Best builders in austin, tx (Pflugerville, Taylor: house, neighborhoods, buy)

[ITO]

Originally Posted by SergeL

Building our new home with Mercedes Premiere Homes. Superior quality.

Did'nt Mercedes go bankrupt...several times?
Grand Haven, My favorite floor plans and really nice houses and they know it.
Streetman, has some nice homes too.
Pulte- No thank you.
KB- You could NOT give me one.
Meritage/Legacy- Good build but so-so on the floor plans.
Gehan- Has some good floor floor plans and build a nice house too, they are also the fasted builder I have ever seen, you can expect your house ready to close 90-days from contract.
Drees- Houses are nice too but the 6-month build time is kinda tough.
Scott Felder- Makes some nice houses too.

[RogerMurdock]

Anybody have anything good/bad to say about centex?

[SergeL]

Originally Posted by ITO

Did'nt Mercedes go bankrupt...several times?

They did, recently. Now they are working exclusively in Texas under new name.

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[SergeL]

Originally Posted by ITO

Scott Felder- Makes some nice houses too.

Village People, ups, Builders? I've seen their houses. Rooms so tiny... Honestly, we have seen many houses from many builders, and only Mercedes house had a spark like no others. It was like "This is it!!!!" moment.

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[ITO]

Yes they make a nice house, my Mother has one. If you can find an inventory house it would be a good thing, but I would not go into contract with them. In fact inventory houses from any builder are usually a much better deal than the design price abuse they force you though, under what they call "design".

[SergeL]

Originally Posted by ITO

Yes they make a nice house, my Mother has one. If you can find an inventory house it would be a good thing, but I would not go into contract with them. In fact inventory houses from any builder are usually a much better deal than the design price abuse they force you though, under what they call "design".

Village Builders have many inventory houses in Rim Rock, but they are way off OP price range.

[RogerMurdock]

I've heard bad things about KB and meritage. Centex/pulte seems ok. Drees/standard Pacific and some others seem to get high marks but are out of my price range. These are ask from what I hear from people. But JD power gives a builder like KB high marks

[ITO]

KB builds junk, cuts corners and living next to a KB neighborhood I am watching them fall apart after 10 years as they drag my home price down with them.

[EzPeterson]

KB only got high marks in Orlando and Tucson in that 2010 study. I'd take a long hard look at their model homes and wash why floors squeak, why grout and cement are cracking, why mortar is separating from the bricks and stone... You may also want to talk to an appraiser to find out which homes most frequently appraise below their sales price.

For sub-250k builders, Streetman, Lennar, DR Horton and Pulte all have options, as does KB.

[HFamily]

Centex/Fox and Jacobs plans are very basic- you're looking at square rooms inside of a square outline, and they all tend to look the same after a while. Don't expect much characer or charm, you'll have to add that yourself. Centex seems to offer more design options than F&J. I believe Pulte is also owned by F&J, and KB and DR Horton are very similar products. We own an F&J now in the DFW area. It's 7 years old and has had a few problems. We've repaired 3 pipe seals (not due to freezing), replaced a leaky door, had the A/C repaired twice (to be fair, it was the same part both times that blew, might have been defective), looking to replace 2 windows that weren't sealed properly and have some sort of residue between the panes, and replaced rotted wood inside and outside that looks like it wasn't primed before it was painted. The home just isn't aging well, so we won't be using them again. We were attracted to the square footage for the money, but you get what you pay for I guess. We did buy an inventory home, so I do not recommend this at all. You get a discount, sure, but you're likely to lose those savings later on. Be there during building process, hire a phase inspector, and check on their work at various points- foundation poured, plumbing, framing, etc. Lessons learned too late. That said, these problems were most likely a result of shotty work done by contractors that knew nobody would be checking up on them while building. The company did have good customer service and quickly responded to the warranty repairs we requested. Unforunately, most of the issues happened after the 2 year warranty expired. Many of our neighbors have not had as many problems and they were involved from the beginning. I have noticed that the other inventory home we looked at when we bought has the same peeling paint and rotting wood trim issue outside. Design options are a bit limited as well, but then again, you get a lot of space for a low price and can upgrade later when you have some extra cash. It's much better to hire your own contractor to put in good materials than finance mid-grade materials for 15-30 years in my opinion. Overall, I'd say they're a decent starter home.

We haven't decided whether we'll go with a new construction again or an existing home when we come to Austin. I like the energy efficiency of new homes, and ability to customize, but there are some great homes already there. I also would feel better having the inspector check everything at each phase during construction so that I know we're getting a solid home.

We really like a floorplan offered by Meritage in a Round Rock neighborhood called the Lantana, but again, no decisions are final yet. Meritage builds near us and the homes look like they're holding up much better than our neighborhood. Standard Pacific also appears to have some nice homes, but the neighborhood they build in here is a much higher price point than ours. I have seen a few complaints on boards about Meritage, but like another poster said, people complain when something goes wrong and they're far less likely to tell you about the builder when they're satisfied. I'd like to hear good and bad and find out more about them. I'm thinking about visiting their models here to learn about the building process before we strongly consider them. I came across Castle Rock and they have some nice plans, too. It looks like they add more architectural character than most spec builders. Does anyone have experience with them? We want this next house to be our long-time home that we will keep until our kids move out.