Gehan Homes: Are they a good builder

[feb18maui]

We have had a FAR FROM great experience with Gehan Homes. Our sales person over-promised numerous things (go figure) and squirmed when asked to put in writing. Our construction foreman was a 'yes man' during the pre-construction meetings but was NEVER present on site. My father is retired and luckily watched over the construction process. Our foreman stopped by usually about 1 every 3 weeks. Gehan's subcontractors did whatever they wanted despite what we had spent ample time working through with our salesperson and foreman. We had to stop Gehan's crews from installing a 4th garage bay that we did not order. Too bad they had already cut the curbs and wouldn't re-pour them correctly. Nothing like having a cut curb for a driveway that goes to the middle of your yard. Framing continued to be a pain as they installed a closet that we opted out of. Gehan insisted it was right only because they had already run A/C and gas. Yet, when I asked to have the foreman come out and provide our drawings we were correct. They had to rip everything out including the A/C and gas. Glad our foreman was so readily available. Once we corrected that we had to stop their crews from installing 1/3 of windows that did not match. The electrician was a joke. We had spent ample time with them ensuring details were addressed on paper. I even signed and initialed the work to be done; nothing dramatic at all. Yet, the electrician they sent didn't even have a set of plans on him at the time of install. Needless to say, not ONE item we had specified was completed. The electrician installer argued with me that everything was correct. I had to track down our foreman and again have him provide our plans to the electrician. I had to stop them and have the re-do everything. Cabinetry was humorous. We ordered painted cabinets; 1/2 they sprayed and 1/2 they brushed. The none of the upstairs cabinets match the downstairs cabinets. We had to have 1/2 ripped out and redone. Drywall was/is a joke. Good luck having nicely floated sheets and non-visible seams. Carpet padding - yes we did order carpet padding. Yes, it would be nice to have it installed in all rooms and on the stair landings. That too hard? Trim is a joke. EVERY connecting seam is uneven and EVERY corner has significant gaps. Now painting, ha ha ha ha. My 6 year old can do a better job. Almost every interior corner has cracks after 6 months. We have been told that is our responsibility; really??

We have tried to work with Gehan to get our warranty items fixed. Our salesman is gone. His counterpart is gone. Our foreman is gone. The replacement foreman doesn't care and never calls you back. The area construction supervisor threatened us that they'd end our contract if we didn't stop documenting our conversations and items to be repaired. I told him he could keep the house yet we would gladly keep our 50% down payment. He quickly changed his story. And we just learned yesterday he is now gone too. 100%, no kidding, of our surrounding neighbors have had significant, if not escalating legal action, ramping up with Gehan Homes.

Decide for yourself. And if you're interested in buying my new Gehan home make me an offer.

[a_guerrajr]

^^^ Sounds like a horror story.

Gehan is building in my neighborhood. Seems like a higher priced line from the normal Gehan.
They are moving slow, but slowly selling.

[HoustonRonnie]

Originally Posted by feb18maui

We have had a FAR FROM great experience with Gehan Homes. Our sales person over-promised numerous things (go figure) and squirmed when asked to put in writing. Our construction foreman was a 'yes man' during the pre-construction meetings but was NEVER present on site. My father is retired and luckily watched over the construction process. Our foreman stopped by usually about 1 every 3 weeks. Gehan's subcontractors did whatever they wanted despite what we had spent ample time working through with our salesperson and foreman. We had to stop Gehan's crews from installing a 4th garage bay that we did not order. Too bad they had already cut the curbs and wouldn't re-pour them correctly. Nothing like having a cut curb for a driveway that goes to the middle of your yard. Framing continued to be a pain as they installed a closet that we opted out of. Gehan insisted it was right only because they had already run A/C and gas. Yet, when I asked to have the foreman come out and provide our drawings we were correct. They had to rip everything out including the A/C and gas. Glad our foreman was so readily available. Once we corrected that we had to stop their crews from installing 1/3 of windows that did not match. The electrician was a joke. We had spent ample time with them ensuring details were addressed on paper. I even signed and initialed the work to be done; nothing dramatic at all. Yet, the electrician they sent didn't even have a set of plans on him at the time of install. Needless to say, not ONE item we had specified was completed. The electrician installer argued with me that everything was correct. I had to track down our foreman and again have him provide our plans to the electrician. I had to stop them and have the re-do everything. Cabinetry was humorous. We ordered painted cabinets; 1/2 they sprayed and 1/2 they brushed. The none of the upstairs cabinets match the downstairs cabinets. We had to have 1/2 ripped out and redone. Drywall was/is a joke. Good luck having nicely floated sheets and non-visible seams. Carpet padding - yes we did order carpet padding. Yes, it would be nice to have it installed in all rooms and on the stair landings. That too hard? Trim is a joke. EVERY connecting seam is uneven and EVERY corner has significant gaps. Now painting, ha ha ha ha. My 6 year old can do a better job. Almost every interior corner has cracks after 6 months. We have been told that is our responsibility; really??

