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We are looking North of Charlotte in Davidson, Cornelius, Mooresville, and W.Concord- I have been keeping abreast of Union and do not like the situation down there. It's too bad because that is where we were looking to start. I'm set up for new listing alerts and I have definitely noticed an uptick and am not sure if it's just coincidental or what. I feel bad that families are having to go through that process- I think it is horrible for all involved.
Thank you for your input!
Trust me - Union could use the break, so it's fine by me if folks stay away for a while. lol - it will all be over in 2 months.
I have bought 4 homes, all New, the past 12 years. My brothers have also bought a few each, my opinions will be based off this. No offense to anyone, I know the industry well and I am very picky, what some hide behind the walls would shock you.
I greatly prefer a Local Family Owned Builder than any of the Big Builders. The Quality is not even close, the Tract builders IMO cut as many corners as they can. That is not to say a local builder doesn't, I just think less of them do, you have to do your homework. 3 of my 4 homes were Local Builders that only build 3-4 homes a year, the owner of the Company was on site constantly. My current house the Owner/Builder was on site during the entire build and it is by far my best built house yet. My last house was a family owned business, but the business was focused on Commercial, their Son played around with Residential. Although the house looked great, it turned out it was very poorly built, I could not wait to get out. The problem was the "Rich" Son had no clue about building and the Subs were not supervised. My other family owned home was probably built almost as well as my current one. My brothers Tract Built Homes did not even come close to being built as good as my last house which was by far my worst. The drafts they would get through their Windows for example, it was obvious the Windows were not installed correctly. Popped nails in sheetrock everywhere, moldings not properly sanded/painted, you could see every nail head. Hollow doors on a $700K house, that is just ridiculous, they should be Solid Core. Walls all sprayed instead of rolled. Cheap Ceramic Tile instead of Porcelain. Poor insulation in the attic and walls. I could go on and on.
My parents and my brothers all agree, the one that bought the $700K house sold it he hated it so bad.
At the end of the day the Tract Builders can be good, it depends on the GC in charge, ask neighbors in the area that have lived their for different lengths of time what they think. You want different lengths of time because sometimes problems do not show up right away, also because GC's turn over.
Finding a Local Builder is tough, they do not have the funds the Tract Builders have for all the Fancy Advertising and Brochures, most do not have sales people or Model Homes either. To me that is better, do you want a good portions of your homes price going towards all of that or towards a well built home? You only find local builders after you decide on Location, then it is much easier to do. Real Estate agents should know, but you have to be careful with that also.
I will not say I won't buy a Tract Home, you never know, but I greatly prefer Local/Custom builders.
Just to add Local is not more expensive like most say, at least not in my experience they are not.
The one you did not list that impressed me the most was John Wieland. I am not a fan of Toll Brothers at all, funny they used to be my favorite 15 years ago when I knew nothing about the industry, now I do not like them at all.
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I've built 5 houses, some 'semi-custom' the rest custom. Our current home was built by John Wieland Homes which I consider ' semi-custom'. It was nine years ago and I would say it was a great building experience and I think their warranty is excellent. I can't say they build the 'best house' but I think you get reasonable quality for your money and the homes have good resale value. Their neighborhoods are top shelf and they win many awards in the Charlotte market.
Homer- tons of good advice. I feel like custom built will just take so much time- we really don't want to move twice. Where does the Tract Home name come from? John Wieland is not building near where we are looking, I don't think. My husband and I LOVE the Evan Coghill homes but not in our price range or location.
Has anyone heard of Lakemist Builders? They have a couple of beautiful homes for sale in Mooresville.
Tamitrail- you're the second person that said that now...sad- they were the development I was looking forward to the most!
I've built 5 houses, some 'semi-custom' the rest custom. Our current home was built by John Wieland Homes which I consider ' semi-custom'. It was nine years ago and I would say it was a great building experience and I think their warranty is excellent. I can't say they build the 'best house' but I think you get reasonable quality for your money and the homes have good resale value. Their neighborhoods are top shelf and they win many awards in the Charlotte market.
Thank you! They are not building currently in Cornelius, Davidson, Mooresville or W. Concord- do you happen to know any neighborhoods in that area that are heavy on their homes that I can check out resales on?
@slctnc DH is a licensed gc, did a lot of custom work. We were hit by the recession pretty hard. One of our hobbies is to go around and look at various developments under construction. We like to see the bones of the house before it's dried in.
We are also looking at either buying a house closer to where we work (Ballantyne/Fort Mill) or building on the lot we own near uptown. He can build us a home with everything we want, for less than it would cost us to buy a home in a subdivision on a small lot.
From visiting True models, and walking around their homes; it doesn't matter if the purchase price is around $500K or under $200K, everything is to minimum building code. They, like most tract builders have all interior walls at 24" on center. A sturdier house will have them closer 12"-16". True, and a lot of tract builders staple the housewrap and don't tape the seams. It takes longer to tape the seams, it's also how the manufacturer recommends the wrap be installed. I weigh around 120lbs, I can jump up and down in a completely furnished True home and it will shake. I don't want to spend that much money on a home that will vibrate just by someone my size jumping up and down.
I have friends that bought a Lennar home. While it was under construction, we pointed out that the upper windows in the 2-story great room were not level, they were visibly off kilter. They asked Lennar to fix, and bought the builders answer that everything will be straightend out when they install the drywall (WTH?).
What we liked about Toll Brothers, and this was from walking through a house under construction off Rea Rd, behind Cedarwood CC. Was the use of perlins, which are the horizontal wood braces in between the wall studs. The perlins add stability to the walls, and also act as a fire block.
I look at it this way, I would rather spend my money on something that will last, over certain upgrades. I can always do the cosmetic upgrades at a later point in time. All the homes we have seen have the same builder grade cabinets (like the stock at HD/Lowe's), not sure if I can get cabinets similar to the kraftmaid cabinets I have in my condo. Granite counters are great, IMHO it looks stupid on a lower grade cabinet.
Tract Homes basically means all of their homes are the same, they give you choices based on their plans, most build all over. Evan Coghill is one I have looked at as well, they are on my list. I would bet there are many others like them, but they do not advertise as much.
From Wikipedia-
Tract housing is a type of housing development in which multiple similar homes are built on a tract of land which is subdivided into individual small lots. Tract housing developments are typically found in North American suburbs that were modeled on the "Levittown" concept and sometimes encompass large areas of dozens of square kilometers.
Tract housing development makes use of few architectural designs, and labor costs are reduced because workers need to learn the skills and movements of constructing only those designs rather than repeat the learning curve. 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. Components such as roof trusses, plumbing trees, and stair systems are often prefabricated in factories and installed on-site. This allows builders to offer lower prices, which in turn can make homes affordable to a larger percentage of the population.
We built with Shea in 2006 in west Concord. We are happy with our home and only had very minor problems which were fixed that same day.
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