Does anyone know anything about Harwood Homes/First Texas Homes? (Houston: sales, house)

[MovinToHouston]

We just signed a contract with Harwood Homes to build a home in East Pearland off Pearland Parkway. Has anyone had a home built by them? I think they are one of the smaller builders in the area. I did a search on the BBB website and they weren't found. They really had the best price we were able to find. I just hope that isn't because they are not as good as others. The sales woman was a pain in the butt, but we are hoping the rest of the company is better.

I guess they are also known as First Texas Homes. The search on BBB showed only a few complaints. They seem to build mostly in the North West area of Houston.

Thanks for the help.

[chris_ut]

Kind of late to be gathering info on them since you already signed a contract

[MovinToHouston]

Chris, you are absolutely right. I have been checking out this web site periodically since my husband got the job there but I never thought to ask until last night. I know I am a little slow, but I would still like to see other people's opinions.

[Bike4Life]

In Texas, you generally have 3 days to CANCEL the contract. Why would we sign a contract to do business with people who make our lives frustrated. Don't be duped into bad customer services. Especially, these days with cut-throat competition and bad manners. It's up to us to give 'em a slap-in-the-face-wake-call.

[ayannaaaliyah]

Here's a link with some information on the company. Hopefully you have time to cancel the contract, or if not, maybe you'll get lucky
Ripoff Report Search Results: first texas homes (http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searc htype=0&submit2=Search%21&q5=first+texas+homes - broken link)

[Master Shake]

Your first sign probably should have been, "The sales woman was a pain in the butt..."

However, see if you can hire your own appraiser/inspector and have them inspect the house a few times during the build process, and once more during your walk-through's. If worse comes to worse (such as the builder won't fix the issues found, etc.), you can still cancel your contract and forfeit your deposit. Hopefully, they didn't require more than 1% for deposit -- but even that would be better than getting stuck with a money-pit house!

[MovinToHouston]

Thank you for your replies. After reading the Ripoff Report I am pretty worried. My husband is pretty confident that if we get a good inspector things will go smooth. Also, we will not sign off on the house in the end until any issues are settled. Now, all we have to do is find a good inspector who doesn't know anyone involved in the building.

[chris_ut]

Well the problem is that even if your inspector points out problems to them sometimes they won't bother to fix said problems and then your only recourse is to call in the city inspector to try to force the issue and if that fails to take legal action. A good builder will fix problems but these guys don't look like good builders so you are really taking your chances. If possible I would suggest visiting new owners in that neighborhood and asking them their experiences there, a lot depends on the crews and supervisor assigned to the area. A house is a very expensive item to buy and 'hope for the best' from a builder with a long list of complains. I searched several other Houston builders on that site and none had anywhere near the number of complaints yours did. If all you have at stake right now is a $1000 earnest money deposit I would consider giving that up and getting a better builder.

[scammed]

If you are worried go to Homeowners for Better Building and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings to get the information you need. Almost every builder contract has mandatory binding arbitration in it so if you have problems you will not be able to go to court.
An outstanding investigative article just came out in Business Week Magazine by Mara Hovankius (spelling?). It is probably posted on both HOBB and HADD.
You may want to read it and listen to the podcast. It is extremely informative.

[ayannaaaliyah]

The other posters are right about the builder not fixing problems pointed out by an inspector. You may have to go through 2-3 inspections to know for certain whether the items were fixed. The other thing is that the depending on when you hire the inspector. If you hire him at the end, there are many defects that may not be visable to the naked eye. The other option is to find a reputable inspector that you can pay to oversee the entire building process from start to finish, which could get very costly. I agree with the previous poster, if you only have $1k invested, I would pull out and try to find a builder with a better reputation. The other option is to purchase something existing My personal preference are older properties, they tend to be built better in terms of quality materials/workmanship/craftsmanship, etc....Not to mention they tend to have Strong Bones!