The best Florida home builders & ones to avoid?

[palmtreegirl]

After our house sells we're thinking about maybe building a home, it's not definite but just an option. I'd like to do some ground work while were waiting so we can hit the ground running when our home sells.

If you've built a home in Florida who did you use, were you happy wth the results? Also please any and all horror stories about builders is appreciated we'd like to know who to avoid.

Hopefully we'll be able to just go the resale route but if we have to build we want to make sure it's with a quality builder.

Thank you!!!!!

 

[ChristmasElf]

What city are you in? This will make it easier to make a decision as not all builders are in all the cities in Florida.

 

[stitch79]

I'm going with Formoso homes, they've been great so far. They are very flexible with letting you change things and their prices are reasonable.

I would do some research on the issues people had with their builders after the hurricanes. I avoided all of the builders that refused to assist people when the water started leaking in through the walls. The one I remember specifically was Ryland homes, but if you look through news articles you can find the names of some of the other companies.

Good luck!

 

[palmtreegirl]

What city are you in? This will make it easier to make a decision as not all builders are in all the cities in Florida.

We're in Ocala. Some of the builders around here are-

Pulte Homes
Triple Crown Homes
Deltona Corporation
Banyon Homes

 

[Miss Jasmine]

We're in Ocala. Some of the builders around here are-

Pulte Homes
Triple Crown Homes
Deltona Corporation
Banyon Homes

Sorry, I am not familiar with those builders. We have a Holiday Builders home and are very happy with it. They were great to work with and our house is a quality product.

 

[DoeWDW]

You may want to check the Better Business Bureau in the area where you want to build. Most of them have all the complaints on a website.

 

[chrissyk]

We built with a smaller builder in FL that I don't want to name on a public message board. Suffice it to say that I would not build with them again. They did quality work for the most part, but they were very difficult to deal with both during and after construction.

If you have the choice between several good quality builders with good reputations, then I'll tell you what would make the choice for me personally. You know that property taxes in FL are based upon the closing price of your home, right? Well, instead of taking the $$$ upgrades through the builder, find one that will allow you to take the house w/o flooring (and give you a small credit back for the basic flooring that you will not be taking). If possible, find one that will allow you to take it w/o cabinets and countertops too if you plan to upgrade those. Then, sub out your own flooring, countertops, and cabinets AFTER closing. Your property taxes will be based upon a MUCH lower basis, and you will pay a LOT less for the upgrades than if you bought them through the builder. That right there would make the decision for me between builders.

 

[ChristmasElf]

We owned a Pulte home years ago and although it was working fine for us, some people have not had good follow up care with them (Pulte)

I have heard of Deltona and Banyan homes, however have not used them. Personally, I think your best bet would be to visit their homesites and look at some of the houses they have built. Ask around the neighborhoods you want to build in how others that live there like the house they are living in. Compare pricing, extras, what's included in the home, location and how long it will take to complete the house.

Good Luck!!

 

[palmtreegirl]

We built with a smaller builder in FL that I don't want to name on a public message board. Suffice it to say that I would not build with them again. They did quality work for the most part, but they were very difficult to deal with both during and after construction.

If you have the choice between several good quality builders with good reputations, then I'll tell you what would make the choice for me personally. You know that property taxes in FL are based upon the closing price of your home, right? Well, instead of taking the $$$ upgrades through the builder, find one that will allow you to take the house w/o flooring (and give you a small credit back for the basic flooring that you will not be taking). If possible, find one that will allow you to take it w/o cabinets and countertops too if you plan to upgrade those. Then, sub out your own flooring, countertops, and cabinets AFTER closing. Your property taxes will be based upon a MUCH lower basis, and you will pay a LOT less for the upgrades than if you bought them through the builder. That right there would make the decision for me between builders.

Thank for the great tips ChrissyK! Those are some great ideas because everytime we look at the models I never like the cabinets, counters or appliances offered. Thanks again.

 

[chrissyk]

Thank for the great tips ChrissyK! Those are some great ideas because everytime we look at the models I never like the cabinets, counters or appliances offered. Thanks again.

