Charlotte Area Builders (Washington: real estate market, new home, water heater)

[Movn2nc]

With all the posts regarding builders, I've not seen any mention of P&N Homes or Persis-Nova Construction Company. Does anyone have experience or info about them?

[Movn2nc]

Is there anyone who has even heard of P&N homes? Surely someone knows something. Please let me know. Thank you.

[Bebubbly]

Yeah, they're our builder. Great home, beautiful details, good price. The down side? We've been in our house for 7 months - they haven't finished our PUNCH list items, forget our 30 day walk through items. The walls in our house are 3 different colors, our hot water heater goes out occasionally, our back door leaks...these are just a few things of a long list. I personally call them Incompetent P&N. Once they have your money, they don't care. They don't have a warranty dept. They have one girl who takes your phone calls and them immediately forgets you called. They put the warranty work onto the Super, even though that's not what he's getting paid to do. Therefore he doesn't do the work. I've had it up to HERE with them. They blatantly lied to our neighbors and the BBB about some bad work they'd done in their house.

If you build with them, DO NOT CLOSE until the house is finished. We closed on a Friday; it took them until Monday to even have the final clean done on the house! It was FILTHY!!! The kitchen wasn't complete; it took them 2 months to get that done after we moved in. Some times I feel like the hassle is worth it, but today I do not.

[Washingtonian]

Just a suggestion. I hired a home inspector when I was building my new home in MD. Don't assume because it's a new home that it will be built w/o problems. The cost was around $400 dollars and he came out to look at the house at various points in the building process and before the close. He gave me a list of things and I didn't go to closing until they were fixed. I'm sure that this would save you a lot of money, time and heart ache in the end.

Any problems were corrected before the next phase. Also, because the builder etc. new that I had an inspector, the construction team was more careful. Once they left all of the windows open during a tornado that came through MD. (The roof was on and all the windows were on the home. So I'm not sure why they left the windows open.) All of the subfloor became wet and expanded. I noticed and the inspector requested that they replace the floor. They did replace the subfloor before going to the next stage. Can you imagine the problems I would have had in the future w/ the floor?

[TornadoAlley]

They showed something on Discovery channel that it is better to close your windows not leave them open. Interesting.

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by Washingtonian

Just a suggestion. I hired a home inspector when I was building my new home in MD. Don't assume because it's a new home that it will be built w/o problems. The cost was around $400 dollars and he came out to look at the house at various points in the building process and before the close. He gave me a list of things and I didn't go to closing until they were fixed. I'm sure that this would save you a lot of money, time and heart ache in the end.

Any problems were corrected before the next phase. Also, because the builder etc. new that I had an inspector, the construction team was more careful. Once they left all of the windows open during a tornado that came through MD. (The roof was on and all the windows were on the home. So I'm not sure why they left the windows open.) All of the subfloor became wet and expanded. I noticed and the inspector requested that they replace the floor. They did replace the subfloor before going to the next stage. Can you imagine the problems I would have had in the future w/ the floor?

I hired a home inspector through me RE- well worth it as he found a few items that we wouldn't have caught during the walk through, and which became conditions needing to be met before the close. It was $400, but was worth it.

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by Bebubbly

Yeah, they're our builder. Great home, beautiful details, good price. The down side? We've been in our house for 7 months - they haven't finished our PUNCH list items, forget our 30 day walk through items. The walls in our house are 3 different colors, our hot water heater goes out occasionally, our back door leaks...these are just a few things of a long list. I personally call them Incompetent P&N. Once they have your money, they don't care. They don't have a warranty dept. They have one girl who takes your phone calls and them immediately forgets you called. They put the warranty work onto the Super, even though that's not what he's getting paid to do. Therefore he doesn't do the work. I've had it up to HERE with them. They blatantly lied to our neighbors and the BBB about some bad work they'd done in their house.

If you build with them, DO NOT CLOSE until the house is finished. We closed on a Friday; it took them until Monday to even have the final clean done on the house! It was FILTHY!!! The kitchen wasn't complete; it took them 2 months to get that done after we moved in. Some times I feel like the hassle is worth it, but today I do not.

The "do not close" is a good general rule of thumb. Even the slighest comestic thing, if it makes you unhappy, they'll fix it, becuase they want there money.


Also, you might consider showing your builder this thread and how you're not happy with the incompleted items. I've seen it done with other things and the tactic seems to be effective. No company wants their name showing up in a negative context from a google search (and pretty much all city-data forum data is searchable from google).

[Ms.Charlotte]

I've had a completely different experience with P&N. My home was a resale (only a year old), and I did have an inspection done. They corrected every single issue-small as they were-before closing and were in touch with my realtor after closing, as well.

My house is very well built and they used the best materials, lots of upgrades which I am told were included. We have archways, transoms, double tray ceilings, triple crown moldings, etc.

I don't know if I was lucky, or Bebubbly was unlucky but I haven't heard negative feedback from any of our neighbors who bought P&N homes.

[ckoshka]

Hi, I know i am late to the thred, but I also bought a PN home. We had such a good experience. So many of our other friends were going through the building process with other builders and all we heard were complaints and problems, we didn't have any. They went out of our way to make sure we knew about the slightest change that might have to be done during the building process and once we closed the came back to finish the punchlist. We love our house and have now been living here 6 months. The attention to detail is wonderful and the standard features are typically expensive options seen with allot of other builders.

One other thing i loved about this builder was thier capability to add in custom requests. We wanted more room in the breakfast area so i suggested a bay window... no problem. My husband sugested adding on a sunroom. No problem. And even these add ons were at a good price.

We had a problem after we used our shower and noticed water dripping from the ceiling downstairs... after letting them know, it was fixed 2 days later. The only complaint i have had with them is the landscaping.

[Movn2nc]

First, thanks to those of you who responded. I had given up on comments and had not checked after several weeks.

So, here's the update. My experience has been nearly the same as Bebubbly's.

Closing was delayed for almost two months. Homes that were contracted and started AFTER mine, closed prior to mine.

Items from the pre-closing walk-thru have not been taken care of yet - five months after closing. The "30 day walk-thru" wasn't scheduled 'til nearly 60 days. Of course that list has barely been touched.

I have written letters and received no response, not even from the owners. You would think they would be concerned about their reputation, especially in the current shakey real estate market atmosphere.

The house looks great at first glance. Lots of upgraded features that were standard. However, P&N's follow-up is next to non-existant. If I had been able to delay closing until everything was finished satisfactorily, I would have.
Sometimes hard to arrange, you know. But, if that is possible, I would DEFINITELY RECOMMEND it to any future P&N buyer.

FYI: I am not alone in this situation. Others in my neighborhood have had issues also.