[Alandros]

I tried to search the web but didn't find any good places to get builder reviews and/or opinions. Anyone here have good, bad, or mediocre experiences with Harmony Homes?

Thanks.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Alandros

I tried to search the web but didn't find any good places to get builder reviews and/or opinions. Anyone here have good, bad, or mediocre experiences with Harmony Homes?

Thanks.

Let me lead with a question of my own. Why on earth would you buy a low end new build in this market? Nothing personal but you almost got to be nuts to consider it.

Harmony is one of the companies associated with James Rhodes. Rhodes is a builder of considerable skill and highly questionable business practices.

Rhodes started as a custom builder of some skill. He grew to become one of the larger builders in southern Nevada and was branching into norther AZ when he went belly up.

Rhodes is famous for survival. Rhodes does not own Harmony by the way. He is an "employee" others in his circle own it.

The mission of Harmony and many new builders at the moment is to see how cheap a house they can build and sell. The generally build larger houses because smaller houses offer less opportunity. So you are out trying to buy a house that has been value engineered to the lowest possible level by a very skilled and ethically challenged builder.

You really want to do that?

Buy a recent built resale. If you hunt around you can probably find one still that has never been lived in.

[Alandros]

I did discover this information though thanks for sharing as well as your opinions... Do you have any personal or even second hand experiences with Harmony Homes? I'm not a big fan of speculation and assumptions, I am a skeptical person but just because James Rhodes is involved I'm not going to assume the home they'll make me in Summerlin is garbage, though thanks again for sharing your opinion.

As to why get a new home, well there's a few reasons.

First the obvious new home reason... it's new! Being the first person to live in a home is a compelling idea, I if you consider a home built in 1998 vs. a home built in 2003, well it'll be a home built in 2010. The year of being built and the condition is an important factor in a resale, why not consider it for a new home right?

Beyond that there aren't a lot of comparable options in Summerlin. Most of the comparable homes for the price and size in summerlin are built in the 1990's which a lot of times means tile kitchens and more years of ware. Two things we are looking to avoid because it's important enough for us (not that those things are bad, I grew up extremely meager, my parents never even owned a home). The year 2000+ homes in Summerlin leave limited options for that price range many of which are banked owned not in that good of condition or involved in bidding wars (sure prices are low but with the tax credit right now there are a -lot- of buyers).

We've looked, talked to a buyer's agent, and watched the listings for quite a while. In Summerlin at that price range there's not a lot and we are still a couple months out from having saved enough to get into a home (our company just relocated to Vegas).

We have considered and even made quite a few calls about properties in the Northwest and Southwest and looked at many other new home builders. There are lots of options.

Also there are quite a few other builders building homes in that price range around the same size, ones like American West Homes (one of the others we considered) so I'm not convinced all of them are going to make horrible homes, I do plan on being as careful as I can and I am not against inquiring for peoples actual experiences with them (hence the purpose of the thread

Summerlin has kept it's value quite well and will most likely increase in value faster, so it's a much more sound investment in those regards and that's important. I am quite comfy at my current job though you never know and it's quite possible I'd have to move elsewhere since there aren't that many companies in my exact field here in Vegas, so resale is indeed a consideration for us in case we are put in the unlikely situation. Plus I really like the Summerlin area and that's where my work is located so multiple reasons.

We seriously considered some American West new homes in the Southwest and some resale homes in the Northwest, some barely built that are very nice like you said. We could even go to a higher price range but I'm a bit more on the financial conservative side if I can be. Though Summerlin is a very compelling value.

[Alandros]

I just realized how much of a jerk I sounded in that lol, I didn't mean to. Right now we are working with an agent and looking at some resale homes and we've been to a lot of places that really didn't impress us and a lot of them go fast so it just turns my wife and I a bit sour.

[Jenn2]

I have recently purchased a Harmony Home in their Springs location. I thought that it was a great price in a community that has potential. We signed contract early December and they quoted us 45-60 day build. We thought that was insane until we watched the house go up all around ours. They told us they would start the build after they received permits. They said this would take 7-10 business days. As of today they have yet to receive those permits, and blame the city for the delay. Something is odd in that situation. We are currently VERY unhappy with the way Harmony is handling our build. Each time we visit the property their is a new sales agent, so just when you get to know someone they are gone. We have gotten a complete run around and are being treated as though we are morons. When we signed contract, they gave a tentative walkthrough date of 02-03-10. That is two days from now and they haven't even laid a slab. We were really looking forward to our new home as we had been waiting on a short sale prior to this purchase. We are very distraught right now and not sure what we are going to do. Just thought I would give you my personal experience with the company : )

[heather9874]

Jenn2,
I just put in a reservation on a lot with Harmony Springs. Have you heard anything about the permits? They told me they were hoping for three weeks but there was no guarantee.

