I worked for a national production builder in my younger years. You don’t want a house that got slapped together fast. You don’t want to pressure them to hurry up and get you moved in. The houses that took six months were built a lot better than the ones that took three months. Quality can really vary from development to development. Inexperienced or overworked superintendents might not be able to keep up on quality control. Best bet would be to talk to people already in the development and ask how their experience has been. Also the builders sales people will promise everything and be really nice but sometimes they over promise what can actually be done realistically.
I agree 100% - I've heard too many horror stories from people who rushed their build only to be disappointed in the quality/finish. Nice homes take time to build.
Very good video. Coincidentally, I watched a video earlier this morning in the rise and fall of Sears. I never knew Sears sold Craftsman home building kits; I only thought Craftsman was merely a subsidiary of Sears. I have previously heard of Craftsman homes but never knew that they were from Sears thinking that it was just a style. These homes seem to stand the test of time!
I've been in my M/I Homes for a year now (in Texas) and it's been a great home. Nothing bad so far. They fixed the small issues we had in a timely fashion, too. I wonder why the MIchigan M/I ones are reviewed so terribly. My former home was built by Pulte and we lived there for 5 years and it was a great house, too. Modern and had great appreciation/equity when we sold. No foundation or structural issues. That was Texas, too, though.
Hi @jm6547. I was researching about MI Homes as I may build with them here in Dallas, TX. How is your MI Home holding up now a year or so later? I really appreciate it. Thanks!
Hi, now it's been 2 years and I have no complaints. We had a few "cracks" in our bedroom (superficial, settling ones) that we patched up. @@YogaBearrr We are actually selling our home (moving to another city) and the feedback is that the house is beautiful.
@@PaulWolfert West Michigan, specifically Grand Rapids (Byron Center, Cutlerville, etc) - we have an agent, but I've enjoyed a few of your videos on builders and the market, just noticed you're heavily weighted towards the East side which is understandable. Thanks!
I have over a decade of new home construction warranty. I was hired by MI Homes in June and was led to believe i would be taking over the region warranty department. After just under two months i was released, being told i didn't fit in with the MI culture. So I'm guessing good customer care isn't in the culture at MI
it seems like all the builders around the Metro Detroit area among the worst. M/I Homes, Toll Brothers, Robertson Brothers, Polte, etc. Like how do I find any builders in the area?
Are there good builders up in the UP of Michigan. Our daughter lives up there with her family so we are going to move from Washington state to Michigan part time , we will still go back and forth from Washington to Michigan. So not sure if we will build there or not.
@@PaulWolfert We ended up building with Beazer Homes and have been really pleased with their quality and warranty for cosmetic items. We hired a house inspector and we only had to fix one thing.
Totally untrue!!! Built a Pulte home in 1998 for $150. Property value has done nothing but increased + quadrupled!!! NO carpet in the bathroom at all!!!!! Anyone knows with new builds YOU simply decide what to spend your money on. You go to the design center and pick out exactly what you want. There's no offering to put carpet in the bath. Totally untrue!!!! In fact if you want to pick something weird you have to pay extra because it effects the resale of the community. If you want to upgrade your windows, your wood floors or whatever guess what???? You simply DO that! And guess what once you pick it out..... you actually just have to pay for it & get final approved financing for the final cost. That little thing like....spend your money or financed money how you want & how you can!!!!People crack me up if you can only have top knoth everthing why wouldn't you just go buy a house with that? Some people prefer to pick base finishes with Pulte so they have a lower mortgage and switch the finishes out on their own when its important to them. It is more economical for somethings. So they prioritize the build that way. Idk....like .... maybe own a home vs pay rent, have a mortgage they can pay off in 15 yrs vs 30 to idk....maybe have moola to send kids to college or who knows maybe just a nice neighborhood 1st & good schools for their kids. And if those things aren't important to you sit at the design center and pick out fancy everthing and pay for it. We were encourage to walk thru our home & others anytime during construction. I watched and video taped things every other day. Our structural items had a 10 year warranty!!!!!! Pulte also comes back after the 1st year and re-inspects foundation, nail pops and everthing else. NO foundation problems. Again totally untrue!!!!!!!!!!! Plus our down-payment was paid over 9 months. I worked for Crosswinds builders in the 2000 for 5 yrs where everything is optional even gutters so that buyers have more square footage. Pulte also doesn't allow you to pick the same elevation style as the home near you so that everything does not look alike. Crosswinds specifically builds in a differnt type of neighborhood than Pulte. It makes no sense what so ever to Pay a Realtor to take you to a new construction model. You can do it in your own. The models, the sites, the brochures are all designed clearly so you may visit & see it all for yourself on your own schedule. Your not just visiting a showroom your visiting 1/2 built homes, spec homes, neighborhoods and surrounding areas. The brochure list the brand name and rating and warranty on every single item used. Your welcome to research it & upgrade items that make sense. If those brands were not good enough for someone why wouldn't they just get what was? Or upgrade it. The showroom is a model