KB Homes (Star: sale, new home, buyers)

[Gabagole]

Hello. I would like peoples opinion on KB Homes who actually own or have owned a KB Home. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not looking for people who have never owned a KB home to bash it because they "heard" bad things about them. I know they didn't have a great reputation a few years back but from what I have researched, most of those quality issues came out of Texas. Thanks

[sacredgrooves]

I don't own one, but have inspected hundreds of them. With that said, they are no better or worse than most of the other tract builders. If you like their houses and locations, then that is all that really matters. The attention supplied to the contractors by the supervisor for your home will make much more difference than the name of the company he/she works for.

[solarity]

We are building one right now at Ravenstone. So far the experience has been great. We have the construction managers phone number to use anytime we have questions or concerns. There is lots of open communication and weekly reports. We are also ahead of schedule and they moved up our closing date. We definitely keep a close eye on things though. We've never built before so don't have any experiences to contrast with.

[MariaMaria102]

[SIZE=3]I had a wonderful experience with KB Home and everyone I worked with from my sale person to my customer service rep to the team that built my home. When building a new home of course you are going to find things that are not perfect. This is a man made product and unless this is something new man is not perfect. But anytime I had any issues with the home I just call the customer service line and with in hrs they are calling me back to fix the issue. The peace of mind that I have knowing that help is just a phone call away is reassuring for me. [/SIZE]

[arsbadmojo]

solarity is just a street or 2 over from me, and there are some other Ravenstone folks on this board.

I am reasonably happy with the house and the KB build experience. I know they are happy with their construction manager, and we had the same one - I myself dislike him for various reasons that are too boring to get into - and some of that also may be due to the fact that our original construction manager was laid off mid-build, and we liked the previous one a whole lot better, so he stunk by comparison; maybe it's just a personality conflict - I don't think he's a bad guy, we just had our differences.

Anyway - to be specific; I don't have many quality complaints. There's no copper at all for our water lines - I'm not sure if that's good or bad. My old house had copper, and I'm terrified of these plastic lines bursting some day, but they experts seem to agree that as long as it's done correctly, it's just as durable as copper.

The windows; I don't know the R values of them; and they may be different now. At the time I signed on, KB was taking some heat from Anderson homes because they were Energy Star certified, so it was a few months later that they started offering some more efficient options. They open and close fine; swing in for cleaning.

They gave me a hell of a time trying to change a flooring break between the kitchen and living room. They had it on the blueprint with the kitchen tile flooring extending well into the living room which was hardood. I didn't want that; I wanted the kitchen tile to end at the kitchen. Well, you'd think I was asking for them to build a 3rd story. The construction manager flat out refused; I eventually got a change order in, set me back $500 I think - totally worth it and I'm so glad I fought for it but it was a lot harder than it should have been. We started looking at other properties I was so mad, but I got word that the change was approved and it all worked out.

The trim work is just OK; there's a little half wall that separates our shower and tub, and where it meets the floor it's not even close to straight. It doesn't bother me, but it's there. What else....oh, as I'm sure you've read if you've researched KB at all, they do have the reputation of almost everything being considered an 'upgrade', and I can't deny some truth to that. My best advice to anyone considering a KB home is to be aware that you're going to want a lot of those upgrades, so be mindful that the base price is going to change quite a bit. Personally, I wasn't going to pay for anything that I could put off or do myself.

So we've been here since January. The upstairs floors do have some squeaks, despite being glued and screwed. Again, nothing major - just pointing out anything I can think of.

We had an electrical short that wasn't discovered until after the closing. They had an electirican out in 2 days. Luckilly it wasn't too big of an issue and the electrician they sent out was really good.

That's about all I can think of, PM me if you have specific questions.

[sacredgrooves]

Originally Posted by arsbadmojo

Anyway - to be specific; I don't have many quality complaints. There's no copper at all for our water lines - I'm not sure if that's good or bad. My old house had copper, and I'm terrified of these plastic lines bursting some day, but they experts seem to agree that as long as it's done correctly, it's just as durable as copper.

Just to ease your mind...
The plastic plumbing (PEX) is outstanding and I would choose it over copper any day of the week. I NEVER see a problem with PEX plumbing when inspecting houses and it has been used in our area since 1996 (in Europe since the 1970's)
This style of plumbing can expand to twice its size before bursting and the only chance of a problem is an incorrectly installed fitting. You have a much higher percentage chance of not sweating copper properly over installing a PEX fitting incorrectly.
Hope that helps!

[Disheartened]

I am having trouble with KB and Countrywide right now. Signed contract on a big "rate incentive" weekend and now countrywide is screwing me over! Anybody else had such trouble?? two weeks from closing.

[DanielChang]

Originally Posted by Disheartened

I am having trouble with KB and Countrywide right now. Signed contract on a big "rate incentive" weekend and now countrywide is screwing me over! Anybody else had such trouble?? two weeks from closing.

What has happened and what does your buyers agent say?

[Juanvald]

We currently own a KB home. No issued with the home. Only thing I have noticed construction wise is that our upstairs hall floor looks a bit titled, but it wasn't a big enough deal for us to not buy the house 2.5 years ago.

[VickiR]

I have sold quite a few KB Homes. My clients have had no problems with construction. Some of the painting was a bit crappy but they did come back, after closing, to do the best they could.

The one issue that I have with KB Homes is that you must inform your clients that the BASE PRICE hardly includes anything. I typically tell them to estimate adding another 10% to 20% for options to make the house liveable.

I also don't like the way they play around with their base prices. I never noticed them doing this until they began Twin Lakes. For a while, they'd have different base prices every other weekend. Hard to trust someone who does that and hard to have faith that once you buy, the prices won't go down.

Vicki