A while back, I wrote about Alex and Xiomara Gerena, a Glassboro couple who gave South Jersey builder Signature Homes $15,000 to build them a house in Franklin Township.

The house was never started. Signature president Frank Inzinna informed the Gerenas by letter that he was going out of business. Their deposit has not been returned.

In search of answers, I have been trying to track down Inzinna since April, without success - even though a source provided the builder's cell phone number. (It no longer works.)

I haven't been alone in the quest. Every couple of weeks, someone writes or calls me to tell a story about Signature, and to report the same silence from the builder.

Alex Gerena has heard nothing from Inzinna since the mid-April letter.

Lawyer Louis Presenza Jr. of Turnersville represents a buyer owed $26,000 for a house that was never built.

Presenza said he sent a release from the sales contract to Signature's attorney June 24, but was told it was never received. He sent another copy to the lawyer July 20 "and still no word."

Like other area builders, Inzinna expanded operations elsewhere - to Murrells Inlet, S.C. That, Presenza said he's been told, is where Signature got into trouble.

Jason and Shannon Lingle were among Signature's buyers at Murrells Inlet. They are trying to finish the house themselves now, even though they face liens of $100,000 from unpaid subcontractors.

The Lingles signed their contract with Signature in June 2008, with a December delivery date. They moved with their two children from Charlotte, N.C., and rented a townhouse across from the building site, hoping to watch their house rise.

"Every day, we went to our lot to see it vacant," Shannon Lingle said. "It was so hard going day after day and seeing nothing done. I cannot even begin to describe to you the roller coaster of regret, emotions, and anxiety that the last year has dealt us."

By December, there was only framing. The dream house the couple had sunk their life savings into "turned into an oozing sore."

Work picked up in January, Shannon said, but "I won't even begin to go into all the mistakes that they would never admit to, even though we had it in writing."

At first, the Lingles believed they had not been patient enough. When a February closing date passed without completion, they hired a lawyer. He contacted Inzinna in March, and the builder said he could have the house 90 percent finished before closing, and the rest after.

"This is not how we would normally do business, but something just told us to do it," she said. "Needless to say, our house was not completed. Even worse, subcontractors started showing up at our door for the next month, complaining of not being paid."

Hence the $100,000 in liens.

"We still don't have a vent hood over our range, and the stairs are not yet finished," Shannon Lingle said.

Still, they remind themselves that there is a house, even though "we curse the day we met Signature Homes and the people who smiled and lied to our faces."

Inquirer real estate writer Alan J. Heavens is the author of "Remodeling on the Money" (Kaplan Publishing). His home-improvement columns appear Fridays in Home & Design.

Contact Alan J. Heavens at 215-854-2472 or aheavens@phillynews.com.