Home builders in Frisco (Dallas, Howe: sales, countertops, neighborhoods)

[Dawn341]

With all of the new construction happening in Frisco, I was curious if anyone has reviews of builders in that area.

After brief research, I saw very negative reviews for Landon homes(?)...haven't seen or heard of any others though.

Frisco is an area we are considering in our move, with a pro being the opportunity to buy new construction. I would, however, want to vet out the builder and make sure they have positive reviews and are well established.

Appreciate any insight. Thanks!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

My son owns a Landon and has been pretty satisfied. No builder is perfect. His house is 8 yrs old so today may be different. Drees and Highland, and Ashton Wood are all considered among the best of the production builders.

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by Dawn341

With all of the new construction happening in Frisco, I was curious if anyone has reviews of builders in that area.

After brief research, I saw very negative reviews for Landon homes(?)...haven't seen or heard of any others though.

Frisco is an area we are considering in our move, with a pro being the opportunity to buy new construction. I would, however, want to vet out the builder and make sure they have positive reviews and are well established.

Appreciate any insight. Thanks!

The quality of your build will depend on the Construction Manager on site. I've inspected homes by some of the reputed worst builders and a good Construction Manager made a world of difference. Here too you have to be careful as a Builder can have multiple Construction Managers in the same large development with one or more being very good and other(s) who should not be in the job! Also Construction Managers can be changed out at any time as a development progresses so you could wind up with a less than desirable Construction Manager for your build or even in the middle of your build.



With your vetting IMO the most important aspect is how the Builder will handle issues both during the build and after. As much as all Builders want to provide you a perfect home it is not a reality. If they do not support you during the build and after then all the positive reviews just are not going to matter!


As for being well established that is a bit over rated as well. There is a builder that builds nationally (I will not give their name) whose homes I just loved to inspect as they were GREAT and they were well established! That is they WERE great until they were bought out (they still run under the same name) and their corporate culture, methods, and quality dropped significantly.

[sanz7887]

Dallas area has so many builders that its real confusing . Everyone claims the moon

[TeamLynn]

This is very tough. Toll Brothers for example may have a great reputation, but may not be in your price range, or not building in the area you want to live.
Your builder/construction manager will be key and your sales person may help.
Having a great realtor and inspector are also part of the team that help you get a great house.
Building is tricky and even the companies with the best reputations sometimes don't build great houses, while some of the ones that don't have great reputations can build great houses.
I normally say buy a resale instead of a new home to avoid the headaches and frustrations. Plus it could be cheaper than buying new.

[HP48G]

Originally Posted by TeamLynn

I normally say buy a resale instead of a new home to avoid the headaches and frustrations. Plus it could be cheaper than buying new.

I agree, at the end of the day what matters is location, not builder, and that means looking at older neighborhoods in established areas.

[Katana49]

I've owned homes in the DFW area from several builders. I'm also a very "hands-on" type of guy, I've been up in the attic of every home I've had to do various jobs from wiring a media room to running coax/cat6 throughout a house.

When you get up in the attic, you can see how a house was really put together. For the homes I've had, they've all been the same, with more or less the same type of work done in all. Even low volume custom builders do not necessarily build a "better" home when you're talking about the actual bones of a house, I've seen that firsthand. Finish out is really the only difference you'll see in the interior, and as Escanlan said, the attention to detail paid to your home by the construction crew depends on the crew you get and the construction manager and is much more important than who the actual builder is.

Case in point, our current home is a Grand home, and we've had no major issues with anything. We did renovate several bathrooms and found that the underlying work done was not up to our standards and corners were cut... but nothing that would be noticeable to anyone unless you were tearing it all out like we did. However, our neighbors have complained several times over the last 4 years about things breaking, walls/drywall seams cracking, etc. Both our homes are 10 years old and we've got a few cracks in corners but nothing like what they have. Personally I think the difference lies in their lack of maintenance on their home, watering schedule, etc. If you could find a home built in 2009-2011, I think that would be a sweet spot as far as quality goes, since the housing market was so bad at the time, builders didn't have to rush to build their homes like they've been doing the last 5 years and cutting corners left and right.

[stan4]

Since the late 90s, the lesson I have learned is that every person who has a home built (from 300k to millions - price and builder irrelevant) had better have their butt down at that site every single day checking up on people or the weirdest half ass stuff happens.

Copper pipe is stolen, materials are switched out, chimneys are not built all the way up, driveways are poured incorrectly, countertops are cracked or installed with no appliance clearance, motors are stolen from jacuzzis, etc. All by the builders.

Some of the crappy work or thievery was not discovered until months or years after build completion.

Vigilance.

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by stan4

Some of the crappy work or thievery was not discovered until months or years after build completion.

Vigilance.

That's why at a minimum, I always encourage (and will even pay for) my buyers to have an outside Inspector inspect the home prior to the builder walk through prior to closing.

I've seen mistakes you or I would never catch that Inspectors would that have cost sellers thousands of $$ if they had only done Inspections when they bought the home. And no, city building inspectors or the Builders people are not sufficient.

[sanz7887]

Originally Posted by Rakin

That's why at a minimum, I always encourage (and will even pay for) my buyers to have an outside Inspector inspect the home prior to the builder walk through prior to closing.

I've seen mistakes you or I would never catch that Inspectors would that have cost sellers thousands of $$ if they had only done Inspections when they bought the home. And no, city building inspectors or the Builders people are not sufficient.

couple of nice pointers