I've been looking at Ashton Woods, Highland Homes, Coventry Homes, Princeton Classic Homes, Perry Homes, Scott Felder Homes, etc. They all seem to be the same when I look at reviews and look at their homes that are in progress or near completion. Nothing but shoddy workmanship and claims that their warranty departments do not fix anything. Does anyone have a good experience with a builder like the above recently?

I'm starting to think I should only be looking for homes for sale that are already built.

I've heard the same as Harley. Anecdotally, we built a Pulte home in 2017 that was brand new and we had more issues with it than the other homes we bought that were built in the 50s, 60s, 90s and 00's. Before we bought this last house we thought about building and the word was that if you didn't do a truly custom build with a rebuttable builder and instead built with any of the bigger companies, you were going to get a subpar product. We ended up buying a home that was about 18 years old but was way nicer, solidly built, 1500 sq ft bigger and with all the amenities (pool, enclosed patio, 4 car garage etc…) we wanted for the same price as just the build (not including the lot) would have been for a home from a similar type of builder you're talking about. Good luck to you

They are all bubu unless you go the custom route and literally watch them like a Hawk, visit the site multiple times a week and call them out. I'm talking about "I'm not happy with x,y and z items - so I'm not signing off on another construction draw until they are fixed". It's the only way.

You'd probably get better results finding an older house, gutting and renovating it that way. Especially so with a contractor who's been around while and knows what to do.

The highlands and the Coventry's are just trying to manage the build with 23 year old kids freshly graduated while the subs run around from job to job as fast as possible. The subs get paid when they're done. The kid gets paid a bonus when the house closes. Then you get passed on to a warranty person who tries their hardest to not spend another penny.

And in between that - you'll get those Tract builders trying to shaft you at every step. Try to get you to use their lender for an incentive to you that dwarfs in comparison to the kickback they receive on the backend. Trying to force you to pay for title policy and be forced to use their title company that they have an affiliation with.

I used to work in sales and tried to sell our services to pretty much every name listed in the OP. The biggest driver of the quality of the builder, in my opinion, is the purchasing manager. The best ones I worked with started their career in the field and were able to keep the quality of the product and things like installation headaches in mind while balancing costs. There are few of those types left these days and most are 100% concerned with cutting costs across the board. I sat in meetings where they told us they couldn't use our services because they were going to cost $.05 more per square foot that the competitor. This was for a builder selling homes that probably bottomed out at $450,000 and averaged around 2,500 sf. I am glad I am not in that world anymore!

No

Built a home with Highland (approaching Huntington level) in 2020 (right at the onset of Covid) and am very happy with the result.

However, I think a LOT has changed in the last 18 months. We closed in March of 2021 right as things were getting crazy. We were fortunate enough to deal with "don't know where that product even is, so choose this instead" instead of "that product is now 4x the cost, we don't know where it is or when it will be available, and our subs have no idea what they're doing or where they'll be tomorrow".

That being said, my father has worked in construction his entire life and was a custom home builder himself in the 80's. He could build a home by himself with his own hands (he built the house I grew up in). He was basically my job foreman and caught a handful of things from framing to plumbing and electrical.

I was at the build site every day and sometimes twice a day. He observed our rebar tie-out, slab pour, and post-tension cable in full.

We also were fortunate to have a good building manager. He lived in the neighborhood and knew how to handle lots of things. He went above and beyond and Highland did everything we asked. We got 3 redraws of our plans, a custom 700 sqft patio added to our drawings with all the electrical and plumbing items we could ask for. Moved walls to add an extra foot of width and length to our master shower. Getting to pay trim subs cash for board/batten and wainscotting on the side. We have about 12 recessed bricks on the peaks of our elevation and wanted those painted a certain color vs. the rest of the elevation - our builder went and bought the $5 paint jug and did them himself. The list goes on.

We truly got a "custom" feel. Sadly, I know from other people building in the neighborhood and from talking with my builder that the experience since Q1-2021 has changed drastically. My boss is building a $1.5mm home 2 blocks away and is still fighting over appliances installed incorrectly and issues with sheetrock and trim. I look at his product vs ours and cringe. Same builder.

Where you looking to build?

Looks like chesmar. One of the few production builders that use zip for the total build. Some will use on their portals.

How did I do?

Edit. Completely missed the email.

Shame on me.

Call Kickerillo and work with Buddy Geiger

I sell for a builder and OTP is automatic for in house lender and pretty standard for outside lenders.

having a good construction manager is a pretty big deal.

it really just depends on price point and what your goals are. I sell new but probably wouldn't buy new unless custom $$$$

but it also doesn't wierd me out to live in a used home.

Isn't that a Respa violation?

in what way? it's just one more incentive towards using the in house lender.

Custom builders use the same trades as production builders. Of course lazy realtors will say otherwise, and try to convince you to spend more money on a custom home. The more you spend on the home, the more realtors will make.

RESPA Section 9 of RESPA 4

No seller of property that will be purchased with the assistance of a federally related mortgage loan shall require directly or indirectly , as a condition of selling the property, that title insurance be purchased by the buyer from any particular title company.