[Jenn2]

Heather,
They have started the build on our home as of last Friday. What had happened was we were the 75th percentile of the current phase and there has to be some community inspection before our permits could be released. This took them a lot longer than they expected as they did not pass that inspection. This inspection set our house back about a month or more. Trust me, I have raised hell about the situation and made it known to every level of Harmony how unhappy I am with the situation.
We did not put down a reservation on our lot, they started the formation of our home as soon as we signed contract. I am assuming they are trying to get back on track before they start moving forward on the next phase. There are two homes, my home and then one other behind the models that are in the same predicament. Our framing is now up and moving fast.
Im not sure 100% if that is why they are only taking reservations now? Let me know how it goes for you. Good luck with your home. I hope you have better luck than we did.

By the way if you go with their lender, let me know how that works out for you as well. I think our lender is quite the air head and there was a great lack of communication for a while. Things have gotten better though.

[heather9874]

Jenn,

I decided not to wait on the Springs location. I'm still with Harmony but moved to the Laguna location in North Las Vegas. They should start building next week. Glad to hear that they got started on your house. Sounds like if I would have stayed mine would be going up already too. However, with what you said I didn't know how long it would really take and I didn't want to wait for an unknown amount of time.

I have gone with their lender to this point. However, I normally have to contact her because she never does what she says she is going to do. That maybe just because she is busy though. When I do contact her she is pretty prompt about getting back to me.

Good Luck with everything.
Heather
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

[rockview2]

We bought in Harmony Heights and are not happy campers. We signed the contract on December 1st,2009 with a completion date of Feb. 2nd. 2010. We were also told of delays with the permiting when nothing was started on construction. The delays were blamed on the "county" We later found out the permit number and checked around. It turns out that the county had nothing to do with permitting, it was the City of Las Vegas, and when we contacted them we were given the date when the permit was applied for. It turns out that the permit was not even applied for until Dec. 29. Their VP of Sales was contacted and we were assured that we would be put on a fast track for completion. "Completion" finally happened and we moved in to our home on Feb. 26. However, there was a large patch of stucco on the back that hadn't been painted, there was large areas Yellow paint on walls that should have been White, the shutters were sitting against the wall in the garage, the gate was missing, the shower curtain rail was sitting in the bath tub, paint spilled on the carpet throughout and lots more. We're still waiting to havew most all off these items corrected. To top it off we got a letter from one of their contractors after we moved in telling us that they MAY at a future date record a notice of lein against the property. We were told by Harmony that this is a common practice in Nevada. Not being from this state we are unaware of this but have never had this happen in other states. DON'T BUY FROM HARMONY

[KevK]

Originally Posted by olecapt

Let me lead with a question of my own. Why on earth would you buy a low end new build in this market? Nothing personal but you almost got to be nuts to consider it.

Harmony is one of the companies associated with James Rhodes. Rhodes is a builder of considerable skill and highly questionable business practices.

Rhodes started as a custom builder of some skill. He grew to become one of the larger builders in southern Nevada and was branching into norther AZ when he went belly up.

Rhodes is famous for survival. Rhodes does not own Harmony by the way. He is an "employee" others in his circle own it.

The mission of Harmony and many new builders at the moment is to see how cheap a house they can build and sell. The generally build larger houses because smaller houses offer less opportunity. So you are out trying to buy a house that has been value engineered to the lowest possible level by a very skilled and ethically challenged builder.

You really want to do that?

Buy a recent built resale. If you hunt around you can probably find one still that has never been lived in.

You can tell how good a builder is when you walk into the house. Look at the plumbing- is the pipe plastic or copper? If it is plastic, it is a low quality cheap ass builder. That is not to say you should run but you should really low ball the offer because you are going to have to re plumb, re roof and probably rewire the house. Also, have an EXPERT check the foundation and back fill. These cheap builders often toss debris and trash into the back fill area because they do not want to pay to haul it off- and it WILL cause you major trouble.