which home builders should I NOT look at?? (Austin, Round Rock: neighborhoods, new construction)

[llkltk]

Wilshire moves walls which makes them semi custom. Track has different meanings North vs. South. Anyway this is an old post so who cares!

[pinda]

I just read this article which states some of the builders using Chinese Drywall. I don't know if much was used in Austin area or not. I read someplace else they think some may be in Austin. I am going to be careful when we buy a home and try to watch for this. I hope the link works, otherwise copy and paste.
Results of Chinese Drywall Investigation Expected Soon - Building Materials, Drywall - Builder Magazine

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by llkltk

Wilshire moves walls which makes them semi custom. Track has different meanings North vs. South. Anyway this is an old post so who cares!

I beg to differ. A spec house is just that, but if it is not built yet, any tract builder will make minor changes upon architects approval.


Tract housing (also known as cookie-cutter housing) is a style of housing development in which multiple identical or nearly-identical homes are built to create a community. Tract housing developments may encompass dozens of square miles. Tract housing developments are typically found in North American suburbs that were modeled on the "Levitton" concept.
Tract housing development only makes use of a few designs, and labor costs are reduced because workers only need to learn the skills and movements of constructing a limited variety of home designs. In addition, as all homes in the development will be built at the same time, the cost of purchasing and transporting building supplies may be reduced due to economies of scale.

[CATXTransplant]

Newmark was bought by Scott Felder. There is no more Newmark. Stay away from KB and Meritage. I've seen some shady stuff in Toll Brothers.

[Mrs.JT]

Originally Posted by CATXTransplant

Newmark was bought by Scott Felder. There is no more Newmark. Stay away from KB and Meritage. I've seen some shady stuff in Toll Brothers.

Wow. The more research I do, the more I'm hearing horror stories about Meritage. We just started construction on a Meritage Home. It was a toss up between Drees and Meritage, but unfortunately, Drees had already closed out in the neighborhood, and there were only one or two spec homes left. We wanted to build from the ground up, so we went with Meritage. They had several lots available, and we found a beautiful lot with several mature trees, and the lot premium was waived. We're building one of their signature series homes, so I hope all goes well...

I visited Arbor Place this weekend, and it's one of the only gated communities in Round Rock. David Weekley and Highland Homes are the buiders. Meritage was one of the original builders, but they backed out because of cash flow problems, so the developer approached Highland Homes. I am in love with the homes they're building. If we back out now, we'll lose about $7800 dollars... but I think it might be worth it.

Anyone interested in a custom home in the Round Rock area, definitely check out Arbor Place. Homes start in the $500k range...and they are beautiful!!

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by Mrs.JT

Wow. The more research I do, the more I'm hearing horror stories about Meritage. We just started construction on a Meritage Home. It was a toss up between Drees and Meritage, but unfortunately, Drees had already closed out in the neighborhood, and there were only one or two spec homes left. We wanted to build from the ground up, so we went with Meritage. They had several lots available, and we found a beautiful lot with several mature trees, and the lot premium was waived. We're building one of their signature series homes, so I hope all goes well...

I visited Arbor Place this weekend, and it's one of the only gated communities in Round Rock. David Weekley and Highland Homes are the buiders. Meritage was one of the original builders, but they backed out because of cash flow problems, so the developer approached Highland Homes. I am in love with the homes they're building. If we back out now, we'll lose about $7800 dollars... but I think it might be worth it.

Anyone interested in a custom home in the Round Rock area, definitely check out Arbor Place. Homes start in the $500k range...and they are beautiful!!

Our neighborhood is a combination of builders. I was able to watch my house be built at the same time as my neighbors. Mine is a Drees, his is a Meritage.

What I noticed between the two were:

• The Meritage was built about 1.5 months faster.
• The Drees seemed to include a lot of fit and finish features that Meritage charged for. (example, automatic sprinkler system) They had a very high price for this.
• Our house appeared to have the exterior walls insulated and sealed better. (note: our house is an energy star house, his isn't)

I can't comment on warranty issues, we have had great service on the warranty so far. I'm unsure about my neighbors experience with warranty.

My other neighbor had Fredrick Harris (Newmark) build their house. That house was slapped together and the contruction material was just ground up and placed as fill under their 4" of dirt under their sod.

[woodinvilleguy]

Appendix to my post: I think Meritage can build a good house it all depends on the sub contractors and the building supervisor. I would hire an inspector that speciallizes in new construction that will inspect the house several times through the process.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by CATXTransplant

Newmark was bought by Scott Felder. There is no more Newmark. Stay away from KB and Meritage. I've seen some shady stuff in Toll Brothers.

You'll find 'shady stuff' with all of them if you look hard enough. Google and you'll find [name of builder] sucks.com or "name of builder" complaints.com. It's the nature of the beast. They all use subs and they all have their issues.

I own a KB home and I like my house. It's not made out of spit and paper. It's all subjective, I say.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by fontana

I do not recommend Standard Pacific. I bought one and was VERY unhappy.

oh, please.. There is nothing wrong with Standard Pacific. The few items I had were fixed promptly by the one year warranty - I don't even remember what they were outside of touch-up paint - they were that minor, seriously. As for options and aethetics, our neighborhood has about 10 floor plans, 3-4 elevation options, 12 types of stone, 15 types of brick. Give the option to mirror plans as well, so do the math: 10x3x27x2 - you have a 1:1620 odds of having a house in your neighborhood look like yours. That's nothing to blush at. What's considered "standard" on their houses aren't even offered by the companies mentioned below. Our house took 18 months to build, as we worked closely with the superintendant on the job, and never heard "no" or were brushed off. They did a lot more than they should have or could have. We even submitted our own drawings to them (civil) to be used on our lot, and they accepted them!

If you want complete shoddy construction, and you neighbor two doors down to have the identical house as yours, try KB, Newmark or Meritage.

[Mike78613]

Don't do that and loose your $$$

There are interesting websites that even knock DREES and some of the best builders out there. People honesty just plain out cry babies!
With the housing crash that happened a lot that had lot into their homes were drawn from the house crash and so they complain online and even some dared the Home Builders to buy back their homes for what they paid.

My personal opionion is to HIRE A PRIVATE INSPECTOR and have him walk through the building process from the ground up!

A home builder is just the name, but its the contractors THEY (HB's use) that are the problem. Now you can depend on the HB's foreman, but I would not. I say "HIRE A PRIVATE INSPECTOR ".

Good luck on your dream home.

Originally Posted by Mrs.JT

Wow. The more research I do, the more I'm hearing horror stories about Meritage. We just started construction on a Meritage Home. It was a toss up between Drees and Meritage, but unfortunately, Drees had already closed out in the neighborhood, and there were only one or two spec homes left. We wanted to build from the ground up, so we went with Meritage. They had several lots available, and we found a beautiful lot with several mature trees, and the lot premium was waived. We're building one of their signature series homes, so I hope all goes well...

I visited Arbor Place this weekend, and it's one of the only gated communities in Round Rock. David Weekley and Highland Homes are the buiders. Meritage was one of the original builders, but they backed out because of cash flow problems, so the developer approached Highland Homes. I am in love with the homes they're building. If we back out now, we'll lose about $7800 dollars... but I think it might be worth it.

Anyone interested in a custom home in the Round Rock area, definitely check out Arbor Place. Homes start in the $500k range...and they are beautiful!!