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| | Author | Messages | |
Jodypag
Posts:216
 | | 07/09/2007 3:00 PM |
 Alert | | Just curious, we have our eye on a builder there but are waiting until we can get our hands on a good lot which could take a bit since they release houses weekly. Curious if you build or live there and with who! | |
Jody
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| | BlueWater
Posts:106
| | 07/09/2007 3:02 PM |
Alert | We are building
Silver Oaks in Glennwilde, builder is Morrison Homes. | | | |
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| | K8tnaz
Posts:94
| | 07/09/2007 5:30 PM |
Alert | I have been here since October...Standard Pacific. We love the area....except all the parking in A. S. Parkway on the north side of the park. Only one car can get through at a time. Many accidents have nearly happened there on Saturday mornings. We have just learned to go through the other exit and all if fine.
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| | FamilyGuy
Posts:30
| | 07/09/2007 5:47 PM |
Alert | We are also building.
Sterling in Glennwilde. Builder is Richmond American. | | | |
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| | bitterbeard
Posts:207
| | 07/09/2007 8:45 PM |
Alert | We built with Richmond in Sterling.
Sales people lied about quite a few things, but that is a given. The construction people were some of the best, very good people and solid workers. They did all they could to get our house done in the best shape possible. Still talk to a couple of the supers when they are in the neighborhood. Warranty people have been middle of the road; have to stay on top of them on a daily basis to get results. Luckily I'm able to work from home and take time out of my day to deal with everything or it could be an uphill battle with roller skates on.
If you are looking for a long term investment, Maricopa(Glennwilde, etc) is a good buy. If you have shorter term plans like less then 5-7 years, I would say buy in the valley.
If we could do it over again with what we know now about the area, we would still buy in Maricopa but would have gone with a spec home and wheeled and dealed with the home builders. That is the best bang for your buck in this market.
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| | Jodypag
Posts:216
| | 07/09/2007 10:10 PM |
Alert | Well after being in this huge house and realizing how bad the building is, we decided to just plain out buy sometime between now and our lease end, and of course something much smaller (we're in a 3900 sqft house ) We looked pretty much at every builder but beleive it or not Lennar actually made a very good impression on us, and I really liked thier homes and the what you see is what you get deal (in case your not familiar they are a everything included builder) theres 2 different Lennar areas there and we're pretty set with one, just waiting on a lot we like to be released pretty sure we will end up going with thier 1 story after living here for over 6 months we realized how much space we waste and we could go for a much smaller house and be just as happy. I really loved Glennwilde so I am totally stoked.
We did go see the Richmond American homes, and also Centex, and *shudder* visited Fronteir homes in Alterra (the Old Turner/Dunn houses). I think its solid to say we have made a perm decision to get a Lennar Home and just check weekly for when they release thier lots. They have 125 homes and only 50 sold so who knows how the prices will go when we find the lot we want. | |
Jody
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|  | FamilyGuy
Posts:30
| | 07/10/2007 12:25 AM |
Alert | Bitterbeard,
Being as I'll be moving to your neck of the desert, could you give some insight as to the types of issues you've had with Richmond? What did the Sales folks lie about? I have my walk-through at the end of the month. If I had any leverage with getting things fixed I assume that would be the time. | | | |
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| | bitterbeard
Posts:207
| | 07/10/2007 2:50 AM |
Alert | FamilyGuy,
Ha ha, this might be long...
On my house I got the double four car garage and the first thing they lied about was one garage access door came with the garage so we bought the second, in our blueprints and basic house design it is in there. But on the paperwork the second door isn't listed. So all of a sudden it disappeared on the drawings months down the road and we questioned why and they said we did not pay for a second access door, therefore we only get one. We paid 11k for a garage add-on, yet skipped the 420.00 access door, not likely. Yet I argued up the chain of command and got a solid 'no' the whole way.
The second thing was our ability to go back and add a French double door to our back yard, instead of a sliding glass door. We tried to go back and change that within the week time alloted but they said we had to choose that at our original signing or we were SOL. The story changes depending on which salesperson you speak with.
The truth is all structure changes are made when you put down escrow money and sign the starting paperwork, didn't know that then. You can change electrical things up to a week after putting down escrow money.
