CP Morgan Going Bankrupt???
Posted by Mike Taylor on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 9:59am.Update: It is official...CP Morgan is out of business and shutting its doors as of 2/27/2009.
If you are a customer under contract with CP Morgan and are considering purchasing a new house, please call me!! I know which builders are stable and which ones are not. Don't let this happen again, email me or call me anytime 317-733-3667.
Let me just start out by saying that this is pure rumor and speculation at this point, but word on the street is the CP Morgan could be shutting its doors. I have heard that a shutdown is eminent and could come quite quickly.
If CP Morgan does goes out of business, they will join several other builders in the market who have either left Indianapolis or simply been forced to shut their doors. In the past couple of years, KB Homes left the market, Davis homes went under, Gunstra is all but shut down, and Portrait Homes is closing its doors.
I do know for fact that CP Morgan has had a series of layoff that have cut quite deep. However, in this market that is really not an indicator that a bankruptcy is coming. These layoffs are more than likely the builders shedding excess overhead as they adjust to the new housing market.
If this does go down, this will most likely rock the community of Indianapolis home builders and the general public. CP has been a big player in the market for quite some time and they sold a ton of homes.
Has anyone else heard these rumors? If they do go out of business, will this be a good thing or a bad thing for Indianapolis real estate?
UPDATE: Take a look at this blog post to see the latest rumors about Pulte Homes buying CP Morgan.
Mike Taylor is the broker/owner of Red Door Real Estate specializing in residential Indianapolis real estate. Red Door Real Estate services the entire Indianpolis area, but has a strong focus on the north side of Indianapolis including Geist real estate, Carmel real estate, and Fishers real estate.
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[...]just a quick follow up post to the CP Morgan going Bankrupt I did a few days ago. The most recent scuttlebutt is the Pulte Homes is looking into purchasing CP[...]
Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 9:54am.
It is true that Pulte is purchasing C.P. Morgan. Currently the entire C.P. staff has to interview with Pulte to keep their positions. No word yet on if C.P. will keep it’s name and product line or if they will actually become part of Pulte and their product.
Posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 9:37am.
Looks like there is a snag in the negotiations w/ Pulte which could mean the end of C.P. Morgan. From 16 homes a day to 0. This is what happens when you don't value your employees or your management. Good job Chuck.
Posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 8:19pm.
@ Kool-Aid - I have heard the same thing about employees interviewing to keep their positions. I think if this does go through, it is pretty clear they will somehow keep it separate from Pulte.
@ I'm Just Saying: I have not heard this, can you provide any more insight?
Posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 6:07am.
I used to work for CP MORGAN when they were a first class company. I built a fabulous house with them and I LOVED working there! It was a dream job. I worked VERY hard for them and was rewarded accordingly. At the the time that I worked there they were a class act and absolutely did the right thing for their employees and CUSTOMERS.
When was the last time that your employer paid for marriage counseling, personal retreats, helped families of multiples and covered your expenses when your checks were stolen?? These are just a few examples of acts of kindness that I saw CP provide for other employees!
I can tell you we were HIGHLY trained (the highest in the industry) and our CUSTOMERS and their satisfaction was of utmost importance.
If CP were to leave town it would be devastating for MANY MANY people not just those that work there. Think of all the contractors and their families that LIVE off of the business from this GREAT company....
How many of you realized that CHUCK started this business from a desk in the corner of his daughters bedroom... that each of his children lived in one of his neighborhoods at one time.
When an entrepreneur sets out and creates a GREAT company and numerous opportunities for employment for others why would we attack them? THANK YOU CHUCK and other great men like you. YOU MAKE AMERICA GREAT!
And thank you for more home than I ever dreamed possible.
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 10:48am.
No more Kool-Aid left in the Carolinas, CP has shut the doors as of today. Posted by Former Charlotte CP Sales Counselor. Not sure if the doors have been shut yet in Indy.Someone post if they know.I do believe Chuck and Roxy believed in the Core Values. In contrast, with management it was only about the dollar and 1 more sale.How many will you have this week ? Whats your commitment for the week ?
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 12:31pm.
They are ceasing operations tomorrow from what I read. Here is a link to a local story: http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=9910920
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 12:34pm.
Does anyone know how I could purchase one or two of the lots for an existing CP Morgan Community? I would like to protect the area close to my home. Thanks.
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 1:54pm.
