Who Is Behind Heartland Homes Of Florida?

LABELLE, FL. -- Under recent fire from home buying customers, Heartland Homes of Florida finds itself defensive against recent home buyers' complaints, many having been asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars extra for new homes contracted months ago, while delays in completing homes as promised continue. 

Photo: Heartland home under construction in Port LaBelle

Some home buyers are wondering who is behind Hendry and Glades county's largest home builder.

Heartland Homes of Florida's corporate officers are Dwayne House and Kevin Berth. Dwayne House made his first fortune in Miami with trade schools while Kevin Berth started construction companies in Lee county decades ago and was a cabinet maker.

Now controlling the the area's largest home building company, House and Berth are the officers of Career Financial Corp., owning some 190 south Glades county lots in the Port LaBelle section and 584 lots in Hendry county's Port LaBelle. 

Heartland Homes builds homes on the Career Financial lots using their captive construction and cabinet companies listed below to furnish materials. Both House and Berth are officers in local CPA and Real Estate office, Barbara N. Willard, P.A.

House now in his 80s, and Berth in his 50s, have built over 400 homes in the area in the last few years. Berth is now building his own upscale house on three acres in the Port LaBelle Ranchettes.

An investigation into the corporations they control include a surprising mix shown below including:

Corporations solely owned by Kevin Berth or where he is an officer and date started:

FCR SOLUTIONS, INC. 02/12/2010 solely owned
CABINETS TOO, INC. 12/21/2021 solely owned
CAP 1 HOLDINGS LLC 09/09/2021 with CHEMBLETTE, ALEXIS
BARBARA N. WILLARD, P.A., LaBelle CPA and Real Estate office. Dwayne House is also an officer.

The following are corporations with Berth and House as officers:

PORT LABELLE MARINA, INC 
CAREER FINANCIAL CORP.
HEARTLAND HOMES OF FLORIDA, LLC  started 05/15/2018
HBFL PROPERTIES LLC started 11/18/2019
HEARTLAND HOMES SERVICES, LLC started 06/19/2020
HEARTLAND CABINETS & BEYOND, LLC started 12/30/2021

House's and/or wife solely owned corporations or with a partner include:

PORT LABELLE DOCKS, LLC started 11/01/2005 with J.C.Z. LAND LLC
GOLDEN HAWK, INC. started 12/20/2005
J.C.Z. LAND, LLC started 01/20/2004 with wife Zhang, JULIE

XIA HOLDINGS LLC, owned by ZHANG, JULIE, and Career Financial Corp as registered agent 

LONE RANGER, LLC started 11/01/2005
HKH LIMITED, LLC started 02/19/2015
FLORIDA OUTBACK LLC started 08/31/2016

FERGUSON-HOUSE FARMS, INC. - owns 11 Hendry County Land Parcels on SR 80

HOUSE, DWAYNE A "Revocable Trust" - 10 land parcels in Glades County

HENDRY COUNTY HOUSE - land parcels

APOLLO 888 INC. started 01/05/2021 shows Julie Zhang as the owner

House started his wealth journey with these Miami area corporations and a LaBelle and Miami truck driving school:

KEY POWER, INC. from 1972-1983
KEY POWER, INC. from 1989, Barbara Willard is also an officer
KEY POWER SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, INC. 1972-1986
MIAMI TECHNICAL COLLEGE, INC. 1980-1983
KEY POWER DRIVING SCHOOL INC. 1988-2010

During an investigation, conducted in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the department learned that Key Power Driving School, training truck drivers, violated its agreement with the state and conducted fraudulent testing activities such as omitting vital portions of the required three-part skills test and manipulating testing data on CDL skills test score sheets. House was a signatory to the contact at the time. The school was closed down. 

See Southwest Florida Online - Driving School story

More on Heartland Homes in previous stories