PULTE HOMES

pulte do not keep their words. They threathen you. I bought a home from pulte in eastfield community in bartlet. Anyone reading this. DO NOT BUY HOMES WITH PULTE. I requested 9ft entrance door in my house. Me as a buyer pointed out 7ft door that they were installing 3 times while house was getting built and all what I was told your door is on back order don't worry. 3 days before closing while celebration walkway I again pointed out mistake. Now a day before closing sales manager senior manager started threatening me either close or start paying 300 per penalty and we will sell your house in 1 week and retain your 40k because I signed contract. My contract and change order do not even mention door height and pulte is not ready to accept their mistake. NO THEY WILL NEVER. Very bitter experience with Pulte. DO NOT BUY HOUSE FROM PULTE. IF U BUY GET READY TO BE THREATENED AND LOOSE YOUR MONEY. Unfortunately I don't have option to give negative rating.

The sales agent Zach was really a big help. He explained things in great details, and I have the knack of asking the same questions in different forms as to be clear of the answer and understand EVERYTHING involved. Zach was patient and a great asset to have during the process. Doug V. the field manager in charge of the construction was very helpful and gave weekly updates, and encouraged me to go to the site and "check" things out. Often times we texted if I had a quick question about something. He would also go to the house and look at it, and see what I was talking about, and then call me and share his knowledge. I would not consider myself difficult to work with, but I would say I'm inquisitive and pride myself in getting things addressed and resolved in the best possible way. The whole group of people at Lake Forest are some of the nicest, kind, and hard-working people I've been around. They care!

We've spent the last 2 months touring model homes all over the Indianapolis area. We haven't made our final selection yet (will update review if we build with Pulte) but I just wanted to compliment Lory from the Zionsville - Clark Meadows at Anson community. She has been by far the most responsive representative and polite. We are trying to make the model / community we want fit into our budget and she has never made us feel like an inconvenience. If we choose to move forward I hope that the other members of the Pulte team in this community are as easy and pleasant to work with.

We negotiated an irrigation system into the purchase price of the house as a $6,000 credit to get first-class irrigation. I was assured that I didn't need to be involved in the process and that Pulte would "take good care of us." No, they took good care of Pulte's bottom line. It wasn't until recently that a contractor I use for yard work discovered that I had a cheap irrigation system that isn't even PVC piping. It's plastic hosing that he said likely cost $1,000 for the job. I called the company that Pulte subcontracted to and they wouldn't disclose the price that was paid. I called Pulte 3 times and NEVER GOT A REPLY!!! I left a message recently for their local Executive VP of Sales (John Van Beynen) and have not heard a thing. Since we bought our house 2 years ago, Pulte stock has TRIPLED in value, their CEO made $9.5 million last year and exercised $4.5 million in company stock, and they run a 46% profit margin. 46 cents out of every dollar I spent went to their bottom line and I can't get a good irrigation system?!? I'm a capitalist, a business owner, a very fair guy who pays his employees well, and now you can add DISGRUNTLED PULTE HOMEOWNER to that list. I'm going to give Pulte a chance to make this right. I want a check for the difference between what I was promised the value would be at $6,000 and what they paid the sub when they cut corners and put together a Fred Flintstone-quality patchwork irrigation system. The ball is in your court, Pulte Homes. I'm looking forward to writing a review that will give you some nice PR.

