Toll vs Darling vs Highland vs Landon vs Southgate vs Shaddock (rentals, house)

[Pinkett]

Regarding windows certain communities would say that if your windows are visible from the front of front of the those you’ll need the bars, back of the house you don’t. You’ll see the look is consistent throughout the neighborhood.

[elliebea007]

hkdman_35 based upon your posts - I have the exact same model of home in the same Frisco neighborhood. The dividers on the windows facing the courtyard are required due to the HOA CCRs. I would prefer they didn't have the dividers and matched the backyard side.

I don't think the gameroom windows facing the courtyard are really visible from the front due to the roofline, but that is why they are the way they are. If you check your study downstairs, they have divided windows for the same reason. That is not as noticeable since there is only a street facing window there though.

[C_N_M]

Originally Posted by Rakin

You did not ask but my top 4 would be..

1.a Highland
1.b American Legend
3. Drees
4. Darling

If I could afford it I would buy Highlands higher priced Huntington Home or Am Legend Belclaire Home.

Drees and Darling are also good. Darling was better when the Darling brothers owned them.

Darling is HORRIBLE no no no!!! They will cover up things that will never be disclosed to A home buyer. How do I know, because my partner worked for a trade that used to work for them just last year, the words “just cover it up, it’s not our problem” came out of a builders mouth.
I would explain the situation but it would give away the trade. American legend is okay but not great with Plumbing or electric. Best bet is Drees

[C_N_M]

Originally Posted by dallas_cowboy

Thanks for the feedback.... Irrespective of builder, I plan to hire a home inspector to do phase inspection to make sure construction is done properly without corners being cut. Your response makes me think that if builder A is charging $50K less than builder B, then I should go with builder A because paying extra $50K may not give me anything extra in terms of quality?

He’s not wrong though. Builder A charges you 50k more to put 50k more in their executives’ pockets.
Sorry but to ANY homebuyer who believes a homebuilder is looking out for your best interest they are not, so many builders are cutting costs, pushing trades to bid lower, and requiring quicker deadlines now especially COVID. Only advice I can give Is be sure to ask as many questions and stay involved as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to be a thorn in their side.

Off topic but Recently Lennar had two lawsuits against them for faulty homes, you won’t hear about it because why? They know how to cover it up and make sure no one finds out.

[Jikkie]

So NOT build with Darling/Taylor Morrison unless you want a crap quality home that you pay top dollar for. These people do not care about quality homebuikding. They charge you top dollar pricing while they sub contract out to the lowest bidders every time. Their supervisors manage 50-70 homes at a time so nobody is watching these laborers who don’t know what they are doing. They ask for a huge deposit to basically trap you in the home when you discover how dishonest and without integrity this company is. At a minimum, you must refuse the arbitration clause or realize when you sign this contract no matter if they build your home on literal creek sand, contrary to the geo tech report which your contract designated they will follow, you’ll still be paying hundreds of thousands and years and years and years to sue their asses to take their crappy house back.

[sanz7887]

Originally Posted by Jikkie

So NOT build with Darling/Taylor Morrison unless you want a crap quality home that you pay top dollar for. These people do not care about quality homebuikding. They charge you top dollar pricing while they sub contract out to the lowest bidders every time. Their supervisors manage 50-70 homes at a time so nobody is watching these laborers who don’t know what they are doing. They ask for a huge deposit to basically trap you in the home when you discover how dishonest and without integrity this company is. At a minimum, you must refuse the arbitration clause or realize when you sign this contract no matter if they build your home on literal creek sand, contrary to the geo tech report which your contract designated they will follow, you’ll still be paying hundreds of thousands and years and years and years to sue their asses to take their crappy house back.

I think most of these builders are same.. You get the same workforce.. same architects and same building. Apart from the new build home smell , rest all is crap

[turf3]

Yep, they're all the same crews. The name on the house "Toll", "Centex", "Highland" has little to do with who lays the bricks or frames the roof. That's several layers of subcontractors down. Pick a floor plan and lot you like. It's not like cars or machine tools where the name means something.

[Katana49]

Just for kicks, some of you should drive around to where houses are going up. Get out of your cars and look at the t-shirts the crew is wearing. I guarantee you you'll find someone building a house for "Builder A" and wearing a t-shirt for "Builder B" while any builder swag in their car is from "Builder C."

[Capitalprophets]

The people who buy from these high end builders are the same who get the fancy Apple credit card with their 1% cash back. Once they pull out they become the laughing stock of the bunch because of their return on value is minimal. They all hire the same subcontractors and if your build supervisor is not competent you are in for crap regardless of what you paid. We recently had someone build from one of these so called luxury builders and they had leaks on second floor and this past freezing temperatures those homes did not hold up while ours did.

I think the bigger question is which home inspector to go with who can double check all the work subcontractors do and get it corrected by the builder on the fly.

[mmozaffa]

Originally Posted by Katana49

Just for kicks, some of you should drive around to where houses are going up. Get out of your cars and look at the t-shirts the crew is wearing. I guarantee you you'll find someone building a house for "Builder A" and wearing a t-shirt for "Builder B" while any builder swag in their car is from "Builder C."

lol, agree and the worker have no idea who they are building for(builder name), I ask some one and he said I am just building a house.., I smile and left.