The builder changes what they can offer since the build time is so long, least it was for us since we bought when there were no roads laid down yet, so one thing that changed was the landscape rock we choose for our front yard. Now no fault to Richmond, their suppliers and supplies change. But they took a page of the rock we choose and trashed it that had our signatures on it and replaced it picking a rock of their own, salmon color or something we didn't like. They then said we had picked the rock and showed us the pages of us picking our shrubs and trees, which we signed; but then on the rock page their writing was on it but our signatures or initials were strangley absent. Even the landscape people tried to argue this with us as we were asking the color we didn't want be scraped off our front yard and replaced, but we kept saying we never signed off on it. A couple days before we closed on the house they changed the rock to the color we wanted. | | | |
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| | bitterbeard
Posts:207
| | 07/10/2007 3:22 AM |
Alert | The construction phase we had Ryan as our main super and Darren as a finishing super.
Darren is no longer on site but Ryan is. They really try and take care of the home buyers.
We had a problem with some wiring we had bought that wasn't installed and Ryan true to his word made sure it was installed; this was after the house was dry walled.
I hired a home inspector to check out our house as things rolled along and he caught many things that I acted like I saw and had them fix. One of them was they tried to tap a 220 line from the dryer to a garage 220, which is against code and a lot of other things. Ryan got that fixed in less then 24 hours.
The wife and I also went out to our house on week nights and during the weekend to check and make sure it was all going to how we wanted our house built. I know we were a huge pain in Ryan and Darren's a$$ but they made sure to keep us happy when we found things that needed to be fixed.
Now that we are in our house a couple months and are dealing with the warranty people, I really tried to take a kick back approach to the situation. We would make a list of things we found wrong from door jams not installed properly to electrical outlets not working to the back fence looking like a WW2 firing squad backdrop. Submit it all on a warranty request form and then let their project manager deal with it.
At first it worked well but then it started rolling to a week to two weeks until I’d hear back from the guy to the trades not showing up when he said they would to the warranty guy himself calling to say he’d be on my doorstep a certain day/time and then nothing for a week about him not showing up.
So I called him and let the warranty gentleman know I was unhappy and would now be in touch on a daily basis until things that were wrong would get fixed. This caused the reaction of him bringing out his supervisor from my complaint and multiple tickets open on our house. I now call our warranty guy on a daily basis to inquire about things and ask where they are and when they will be fixed.
My best advice would be if your walkthrough is in a month, grab the paperwork showing what you bought and make sure it is installed and there. If it doesn’t look like it is being installed, like some wiring, call the super and ask them about it. I would give the benefit of the doubt on things and I almost wasn’t able to get the things I purchased installed because I would assume they would ‘handle it.’ They won’t, you need to be calling and letting your presence known. It goes against my nature to be rude or abusive to somebody but you have to be in their face to get your house built the way you want it.
Also the price is negotiable, if the salespeople tell you they can’t do anything, go to their boss. They need to sell you that house and cannot let it become a spec house they are trying to sell again. We brought our house price down nearly 80k by asking the right questions and comparing prices to other builders within Glenndwilde, two weeks before we closed we were still haggling over price! Now they recently dropped the house prices and we lost 70k =( in a week but make sure your house has dropped by at least that much.
Let me know if you need more info man.
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| | goodymj
Posts:4
| | 07/10/2007 1:15 PM |
Alert | I'm actually Bitterbeard's neighbor in the Sterling series Richmond homes. I had a similar experience with the builder. Our super was awful but I believe he is in the other Richmond community. When I was a month from closing, I would email the super our list of concerns. I thought the email method would be a semi-formal way of communicating issues since it was in writing and there was a clear record of the communication. Our super would never email back but would always call. There goes the written record of everything. If I had to do it again, I would fill out a buyer's concern form for EVERYTHING. I let too many things slide and our super was able to lie his way out of fixing things. I made the mistake of trying to be his friend when in reality I should have been a jerk.
Some more advise: Don't close on the house until everything is to your satisfaction. It sounds obvious, but it is easy to let "little" things slip by. We have a carpet seam that we let slide because they said it would eventually get better. It's probably not going to get any better and if I have them come out and fix it, I know the carpet sub will say there is nothing wrong with it. The builder wants your money. The builder needs your money. They don't want the house to sit as a spec home in this market. Richmond will do everything they can to sell you the house. You just have to make sure they aren't taking any shortcuts or lying to you.
I hope your experience was better than mine. If you want more advice you can PM me.
