Pulte Homes

My realtor even called the corporate office and they said that not only can we not get the seven day grace period for the inspection, and hold them accountable for whatever we find, they also said that they don’t match And honor whatever the appraisal ended up being. And that led me to this Consumer Affairs page. I looked at all of these comments and I quickly understood that this was not an anomaly. If you deal with Pulte, you’re going to sign up for a very lengthy years long process of terrible customer service and poor quality. Be careful y’all.

They had many excuses for start delay, they said they can't start too many houses at the same time and they said it was because of weather and because there are so many things that happen behind scenes, like ordering material and shortages due to Trump policies and tariffs with China, all when actually it is just one click away to order, it is not like going to Home Depot to order but it is only one click and boom all your materials are ordered in phases of course. In the meantime they had 98K dollars to make all that work.

I have yet to see the quality of the workmanship when all their workers are undocumented from Mexico, they have zero experience in this type of construction but Pulte can care less, all they want is your money and then they sit on their hands for a long time. Pulte mortgage is in cahoots with Pulte builder because it took 57 days for them to approve a small loan that I requested and at first they told us there were no penalties if repaid early, now that the loan has been approved they said that after closing Pulte typically sells the Mortgage and buyer expects to make money on the loan and if repaid soon there are severe penalties. All in all they are a bunch of crooks that charge exorbitant amounts of money using cheap labor with substandard quality. We don't recommend them, just stay away from Pulte and subsidiaries.

Before our 1 year warranty was over I formally requested that this issue be resolved but Pulte has yet to do anything. All other builders that I've built with would have taken care of this major problem. Not Pulte. Additionally, when we first moved into our home we immediately heard rodent activity above our bed. We initially thought it was activity on the roof. We soon learned that rodents were coming in and out of our home due to bricks that were left out of the build of our home. This hole was discovered by the pest control service that we had to hire AFTER reporting the problem to Pulte. Pulte came out to inspect but found nothing wrong. The pest control company came out and immediately found the root of cause of the problem. They found many holes that weren't sealed.

Do you think Pulte reimbursed us for the capture of the rodents and the PROPER sealing of our home? NO! To say the least I am not a happy Pulte customer. You want to build with a company that will seal your home properly and resolve issues quickly. No company will be perfect but I at least expect you to do what is right by your customers when work is not done correctly and homeowners are having major issues.

We visited the Westchester model in a Pulte subdivision and fell in love with it, specifically the kitchen. Keep in mind Northpoint subdivision has the Westchester model and Creekside Crossing does not have a physical model. They are about 5 miles from each other. We decided to move forward with a build in Creekside.

After signing the papers I was given a folder with the Westchester model on it. I flipped through the pictures and noticed that the kitchen layout was completely different. I rang up Katie and inquired about the pictures. She reaffirmed that the kitchen design was different than the actual physical Westchester model at Northpoint. We decided to put everything on hold because we were sold on this specific layout. Katie knew this and we worked it out to have the wall where the stove is to be exactly the same as the model with the exception of the stove. We decided to move forward with the process and trusted that Katie got it right when putting everything together. I signed off on the non standard alignment thinking it was what we agreed on.

Here's the catch, the cabinets I signed off on were not what we verbally agreed on. The layout was correct but one of the cabinets was not. If you look at the diagram, you cannot tell that there are drawers instead of a door, only numbers depicting the type of cabinet. No idea what the numbers mean and it was never explained to me. Had I of known I would have had it changed. I only discovered this because I ventured into the house when the cabinets were installed and noticed it was not right. When I inquired with both Katie and Paul they said that's what I signed off on. It's impossible to tell what the cabinet looks like by the diagram. I trusted Katie to get it right and she did not.

Other things.... Paul on numerous occasions stated he wants to get things done as fast as possible because of the weather changing from fall to winter. Went by the house after a storm blew through and several shingles were missing. Apparently he pushed too hard and they did not cure properly and blew off in the storm. Note that I looked at the other homes going up or that were already built and none of them had any damage. Maybe it was shoddy craftsmanship or it not curing properly due to the dropping temps, I'll never know. I inquired and Paul said they would be repaired. I'm not comfortable moving in to a house that had previous roof damage for whatever reason.

On a walkthrough with Paul we inquired about the thermostat because we thought it was really nice. We asked Paul what kind of thermostat we were getting and he said, "Whatever is in the model". I walked though after the drywall was up and noticed the thermostat was completely different. When I inquired with Paul about our discussion he said, "No you get the one that was installed in our home". So once again we were lied to.

Master bath shower installed looked nothing like the picture Katie showed us. She apparently showed us the guest bath insert and not the Master Bath. It looks hideous. I asked Paul about it and he said that he always installs the one they put in. There is also a miscalculation on one of the basement walls when you come down the stairs. The model shows something completely different. After speaking with others who have built the Westchester model they ran into this issue as well. The shining star in all of this was Celeste, the Design Center Consultant. She was great to work with. The list goes on and we have not even moved into the house yet.

Be sure to research the issues people are having or have had with Pulte prior to buying. A lot of complaints out there with roof leaks, shoddy craftsmanship, warranties, etc. Had I of done my homework I would have ran the other way. Time will tell how we fair up. Even contemplating walking away and saving ourselves the headaches down the road.

He stated that the rule of three houses across and three houses over is a guideline and not a rule. He also said Pulte is not contractually obligated to follow those guidelines. So, this could mean that the exact house can be build next door. However, I’m sure Pulte is not telling potential buyers this fact especially since their sign at the entrance to the subdivision says “luxury homes”. I wouldn’t consider cookie cutter homes luxury.

The sales manager also stated that this mistake had been made in the past. He had a buyer build the exact elevation and color scheme next door to each other in a different subdivision and those people spent $700K on their home. So since I only spent $560K I have no right to be upset? He told me he had been doing sales for 15 years and he has never come across anyone who cares about elevation as much as I do. He made it sound like I am was overreacting for wanting my subdivision to maintain the high quality that we were sold on when we purchased our home in November 2018.

He did say he did reach out to the buyers and had asked them if they would change their siding color, but he would not demand they make a decision just for me. I never once demanded that of him nor did I bring it up with the sales manager. He did say he would add shutters to the home. That is nice offer, but I’m not sure adding shutters would have make that much of a difference. The sales manager was not professional or helpful. In fact my conversation with him was by far one of the worst customer service experiences I have encountered in a very long time. Buyers do have several options in builders in the area. I would like to recommend not buying a Pulte home.