Are all Austin Builders POO POO HEADS!? (Spring, Reno: countertops, house)

[10scoachrick]

I think a Barndominium might be the answer!

[77030]

Originally Posted by Anywhere but here

I would not trust anyone in Texas to build my home. There are too many that got into the business for money, not for the pleasure of showcasing their skills. They sure talk sweet up front though. Typical human behavior that I can spot a mile away.

This may be the funniest thing I ever read on the Internet. You win!

[riaelise]

Personally I wouldn't deal with new construction. Yes, I can do just about anything with my late 80s home. And yes, the market does tip in the builders' favor.

[mowilly]

Originally Posted by kittenhead

Hello Austin friends!

Thank you for any insight.

Your options aren't limited to 1) brand new or 2) 20/30 years old in need of remodel. There are plenty of people moving out of 1/2/3 year old houses who got to deal with all the builder headaches so that now you don't have to.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by cBach

In short, yes.

I'd much rather take an older house that has the architecture I somewhat like, then remodel it, than deal with new builds.

Agreed. I came from the Northeast, and I found the quality of workmanship down here absolutely sucks. Even in new communities up there, the quality was much higher. I once asked about the possibility of not having textured walls and was told it was "impossible." As in it was physically impossible to build a home nowadays without textured walls because of the materials they use now, etc. When I mentioned that none of the new homes where I was from had textured walls, I heard crickets. It's just an example of how they aren't skilled enough to make a smooth wall.

In their defense, homes here are going up like wildfire, so they are just trying to build them as quickly as they can and don't really give a rat's behind about quality or workmanship. It also means that they will hire any warm body to do the construction, no matter is they really have the experience or not.

[FalconheadWest]

Drees is definitely one of the better reputable builders in the area, especially in Rough Hollow. Builders in this are don't have to negotiate much because the demand is there. You CANNOT and will not buy below their base price plus lot premium. If they want to negotiate, it will be at design center for upgrades and/or use of their lender. No, you cannot control their cost.

Also, as for reading reviews online, just like with school reviews, it's typically the disgruntled ones that have something to say. Most happy people just live their lives and don't think, "Hmm, which sites should I post my awesome experience with?" Of course the negative reviews will be skewed.

For Drees to terminate your contract, if must have been bad!

[El Senor]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

Agreed. I came from the Northeast, and I found the quality of workmanship down here absolutely sucks. Even in new communities up there, the quality was much higher. I once asked about the possibility of not having textured walls and was told it was "impossible." As in it was physically impossible to build a home nowadays without textured walls because of the materials they use now, etc. When I mentioned that none of the new homes where I was from had textured walls, I heard crickets. It's just an example of how they aren't skilled enough to make a smooth wall.

In their defense, homes here are going up like wildfire, so they are just trying to build them as quickly as they can and don't really give a rat's behind about quality or workmanship. It also means that they will hire any warm body to do the construction, no matter is they really have the experience or not.

Buy a house built in 2009-2011

[cBach]

I'd much rather buy an older house with "good bones" and remodel than deal with builders. With remodeling you can do some on your own and hire professionals for the stuff you don't want to do.

My bathroom is so custom people are like "WOW!" I did a lot on my own and hired the parts I didn't want to do or was required to (for code stuff). Comments have ranged from "this is like at a resort", "I feel like royalty in here" to "this is a sex lair" ...




What do you think?

[ScoPro]

Pretty nice, cBach!
11 years ago we had our son redo our vanilla builder's grade master bathroom - he demo'd the cheap shower & hand built a nice tiled replacement, tiled the whole bathroom & separate potty room, put in all new plumbing & lighting fixtures, then painted. Of course he did it right.


But the wife thinks it's out of date now and wants him to do it over again. lol






Drees and the rest of the big builders here are nothing more than big volume tract house builders, with most of their concrete, brick, drywall, roofing, & framing crews being staffed from "South of the Border" (at least from my personal & family observations, which are numerous over the decades). Some are ok, but others not so much. The name of the game down here is quantity, not quality.

However, there are quite a few very good small volume custom builders who will build to your quality specifications at the appropriate price point. Be prepared to spend the $$$$.

There's a reason one of my sons has been making a very good living for 20+ years renovating & rectifying the mistakes made by "old Austin" builders.

But I'll agree that some builders are as Kitten described in the thread title. The one we dealt with when we built our new tract home 23 years ago was that type. In spite of the friction we finally got it built to our satisfaction.

[Bp25]

Originally Posted by El Senor

Buy a house built in 2009-2011

It was the middle of housing meltdown with builders going bankrupt and no builder starting a new build. How many homes do you actually see from that timeframe?