of the fanciest things you may add so that you can decide. Theres also a design center were you pick what you want and can afford. Yes. Pulte builds different types of neighborhoods with different offerings. Starter communities for young families, mid grade & luxury communities. The brands are all listed on the website. Why not shop accordingly. Like buying a Toyota or a Lexus. I had friends that had a Realtor when they were ready to upgrade their home. The realtor kept taking them to bad areas for homes. She never listened or identified their needs as 2 working professionals with a home and one daughter. My friends got tired of the realtor trying to show them older homes in bad areas, with tiny closets that they were not interested in & found new construction on their own . They visited and built with Lombardo in a nice area. When I worked for Crosswinds our Sales team also staffed a licensed Realtor. She assisted walk-ins in selling existing homes and brought in traffic of her own. Any sales position includes building good realationships!! As a realtor you can always build a good relationship 1st with builders. Stop in, visit first, walk the site, view spec homes, get to know the sales staff as more than a showroom. Take the time to research the goals of the site, the surrounding community and how previous developments have impacted the market. That may all take one weekend. THEN present to buyers with more knowledge & understanding of the can and cannot do's. When I worked at Crosswinds Realtors, mortgage officers, ect would stop in with cookies or gifts for the builders sales staff in exchange to leave business cards. We also had realtors we provided gifts of appreciation at Christmas 🎄 time. In the town that I live in when our elementary schools needed new play structures on the playground, guess who the Mom's went to for donations? Yes. Pulte Homes. They were happy to donate & build 6 brand new play structures for the schools playgrounds in the neighborhood that they built subs in. Yes. The picture & plaque is in future showrooms for new buyers to learn about. I never had any foundation problems with Pulte, my structural items came with a 10 year warranty and transferable. The quality of every brand used in the home was listed and outlined for me. I had multiple walk though inspections of the home with the Pulte during every phase. I also walked the site on my own every other day with photos even while contractors were in the home. I was also allowed and encouraged to walk other existing sites to know what to expect. I had a contact person for any questions. I was also allowed to upgrade items if I wanted. After a year of living in the house Pulte came back and inspected foundation, drywall and nail pops. So your info was certainly not my experience. My Mother also built a luxury town home in an exclusive neighborhood of NC with Pulte and loved it. No complaints. We both received excellent service from Pulte during the process and learned a lot during the process. Because of that experience it was easy to get my Builders license as well.
Thanks for setting the record straight! It's great to hear that Pulte offers such flexibility in customizing your home. It's all about making it your own, right? Most of the carpeted bathrooms were in the early 90's (I've seen more than my fair share of them)
We built with Toll last year in SE Michigan. The build is just okay. Not the craftsmanship we expected, but we love the floor plan/features. A lot depends on which subcontractors work on your build. We ended up visiting the site almost everyday and caught a number of mistakes as they were made. The project team was good to work with and let us do many customizations. Materials are all builder grade and on the cheaper end so expect to pay for upgrades or alterations. I’d say build with a local builder if you can, but if you must go with one of these, go with Toll.
that is Toll Brothers MO. build as cheap as they can, cut as many corners as they can. My sister worked for TB for 6 months, ended up quitting due to TB's shoddy building practices, the nonstop warranty claims
Hey Paul, we were really interested in a couple Pulte developments in the Detroit Metro area but have seen quite a few negative reviews and not stumbled across your video. Kind of disappointing...wasn't sure if it was just negative reviewer bias or if more often than not, you'd get a subpar home?
@@PaulWolfert Look at the google reviews, take note of the ones that skewer them. That is the experience of everyone I’ve talked to in the development. Maybe you have to spend a certain amount to get them to reply to phone calls and email?? They get away with it because they can. Check out the fake reviews too. In fact and I absolutely know this, there are two glowing reviews about the same house that only had the foundation poured and nothing else when the reviews came up. LOL.
I worked for a national production builder in my younger years. You don’t want a house that got slapped together fast. You don’t want to pressure them to hurry up and get you moved in. The houses that took six months were built a lot better than the ones that took three months. Quality can really vary from development to development. Inexperienced or overworked superintendents might not be able to keep up on quality control. Best bet would be to talk to people already in the development and ask how their experience has been. Also the builders sales people will promise everything and be really nice but sometimes they over promise what can actually be done realistically.
I agree 100% - I've heard too many horror stories from people who rushed their build only to be disappointed in the quality/finish. Nice homes take time to build.
Very good video. Coincidentally, I watched a video earlier this morning in the rise and fall of Sears. I never knew Sears sold Craftsman home building kits; I only thought Craftsman was merely a subsidiary of Sears. I have previously heard of Craftsman homes but never knew that they were from Sears thinking that it was just a style. These homes seem to stand the test of time!
