Experience with Lake Ridge Builders (New area off of 90)? (Houston: wood floors, apartment)

[stevedawg85]

I am aware of ashwoodbuilders.com and some of the horror stories behind this builder. However, this website and most of these stories come from 2005 on back. I'm crossing my fingers they took a turn for the better and picked up their slack.

I've down a lil bit of homework and am interested in the area they finished/working on off Rayford Road. Anybody from that area have anything good/bad to say about your (hopefully) recent experience?

A new community is coming up off 90 in NE Houston by Lake Houston. The homes are very affordable for the square footage they are offering (3000 sq ft for 140K). Anyone here have any experience with this new area.

Comments/suggestions/thoughts?
I may be willing to take a gamble as this is a very affordable home given the Square footage [and big back yard ]

[descovy]

You know, I'm not sure if I would ever trust Lakewood to build my home, but a very good friend of mine built over there on Rayford Rd in 2007...at the same time we were building a Village Builder home in Cinco Ranch. Two years later I can say their home has held up as nicely as ours.

Their yard is *tiny* they did complain about the cheapness of the paint, but other than that it really is a solid, decent, home. No extras of course... vinyl sheet floors, 30" oak cabs, laminate countertops, no ceiling fans... but that's what you get for the money.

Although, I think part of why they are happy there is they have good neighbors up and down that street. You really take a gamble when you build and neighbors are unknown, especially in a $100k home, but these are all good family people, keep their homes and lawns up, help each other out. I was visiting this spring where somone had rented a lawn aerator & fertilizer spreader. About 7 families chipped in the cost and they all took a turn on a Saturday afternoon.

[JustCinco]

I'm aware of the website ashwoodbuilders.com and I agree with the information there. They do make an affordable home, but I will tell you some problems you will have. 1) They will make it nearly impossible for you to choose your own lender, and if the lender changes the interest rate, just before closing, they will not allow you to go out and find a better loan, because if you do you wont close at the scheduled date. 2) The time frames are horrible. Most builders will walk the house with you one week before closing, to allow repairs and touch ups to be done, and then come back 1 or 2 days before closing to make sure repairs were done, that is not the case with "Long Lake LTD" the owners of Pride Builders, Lake Ridge, Foxwood, Postwood, Ashwood, Briarwood and a couple more they own, they walk the house only once, 1 or 2 days before closing, not allowing enough time for repairs. 3) If you hire an independent inspector, (which I always recomend to do, even with a new house) he will not be able to do a complete inspection, because the builder installs some of the appliances a few days before closing, and the inspector needs to do the inspection before the walk with the builder.

[RVD26]

My BIL bought a Lake Ridge home (his first home) in north Katy back in July.
It's a very basic home with almost everything considered as an upgrade.
They didn't even put grass in the backyard, my BIL had to do it himself.
A lot of the stuff in the house just feels and looks cheap, IMHO.
If you're looking to resale down the line I would look elsewhere, but if you plan to be there for a while it MAY be worth a shot considering you do get a lot of house for your money.

[fordlover]

I purchased a home by lake ridge off of rayford road back in 2007. They build a great starter home for the $$. If you choose your upgrades carefully like I did, you end up with a fairly nice home at a very reasonable price. Many items are upgrades, but they charge very fair amounts for upgrades, unlike many builders. If I remember right, we upgraded to a tile backsplash in the kitchen for about 175 bucks. And the nicer 6 panel doors throughout the house for ~200.

I could have gone across the street to Imperial Oaks, and built a similar size house with tile floors, ceiling fans already mounted, and perhaps better interior paint for about 40 thousand more.

Eh, I can hang ceiling fans, lay tile and repaint for a heck of a lot less than 40 G's....

The durability of this house has been surprisingly good, I didn't expect the cabinets and flooring to hold up as well as it has over the last ~3 years. All the neighbors that I'm friendly with tend to agree, good house, great price.

