Buying toll brother home in northern virginia

[qatcat]

we looked in Dominion Valley back in 2003. The houses looked beautiful but I didn't feel comfortable about buying there. At the time I didn't know why but my gut was right I guess. The few people I knew who bought there had issues, not terrible but they expected better buying a premium house..there were some issues with the quality.

[labratinaz]

If you have time, go through a home under construction. You will see the quality of construction. Also, check different levels of construction. We notice that there is some omission of insulation in spots before the drywall went up. More importantly, check the finish work.

Overall, do you still love the floor plan? If so, maybe you can overlook some of the quality issues and just suck it up. Yes, it is a buyer's market and you should have more power as a buyer now than you did a couple of years ago.

Good luck. Visit more of the new home builders and see how they finish their homes. You might be surprised to find they are all the same.

[VRE332]

You people always want quality for the price you paid. The reality is that _____ are putting together these houses. The QA/QC is so-so and they dont do a "perfect" job. Buying a house is a challenge. There always is a need for improvements somewhere and replacement of something. Dont expect perfection.

[msjack]

Originally Posted by VRE332

You people always want quality for the price you paid. The reality is that ______ are putting together these houses. The QA/QC is so-so and they dont do a "perfect" job. Buying a house is a challenge. There always is a need for improvements somewhere and replacement of something. Dont expect perfection.

Yes I do want quality for the price I paid. I didn't buy a "cheap" house. It's not the most expensive either, but I don't think anyone is expecting perfection. However, we do expect our homes to be built to code and that they should be FINISHED when going through the walk through. If anyone is expecting perfection than that's simple naivete.

[angiethomas]

I am curious if you did buy a Toll Brothers home? My Mom owns one and is currently having her 2nd major problem. What did you decide? How was the experience? Problems?

[bungalowmo]

While I don't know anything about Toll Bros, I must admit, when I looked for a home to purchase I did NOT want new construction. In fact, I didn't want anything newer than mid-1930's.

The homes built long ago were built by true craftsmen. When I found my place, I knew that was it. Built around 1920, it is a true work of art & being a brick house, it's withstood 90 years of mother nature & still stands as she did years ago.

If there is one big passion of mine, that is it. I want to see where these new places will be in 90 years....in a landfill. So much for Green!






You can't beat the character of these old gems either!

Mo


EDIT: After I'd posted...I found this...
http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/193378-how-backout-toll-brothers-contract.html

Think REAL hard before you sign!

[LadyG4]

My son worked for Toll Brothers in Woodbridge, VA, and quit after two weeks. He said they cut too many corners and he would not work for them. He said their work was very poor quality. I also had a friend that bought a house in Spotsylvania a few years ago that Toll Brothers built and she said the workmanship was awful. She has been in the house 3 years and she still has 58 items on the punch list that still have not been fixed. They spilled paint on her floor and the backsplash has a bump in it. They told her to set something in front of it. She said it was her dreamhouse but the workmanship was so shoddy. She said all of her neighbors had complaints too. I would not buy a house that was built by Toll Brothers.

[trmaoy]

Bought a Toll home in Michigan. The quality of the materials and the workmanship was not at all high end. My development was new at the time of purchase. Although the windows were by Anderson, the window screens are generic and some of my neighbor's screens have fallen out.

I have had repeated cracks in my kitchen tile grout and according to experts, grout should not crack. We had horrible cracks after two years. Our laundry tub was not anchored into studs and actually fell off the wall when filled with water. Had we not been watching, they would have left off the step up to the master bath tub. They put the wrong carpet in one room. The paint job and material quality was poor.

I loved the design and was sucked in by the model home and the design center, but probably would not buy another Toll new construction.