Shea Homes?? (Tempe, Gilbert, Peoria: house, to buy, construction)

[Andre5140]

Hello again.

I know many of you are sick of being asked about builders and new communities but I am starting to think I should take advantage of some of the incentives new developments are offering.

Anyone have an opinion of Shea Homes? KB Homes look pretty but they are poorly built based on what I've seen. How does a Shea Home compare to Pulte? Hacienda?

Also, I work in Tempe and am willing to commute. Goodyear seems nice and about as far as QC or Gilbert in the East. Thoughts???

[MotleyCrew]

We purchased a Shea home 3 years ago in Vistancia, Peoria. Our oldest daughter purchased one last year in Maricopa and loves her house. We have had only minor issues and so far we are very pleased. The customer service people were very responsive to our concerns. Some others in the community had some difficulties, but Shea did address theirs as well. Cant tell you about Pulte or Hacienda.
My husband commuted to Tempe on a daily basis for a year and it almost killed him. The traffic is not getting any better and the more people added to the mix on the freeway just makes it worse. I would look around Gilbert or some other community near Tempe. Best of luck in your house hunt.

[jvogle]

Hi,

We purchased Shea built home in Triology part of Vistancia in Peoria.

Shea was super! We were building out of town -- we had one issue which prevented us from closing -- they asked us to come back in 6 weeks and paid all of our expenses.

I have to say that I feel that the construction was good, the customer service FANTASTIC.

I would steer away from Lennar though. We have a home built by them in another retirement community in Delaware. So so so many problems. Sorry that we ever went with them -- but with the housing market now down we are stuck.

In retrospect going with a builder that is not on a stock exchange is a better choice. They are not beholding to shareholders. Shea is privately owned. Pulte is not but I have no idea about how well they build so I cannot comment.

I would definitely buy another Shea built home! And I would never ever buy another Lennar home no matter what the price.

Hope this helps.
Jacquie

[Boatdrinks]

We've owned a Shea home and a Pulte home. The Pulte was a spec and by the time we bought it, we were dealing with the back end people so we never experienced the process from start to finish. However, we never had any problems. The customer service was fantastic and the workmanship was excellent. We never had a single problem with that house. Re: customer service - we lost some roof tiles during a really bad microburst - the entire street looked as though a tornado had gone through - and Pulte replaced all the tiles even though we were past our warranty.

Shea, on the other hand, was a terrible experience. Customer service was laughable. Well, it would have been laughable if it weren't so stinkin frustrating for us. I could go on and on about our terrible experiences and it wasn't just us. It was our entire community. And the workmanship was terrible too. Again - not just our house. It was the entire community.

We would never buy a Shea home again but not necessarily b/c of the terrible workmanship, b/c a lot of that falls on the trades and no house will be perfect. The cruddy customer service is what did Shea in for us.

That said, I wouldn't tell anyone NOT to buy Shea, nor would I tell anyone to definitely buy Pulte. You can have a good or bad experience with any builder. While ours with Shea was terrible, I do know people who had no complaints. My personal opinion is that if you go with a decent sized, reputable builder, odds are you'll do ok. Just be diligent about monitoring progress and use your own home inspector at every stage. And be proactive and don't be afraid to speak up if you don't like something. If you're not getting the desired results, go up the chain of command until you do.