Spoke with Pulte representative (Adam Bain) about moisture/mold in the attic. Adam was quick to blame all the moisture in the attic on the home humidifier. Our home humidifier has been set to 30% according to a hygrometer we have placed in the living room and bedroom. I adjust the humidistat accordingly and follow the manufacturer's instructions. However, Adam states he saw the humidistat set at 45%. Convenient for him to just find that as a sole problem. I suggested maybe there was a ventilation issue and the hot air can not get out of the attic. Perhaps a 50/50 problem, too much humidity and not enough ventilation. Upon hiring a mold inspector x 2, roofing company, and home inspector, the consensus was lack of adequate ventilation on the North side of the house. This problem was compounded as the soffits that were installed were filled with insulation and inadequately installed. Adam was quick to say the attic ventilation was fine even though he never inspected the soffits from the outside. In other words he only inspected 50% of the attic and said it was fine. The insulation depth on the north side by the gables was 2 inches as noted by mold inspection. The mold inspectors were convinced the mold that had formed on the deck boards of the roof were catalyzed by the severe lack of ventilation. They also noted the severe lack of insulation contributed to the rapid induction of heat/humidity into the attic and further cause icing on the deck boards. The combination of the two resulted in build up of water into the attic and further causing damage to the ceilings of the house when the ice/frost melted. With proper ventilation, the humidity and heat would have been able to vent if the soffits were open. Adam did send out his framer Ramon (Tikal Framing) who said the soffits were open and the frost on the deck boards was normal. Normal? Not even close to normal. Ramon did not inspect the northern soffits, but the southside soffits were open. It also didn't help that Ramon and I could not communicate well because English was not his primary language. Both my wife and parents were home at the time Ramon was there attempting to communicate in English. Adam later wrote us a letter stating everything structurally was fine even though he still never specifically addressed the north side soffits or inspected the roof from the outside. I do not understand how someone could only inspect 50% of the structure and deem it OK? That is like someone starting up your car and saying it's OK to drive even though tires are flat, exhaust broken, radiator busted, or brakes inappropriately installed. The worse part is we have a 3 month old baby and 2.5 year old daughter. Pulte showed absolute zero concern to help even when young children were involved. Believe me, Adam was not in any hurry to come out or send anyone out. We waited one week for him and 1.5 weeks for the framer. Sure do appreciate their urgency to help. Adam said he was responding to emergencies. Probably also due to the poor workmanship of Pulte. Pulte maybe use to be a good company, but not since they absorbed Centex homes. One last note, Adam is a very condescending representative of Pulte. He demonstrated a much needed course in communication as evidenced by his attitude when you talk to him and his emails. I would be more than willing to show copies of his communication style. Email me at azbsn1@msn.com for examples. I would highly suggest to never consider a Pulte home. With an Angie's List rating of B, multiple FaceBook complaints, and numerous other consumer complaints, one would be hard pressed and desperate to build with Pulte or buy a Pulte built home.

It was pretty close to the worst experience of our lives. Communication is totally lacking. They changed our design of the basement during the construction of our home without ever even telling us. Every time we questioned something we were told that is The Pulte Way. It was very hard to reach anyone in their home office, you always had to go through the lady in the model home. We asked for information on what upgrades we could have and we we told there was no list of upgrades. The only time we found out they were upgrades were when they told us what we wanted was an upgrade and we would be charged extra. However, even when we paid for the changes the instructions were not relayed to the contractors so everything kept taking longer since their was such a lack of communication. |We have since called them to try to get things corrected and we never get a response. We have a drainage ditch out back that is nothing but a mosquito bed which they said they would correct,(however that was over a year ago and we still have not seen them) our house is rusting from the roof of the bay window and we have written to them and called them, they told us they would investigate and get back to us, but we have never heard back from them. My husband and I would not recommend anyone to Pulte Homes. I could go on forever about the things that were done but to spend that much money on a home and to be treated the way we were treated as a customer I would never go through that again.

Pulte Homes was fine to work with. Typical new home construction where lots of details are overlooked. However avoid Pulte Mortgage. They were the worst company I have ever dealt with. We didn't get our final good faith estimate until 4 hours before closing. This was after our closing was moved back a month due to them not getting the appraisal until 1 business day before closing.

The big negative was that we were young and it was when everyone was offering interest only loans. They made us feel like we could afford much more then we could. I felt like it was anything for a sale. The product is great though and if we were in a better financial position it would have worked out.

