Any opinion about meritage builders (San Antonio, Plano: home builder, neighborhoods, contractor)

[jacob]

They are building this new community - Emerald valley - in Coppell ISD.

Any good/bad reviews about Meritage.

[socketz]

Never heard anything bad about Meritage. They are simply a quality mid-range builder. I'd classify them higher than say a Centex/KB or DR Horton, but beneath a David Weekly, Darling, Highland or Sotherby.

[just1yana]

Meritage is merely Legacy Homes. Meritage is their midrange product, Legacy their lower end and then Texas Big homes and Monterey. I am an investor and have built and sold a few meritage homes in the SOUTH BURBS area. I like them for a few reasons, they do have some nice floor plans they have a large one story that is very open and reminds me of a california style with a nice rotunda, then they have a larger plan that is great for entertaining and large families. I have found they hold their resale value in the south burb communities ive invested in, prices are sort of fair but they are easy to negotiate with most of the time, not sure about any where else. they have nice features that are mostly standard and u can get decent upgrades without breaking the bank, their design center in Plano has nice packages and the people there are helpful, they build the same kind of cookie cutter neighborhoods that all of the non-custom builders are doing these days...HOWEVER

my advice is to be there for every step of the build process, if they find you are not actively involved in the build they will cut corners ...for example i had a home that after the foundation was poured and set...i saw several small but substantial enough cracks ...i mean some ran from the front of the 3960 sq ft home to the back of it...when i saw them they had already framed out the home and did not want to repair...we went round and round for days...finally i had the city engineers come out and look and they forced them to re-pour....other than that no other real bad problems with them just minor spats about things like drywall issues and they use a wiring company here in the South area that isnt as good as it should be...but they are always willing and respond quickly when called upon to do work...

I know this is long but hope it helps some!

[jedisage]

I live in San Antonio and just backed out of using them. After I put down earnest money and was waiting for the contract papers to be put together, they raised the price of the home and me and refused to honor the earlier price. (On Saturday the price was $155,990 and on Tuesday it was $159,990) Then during the session at the design studio, they were quoting me prices on some options that were almost double what they should have been. Since I had done research and knew what the prices SHOULD have been, I called them on it. They refused to admit the prices were wrong, and the manager wouldn't talk to me about it. Afterwards, they called my salesperson's boss and lied about the whole thing, saying that I told them she (my salesperson) had quoted me prices for these options, which she didn't do. Anyway I walked out and canceled my contract. I would suggest great caution in working with them here.

[uhoo1]

I bought a new Meritage/Legacy home in 2002. In 2009, tiles began to pop up in the kitchen. When I had a contractor look at the work, he said that the home builder did not prep the floor or clean the tiles. We also "tapped" on the tiles in other rooms and found that they are not sticking to the foundation. I now have to replace/repair the tiles to a tune of $4,600.00 (kitchen, bathroom, front entry way, washroom, and fireplace). I do not recommend Meritage/Legacy homes.