I do believe Chuck’s intentions were true in the beginning, but I also believe he had a messiah complex and greed took over. C.P. Morgan’s X per day formula for negotiating pricing with its trades and contractors was an accident waiting to happen. While I was at C.P. the X per day was 12. That meant that in Indy Monday - Friday 12 homes were closed. As soon as that number started to drop, they couldn’t secure the pricing or contractors they had in the past because they didn’t have the volume to keep the engine running to fuel the X per day machine. This meant that housing prices had to go up or they had to start eating some of the cost.
I am sure Chuck is a good honest man at heart, but he let managers push and push for more sales that inflated the X per day number to one that was unsustainable over time. I can recall one night a manager calling me one hour before closing time saying that another community fell short on their quota and my community had to make that “sale” up before we left that night. Literally, they gave us one hour to come up with a buyer and a contract. The scary thing is somehow we did it. They had a way of making you feel like everything else you had done that week or month meant nothing unless you got the "ONE MORE" they needed. If you didn’t bring in the sales you committed for that week you felt like your job was in danger no matter how long you had been with company or how much money you had made for them in the past. A big downfall for the company and one of the main reasons I made my decision to leave was because of the poor choices for upper management and field management positions. They placed people in these positions that were not qualified…PERIOD! In addition to being unqualified they didn’t have a shred of morality or ethics. It seams that those who were “friends” with the former President of the company where placed in these position regardless of their skills and abilities. Just because you are a good sales person does NOT mean you will make a good manager.
“Thank You CP” gushed about what a class act C.P. was, but I think this person is still sipping a little bit of the Kool-Aid. They may have done some good things for the community and offered good benefits to their employees but you can’t claim you’re a Christian based company and then go out and take advantage poor unsuspecting consumers either. Have you ever driven through an old C.P. community? I've driven through the ones I sold homes in and I have to say I am ashamed and embarrassed that I contributed to such a mess. We were made to feel like we were doing these poor souls a favor by getting them into a home they could never get if it weren’t for C.P. It may be true but they will also never be able to sell that home because everything was stripped out esthetically to get the price down low enough for them to afford it. I’m not talking about simple upgrades like crown molding; I’m talking about not installing a bathroom on the first floor of the home. Those people (who weren’t foreclosed on) will have no chance of re-selling to a buyer knowing they would have to go upstairs every time they had to use the bathroom. I was told over and over again by Realtors that this was one of the many reasons they hated selling C.P. Morgan homes but when you went to a manger with this information you were told to find a way to make them like it.
They used the promise of making big money to get what they wanted out of you no matter what the cost. Then once you started making the big bucks and became accustomed to living the high life, they knew they had you. Managers would actually call the Sales Counselor's spouse and tell them about bonus potentials because they knew they too had become accustomed to the lifestyle and they would in turn push the spouse to sell more.
It really started with the first interview and the promise that if you worked hard you could make more money then you ever dreamed possible; but what they didn’t tell you was that it all came with a price. I felt like I was forcing buyers into a house just so I could make my quota for the week; there were times I was expected to sell up to 6 homes a week. THAT IS CRAZY! Finally not being able to sleep at night and the feeling that I should do the right thing became more important then money. Don’t get me wrong, I do miss the big bucks but being at peace with myself far outweighs any monetary reward.
I do feel bad for the employees that were left at the end and their families, but I think the writing was on the wall for a long time. Unfortunately they just couldn’t see past the smoke and mirror elusions put before them; just like with any cult. I’m not a heartless person, I do feel bad for Chuck, his family and their dreams but something tells me they will land on their feet. I think he just put his trust in the hands of some really bad decision-makers and complaints about management, quality of the homes and constructive feedback fell on deaf ears.
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 4:37pm.
yep, when ya sell junk, ya get junked! trashy homes with no value at all. the poor folks that were duped into buyin them are the victims here. i don't feel sorry for the organization at all. screw peoples lives up and eventually you will get screwed. shows ya what greed will do to ya.
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:19pm.
I too worked for CP Morgan in Charlotte,NC-I feel horrible for the things that I did under the name of "the company". I was a construction manager and I can tell you that these homes were built like crap-they just looked nice on the surface...and that was never for very long.
Posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:24pm.
I hate to say it, but they deserve everything they get. I have always been a believer in KARMA, but this just clinches it for me. I left C.P. to go to another homebuilder because I couldn't stand how they hid behind their Christian facade. I made a lot of money at C.P. and it was hard to leave but it is truly a cultish atmosphere. They reel you in with the promise of becoming rich and the delivered on it, but what you had to put up with to get it just wasn't worth it. If they do go, the neighborhoods that are left with empty lots will stay empty forever. No other builder would want to go in and clean up their mess and try to sell a lot next to a C.P. box.
Posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 1:23pm.