A couple of positive comments; Pulte designs attractive houses and framing is done off site and assembled on the home site. The walls are straight. They add in some nice features, depending on the model, most of which give the appearance of a quality house. It all ends with the sub-contractors that he hires. We have a slab floor which has the feel of a roller coaster. It wasn't noticable when we did the walk-through because we were walking from point to point. But once in the house and moving around, the wood floors would sink in numerous spots (floor looks flat..sinks when walked on) and the vacuum cleaner would hang up on numerous spots. They came back (after writing a letter to Bill Pulte) and attempted to fix it by filling in the low spots. However, some where high and needed to be ground down. My wife has allergies and we could not do that and are living with the remaining unevenness. This problem was due to taking shortcuts. Our previous house had a slab floor which was poured at the same time of year. In that instance, the concrete contractor tented the foundation and ran heaters until the floor cured. It was perfectly flat. Another problem was that both toilets leak. The plumber was out 3 times and they still leak. The inducer on the furnace started making a loud vibration noise after a few monthes. They replaced it and it was fine. A few months later it was bad again. That time they replaced the whole inducer Assemby. It is bad again. The other major complaint I have is the exterior paint. The house has a Hardie Board exterior. It needs painting after four years. Hardie Board indicates it should last at least 8 - 10 years if the paint is applied according to the instructions. My son has been in his home which has Hardie Board and the paint is still good after 8 years. That would indicate to me that our construction foreman didn't assuure the job was done right. We have lived in 7 homes since we were married and built 5 of them. The Pulte homes is by far the worst of any of them.

Pulte refused to fix the grading issues and the broken trusses that were found at the pre-drywall inspection prior to closing and allow a re-inspection unless we paid "contractual penalties" of $250 / day for delaying closing. Because of this we cancelled the purchase agreement and lost our $10,000 earnest money. Pulte's lack of integrity is sickening. Over a month ago we sent via Fed-Ex a letter to the Pulte corporate office along with the inspection reports. We expected they would at least reply saying that they would look in to this. Background: We made the mistake of signing a purchase agreement with the Indiana PulteGroup without having a real estate agent. There was little if any communication to us about the building of the house. One of the key reasons we selected Indiana PulteGroup was their reputation for customer satisfaction. Unfortunately the crew that was responsible for the final buildout of Cherry Creek Enclave lacked integrity and did not care about customer satisfaction. Their emphasis seemed to be on the great warranty after closing. The several broken trusses during the pre-dry wall inspection were never addressed. One of the Pulte supervisors took numerous pictures of the trusses and supposedly was sending to the truss manufacturing for their recommendations on how to repair. When it came time for the final inspection, nothing had been done. When our inspector showed up for the scheduled final inspection on August 31, there was no power, the heating system was not operational, no concrete poured, no appliances, no garage door opener, along with many other things not completed. As our sales associate had stated many times, he said, "No worries! Pulte will make it right". Making it right means forcing the scheduled closing date and putting everything else on the punch list to be finished after closing. Our inspector was finally able to inspect the house on September 10, which was 10 days after the original scheduled inspection and only 2 days prior to closing. With the final inspection there was a lengthy report that detailed things not working or improperly completed. During the final inspection an additional truss was found that was very badly cracked and after 8 weeks nothing had been done to the 7 original trusses that had been identified during the pre-drywall inspection. To terminate the purchase agreement, we begrudgingly agreed to sign the Cancellation Agreement with the Reason for Cancellation as "Buyers Remorse". The only remorse we had was that we did not have a real estate agent to advocate for us. We are providing both inspection reports to Angie's List.