That being said, our community is great. Close (but not right next to) Pacana park. The community pool and soccer field is near by. Lots of greenbelts and tot lots. Neighbors are friendly. In fact, that's probably the only reason we didn't back out of our home. | | | |
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| | jengale
Posts:2
| | 07/10/2007 7:16 PM |
Alert | We are building in Vintage @ Glennwilde, the builder is Richmond American. We are supposed to close towards the end of the month and I have gotten a little freightened lately because there are a lot of things that need to be fixed and our super is guarenteeing us that it will all be done on time. I am pretty nervous because this is the first time we are building and buying a home.
We almost got stuck with an ugly outside color, I liked it in the book and luckily got to see it on a house & hated it! They were reluctant to let us change it even though we had just walked out of the office 10 minutes earlier from signing the paperwork - that was weird!
We looked at the Greystone homes (lennar) but I didn't really like any of the floor plans as much as the one we are buying, BUT I absolutly loved the fact that what you get is what you see (tile, cabinets, upgraded carpet, etc) - that was nice... I have a family member that bought a US Home in Maricopa,which is also Lennar, over a year ago and he is pleased - except the fact that the prices fell! One of the Graystone communities is including 2" blinds throughout the house, Stainless Steel appliances, washer & dryer and tons of extras that makes it VERY appealing - Good luck to all! | | | |
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| | vytor
Posts:45
| | 07/10/2007 10:03 PM |
Alert | I built in Hawthorne @ GW builder is Morrison Homes. I like it so far, been there a couple of weeks, didn't like the people in the office all that much... But if you have nothing good to say say nothing at all....
The Supers for the most part are very cool and nice people!
Feel free to PM me and I will be happy to tell you anything else. | | | |
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| | billp
Posts:14
| | 07/13/2007 3:39 PM |
Alert | | We are actually moving in on Aug.8, we chose Standard Pacific, in The Meadows @ Glinwilde. They have been FANTASTIC to work with throughout the entire process. | | | |
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| | BlueWater
Posts:106
| | 07/13/2007 3:45 PM |
Alert | Our salesperson is aweful (and LAZY), thank goodness for the nice home, community, and super friendly people!
Anyone in or moving to Silver Oak? | | | |
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| | Jodypag
Posts:216
| | 07/13/2007 5:13 PM |
Alert | | anyone else going with Lennar? What we're looking at is the Horizon at Glennwilde (lennar homes) | |
Jody
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| | nyfiggy1
Posts:106
| | 07/16/2007 7:49 AM |
Alert | | noone has centex in mag? | |
Used to be Nyfiggy
senior member
posted 2276
joined 8/06 | |
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| | twostep23
Posts:1687
| | 07/16/2007 7:50 AM |
Alert | <div class='NTForums_Quote'>Posted By Jodypag on 07/13/2007 5:13 PM
anyone else going with Lennar? What we're looking at is the Horizon at Glennwilde (lennar homes)</div>
We love our US Home.....(lennar homes). They have been awesome with customer service. I liked the "everything's included" concept. | |
Senior Member
Posts: 4625
Joined: Feb 2006 | |
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| | RoyalPITA
Posts:0
| | 07/16/2007 1:57 PM |
Alert | We looked at the Lennar/US Homes houses pretty closely when we were shopping for the move. Really liked the no-hassle "everything's included" ideal that they have. Unfortunately, none of the Lennar subdivvies do gas, and that was a deal-breaker for us.
We landed in The Meadows at Glennwilde (Standard Pacific), and love it. Hi, neighbors! =)
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| | twostep23
Posts:1687
| | 07/16/2007 7:25 PM |
Alert | | They have some with gas. We got a gas one. That was one of the requirements on my list for a new home. | |
Senior Member
Posts: 4625
Joined: Feb 2006 | |
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| | HiggsBoson
Posts:641
| | 07/16/2007 10:55 PM |
Alert | We live in Hickory (Centex) and have had no problems at all with them. A few small issues were fixed fast and professionally. Knowing that our second JD Powers survey would be coming up soon they called several times (this is after owning the home for 8 months) to ask if we had any issues and offered to do another walk through. They came out and fixed a minor thing that they could have easily said was our own fault (cause it was). From the looks of things our neighborhood is almost sold out, and all the homes are owner occupied, and they hardly lowered prices at all since we bought.
I honestly liked the big Morrision Homes (forget the model name) house better, but their price was out of our budget. | |
Liberalism and capitalism address themselves to the cool, well-balanced mind. They proceed by strict logic, eliminating any appeal to the emotions. Socialism, on the contrary, works on the emotions, tries to violate logical considerations by rousing a sense of personal interest and to stifle the voice of reason by awakening primitive instincts.
-- Ludwig Von Mises | |
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