Thoughts of New Construction homes by K. Hovnanian Homes in Naperville

[&mpersand]

Originally Posted by qfeverq

This is very interesting! I was pretty sold on DJK. Wife seemed to be on page with paying more for higher quality.

The president was pretty responsive initially. I was sold by their website and all the standard things and seemed like they build high quality homes. I told them our budget at this time was $750,000 and would like to live near downtown Naperville. I suppose it's not realistic. Is there anyone that is consistently fair and trustworthy in home construction? At least the guy who professionally mounted our TV was super professional and actually discounted the job. Our garage also broke and the initial garage repair company was outrageous and the second guy was great.

Anyways, we will look at other custom builders as well as DJK and K Hov. Our realtor spoke highly of DJK as well.

Are you happy so far with the home? What model home did you get built and where?

The house has been fine so far but we're also just really happy to be in after such a long delay. We're in the Western burbs in DuPage County. I can't remember the model but we customized it quite a bit. 2 story, 4 BR, 3 1/2 BA.

Dan was a good guy to talk to and very convincing but we were just very frustrated that we laid out our budget and told him we were going to have to stick closely to it and then felt we were mislead on some things. For example, they'll give you a permit budget of $5,000. Not having built a house before we had no idea what permits for a new house would run. They came in about 3.5X that amount. Dan's answer was that we were lucky, that some permits come in at $25K or more. So there is $10,000+ of expenses right out of your pocket and when you add the soil hauling charge I mentioned above we were $25,000 over our budget shortly after they broke ground. And it didn't stop there.

We checked the reviews on Houzz, Yelp and anywhere else we could think of and they were all pretty positive. I still can't figure that out. You have to go to sites like ripoffreport and google the owner's name and that's where you'll find all the horror stories.

[Crumpet]

Hello, I am very family with K.Hovnanian I lived in one
Of there communities I have recently relocated to the
East Coast. I would not I mean never buy a home
Built by Hovnanian, first of all they will not honor all the
Promises that are made. If there is a problem with
Your home good luck getting it taken care of. You may
Want to look into the companies financial situation they
Could run out of money prior to your house being completed.
I lived in a community that was built by Town and
Country Homes which K.Hov purchased. I never had
A problem with our home. The people that built after
The buyout had nothing but problems, many homes
Had mold, leaky doors and so on. I would also stay away
From David Weekley Homes more of a nightmare. I would
Contact Oakley Builders the houses they build far surpasse
Anything you will find with a production builder. One more
Thing I heard over and over was once Hovnanion has Your money
They don't have your back. I hate to sound so negative
But protect yourself and educate yourself on whatever
Builder you choose. You may also check out 5th Ave Builders they do a nice job.
I really would do your research. Best of luck to you
And your wife.

[Crumpet]

Hi,
I just noticed that the post about DJK charging
To have soil removed, that is a red flag to me as
Any Builder that knows what they are doing sells that
Dirt to a dirt broker, who than resells it for backfill or
To landscapers and so on. Permits cost what they cost
Like a liscense plate sticker. Any builder should know
The Permit costs for any county they build in.

[Crumpet]

I just saw your question about the house that was vacant
The CDC has been doing studies, they actually just held
A meeting with Realtors in Illinois regarding vacant homes
And Toxic Mold. They are finding that houses that have been
Vacant have a much higher incidence of Toxic Mold. Prior to
My move out East I was a Broker in Illinois and participated in the
Study. Scary Stuff.