We are looking at these two builders and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with these builders. We really like West Fork in Conroe, but not sure about the long drive to Houston.

I've heard a few bad things about DR Horton. Poor support mainly. They have the worst JD Power ratings for builders in Houston (I don't trust good JD Power ratings, but I raise an eyebrow to the bad ones). Their BBB record looks terrible as well...lots of unresolved and no responses.

Don't know much about Meritage. I think they took over Legacy, and I heard some positives from a few coworkers who dealt with them. Whether that means anything since the merger I don't know.

If you're looking quality, I think you have to go custom. It's just hard to deal with quality from a corporate builder. Just my 2 cents.

My parents are looking at a Meritage in Pearland. From my uneducated eyes, they look pretty upscale and are willing to customize a bit (for $$$ of course). They have a wide variety of plans from small to large. The communities all seem to be "master planned" and have amenities. They are the same company as Legacy, they just changed names a few years ago.

I was surprised at how basic DR Horton was. They didn't have a lot of standard equipment and everything cost extra. Plus, I wasn't all that impressed with their floor plans.

Now for a builder that provides just about everything you could want for free with minimal updgrades, look at Ryland Homes and Lennar/Village Builders.

Wife sells new homes and has worked for many builders, has a great network among sales folks and therefor can get a lot of inside poop.
D.R. Horton is a story of first to worst.
Used to be a great near-custom quality builder, went downhill and has a TON of dissatisfied customers.

Meritage has good rep within sales fraternity. The sales folks would all love to work there. This is a hell of a lot more important than JD Powers!

Trust me ,the sales folks are really good people who usually try their best. Their hands are really tied by the rules of the builder. In almost every builder the company is RULED by the construction side. They ( the builders)do no wrong, every problem is the fault of someone else even when Bubba the builder forgets a wall or a door ! It is somehow the sales persons fault or some office slob or the paperwork or the phase of the moon or or or............
Amazing industry.

Been happy with my Meritage/Legacy home.

DR Horton was a nightmare for my coworker.

Mostly depends on the neighborhood and the superintendent though.

Meritage we have them in many of our subdivisions and they give us no hassle.

"rules of the builder"....
like asking people to pay for things???

Ideally, the company would be ruled from the construction side. The truth is whenever a customer and/or sales person wants to change the deal, they get it. Sales people should tell the customer what they are buying before they sign the contract.

Do you think Origianl Ag only hears his wife's side of the story. I work for a production builder. Our company makes it VERY clear that I am responsible for everything related to any house I'm building.

I work for Gehan Homes in a neighborhood with Meritage and D.R. Horton. Having a good super is the most important thing. A bad super makes the whole experience bad. All builders have good ones and bad ones.

I do agree that word of mouth from friends, family, etc. can be more important in finding a builder. Good JD Power ratings can be bought.

True, that's why I never trust GOOD JD power ratings (KB has decent ratings, what does that say?).

BBB ratings are a different animal though. If I see the company gets a lot of complaints, and more importantly IGNORES a lot of complaints...that is the most telling sign you can get that something stinks.

Complaints with the BBB stay there until the person who complains calls them and says it was resolved. How many people do you think really follow up and fill out the paper work to 'resolve' the complaint, especially if the bulider does something to get it fixed.

I'm not sure how the BBB ranks things though. Does IGNORE mean the builder did not reply at all, or the issue itself was never resolved and take down by the complanee?

The BBB does follow up, or they did for a complaint I made against SBC years ago.

Looking up other builders like Weekley and Meritage...all of their complaints are resolved or administratively closed (which the BBB defines as the company made a good faith effort but the consumer did not accept). DR Horton was one of few who had a handful of "No Responses", which I imagine implies the company didn't even bother to acknowledge the BBB complaint. They also had more Unresolved and WAY more complaints to begin with in the Houston area.


[This message has been edited by Aggie1999 (edited 8/28/2006 7:57p).]

I'm building a Meritage home in Sienna Plantation now... And the process has been pretty painless so far...

They were about a week late in contacting me for my pre-start meeting, but I'm not that worried about it. It really got rolling last week and the slab is supposed to be poured this week... I should be in it by the end of the year.

Yea....my company expects any house with the slab poured up until the 1st two weeks of Sept. to be finsished by the end of the year.

HIRE AN INDEPENDENT INSPECTOR to do 1) a prepour inspection on the slab, 2) frame/elec/plumbing inspection, and 3) final inspection.

I just sent my parents a list of inspectors. We will be making a decision on that in the next couple of days.

I was lucky and actually talked to another guy out in Sienna that built with Meritage a few years ago, and that was the only advice he had as well - other than that he said he was happy with the product and the process...

Good to hear the favorable opinions on Meritage as we are probably going to go with them on our new home.

Does anyone know how much room the sales guys have with pricing? And what is the best way to negotiate a deal with them?

I used to work for a builder in town and would run the numbers on each contract so I know that some people were able to get good deals while others got screwed. One thing that was required by the builder was to mark up any upgrades/options or additions by 100%, so I guess that would be the best place to start in the negotiation process.

I guess knowing the building process helps - I didn't realize there was a whole lot of room for negotiation when building a new home...

Our salespeople can't negotiate very much at all, and all of our upgrades are at least doubled, and some more than tripled.

Shhhhhh!!! I hate hearing stuff like that!

It just sucks that so many upgrades need to be done when the house is built! Some of the ones I put off are the sprinkler system (I have a friend that works in the industry and I'll save $$ there) and surround sound system (I'm getting it wired, but not getting the system).

The rest of it was pretty much necessary...

My parents are going to put some money down tomorrow on a Meritage, and I would be interested to hear also if they have some flexibility in negotiations. I know that they control the structural mods/upgrades, but their design center controls the interior upgrades and we have ballpark figures for some of the upgrades. Some of them are ridiculous and I wonder if he can whittle them down some.

https://www.kbtx.com/2024/05/10/homeowners-say-their-new-dr-horton-houses-are-practically-falling-apart-months-after-moving/?tbref=hp

Red Pear Realty said:

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18 year bump

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sometimes you get desperate to keep up with a 30 post a day average

Setting a high pace early makes it a challenge.

DR Horton is trash.

They are in the news again

https://www.kbtx.com/2024/07/19/complaints-mount-through-nation-against-dr-horton-house-hell/?tbref=hp

+1 vote for Meritage. Just bought Meritage and so far so good. However, I know a few folks on our facebook page who have had their fair share of issues with mold, AC, sprinkler systems, etc. But it seems like a super small minority.