Ask about this stuff BEFORE you commit to a builder, and get the exceptions IN WRITING. Our builder was awful about this. They kept trying to tell us that it was "against code" to close on a house w/o flooring (uh, it took me 2 seconds to pull the code, and it was NOT against code), etc. If a builder tries to use the "code" as an excuse not to allow you to take the house w/o flooring, counters and cabinets, move on. They make a high margin on the mark-up on these items, and they will gladly lie to get you to pad their margins. Deal up-front, and get it in writing. You'll be glad that you did! Hopefully you can save yourself some of the headaches that we went through because we did not address these things up-front.

 

[PneumaticTransit]

Our builder was Avatar. They built the house well, and the person who did the walk through with us was more picky about the corrections that needed to be made than we were.

They came back and fixed the big problem (both patio doors were loose, they had someone install shims and it works fine now). They also patched some holes in the outside stucco. However, they failed to come back and paint the new stucco or correct some of the smaller issues inside the house such as a ceiling vent they didn't install and left laying on master bedroom closet floor. Also, the roofers left shingles piled on the roof and we didn't have a ladder to retreive them. Sadly they came down on their own during the hurricanes and through our neighbors screened-in pool

Overall I was happy with them even though I had to correct some minor things myself. They gave me a good Cast Member discount - so I can't really complain too much

 

[Dax]

Ernie White builds beautiful homes here in Polk County. Not sure how wide spread he is. I know he has had numerous homes in the Parade osf Homes this past year

 

[Feralpeg]

We are in the Orlando area. Our builder was Ashton Woods. They have been wonderful. Not only was the process of building the home (I was in Kansas City the entire time) very easy, but they have been great since we moved in. After the hurricanes, many people had problems with their builders not wanting to take care of water damage due to roof leaks and water seeping through the concrete block walls. Our builder was immediately there to see if we had any problems and to correct anything that was a problem. I had no problems, yet they came back and repainted the entire outside of my house with a special elastic type paint to ensure that there would not be any problems should we encounter future hurricanes. My sister did have a roof leak, but they took care of it right away. It has now been over a year and our warranty period on minor things is up, however they still stop by to see if there is anything they can do for us. One of my sister's sprinkler heads wasn't working the other day. The builder representative came out and fixed it for her. I can't say enough good things about them.

I built a home using Pulte back in Kansas City. While the house was well built, they had very few things that you could change as far as interior items. The selection of flooring, cabinets, lights etc. were very limited. Ashton Woods sends you to a design center where you work with a designer to pick out everything for the interior of your home. We had a huge selection to pick from. In fact, there were so many possibilities that I manage to spend an extra $25k on my house!

Good luck with whoever you choose!

 

[palmtreegirl]

Thanks everyone!

I went out looking today and stopped at a bunch of builders-

Holiday Builders
Adams Homes
Reed Homes

Does anyone else have any onfo on these builders?

Thanks!

 

[ford family]

For what its worth, our home in Bradenton was built by Pulte in 2002. When we bought it a few months ago the surveyor found no problems whatsoever and said that the house was structurally in great shape. The seller disclosed that he had had one roof problem that Pulte had fixed swiftly and effectively.

ford family

 

[marlasmom]

Crissyk - that is wonderful advice that I would not have thought of.

 

[ducklite]

We used Lawson Estate Homes (www.lawsonhomes.com). They are a small custom builder, and the work was fantastic. They were easy to deal with, and a true custom builder. If you wanted something that wasn't stock, no problem, give them a couple days to get back to you with a price. If you wanted something different than what they offered, no problem, they'd source it for you. We changed the floor plan and added several items that they had to source and price for us, no problem at all.

Anne

 

[April in Disney]

I am also using a custom builder.http://wescarinc.com/lochleven/ My house is being built and will be ready in about a month. I did go to most of the big builders, number one they had no home for sale and only taking my information for future home sites, number two I really didn't care much for what I was seeing. One advise I will give you is to look at the homes that are in process of being built and not the model home.