Dishonest, manipulative, shameless. This is the impression we have of Pulte after our home buying experience. We loved the floor plan of a spec home in a newly developing neighborhood but it was on an unappealing lot. Pulte sales counselor, Kelli Dorris, gave us the plat map to demonstrate the improvements that would be made to our section of the neighborhood. A wire fence separating our neighborhood from the property on the south would be removed, a gravel road would be converted to a common area green space, additional landscaping would be planted, and power lines and poles would be removed. Ms. Dorris told us of a contract that was in place that would ensure that all of this work would be complete by early 2010. We followed up with Pulte director of land development, Matt Lohmeyer, in mid-2008 and were told via email that the fence and gravel road would be removed, grade and seed restoration would occur, five to six trees would be planted in the area where the gravel road once was, and they would research removal or burial of the power lines. To date the only work that has been completed is the removal of the fence and gravel road. While seeding did occur, frequent and inexplicable vehicle traffic prevented growth. The common "green space" behind our home has turned into patches of dirt, mud and weeds. Trees were never planted where the plat map and Mr. Lohmeyer indicated they would be located. Instead they asked the property owner to the south to plant trees within an existing tree line, which is not consistent with Ms. Dorris' sales presentation nor with Mr. Lohmeyer's commitments delivered by email. Mr. Lohmeyer advised that the utility company was willing to bury the power lines for approximately $4,000, but Pulte has refused responsibility. Dormant phone lines continue to hang behind our home, and the developer has advised that they will not remove those either. We have spent more than four years pleading with Ms. Dorris, Mr. Lohmeyer, Pulte division president Tony Barbee and developer Platinum Properties to resolve these issues. We received phone calls from Angies List representatives asking us if we would like to submit a report on Pulte. We initially declined, hoping that we could resolve our issues with the company directly, but they have repeatedly declined to complete the work. Most offensive to us is that we have read that Pulte CEO, Richard Dugas Jr, has earned more than $24 million in compensation during the time since we purchased our home. In our neighborhood where Pulte is still selling homes, they sometimes offer free finished basements as incentive to buy. Comparatively, it is not at all cost prohibitive to complete our section of the neighborhood as it was sold to us. We were terribly naive as it never occurred to us that Pulte would abandon their development commitments once homes were sold and original buyers relocated. What should have been a joyful, mutually beneficial experience has turned into a frustrating disappointment, and we simply can't understand why Pulte refuses to complete the work they said would be done. For us this experience is a reflection upon the entire homebuilding industry. We would never again consider buying a home in any newly developing community and would encourage other homebuyers to conduct their search within established and well-maintained neighborhoods instead.

The whole process from start to finish was very enjoyable. Luke (site manager) was on top of everything and still held the schedule through a very wet spring we closed on the projected date - thanks Pulte!

good production home ; great people to work with ... better than last builder who was not a production builder

They were informative, but the Pulte is a little out of our price range.

It was a very positive experience from start to finish. We were never pressured to initiate the build and once we decided on the lot and home they were very responsive and accommodating. From Ryan, the sales associate, to Keith, the project manager, we could not have been happier. Once the initial contract was sign the whole project was well organized and on a tight schedule. Despite this schedule, when we requested a change, every effort was made to ensure our satisfaction. We are very pleased with our new home.

They were on-time with all of their deadlines, and also the quality of the home was great. The prices was kind of out of our range, but everything went fine and we are happy.

Their goal was to make sure we were happy and the warranty continues for a few years. They come back often to make sure the house isn't settling too much. If it is, then they fix whatever cracks have occurred. They are doing a good job. The plans we had to choose from were very creative and architecturally good. You wouldn't expect to get as much as we got at that price range. You get a lot for your money.