Any seller who violates the provision of the subsection shall be liable to the buyer in an amount equal to three times all charges made for such title insurance.

I suppose I was unclear...
If someone uses the builder's lender, the seller pays for OTP. No one is required to use the builder lender or builder insurance agency though.

We do only close our homes at one specific place though.

So they are required to use that service provider it sounds like.

Removing specifics and references to RESPA statues, but I'm gonna agree with jja and slowly back away from this thread based on what I do for a living.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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HarleySpoon said:

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I would not buy a tract home that isn't at least 15 years old. Buy a truly custom built home or an older tract home. My BIL is an executive in a large tract home building company…that would also be his advice.

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When I graduated I got a good offer to be a construction manager for Royce homes. Didn't matter that I had no experience in that particular field at all.

I made it through three days of training and felt like I only learned how to build a crappy house and cut corners. Whenever someone would ask why would you do that the trainer would raise four fingers, which stood for "Its Production Building, Damnit".

I quit at the end of day three and told my dad I didn't want to screw people out of their hard earned money for a living.

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I'm not sure who Royce Homes is…..truly custom?

Johnny Boyziel 2 said:

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Custom builders use the same trades as production builders. Of course lazy realtors will say otherwise, and try to convince you to spend more money on a custom home. The more you spend on the home, the more realtors will make.

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Not quite sure what you are saying? Are you saying that custom and production use the same "trades" such as plumbers, framers and electricians or that they use the same contractors and materials for those trades?

Just moved into my truly custom home a year ago. I'm not sure what you are talking about with a realtor? No realtor involved with us and the builder. Our builder builds about four to six homes a year all uniquely designed by separate architects….no realtor involved in any of those projects. All built on land/lots purchased well before choosing a builder…in our case three years apart. Cost of project is/was cost plus a fixed fee with me approving and funding payment of each invoice.

I think there is a chance you are confusing a truly custom home with a tract home built to order or built to design with lots of "choices" by a tract builder in a planned development. Lots of those folks add the term "custom" to the tract homes in their developments that simply allow for more choices and more design modifications.

There are good builders out there. Most I would t give the time of day. Where are you located?

I built with ashton woods in 2015. Nothing but good things to say about them. My house was 450k+ so not sure if that has a role in the way they build but they are semi custom in that price range. I was able to choose just about any structural changes to the base plan within reason like adding inside doors, outside access doors, moving fire place, adding walls, choosing any back splash, tile, appliances, etc.

OP should try LGI homes.

Great people, but about as down and dirty as it gets. They do provide affordable housing and an opportunity for folks holed up in rats nests apartments to be homeowners.

Anyone familiar with Newmark, Jamestown estates, or partners in building in houston?

This wouldn't be a tract home in a master planned neighborhood but also not custom. It would likely be a spec home they are already in the process of building on a lot they purchased in an established neighborhood.

What did yall do in here.

I didn't know anything about Newmark, but other two are fine.

Jamestown Estate Homes is who I'd go with over PIB although I'd question why you don't just have them build you a true custom home for the money you're about to spend. Might be a lot/neighborhood decision so I get that. PIB builds a good product too, but came very close to using Jamestown for our custom before going a different direction.

Mainly a lot/neighborhood decision.

But also the loan/process is just much more simple for a spec home/traditional mortgage then a custom build.

I've seen a few Jamestown spec homes built in the Heights. They kind of stand out in my opinion and look like more of a production home.

Partners in Building is doing a lot of new high dollar construction in the Memorial/Spring Branch areas of Houston.

Quote:

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Not quite sure what you are saying? Are you saying that custom and production use the same "trades" such as plumbers, framers and electricians or that they use the same contractors and materials for those trades?

Just moved into my truly custom home a year ago. I'm not sure what you are talking about with a realtor? No realtor involved with us and the builder. Our builder builds about four to six homes a year all uniquely designed by separate architects….no realtor involved in any of those projects. All built on land/lots purchased well before choosing a builder…in our case three years apart. Cost of project is/was cost plus a fixed fee with me approving and funding payment of each invoice.

I think there is a chance you are confusing a truly custom home with a tract home built to order or built to design with lots of "choices" by a tract builder in a planned development. Lots of those folks add the term "custom" to the tract homes in their developments that simply allow for more choices and more design modifications.

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Agree. Realtors play no part in true custom home builds. And none of the main trades that worked on our home also worked on production builds. They all work for our builder, who does a few homes/year, and a few other similarly situated builders. I'm assuming the ones that work on production homes are plenty busy doing just that.

Completely makes sense on the lot side of things.

Some good mortgage folks on this board (and thread) that do one time close construction loans that are relatively painless.

Many of the Jamestown people are former PIB that broke off and are trying to give an even more personalized experience, but that's probably out the window if buying spec.

Good luck out there!

Yeah, but these spec homes aren't really comparable to traditional spec homes in master planned communities. I mean we'd still be getting the 42 or 60" range we'd want, they still have high end, customized finishes, etc. We're looking mainly in spring valley but also oak forest.