When you build your home for the first time or any time from a builder this is the single most important question how good is this builder. Is there any complaint against this builder? If there is any complain how this builder resolves the problem. As most of the builder will not allow you to sue them for any wrong doing of theirs, and force you to go for costly arbitration process. Most of the builder contracts have a clause where it says "you must pay their expenses if builder wins the arbitration" and if they are on the wrong side you will not get paid for your expenses.
Most of the builder rating systems is not that great or well experimented. As most of the builder will claim when you visit their offices they are in first quadrant of JD Power or top their list. As JD Power is known for auto review and they recently started Home Builder review. So their questionnaire and methodologies are not well established to protect your best interest. Some other rating for home building is NRS Corporation and Eliant. All the above rating programs are based upon subscriptions, means builder has to pay in order to get the rating, as getting rated from a high profile consumer rating company is a costly affair and their rating system will not cover Dallas area local small builder as they will not be able to afford them.
All the Dallas new home buyers mostly concerned about structural or workmanship problem in their home. Customer service is important but when it comes to structural and warranty resolution, it is the single most important factor. As JD Power rating systems mostly cover quality of workmanship and materials ( Paint, trim, windows, doors, light fixture, appliances and flooring), price & value and home design ( floor plan wise ). Dallas New Home Buyers are not just looking for this information they are mostly concerned about structural soundness of their new home. Till date there is no rating company who rate a builder on this category.
Like quality of workmanship coverage of JD Power is just limited to look and feel of the home and which cost less to get fixed if problem arises. For price, every home buyer do shop before making final decision. For home floor plan, home buyers like it that is why they bought it. So which rating to trust, no one it is the Realtor who can tell whom to go for because Realtors like us fiduciary to you and take care of your best interest, you will be safe in our hands. As we are professional and get any concerned news regarding builder complaint fast we can tell you better whom to select and whom not to select.
Just see the case of D.R. Horton they are in lower quadrant of J.D.Power but they are biggest builder in Dallas Fort Worth area and they are topping the list since last several years. Is D.R.Horton a stay away builder from your lists? Not at all. As D.R. Horton is a public limited company and their stock traded on our nations big stock exchange and this data is more reliable and accurate. As per this data D.R. Horton has extremely low-low claims rate compare to all the top of the list on J.D. Power rating system. If you compare head to head D.R. Horton has 0.3% claims as opposed to 0.9% Beazer Homes, >0.65% for KB Home, 1.3% for Lennar Corp, >0.4% for Centex and >1.0% for Pulte. ( All the data collected is from First quarter 2003 to Second Quarter 2005). Source ( WarrantyWeek ).
So which Rating you should trust? No Rating.. just us "We the Realtor". It is common saying that bad news travel fast and we are the first receiver of bad news in the Dallas Real Estate Market in order to protect our future & present clients and of course our selves from bad name. If you are buying a new home in Dallas area then please call us 972-821-3736 for further detail analysis of each builder in Dallas Area.
The Texas Residential Construction Commission investigated and found defects in 27 homes built by the Dallas Fort Worth area's 20 largest-volume builders, listed here. That represents the less than 10% of complain which Texas Residential Construction Commission has investigated till the time we put together this report. Pleas fill this form with a comments as "need builder complete complaint list" in order to get the complete list.
