to afford a starter home. And indeed, over the past few years, the number of new construction single-family homes has increased, particularly in the West and in the South.
In fact, as the COVID lockdowns ended, there were roughly 1.5 million homes under construction, which was the highest number since the 1970s. These new homes are a lifeline in the market because many existing homeowners who locked in their rock-bottom interest rates on their mortgages a few years ago are reluctant to sell. But there's a very real risk to buying a new home in this market.
All over the country, major home builders are currently facing class action lawsuits, alleging shoddy construction and fraud. They're building homes too quickly with low quality materials and they're selling them to inexperienced buyers who more often than not are relying on low quality, outdated inspections. And then those buyers are discovering that under the terms of the contract they signed,
they don't have much recourse. That's why there's now an entire genre of social media video where experienced inspectors go into homes and identify serious flaws that should have been fixed or at least disclosed to buyers before they purchased the home.
But put another way, we've come a very long way from the days of Hammurabi's code, which called for builders to be put to death if they did a poor job constructing a home.
And before we get into the wave of lawsuits that have been filed by homeowners, it's worth taking a look at some of those videos to give you an idea of the extent of the problem and to give you a sense of what to look for if you're in the market for a home at the moment yourself.
At another final inspection, which means the house should pretty much be done, ready to go. So the air conditioners aren't going to work if they're not packed.
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Chapter 2: How has the increase in new construction homes impacted buyers?
All right, 2025 new build construction. This is a final inspection. Let's go check it out.
Downspouts on the second story sidewall are loose and not secured to the brick. Missing felt paper on top of the roof sheathing. Patio roof is missing counter flashing details. Here's what the pressure washing crew did inside the garage. No need to test that for moisture. Downspout elbow is bent.
And here, I forgot to install the downspout.
Here's your new roof. So this sweep hole covers good. I was missing. So this is D.L. Horton's main water supply to the house. And they call it flimsy, that is. The thing just came apart like that. And the water's just coming out. I had to turn the main water supply off to fix it.
Now, people regularly buy items that cost around $1,000, like TVs, computers, and so on, which have much higher quality control than $500,000 homes. It defies common sense for the biggest purchase of your life to be so unreliable and have so many issues. And that works to the advantage of the builders. Most buyers simply can't imagine being defrauded on such a massive purchase.
And it's especially true for new construction homes. But it's often the case that, especially over the last five years or so, new homes are in worse condition than existing homes. Watch. Well, if you're considering buying a newly built house, you may say, I don't need an inspection, it's brand new. What could be wrong?
That's not necessarily the case because some new homes have a lot of hidden problems.
Scratches here, scratches here, scratches all back here.
Edward Aguirre says he should be pretty excited about his brand new home that was recently built, but Edward says he's more frustrated than excited. I'm wondering, is my house the only house like that on this block?
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Chapter 3: What risks do buyers face when purchasing newly built homes?
One reason? He says new homes are being built at lightning speed across the valley and attention to small details diminish greatly. The builder forgot to finish hooking up the gas water heater vent, which means for about a year, this water heater has been spitting carbon monoxide inside this home.
One of the problems here is that buyers assume that if the builder does something wrong, they'll have some kind of recourse. And by the same token, buyers often assume that sellers, regardless of what kind of home they're selling, are bound by all kinds of warranties that they have to honor. So buyers will sign a purchase agreement without reading the fine print.
That's the first major mistake you can make in the home buying process. It's tempting to believe that because you haven't actually closed on the house yet, there isn't much risk in signing a purchase agreement. After all, if an inspection uncovers an undisclosed issue before closing, you don't have to follow through on the deal. But that's not necessarily true.
Builders write contracts to give themselves enormous leverage throughout the entire process. And usually, realtors won't alert buyers to the risk because They just want the sale to go through. Let's take a look at what happened to this woman in Tampa Bay who badly misunderstood the purchase agreement that she signed with D.R. Horton, which is the single largest home builder in the United States.
Watch.
Tonight, a single mom paid more than a half a million dollars in May for a new construction home in Waimama, where she planned to live with three children and her father, who's a disabled veteran.
But multiple construction problems have prevented the family from moving in, and the owner tells I-Team investigator Adam Walzer the builder has yet to pay thousands of dollars of her out-of-pocket expenses.
So this is up, sweet, huh?
This is the mess.
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Chapter 4: What common construction flaws are found in new homes?
If she doesn't close today, we're not going to pay her rate lock any further. She's going to have to pay us $250 a day until she closes. And that's if we don't terminate the contract and then she's out her money that she put down on the house.
So Perez closed on the $541,000 house and began paying her mortgage and utilities, but never moved in.
Now, the reason they're able to threaten this woman with daily fines is that in the eyes of the builder, they fulfill their end of the deal. Under the law and under the terms of the purchase agreement, they don't actually have to provide a high quality home. They merely have to substantially fulfill, quote unquote, their obligations. That's a very loose standard, to say the least.
And the contracts are written to favor the builder. The goal of the contract is to limit the potential objections a buyer can raise. And if the buyer doesn't insist on changes to the contract, then they're bound by it. They have no choice but to close on the home.
The outlet Hunter Brook Media, which focuses on investigative journalism, has cataloged numerous examples of builders and sellers using tactics like this. They reported that one woman named Nesha Gee signed a purchase agreement with a Lennar for a home in Athens, Alabama. And when an inspector found defects in the house, she backed out of the deal. And Lennar kept her $7,500 deposit.
And in another case, D.R. Horton told a couple that they would lose their $25,000 down payment if they backed out of the deal, even though they found mold in the floor and the walls. and they only received the $25,000 back when they agreed to buy another home built by D.R. Horton. Quote, according to multiple Lennar and D.R.
Horton contracts, if the buyer delays or backs out of the deal for any reason, even for known construction defects like foundation cracks, grading problems, or biological contaminants like mold, they trigger an automatic default, giving the seller the right to claim the deposit money as liquidated damages and amounts up to 15% of the value of the home.
Bernard's contract even state that the builder's failure to obtain a certificate of occupancy in time cannot be grounds for delaying closing. In many states, the builders require buyers to waive pre-existing legal rights, such as implied warranties in favor of the company's limited warranty.
Then the builder's limited warranties often explicitly lack basic guarantees otherwise available to purchasers under the law, like that the home will be habitable.
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Chapter 5: How do builders limit buyer recourse in home purchase agreements?
And no work, no pay. Y no estás ganando nada, entonces, ¿no? So yeah, it's been four weeks now of not making any money, not even $1.
This is how companies like D.R. Horton operate. They use cheaper materials, cheaper workers, promise a cheaper product to investors, even as they tell homebuyers that they're getting a quality home. It's a shell game, and as they play it, the lawsuits continue to pile up. This one's from Houston, watch.
You own this house outright, you paid cash, but yet you're afraid to walk in there. Correct. Why is that? because it's full of mold and it made me sick. You pay a monthly mortgage for this house.
I do, yeah.
But you don't live at the house.
No, we don't. You're afraid to walk in that house. Yes, we are. Why? Well, number one, I'm seven months pregnant and we have mold contamination in our home.
This was supposed to be where Courtney Colville lived after retirement. Do you want to live in this house? Absolutely not. I can't even imagine it. It's so stressful to even be here. This was kind of your dream house. This is where you were going to raise a family. When you look at it now, what is it?
It's a disaster. It's a nightmare. I don't want to go into the home at all. Attorney Ernest Freeman is representing Aaron and Courtney in their lawsuits against their home builder, Coventry Homes.
It all has to do with how the house was put together and whether the builder employed best practices.
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