Mercedes Home Builders (Austin, Cedar Park, Brushy Creek: transplants, sales, insurance)

[s123123]

Does anyone have any experience with Mercedes Homes?

[austin-steve]

Yes. What do you want to know?

[s123123]

We are first time home buyers and liked the model at Ranch at Brushy Creek by mercedes. Want to know the quality they offer and if anyone has any problems dealing with them after signing the contract. I heard that the construction will take longer than the normal 5 months period.

And also would like some input on the area of Ranch at BrushyCreek. The house we are looking at costs 380K. Any input will be great.

Thanks!

[pvaustin]

I am not sure about others, but we have very positive experience with Mercedes. We bought a Mercedes house last year and do not have any complaints till now.
They used good construction materials, gave up-to-date info to us at every stage of the construction; gave post move-in checkups etc etc.
The only issue we had was, they were not very flexible with the upgrades - or in other words, they didn't have a lot of options that we could choose upgrades from.

[Shane_Rives]

hi S123123

My name is Shane Rives. I am an agent for Nationwide Insurance here in Austin. Alot of my clients have worked with many of the new home builders. The best resource I know of for you is JD Power. Here is a link to the JD Power Survey: Ratings | J.D. Power This is what the builders live by. Also, the Austin Home builder association may be a good reference for you: HBA Greater Austin

Moderator cut: soliciting

[woodinvilleguy]

This survey is incomplete. Drees isn't listed or I am just blind. We have built with Drees and having nothing but good things to say. I wonder why they aren't on the list since they are in most of the better communities....

[Shane_Rives]

not sure why drees isn't listed. Maybe they are smaller and arn't reviewed by JD Power

[SmartGXL]

Originally Posted by s123123

And also would like some input on the area of Ranch at BrushyCreek. The house we are looking at costs 380K. Any input will be great.

Thanks!

Hi S,

My brother lives in Ranch at Brushy Creek, he moved ther a yr ago. They love the home and location, however they did have a BIG problem.

I do not know who the builder is (maybe Drees, or could have been Williamson Homes, I do not recall, as there were several builders in RBC), but soon after they moved in, they came home one day and there was SEWAGE backed up out of the toilets, out of the tub and shower, and spilling out all over their gorgeous Master Bedroom floor!!! No joke!!

What happened was, when the infrastructure for the neighborhood was being built, a construction worker dumped solid garbage into the sewage infrastructure. This caused a blockage that was not discovered until it affected my brother. I guess the sewage was backing up, and finally "spilled" up into my brother's house. I do not have all of the technical details beyond this, but this did happen. The builder put them up in a hotel and paid for the deep cleaning and new carpeting etc. Everything is ok now. But it was as BAD of an experience as anyone could ever imagine!!

The neighborhood itself is very nice and the local topography is very beautiful. They have everything they need (stores, etc) nearby. I was a "little" disapointed when I first visited Cedar Park, as I was expecting a very nice, well-developed town with a nice Town Square, etc. It just sounded like a really nice place, but when I saw it, realized it had no real town center and had grown, over the years, sort of haphazardly with no real central planning. but otherwise it is a VERY nice place and they are taking efforts to build a new town square off of Whitestone Blvd.

Back to the neighborhood itself - my brother has complained about the neighbors. Apparantly, a lot of the people living there are transplants (including my brother!) and his comment about some of his neighbors is that they are "a**holes". Right after they moved in, one neighbor complained that they did not like the lights in their bathroom (my bathroom asked her, what are you doing looking in our bathroom??? They had not had a chance to buy curtains yet), the other neighbors will not say hi to them or wave to them. I have no idea why the neighbors would snub them - my brother is a very nice person, very friendly and helpful (I'm not saing that because he is my brother - he is a legitimately nice guy who plays by all the rules and would help his neighbors if they needed help and so not sure why the neighbors are being mean to him). My brother was a little disapointed at all this; he was looking forward to moving to TX and living around friendly Texans, and as it turns out, RBC is mostly filled with people who are not from TX and have brought their nasty attitudes with them.

OTHER THAN THAT - I think RBC/Cedar Park is a beautiful place, but it is pretty much a standard American subdivision.

[datacity]

Originally Posted by s123123

Does anyone have any experience with Mercedes Homes?

I know this is an older thread, but since others may be considering Mercedes Homes, I will go ahead and respond to the OP.

I would say that Mercedes as a company and home builder is a step up from the big production builders (e.g. KB, DR Horton, Lennar) but not quite as high end as many custom builders (too many to list).

In many of their neighborhoods, I would consider them in the same category as Highland, Weekley, Taylor Morrison, Newmark, Plantation, Drees and Meritage. Depending on the location, their plans can be almost "custom" (in look and price) while in other locations, they can midrange.

Like with most builders, the subcontractors at your location and your builder (site supervisor) will be the ultimate gauge of the quality and workmanship... and for service after the sale. There will almost always be something that is wrong or will go wrong after you move in. Your relationship with the builder and the sales office will usually determine the quality and speed of the fixes.

As for the buying process overall, most builders are similar -- that is, they are not on the whole great. Some people have wonderful experiences; others have nightmares.

My understanding of Mercedes is that as a private company with some employee ownership, they are mostly reasonable and will work with you. They are not perfect, but they are not as bad as some may make them out to be.

As with all builders, be aware and thorough throughout the purchase process, from first offer to final signature at closing.

[woodinvilleguy]

We just closed on our house in Brushy creek (the new north section). We have met a bunch of folks already just watching our house get built. We have only "owned" the house since Monday. It was so fun to have the house built. We were there almost everyday, and we met so many familyies walking their dogs or jogging. I'll watch the toilets.....yuck.