Drees Custom Home Builders (Austin, McKinney: sales, insurance, movers)

[starlight84]

My family is considering building a Drees home and we were wondering what anyone has heard about Drees...good or bad.

Any advice/reviews about Dress would be very helpful. Thanks!!

[scyogi]

We purchased a Drees. I will say my overall experience is very positive. We have only lived in the home about 2 months so no major issues have come up with the home. I think they list all of their homes very high so when you neg. you feel like you are getting a good deal. (we used a realtor to help us) They came down to our price, installed all of our 2" blinds, changed out some lighting, and added another section of fencing. They were very willing to make the deal happen. Everything (except the lights) were done prior to closing. Closing was smooth and fast (about 30-40 minutes). Our 1 negative is probably the interior paint. Nice colors but I think it is not the highest quality paint and they missed several spots. We are changing most of the wall colors anyway but just something to look for. Let me know if you have any more questions. (just random...our neighborhood is in Mckinney)

[ExCali]

We built a home from the ground up with Drees. The builder/project manager was excellent with the whole process. Quality of the home itself is very good.

My disappointment is with the customer service after we moved in. The landscape subcontractor did a horrible job installing the sod and Drees wouldn't do anything to fix it. The landscape contractor had a couple of patches of different type of sod (St. Augustine instead of Bermuda). When they came to replace it, they replaced it with DEAD GRASS!!! The lawn was uneven throughout the front and back yard and it wasn't turning green even after fertilizing. All they did was tell me that's normal. Drees did everything they could to avoid fixing the lawn so I ended up spending hundreds of dollars to revive he lawn and to make it level. I addressed this with the higher ups and they still didn't do anything about it.

My other issue is with their customer service model. They expect you to deal with the subcontractors instead of Drees being the liaison. My previous home was a Highland home and you went through them to get things fixed and they took care of it right away - no headaches of dealing with the subcontractors. So far, I've had problems with their Air Conditioning and lighting subcontractors where they either didn't show up or were late without contacting us. We ended up wasting vacation days as a result.

To summarize, the home is built very well but their customer service for repairs is well below standard in my opinion. If you decide to go with Drees, make sure you put in contract that they level your lawn upon installation and provide you with a better landscape package. They provide you with the bare minimum of shrubs and plants even after paying over $400K for the house.

[starlight84]

We went out today and looked at Drees (in McKinney) and were once again impressed with what we saw. Did any of you use their lender? I'm not thrilled that in order to get the "deals" you have to use their lender (I know this is pretty typical with most builders). Is it worth it to use theirs?

[scyogi]

I did not use their mortgage company....we had ours with our relo package and we still got all the deals.

[USA_Mom]

Originally Posted by starlight84

We went out today and looked at Drees (in McKinney) and were once again impressed with what we saw. Did any of you use their lender? I'm not thrilled that in order to get the "deals" you have to use their lender (I know this is pretty typical with most builders). Is it worth it to use theirs?

I don't know about Drees, but we've ALWAYS shopped for a lender even with new construction. One time their lender beat the people when we showed them what other lenders were offering us (this was Weekley) and another builder (Centex) would not. Shop around and see what you get.

[tashina]

Originally Posted by ExCali

My other issue is with their customer service model. They expect you to deal with the subcontractors instead of Drees being the liaison. My previous home was a Highland home and you went through them to get things fixed and they took care of it right away - no headaches of dealing with the subcontractors. So far, I've had problems with their Air Conditioning and lighting subcontractors where they either didn't show up or were late without contacting us. We ended up wasting vacation days as a result.

To summarize, the home is built very well but their customer service for repairs is well below standard in my opinion.

ExCali has the same basic opinion as me. Well built home. Closing was 6 weeks late and rushed even then as there were 45 items on the list still to do. And I absolutely had to deal with the subcontractors (at closing I told them that since I know I'd have to do that, I wanted the automatic garage door stuff for free - on top of the free refrigerator and other things I asked for for them being so late. They agreed.)

Overall, it has been a good experience and a lovely house. I'm in Austin, btw.