It's crazy, right? Wild to think that some stores still set kit homes.
I've been in my M/I Homes for a year now (in Texas) and it's been a great home. Nothing bad so far. They fixed the small issues we had in a timely fashion, too. I wonder why the MIchigan M/I ones are reviewed so terribly. My former home was built by Pulte and we lived there for 5 years and it was a great house, too. Modern and had great appreciation/equity when we sold. No foundation or structural issues. That was Texas, too, though.
Hi @jm6547. I was researching about MI Homes as I may build with them here in Dallas, TX. How is your MI Home holding up now a year or so later? I really appreciate it. Thanks!
Hi, now it's been 2 years and I have no complaints. We had a few "cracks" in our bedroom (superficial, settling ones) that we patched up. @@YogaBearrr We are actually selling our home (moving to another city) and the feedback is that the house is beautiful.
I am currently building with M/I Homes and will let you know how it goes.
How was it?
Thanks for the video! Do you have any content for West Michigan more specifically or anyone you know of doing videos about this area?
What areas are you interested in? I have a few agents that help my clients over there if you're thinking about moving
@@PaulWolfert West Michigan, specifically Grand Rapids (Byron Center, Cutlerville, etc) - we have an agent, but I've enjoyed a few of your videos on builders and the market, just noticed you're heavily weighted towards the East side which is understandable. Thanks!
@@johnv3788 yep! Metro Detroit and the Detroit suburbs are my zone but have connections across the state.
I have over a decade of new home construction warranty. I was hired by MI Homes in June and was led to believe i would be taking over the region warranty department. After just under two months i was released, being told i didn't fit in with the MI culture. So I'm guessing good customer care isn't in the culture at MI
Oh wow!!! Not cool
We checked with Wayne homes but they won't build a house without a basement.
I could tell you stories about Pulte.
it seems like all the builders around the Metro Detroit area among the worst. M/I Homes, Toll Brothers, Robertson Brothers, Polte, etc. Like how do I find any builders in the area?
If you'd like to build in Metro Detroit, reach out and I can help: movingmi.com
Are there good builders up in the UP of Michigan. Our daughter lives up there with her family so we are going to move from Washington state to Michigan part time , we will still go back and forth from Washington to Michigan. So not sure if we will build there or not.
Sounds like I dodged a bullet with M/I homes. The model was VERY nice though
Did you end up building with someone else?
@@PaulWolfert We ended up building with Beazer Homes and have been really pleased with their quality and warranty for cosmetic items. We hired a house inspector and we only had to fix one thing.
Totally untrue!!! Built a Pulte home in 1998 for $150. Property value has done nothing but increased + quadrupled!!! NO carpet in the bathroom at all!!!!! Anyone knows with new builds YOU simply decide what to spend your money on. You go to the design center and pick out exactly what you want. There's no offering to put carpet in the bath. Totally untrue!!!! In fact if you want to pick something weird you have to pay extra because it effects the resale of the community. If you want to upgrade your windows, your wood floors or whatever guess what???? You simply DO that! And guess what once you pick it out..... you actually just have to pay for it & get final approved financing for the final cost. That little thing like....spend your money or financed money how you want & how you can!!!!People crack me up if you can only have top knoth everthing why wouldn't you just go buy a house with that? Some people prefer to pick base finishes with Pulte so they have a lower mortgage and switch the finishes out on their own when its important to them. It is more economical for somethings. So they prioritize the build that way. Idk....like ....
maybe own a home vs pay rent, have a mortgage they can pay off in 15 yrs vs 30 to idk....maybe have moola to send kids to college or who knows maybe just a nice neighborhood 1st & good schools for their kids. And if those things aren't important to you sit at the design center and pick out fancy everthing and pay for it. We were encourage to walk thru our home & others anytime during construction. I watched and video taped things every other day. Our structural items had a 10 year warranty!!!!!! Pulte also comes back after the 1st year and re-inspects foundation, nail pops and everthing else. NO foundation problems. Again totally untrue!!!!!!!!!!! Plus our down-payment was paid over 9 months. I worked for Crosswinds builders in the 2000 for 5 yrs where everything is optional even gutters so that buyers have more square footage. Pulte also doesn't allow you to pick the same elevation style as the home near you so that everything does not look alike. Crosswinds specifically builds in a differnt type of neighborhood than Pulte. It makes no sense what so ever to Pay a Realtor to take you to a new construction model. You can do it in your own. The models, the sites, the brochures are all designed clearly so you may visit & see it all for yourself on your own schedule. Your not just visiting a showroom your visiting 1/2 built homes, spec homes, neighborhoods and surrounding areas. The brochure list the brand name and rating and warranty on every single item used. Your welcome to research it & upgrade items that make sense. If those brands were not good enough for someone why wouldn't they just get what was? Or upgrade it. The showroom is a model of the fanciest things you may add so that you can decide. Theres also a design center were you pick what you want and can afford. Yes. Pulte builds different types of neighborhoods with different offerings. Starter communities for young families, mid grade & luxury communities. The brands are all listed on the website. Why not shop accordingly. Like buying a Toyota or a Lexus.