Overall, we are pleased with the house. Dealing with Pulte through the purchase and mortgage process was smooth and professional. I would give that an A grade. The young men that oversaw the construction were professional and punctual for meetings, although, gave me some answers on issues on a couple of issues that I knew were inaccurate. Pulte builds nice-looking homes. We feel the design of our home is excellent. The inside and outside are very attractive. Room sizes are adaquate but closets, other than the master bedroom, are smaller than our previous homes. Appliances included with the home are excellent and they offered a few superior features like Corian countertops and Hardi-Plank siding. Part of the framing is pre-constructed which we believe has given us better constructed and straighter walls. Choices on electric fixtures are non-existent. You get what is in the model. There is no choice on interior colors. All inside walls are painted an off-white. The problems we have had are in contractors work. The concrete floor (we are on a slab) is the worst floor we have had in any of the 5 other houses we built. The slab is covered with a floating wood floor that would give in some parts and be solid in others. It was so bad, visitors would notice it immediately. Pulte had the floor torn up and low spots filled in. It still has some high spots. The contractor indicated that the high spots would need to be ground down. We had to decline because of the cement dust that would have been created throughout the house. I personally wouldn't put a floating wood floor on a slab again. The garage floor was worse than the interior floor. Instead of draining out of the front of the garage, rain water collects in the pockets and drains in several directions like rivers from the high spots. The man that put an epoxy coating on my floor said it was the worst concrete floor that he had worked on. There were other small problems with plumbing and electrical. All of the problems we have experienced have been with the contractors work. Except for the problem with the concrete, the Pulte customer service reps have been quick to respond. However, once they realized how bad the floor was, they took care of it quickly. While we are still not pleased with the floor, it was our decision not to pursue it further. The remaining issues are normal type of things that I am comfortable will be taken care of at the 12 month inspection.

We are very happy. We have had very minor problems. Most of the problems we have had have been with appliances. We had asked them to come out to dig up a plaque that said Pulte Homes because it was crooked, and when he came out he asked if we knew that our front steps were pulling away from the house. We told him we didn't know, so he said that he would fix them. They have responded immediately and have taken care of anything we have needed from them. The vice-president is named Tony Barbee, and I have emailed him telling him the same things, that we have been very pleased from the very beginning of our onset with them, and that we appreciate all their work. They even paid back a $187 service fee we had to pay when our appliances were out of warranty and needed serviced for the fifth time.

It was a great experience from start to finish. They gave us weekly updates and let us know what to expect. They were very responsive and professional. The overall process went very smoothly and there were no major problems. I would highly recommend them.

We have rented the home for over a year. We moved in right after it was built. We just did the one year walk through and there was hardly anything to do. No nail pops, the trim was tight, everything was mechanically in perfect shape, etc. There were only a couple minor items and Brent with customer service was always very responsive. He is so customer service oriented and treats each and everyone of his customers like royalty. Even though we were just renters, he wanted to make sure everything was in tip top order. His customer service exceeds even the pickiest customer's expectations. He is a class act and represents Pulte in the best way possible. We have enjoyed living in this home.

Very professional, high quality and good value. We love our new home. We have built several homes and this has been the best experience. Every issue that came up during the building process was addressed to our satisfaction promptly. Every issue that has come up since we closed has been addressed beyond our expectations promplty. A great company! All of the employees are the best in their industry. We highly recommend this builder and would build with them again!!

WE BUILT A NEW HOME WITH PULTE, AND WE HAVE BEEN VERY PLEASED WITH THE ENTIRE PROCESS. WHEN THERE WERE ISSUES DURING CONSTRUCTION, THEY WERE VERY RESPONSIVE TO OUR CONCERNS. THEY WORKED HARD TO CORRECT ANY PROBLEMS THAT WE FOUND. THEY HAVE FOLLOWED UP WITH US FREQUENTLY SINCE WE MOVED IN, AND THEY SEEM GENUINELY CONCERNED ABOUT OUR SATISFACTION WITH OUR BUILDING EXPERIENCE. WE WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THEM TO OTHERS.

WE HAD A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE. WE PURCHASED A SPEC HOME EARLY IN THE PROCESS AND WERE ALLOWED TO MAKE LOTS OF CHANGES TO THE PLAN. THEY HELPED US THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS, COMPLETING ALL OF THE PAPERWORK, HELPED US FIND A BUYOUT PROGRAM FOR OUR EXISTING HOME, HELPED US OBTAIN FINANCING, EVEN GAVE US A GIFT AFTER CLOSING!

OUR EXPERIENCE IS EXACTLY WHAT ONE WOULD EXPECT FROM A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED, PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION.