Richmond American Homes...good Or Bad? (Queen Creek, Taylor: house, neighborhoods, buyer)

[volleycsd79]

I am currently building with Richmond American homes in Utah and it has been a total nightmare. First, they kill you on all of the upgrades - but I can live with that. What I can't handle is the multitude of mistakes they have made on our home. First of all, we paid extra to get 9 foot basements - the basement we got isn't even 8 feet tall. We got the cold storage option and they forgot about that and had to cut out a door later. THe concrete forms bowed out in a number of places and we have a lot of honeycomb in the concrete. The contractor that backfilled the basement hit the corner of our garage with his tractor leaving a very unattractive patch. The framing was pathetic at best - we had gaps all over the place (some over an inch big) and they framed in a 4th bedroom when we wanted a loft. TO make matters worse, we are the ones that had to bring all of these problems to their attention - the superintendent had no idea what was going on in our home. We have spent the last month and a half doing negotiations with Richmond to see what they are going to do to fix things. This is where the real nightmare begins. At first we wanted them to tear down the house and start over - of course that wasn't an option for them. Unfortunately, that is about the only way to fix the basement. We suggested that they finish part of the basement to make up for their mistake but they declined. So then they offered to move us to another nearby subdivision and start over. We accepted that idea but before we could sign the papers they changed their minds and agreed to finish part of the basement. Then after a few weeks of them saying they were going to finish part of the basement they came back and said that they didn't want to do that so then we had to negotiate a financial agreement. In the meantime our house sat there with nothing being done in it. We have finally reached an agreement but it has taken forever while interest rates continue to climb. If you do use Richmond, make sure you watch them like hawks because the only thing I have come to expect from them is dissapointment.

[gollygeewhiz]

I am also building a Richmond American Home in Utah...errr...or shall I say trying to build one. It's been almost three months now since the contract has been signed and they still haven't started. They apparently have been having problems with the land developer. My question is, why are they selling houses if issues with the developer still exist? We were told that they should start construction in about a month...which puts completion sometime in the middle of winter. It's going to be a great time to move and I look forward to digging out my vintage moon boots to trek through the snow.

...and yes, you do have to upgrade just about everything in the house at the design center. Included features will basically give you a cardboard box with a flashlight hanging by a string.

[JasonS]

Im in the process of building my house in Surprise. So far everything seems to be going smoothly. The upgrades were are bit pricey some were downright outragous,for instnace to change the wall color of the inside from off white to a different color it was 8k or something crazy,i will be doing some painting after i move in. Upgrading the carpet and padding 1 level was 6k. The level 1 padding was a joke,it was a 1/4 inch of sponge foam that went completly flat with any amount of pressure applied to it. The house is about 4100sqft but its not all carpet there is going to be a bit of tile. But 6k seems way expensive to upgrade very crappy flooring to crappy flooring.

I have my walk-thru next month. So i dont have any experience of the after you sign the dotted line experience. I hope if i have problems with the house the are corrected. we shall see.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by gerrynyc

My real estate agent suggested them, because she thought that i'd like their floor plans (which I do). Has anyone ever dealt with them? I'm interested in their Queen Creek communities.

I bet she wouldn't have suggested them during the boom when they were being greedy SOB's. Realtors could barely squeeze a commission out of them, now they are probably giving 10 percent. The nastiest salespeople in there too at boom time, they probably kiss you a-- now.

Anyway I do like a lot of their floor plans though. Typical production builder.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by Boatdrinks

I just went through some Richmond American models this week. The floor plans were ok, but I wasn't very impressed with the quality. The front doors seemed very flimsy to me - I know it sounds dumb, but a nice heavy, substantial front door is important to me. Also, they had a ton of upgrades in the models - the sales guy said around 150K in each - so while they may seem cheap initially, keep in mind that you'll need to shell out a lot more money to get the house to look as nice as the models.

I'm a front door person also and I always say they look like cardboard and so do the oak kitchen cabinets.

[Christine3377]

We signed a contract on a Richmond Home in Florida, we fell in love with the Cantara model. Of course, we're buying one of their last homes of their inventory in the neighborhood so the people we dealt with were exceptionally wonderful and we feel like we got a great deal with many upgrades that didn't cost us a fortune at all. Regarding the carpet, work it in the deal and make sure you go with an 8lb. grade of padding. The builders grade carpet is the worst. We chose a 5 and really like it. The padding seems most important to me. Luckily tile in the other areas is perfect and negotiate blinds (the good kind) - saves a fortune in electric bills. We have our inspection coming up...so we'll see how the rest unfolds.
Best of luck to you.

[Onedown_5up]

I live in a 96 model in Cave Creek. While only 1600 SF it has 12' ceilings and a very open floor plan making it seem much bigger. Also has a 3 car garage. Very attractive inside and out.

[UtahHome]

Originally Posted by volleycsd79

I am currently building with Richmond American homes in Utah and it has been a total nightmare. First, they kill you on all of the upgrades - but I can live with that. What I can't handle is the multitude of mistakes they have made on our home. First of all, we paid extra to get 9 foot basements - the basement we got isn't even 8 feet tall. We got the cold storage option and they forgot about that and had to cut out a door later. THe concrete forms bowed out in a number of places and we have a lot of honeycomb in the concrete. The contractor that backfilled the basement hit the corner of our garage with his tractor leaving a very unattractive patch. The framing was pathetic at best - we had gaps all over the place (some over an inch big) and they framed in a 4th bedroom when we wanted a loft. TO make matters worse, we are the ones that had to bring all of these problems to their attention - the superintendent had no idea what was going on in our home. We have spent the last month and a half doing negotiations with Richmond to see what they are going to do to fix things. This is where the real nightmare begins. At first we wanted them to tear down the house and start over - of course that wasn't an option for them. Unfortunately, that is about the only way to fix the basement. We suggested that they finish part of the basement to make up for their mistake but they declined. So then they offered to move us to another nearby subdivision and start over. We accepted that idea but before we could sign the papers they changed their minds and agreed to finish part of the basement. Then after a few weeks of them saying they were going to finish part of the basement they came back and said that they didn't want to do that so then we had to negotiate a financial agreement. In the meantime our house sat there with nothing being done in it. We have finally reached an agreement but it has taken forever while interest rates continue to climb. If you do use Richmond, make sure you watch them like hawks because the only thing I have come to expect from them is dissapointment.

We are also building an RA home in Utah with similar issues. I have sent several emails referencing their "customer satisfaction" but have received nothing more but apologies from the superintendents. We have also noted that the RA "spec" homes are being completed in record time while ours sits with construction delay after cconstruction delay. We liked their floor plans as well but if we knew then what we know now, we would have picked a different builder. Good Luck!

[marilyn olinger]

Originally Posted by gerrynyc

My real estate agent suggested them, because she thought that i'd like their floor plans (which I do). Has anyone ever dealt with them? I'm interested in their Queen Creek communities.

RAH will do anything to get your business but once you close, they treat you like dirt. I have had over 80 problems with home, 3 complaints to ROC, almost 2 years and still have issues.

Have you ever heard of stucco falling off the house just from the elements. Mine did. 30%, took months of debate. To top it off they wanted to spot paint after repair. More months of debate. My gas plumb for barbeque was an 8 inch pipe that went no where. Just a taste.


failed promises, lies, deceit, anything to avoid responsibility.

Like their floor plans but go somewhere else.

[AZ4US]

Hope you didn't end up purching a Richmond American Home. If you have, hope you have had a better experience than we did! All we have to say is "We had to move out of our brand new home so that repairs would be done properly after 4 months of living there, than again 9 months later!" We would never recomend this builder to anyone we know!