Ryland or Outback homes (San Antonio, Plano: renting, custom home, buying)

[stu7575]

I am trying to decide between building a patio home with Ryland Homes and purchasing a lot and having Outback Custom homes build me something. Does anyone have any feedback on either of these builders? The Ryland community is in Plano at Legacy and Custer.

[socketz]

Outback homes....??

Throw another shrimp on the barbie ?

[LOK222]

I've never heard of outback (homes that is)

[boostaholic]

I know this may be a little after the fact, but we purchased our Outback Custom Home a little over a year ago. The house is great so far, but their customer service is horrible. We've tried to contact them to have warranty work repaired and they have the tendency of just blowing you off. Many of my fellow neighbors also agree to this.

[txlady47]

google ryland homes and good luck with them!

[Hates Outback Home]

Outback Homes.... what a joke.

You'll file issues prior to closing... issues still aren't fixed after closing and move in... they have all the paperwork showing the needed fixes.

Fight with them an entire year.... they give you the "contractors" phone numbers, and they claim "no hablo ingles".

The only two people that speak english are the owners.


Horrible horrible customer service.

[txlady47]

ryland homes....my nightmare continues, they are put together with caulk and spit i believe.....surface pretty, saying poorly built would be a compliment.

[banker]

Funny - it seems that every national builder has haters. Ryland has some really good communities here in San Antonio and some really bad ones. The difference in San Antonio is tied directly to the part of town and related soil conditions they were built on. Sadly Ryland, like Pulte, KB and Centex here in San Antonio builds the same kind of foundation no matter what part of town your house is constructed in. This hurts their reputation as it is always the 80/20 effect....80% are happy and have nothing to say while 20% are unhappy and are very vocal. For Ryland in San Antonio they have documented that they have had structural problems with about 5% of their homes - but the way the protest and news articles run you would think it was more like 95% of the buyers have had problems. I suspect that the same could be said of Pulte, KB, Centex and other national builders. The vocal minority works hard to ruin the reputation of what are probably average builders.

But the most important thing to check prior to building or buying is the soil conditions. Here in San Antonio - you want to avoid the clay because of the significant expansion and contraction during wet and dry seasons. This can wreck havoc on even the best built house. Have a soil sample done and don't take the builders word for it.

Because of the soil issue my wife and I are going to pay a premium to buy in a part of town where they actually have to truck in the topsoil because it is all rock. So the builder pours the slab right on the hill country rock and then trucks in the top soil after the house is finished. in the Stone Oak area of SA (where we are looking) they have significantly less foundation problems than on the east and west side of town that has more clay - and this is for all builders.

[Hates Outback Home]

Outback seems to have jumped ship in Princeton, Texas.

All their former homes now say Creekview Builders in front of them.
They list a Gale as a contact... I think this is the same woman that worked for Outback.

Either way.... stay far away.

They never fixed anything while they were named Outback, and now since names have changed I can almost guarantee they are going to hide away.

To make matters worse, I am receiving letters saying that I am part of a HOA. It's strange, because I am the only person on my block receiving the notifications.

[catluvr]

I just have to put my Two cents in about Ryland. I don't know you, but care enough about you to warn you to RUN AWAY...FAR AWAY...AND VERY QUICKLY FROM RYLAND

I don't know much about Outback homes, but I can tell you a lot about Ryland. Absolutely do not ever even think about Ryland. I have spread the word to my friends. We are currently renting a new Ryland townhome. Every time it rains, it comes in the house because they never sealed the foundation. Our floor is wavy, the carpet is ruined by the walls, the patio is not level so the water pools by the foundation. The 4th week we moved in, the house flooded from the sprinkler system on down because the builders had pounded a spike in the PVC piping which was causing water to leak from the bottom of the toilet when we ran the washing machine. We now have bugs in our house because the doors are not square with the walls. We have huge gaps between the doors and walls and are paying about 500.00 a month to heat/cool a 1495 sq ft home! The wind can actually put out a match inside your house when everything is locked up. We had to shrink wrap the walls to keep it a little warmer, but I dont' think they used any insulation in the home. Our driveway has cracks in it and the upstairs have waves under the carpet which is the floor. We have cracks in the walls already. The outside is brick/stucco. I can actually take my nail and scratch the stucco and morter away with little effort. They did not complete a lot of the outside detailing and it looks really bad if you have even a poor eye for detail.

All this and the house is only about 7 months old. They have fixed a few things, but they can't really fix a lot of the foundation issues and the actual construction. (They could, but won't) Also, We have very cheap, single pane windows which are also very cold. I don't ever forsee them fixing any of these issues. What do we care, we will be buying in the near future. My realtor has warned his collegues about these builders as well.

I have a saying, "Friends don't let friends buy Ryland"!