ARMADILLO HOMES

will be switching as soon as possible. I had a claim that I got approved for $1600.00 but now they only want to cover half. I am very disappointed in the service.

Me and my family are currently in contract with an armadillo home in Wolf Creek subdivision. We used their Move Up program to sell our house through their preferred realtor(Schrader group/REMax) and offered $5k in closing costs for using their preferred lender. Being a trust worthy guy I used their services and sold my home fairly quickly. Meanwhile I have had nothing but problems with the quality of the home itself, much like I read about other big builders. If it's not code it's not going in, and if it is, it's going to be hastily put together and eventually need work. From the time the siding went up, we had issues. When issues were brought up, the sales agent assured us that it would eventually get fixed and to "wait for the blue taping" walk through. A home inspector was hired (against their recommendation) and it was worth every penny. Well now that my house has sold and they know I'm literally homeless, a list of things that were promised is suddenly not possible. From over hanging trees, to a crooked fence(blamed on the other builder) to horrendous paint texture all over the +2400 sqft home(sprayed at an angle), to mismatched colored grout, to incorrectly placed cable outlets, to a 3'x3' ugly 2" thick piece of wood screwed into the side of the wall instead of a door to access the 1st floor attic. Then, 3 days before closing, I get a call from the sales agent saying "The house has been rekeyed and we can't let you or any workers in until the day of closing." After 5 minutes of asking simple yes or no questions and getting nowhere, she finally told me that they did all they could but the house is staying as is. I listed my questions very thoroughly via email prior but not one answer was in writing. The reason they are pushing the close without work is they are trying to get the last of their current inventory homes off their books to start a new phase in the subdivision. My inspectors both asked "Why can't you just spend a few extra dollars and do it the right way?" The answer is Armadillo's business strategy does not align with quality of their product, at least in my unfortunate experience.

My experience was very positive and I gained a lot of knowledge about new home construction. I feel like in the future if I decided to have a home built that I will be a much more informed consumer and would definitely look at Armadillo again.

As a military family, we're required to move often. The idea of building a home (rather than buying pre-built) was somewhat daunting--especially after having read/heard about the many build projects that ran over-time and budget--luxuries my family wouldn't be able to accommodate. Armadillo Homes (Jeffrey/Harrison) delivered on all counts. I'd interviewed (and even began working with) other contractors in San Antonio's home building industry. However, after meeting w/Mr. Canales and having a frank discussion regarding our requirements and desires, I was convinced that they'd be able to meet or exceed our stated goals. 1 yr later, I find it hard to articulate how lucky (and blessed) I feel in having made the decision to trust my families home to Mr. Canales and Armadillo. Starting from the first step and continuing throughout the build process, Mr. Canales never pushed his own opinion unless we asked for it--always simply offering different courses of action, and researching their potential impact against our goals. Now, looking back, I can't think of a single instance in which his advice wasn't the right call. They put us in touch with a fantastic (fair and well priced) architect, w/Canales spending hours reviewing and coordinating our desires into builder/architect language--ensuring what was on paper met our our intent. This trend of oversight and imo, above and beyond attention to detail resulted in an actionable set of blueprints, that only required one very minor change during actual construction. They then put us in touch with a sub-contractor that cleared our 1/2 acre lot at approx 80% the cost of the next closest bid. This trend of detailed research and working the best possible price price w/subs, resulted in our home costing a few thousand dollars less than what we'd originally contracted for (we of course used that money on extras!!). In every step of the build process superior materials were used. The framing was 2x6 premium studs, the home is wrapped with 3 layers of insulating materials, walls are all soundproofed with interior insulation, the windows are rated at 32-34 (norm in our subdivision is 52), the roofing, attic, HVAC, and interior and exterior doors are all superior quality. Summarizing the net effect of the superior content of building materials, we recieved an energy star HERS index of 46. Most new construction homes fall in the 85-100 range, with CPS rebates beginning in the mid 80's and maxing out at a HERS index of 73...we more than qualified for the maximum possible rebates. A total of 3 and quot;foremansand quot; (Rakowitz/Nanney/Canales) were dedicated to our home, and at least one was at our build-site almost anytime work was being done. Every time I visited the sight I noticed both small and large details that had been ID'd by these managers, and 4 of 5 times I had a concern, a solution was already being worked when asked. Again, the experience these gentlemen brought to the table was hugely beneficial to the process. Literally dozen of cost effective solution were ID'd and potential problems solved before minor issues could become major problems. The level of detail this team drilled down to was amazing. Placement of HVAC registers, floor seams/joints aesthetics, even airflow and traffic flow through the house--dozens of minor and quot;tweaksand quot; were made and a few major suggestions made, that enhanced the quality of our home. I can't speak highly enough w/regards to the professionalism and dedication this team showed during the 7 months of construction. In the end, we built an approx 4400 sq ft home in 7 months, retaining the highest level of construction quality I’ve seen in any home I’ve lived in, at significantly lower costs than any other builder I’d interviewed. Service after the fact has been incredible to. No “nickel and dime-ing”, no “lost emails” or forgotten call-backs, and most importantly, on the few punch list items that have occurred, a 100% on time show-up record by Armadillo servicemen. If you are considering building a new home, I unequivocally recommend the team at Armadillo. Our experience building a full-custom home under their Jeffery/Harrison name proved to be the best decision we’ve ever made w/regards to the homes we’ve lived in. The fact that we had the full resources and warranty of a large, established business that isn’t going to fold next year continues to give us peace of mind. The fact that the San Antonio hasn’t lost sight of taking care of their customers on a personal level, made this potentially stressful period a breeze. I can’t speak to Armadillo in Austin or Laredo, but I can’t thank the San Antonio team enough for the amazing home they built for my family. (ANGIES LIST: IS A+++ possible?!) …If you’d like to see pictures of our home, it can be found in an advertisement in the most recent San Antonio Parade of Homes magazine…

They are very good. We are still in the middle of it. We have nothing but good things to say about them overall.