Check out the videos I did with randomly-approached Aqua home buyers on this YouTube playlist. You’ll get a better fix on Magellan from those videos than from any anonymous reviews on the Web.

In the interest of transparency: we’re currently pitching Magellan to become a client. I don’t think that biases my take on this but, if you do, so be it.

You may be interested in knowing that Yelp has deleted a half dozen positive reviews praising Magellan, leaving only a negative review and one expressing skepticism about all the positive reviews that have been deleted.

My belated search on your e-mail address indicates that you’re quite a busy little fan of Aqua, posting raves on it all over the Web, but not mentioning your lost job. Your MySpace profile doesn’t mention your lost job either.

You must have been mightily impessed and motivated by something relating to Aqua, since you haven’t had anything to say about any other real estate development. What was that motivation, Eric?

Tell me that I’m wrong in thinking that you work for Magellan’s search engine optimization firm and are toying with us – dishonestly.

We really don’t appreciate people trying to game us in this fashion. Despite what you may be thinking, it doesn’t do Magellan any good either.

Little did I know that my advertising firm was going to be laying off employees, me included. Luckily, i didn’t get to the signing process just yet but i was about 2 weeks away from it. I’m extremely disappointed that at this time I can’t physically buy one of their properties. The current market is so unstable that my condo dreams have to be put aside for the time being.

I have to say though, Magellan Development was a great company to meet with. I hope to become financially set in the coming months, but this economy is so unpredictable that i can’t put my word on it.

I’ve seen the posts you refer to, which do all appear to be the work of one person with an unknown agenda. That same person also commented on our videos of Lakeshore East.

The numbers aren’t in for 2008 yet, but Magellan was the largest homebuilder in Chicago (according to Crain’s) in 2007, with over $500M in sales. Any organization of that size is a lightning rod for some of society’s walking wounded. I worked in a mental hospital for 4 1/2 years and kept that sort under lock and key. Back then they sent crank letters. Now they have the Internet.

Sites like this that try to provide an open forum for legitimate gripes and praise have to accept the illegitimate gripes – and praise – that comes with. Buyer will, hopefully, rely more on their personal experience and talking to a builder’s other buyers than on anything they read online.

I did notice one or two negative ones on different sites but they sounded like the same person ranting about the same issues but just using a different screen name. Personally, I think that sucks because it puts a cloud over a reputable company such as Magellan. It also sucks that rippoff report comes up when a google search is done. There are sooooooo many complaints about the rippoff report and its B.S. content that it shouldn’t even act as a valid source for info. I once saw a post on ripoff report about a kindergarten school that my daughter went to. The post was all made up (fake) because, being a parent I was extremely concerned, I called the school and got the truth behind it.

I like the fact that Magellan Development has confidence in their properties and services. Its unfortunate that I lost my job in this economy because I was really planning on pursuing a move with them.