[bricor]

We just built and moved in to a Drees home in Allen.

The build experience was good and we are happy with the finished product.
With anything, a lot is going to depend on your salesperson and building manager. Any company can have good and bad. They do offer a lot of house for the $$$ compared to some other builders in the same range.

I'd avoid using their mortgage company at all costs. They are awful and incompetent. (see below)

You do have to deal directly with contractors after closing but I don't mind. It was explained to me that it's simply easier when it comes to scheduling them to come out as you are talking to them directly. My builder told me if I had any problems at all to call him. He's also called just to check up on things.

My yard is also not leveled and I wish it were but it's not the end of the world. The landscape company did come back and replace a couple dead bushes and level out a corner where people had cut across (corner of the alley). They level it out but then the sprinklers go in and then they don't do it again before sod goes in. If you stay on top of it, you could probably get it done but I wasn't out there when that happened at my home.


Regarding their mortgage company....Make sure to negotiate on all the closing related items as well as the sales price of the house. Negotiate that they pay the title insurance policy regardless of who you use.

I used them because I wanted the incentive ($5000). But they charge you for the title policy which is normally paid for by the seller. In my case, that cut the incentive in half. But I was able to get a 240 day lock with no points and no origination fees so in the end, it worked out for me.

But at closing is where their mortgage company (First Equity Mortgage) really shined (sarcasm on).

1. First they call on Friday to ask for a few more hours because they are busy and won't have my paperwork ready for our 11am closing on Monday. I'm like tough, you got all weekend and I've already got movers lined up. It ended up getting pushed to Tuesday because the floors weren't quite done at the house and we couldn't do our final walk through but them asking to re-schedule didn't set well with me.
2. On Monday, I get my HUD for review. It's totally wrong, grossly wrong. House price is wrong (in my favor), down payment is wrong (in my favor), fees are wrong (in their favor). I point out the errors and wait.
3. I receive a 2nd HUD a little while later. It's still wrong. I point out the errors and wait.
4. End of day rolls around and I ask for a corrected HUD so I can go get a cashiers check for my portion before the bank closes. I'm told they are still working on it and to just figure it out myself based on what I knew was wrong from the 2nd HUD. Uh, ok.
5. Show up to closing on Tuesday and their "revised and corrected" HUD is still not matching with what I had come up with (but it's in my favor). The girl says it's right and refunds me the $3600 difference via wire transfer since I had brought too much money (via a cashiers check) Obviously, I had figured it out wrong not being a mortgage expert.
6. Wed. afternoon, I get a call from the loan officer advising me they goofed and I still owe them approx. $10k. She is going to get me the details and send me an email with those details.
7. Monday afternoon, I finally get an email with the details. Guess what, they have made more mistakes. At closing, they had paid the title policy and didn't charge me a fee for waiving escrow. That was the difference that they had refunded me. But then they also said I had to pay 2 points for doing the loan lock.

I told them I was done, I had closed, I had pointed out their mistakes (numerous times), I had even paid the correct amount and they refunded me what they said was an overage. It drug out for another week and they were not funding my loan and didn't care they had screwed up so many times. I ended up paying the title policy to get the deal done but not the points or the escrow fee. I had specifically negotiated on no points and no origination when I locked the loan and had the emails to back that up. Apparently, they goofed when they agreed to that but since I had it in writing, they agreed.

I love the house and am pleased with our builder and sales guy but I would avoid falling for the incentive trap and using their mortgage company. Simply negotiate what ever incentive they are offering off the price of the house or closing costs (negotitate that they pay the title insurance policy) or in upgrades (get blinds thrown in or something like that).

[starlight84]

Thanks for sharing your story! It will definitely help us in making our decision. What model did ya'll get of the Drees floorplan? I was thinking maybe the Durant.

[bricor]

We did the Coronado, which is the model in Cobb Hill in Frisco. Love it!

Just make sure to double check everything if you use their lender. Check the rate, the closing costs (title insurance policy is the biggie), points, origination fees, etc.