I had friends that had a Realtor when they were ready to upgrade their home. The realtor kept taking them to bad areas for homes. She never listened or identified their needs as 2 working professionals with a home and one daughter. My friends got tired of the realtor trying to show them older homes in bad areas, with tiny closets that they were not interested in & found new construction on their own . They visited and built with Lombardo in a nice area. When I worked for Crosswinds our Sales team also staffed a licensed Realtor. She assisted walk-ins in selling existing homes and brought in traffic of her own. Any sales position includes building good realationships!! As a realtor you can always build a good relationship 1st with builders. Stop in, visit first, walk the site, view spec homes, get to know the sales staff as more than a showroom. Take the time to research the goals of the site, the surrounding community and how previous developments have impacted the market. That may all take one weekend. THEN present to buyers with more knowledge & understanding of the can and cannot do's. When I worked at Crosswinds Realtors, mortgage officers, ect would stop in with cookies or gifts for the builders sales staff in exchange to leave business cards. We also had realtors we provided gifts of appreciation at Christmas 🎄 time. In the town that I live in when our elementary schools needed new play structures on the playground, guess who the Mom's went to for donations? Yes. Pulte Homes. They were happy to donate & build 6 brand new play structures for the schools playgrounds in the neighborhood that they built subs in. Yes. The picture & plaque is in future showrooms for new buyers to learn about.
I never had any foundation problems with Pulte, my structural items came with a 10 year warranty and transferable. The quality of every brand used in the home was listed and outlined for me. I had multiple walk though inspections of the home with the Pulte during every phase. I also walked the site on my own every other day with photos even while contractors were in the home. I was also allowed and encouraged to walk other existing sites to know what to expect. I had a contact person for any questions. I was also allowed to upgrade items if I wanted. After a year of living in the house Pulte came back and inspected foundation, drywall and nail pops. So your info was certainly not my experience. My Mother also built a luxury town home in an exclusive neighborhood of NC with Pulte and loved it. No complaints. We both received excellent service from Pulte during the process and learned a lot during the process. Because of that experience it was easy to get my Builders license as well.
Thanks for setting the record straight! It's great to hear that Pulte offers such flexibility in customizing your home. It's all about making it your own, right? Most of the carpeted bathrooms were in the early 90's (I've seen more than my fair share of them)
We built with Toll last year in SE Michigan. The build is just okay. Not the craftsmanship we expected, but we love the floor plan/features. A lot depends on which subcontractors work on your build. We ended up visiting the site almost everyday and caught a number of mistakes as they were made. The project team was good to work with and let us do many customizations. Materials are all builder grade and on the cheaper end so expect to pay for upgrades or alterations. I’d say build with a local builder if you can, but if you must go with one of these, go with Toll.
that is Toll Brothers MO. build as cheap as they can, cut as many corners as they can. My sister worked for TB for 6 months, ended up quitting due to TB's shoddy building practices, the nonstop warranty claims
Have you done a list of best builders?
Not yet but it's DEFINITELY a video I'll be doing.
@@PaulWolfert I’ll be curious to see if my old employer makes your list! A top tier builder for sure!
Allen edwin should be on this list
I've heard stories but haven't experienced them first hand.
MI homes, Toll Brothers, Pulte Homes,
Thanks for the summary! I do say a bit more than that 😄
Hey Paul, we were really interested in a couple Pulte developments in the Detroit Metro area but have seen quite a few negative reviews and not stumbled across your video. Kind of disappointing...wasn't sure if it was just negative reviewer bias or if more often than not, you'd get a subpar home?
Hey Jake! Send an email my way - have some info about them along with others and a few ways to save you some money and headaches 😅 paul@movingmi.com
@@PaulWolfert can you share about Lombardo homes?
@@asmitadharap3912 send an email my way - I've worked with Lombardo a number of times paul@movingmi.com
In Grand Rapids area, Bosgraaf Homes is the worst. Where do you even start with those jokers.
I've never heard of Bosgraaf Homes but I'm looking them up!
@@PaulWolfert Look at the google reviews, take note of the ones that skewer them. That is the experience of everyone I’ve talked to in the development. Maybe you have to spend a certain amount to get them to reply to phone calls and email?? They get away with it because they can. Check out the fake reviews too. In fact and I absolutely know this, there are two glowing reviews about the same house that only had the foundation poured and nothing else when the reviews came up. LOL.
promosm 🌟