We have tried to work with Gehan to get our warranty items fixed. Our salesman is gone. His counterpart is gone. Our foreman is gone. The replacement foreman doesn't care and never calls you back. The area construction supervisor threatened us that they'd end our contract if we didn't stop documenting our conversations and items to be repaired. I told him he could keep the house yet we would gladly keep our 50% down payment. He quickly changed his story. And we just learned yesterday he is now gone too. 100%, no kidding, of our surrounding neighbors have had significant, if not escalating legal action, ramping up with Gehan Homes.

Decide for yourself. And if you're interested in buying my new Gehan home make me an offer.

How much do you want?

Ronnie

[mikesa]

Originally Posted by SkyeAnjel

They have really nice homes, haven't heard any complaints but i'm sure if you look hard enough you will find some, like all builders. Get yourself a realtor to represent you.

After you buy their home, they forget about you!!! I continue to have numerous problems and can never get ahold of who is needed to help. ONCE AGAIN DON'T DO IT!!!!!

[a_guerrajr]

Those with issues, can you please post what subdivision and who was your salesman, foreman?

[PL28]

My parents home in Clear Lake area is from Gehan, the house itself is pretty nice for a fair price, but we did experience some up selling, They were pushing us on the higher end finish but I guess we get that from all major business. The customer service was average, we had few cracks in our drive way (within a month of ownership) and we ask them to replace it, they first send out people to patch it and it look horrible, so we call them again and finally they came out and rip the old driveway and replace. This was back in earl 2004s, and it has been holding up.

As for the interior, we have minor issues here and there but we never really call them to complain too much so we don't hear from them

[texas7]

Gehan is doing away with most of their moderate plans and moving to homes starting at the mid 200's.

[viennamichaelsen]

I know this is in response to an older thread, but I only hope that this reaches all potential customers before they make the biggest mistake of their lives.

We built in Hutto (Austin, TX area). But have dealt with this company as far up as we could (regional offices, their corporate attorney, anyone we could get a hold of).

We purchased a home with Gehan back in August 2014. Not to mention we moved our entire lives from the Bay Area, CA to Austin, TX. We kept in contact with Gehan (our sales agent), our lender (their preferred lender that they kept pushing us to go with), and did everything they asked us to (get paperwork, reply, calls, etc.) in a timely manner. We obviously, and undoubtedly trusted that since we did everything on our part, they would too!

Long story short is that Gehan DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS. They aren't in the business of building and selling HOMES but TAKING POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS MONEY. They're fairly "new" compared to many established builders and my husband and my hopes are to reach EVERYONE and ANYONE looking to build homes and for them to NOT GO WITH GEHAN!!!

Sales agent-Monica Brown- now at the Georgetown location (was at Hutto before that) pressured us to go with their preferred lender- ADVISA MORTGAGE- and told us all the perks of it (money back, credits, blah blah blah, the normal spiel). She really pushed back on us and said that Michelle Wilkins (with Advisa Mortgage) had our (my husband and my) best interest at heart and wanted to get the loan funded ASAP. When in all reality, we did everything we were supposed to (again) and come THE DAY BEFORE CLOSING WE ARE TOLD THEY CANNOT FUND THE LOAN. (Yes i understand this is NOT Gehan, but it's all part of what happened)

When we went back to Gehan to figure out how to get the loan funded since THEIR PREFERRED LENDER dropped the ball and obviously didn't do anything with our file until it was TOO LATE, Gehan tried to ding us $4500 for a 30 day extension. Not to mention, THEY wasted three of those days by saying we should "wait until Monday"--but still try and charge us for it.

We lawyered up and hit the bargaining table. We COULD NOT just keep giving these scum balls more money, especially when they have proven to 1) not care about the customers 2) not do their job 3) not have a good product (that's another story i'll add later). BUT IT IS NOW 8 MONTHS AFTER WE STARTED THE BUILD, THAT IS 2 MONTHS AFTER WE WERE SUPPOSED TO CLOSE--AND WE HAVE WALKED AWAY. We are getting $3,000 of our money back, except I don't have it in my possession yet--all I can guess is that someone working for these scum bags is "processing" it and it will be here some time not in a timely manner. BUT THEY ARE KEEPING ALMOST $9,000 of our money. Per contract, sure it's all "correct" but what my biggest issue is WHY ARE WE PAYING FOR YOUR AFFILIATED LENDER'S MISTAKES???

Tim Gehan, the owner is an attorney too. We could never get a hold of him. Gehan WILL NEVER EVER EVER give your the contact information of ANYONE with "power" to make decisions.

WHY DID WE HAVE TO PAY FOR YOUR AFFILIATED LENDER'S MISTAKES??? WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS OKAY TO SCREW OVER PEOPLE WHO HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO JUMP THROUGH YOUR HOOPS AND RIP AWAY THEIR LIFE PLANS???

If you take ANY advice from online reviews--take this: DO NOT CONSIDER GEHAN FOR YOUR NEXT HOME, DO NOT ENTERTAIN THEM, WALK AWAY, TAKE ALL YOUR MONEY, AND GO ANYWHERE ELSE!

Gehan, your motto, "Gehan HOMES, Designed for Your Life." IS SO SO SO WRONG. It should be, "Gehan, designed to RUIN your life!"

[Houston321]

So.....you didn't qualify for the loan.

[texas7]

We had an issue with them keeping earnest money as well - long story. I finally got part of it back. Difficult to deal with if you aren't happy with how things are progressing or not progressing.