We went with their lender (had 3 to choose from) and they were very helpful and friendly, don't regret this at all. I think our total brought to closing was like 600 bucks, which was great.
As far as the gamble, the deposit was only 1,000 dollars, so I figgured if I didn't like how they were building the house, we'd walk away. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[stevedawg85]

Thanks all for your input, I will consider all opinions. Since this will be our first home, I have the same concept as you fordlover. I can spend the 40K I save on various upgrades/fixes/repainting, etc.

I am happy to see of the recent purchasers are happy with their decision, and yes I know it's only 2 ppl out of thousands of customers :P.


I hope more opinions/thoughts/suggestions come through as any piece of information will help us in our decision process.

[fordlover]

Originally Posted by stevedawg85

Thanks all for your input, I will consider all opinions. Since this will be our first home, I have the same concept as you fordlover. I can spend the 40K I save on various upgrades/fixes/repainting, etc.

I am happy to see of the recent purchasers are happy with their decision, and yes I know it's only 2 ppl out of thousands of customers :P.


I hope more opinions/thoughts/suggestions come through as any piece of information will help us in our decision process.

Honestly I don't know where the complaints come from, but I do know that you can't make everyone happy. You could always take a walk thru the neighborhood, and knock on some doors and talk to the homeowners there. That's probably the best way to get an idea of what to expect. And also think about the other side of the story, like the builder who had an irate customer because she said the back wall of her garage was defective and buckled. Turns out she'd hit it with her car and was trying to get the builder to fix it at their expense.

I've only repainted two walls in my house, one is an accent wall in my living room, and we also panted part of the dining room, but we would have done that regardless of what was their before hand, and had nothing to do with the quality of paint from the builder. If I were to complain about anything on the house, it would be flooring. But we did not upgrade any of the flooring (vinyl and carpet throughout) because we didn't want to include it in our morgage (paying for carpet for 30 years that will be ripped out and replaced in 8 years).
We've planned to pull up the vinyl and some of the carpet in a few years and do some tile and wood floors, which is a great way to update the house as well.

[stevedawg85]

"(paying for carpet for 30 years that will be ripped out and replaced in 8 years). "

Wow, you put a whole new perspective on how I see upgrades now... lol. This 100% makes sense.
But yah, I'll probably ask ppl walking the streets Saturday their thoughts, but I think we definitely going to go with them.

[fordlover]

Originally Posted by stevedawg85

"(paying for carpet for 30 years that will be ripped out and replaced in 8 years). "

Wow, you put a whole new perspective on how I see upgrades now... lol. This 100% makes sense.

Makes sense to pay for upgrades that would be difficult or expensive to do after the fact. Flooring/paint and ceiling fans/garage door opener, window blinds, etc. we did every bit of it after we bought the house, and just cash flowed those items. We did upgrades like the seperate shower/garden tub in the master, dual sinks in master, 42" upper cabinets in the Kitchen. We also upgraded the Appliances, since we cook a lot at home, and the cheap appliances are crap (dishwasher is noisy, and no extra settings for the oven) and the upgrade also included a nice microwave. So it was worth the extra money to us to upgrade, since the first thing we would have had to do was go spend at least 300 on a microwave/venthood combo.

The way we looked at it was when the cheap carpet started to get worn out after 4 or 5 years, and the vinyl got a lil torn up, we would replace it, and upgrade/update the house with flooring. As it is we're selling the home and moving up in size, so we never got the opportunity to update the flooring, but at least it's still in really good shape.

[Demcamp]

I am upset because they asked for $1000 plus $1700 for half the upgrades. Then they wouldn't start the house until I was approved. The lender they sent me to says he has never heard of loans that are available almost everywhere and they are forcing me to take a loan I don't want. He says I don't qualify and I know I do. I have asked for a rejection letter. It has been three weeks since I signed for the house. I want out but I am afraid I will be fighting for my $2700 for a long time. Oh,yes, I gave up my apartment, put everything in storage and am living with a relative now! BE CAREFUL.