 

[Kathleen Del Prince]

My home was built by Holiday Builders in Davenport FL in 2003. I have had nothing but problems with the home since purchasing the home in 2006. The builders never installed tv cable or internet or phone lines to half the house including two of the three bedrooms. They did not install electrical lines inside the walls in two of the bedrooms, so the lines to the fan lights in those rooms run up a visible metal pipe attached to the walls. The ceiling insulation was not thick enough or up to code and had to be corrected when I purchased. We had a wall water intrusion on three wall areas of the home. The air conditioning system never worked properly and had to be completely replaced after spending thousands of dollars trying to repair the original. The copper lines installed under the home from the outside air handler to the inside unit were installed as a bunch of pipes welded together instead of an appropriate one long copper pipe which caused me to spend hundreds of dollars replacing leaking freon and I eventually had to replace the piping costing another $500. The laundry room which also houses the air condioner unit are poorly designed for placement as the outside air handler is therefore next to the dryer vent duct so the lint blows out and right into the air handler...in order to be to code we have had to install extended tube down the side of the house an additional six feet away from the air handler which of course looks terrible with a long tube running along the side of the home. The trees planted by the home were placed too close to the home and grow to a size too large for the property (laurel oaks) so they constantly have to be cut back from growing over or into the home. The house's pad was not built correctly and I have ended up with large settlement cracks in the concrete throughout the home, forcing me to have to have the floor areas leveled and the flooring redone. The pvc pipes to the hose spicket failed on the back of the house and had to be capped off. The house is not level and doors have to be latched open as they will close on their own otherwise due to the angle. The bath tub in the small bathroom is not level so water pools in one corner of the bath tub staining if not hand dried each time you use the tub/shower. The electrical outlets frequently spark when plugging in cords or removing them and the fuses blow often. Interior cracks have formed on the walls. The sprinkler system that was installed does not connect to certain sections of the lawn and some sprinkler heads are placed immediately next to each other instead of in the areas missing sprinkler system piping and heads. These were all issues in the home since purchasing when the home was only three years old.

 

[Squirlz]

My home was built by Holiday Builders in Davenport FL in 2003. I have had nothing but problems with the home since purchasing the home in 2006. The builders never installed tv cable or internet or phone lines to half the house including two of the three bedrooms. They did not install electrical lines inside the walls in two of the bedrooms, so the lines to the fan lights in those rooms run up a visible metal pipe attached to the walls. The ceiling insulation was not thick enough or up to code and had to be corrected when I purchased. We had a wall water intrusion on three wall areas of the home. The air conditioning system never worked properly and had to be completely replaced after spending thousands of dollars trying to repair the original. The copper lines installed under the home from the outside air handler to the inside unit were installed as a bunch of pipes welded together instead of an appropriate one long copper pipe which caused me to spend hundreds of dollars replacing leaking freon and I eventually had to replace the piping costing another $500. The laundry room which also houses the air condioner unit are poorly designed for placement as the outside air handler is therefore next to the dryer vent duct so the lint blows out and right into the air handler...in order to be to code we have had to install extended tube down the side of the house an additional six feet away from the air handler which of course looks terrible with a long tube running along the side of the home. The trees planted by the home were placed too close to the home and grow to a size too large for the property (laurel oaks) so they constantly have to be cut back from growing over or into the home. The house's pad was not built correctly and I have ended up with large settlement cracks in the concrete throughout the home, forcing me to have to have the floor areas leveled and the flooring redone. The pvc pipes to the hose spicket failed on the back of the house and had to be capped off. The house is not level and doors have to be latched open as they will close on their own otherwise due to the angle. The bath tub in the small bathroom is not level so water pools in one corner of the bath tub staining if not hand dried each time you use the tub/shower. The electrical outlets frequently spark when plugging in cords or removing them and the fuses blow often. Interior cracks have formed on the walls. The sprinkler system that was installed does not connect to certain sections of the lawn and some sprinkler heads are placed immediately next to each other instead of in the areas missing sprinkler system piping and heads. These were all issues in the home since purchasing when the home was only three years old.

Ya think they are still looking for a builder after 10 years? And welcome to the Dis!