Pulte Homes

We are currently in the process of building our new home in Hamilton Heights in Chandler, Arizona. This is a time when we are dreaming of our new home and also very anxious about spending hard earned money on a new house. I am writing today, because at first, we were very excited about the prospect of our new home, until we had our experience at the Design Center. We originally thought we were the only ones disappointed and frustrated with our experience, but upon meeting several other soon-to-be neighbors at Hamilton Heights, we discovered that almost everyone had the same bad experience. This is when we decided we had to contact you.

When we first arrived at the design center we were excited to see what we could create for our new home. From cabinets and carpet to paint, speakers and faucets, the possibilities were endless. We began picking out cabinets and moved on to flooring. This is when we discovered that there were only three choices of “standard” tile and six choices of “standard” carpet. All of which was white, dirty white or even dirtier white. In order to find something that was even halfway decent for a $400,000 + home we had to move several grades up. I am not talking lush, designer stuff; I am talking for stuff that came in my first apartment. So we began looking at the choices presented to us in this range. We picked out stuff that would “do for now,” and then Suzie came back to us with a price. Over $20,000 for flooring? Upgrading when you are building a house shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. The company already has to put something in the house, so labor is already there and there isn’t any demolition that needs to happen. You should just have to pay for an upgrade in the material, which should be minimal. This was definitely not the case. Just this one tiny experience had us wanting to back out of the contract. We wrote down and took pictures of the products we had chosen and looked them up from RETAIL stores when we got home. To have someone come in after closing on our house and put the SAME EXACT flooring in would only cost us $9000! This is also paying for labor and demolition! So we called back and told her to “put whatever comes with the house” in because we weren’t going to pay them to do it and put it on our 30 year mortgage. Then it comes to other options for our house. We weren’t told options about paint (honestly with the scam with the flooring we would rather do it ourselves), our neighbors weren’t given options for fireplaces or paint. They also had an issue with the flooring. They started calculating the price per square foot and found a huge discrepancy between what they were being charged for the tile in the dining room versus what they were being charged per square foot in the living room. It was the SAME tile. When Suzie was faced with this she told them “well I am not perfect.” Yet she had boasted that she had been working for Pulte Design Center for “23 years.” I don’t believe she changed the discrepancy. After this exchange with our neighbors, they are thinking about paying the $250 change request and not having Pulte put their flooring in either but to do it themselves.

Now comes this issue with fans. We just wanted simple pre-wiring for ceiling fans. Shouldn’t cost much, since my dad works for an electric wholesaler and says that a builder can put them in for less than $40 a piece, retail, with labor. So why in the world is Pulte charging $175 per pre-wire?? Mind you, this isn’t even with a fan! So after discussing our options, because by this point we were ready to back out of the whole deal (and yes, lose the earnest money), we decided to upgrade the things we couldn’t do ourselves later on, or the ‘few’ things that were actually at market value. After meeting with the design center staff, we are very leery of the workmanship and “market value” of the actual Pulte construction. We have been in close contact with the Construction Manager, Paul and are keeping a watchful eye on everything. So far, the construction seems to be heads above what we encountered at the Design Center.

In conclusion, we did NOT have Pulte do the carpet, tile, faucets, bathroom upgrades, counter upgrades, ceiling fans, hardware, sinks, blinds, toilet, bathtub or shower upgrades that we had originally wanted to do. (Look at the money lost there and we are just ONE home!) Who knows what other upgrades were available to us but not relayed to us. We will take our hard earned money to make this home fantastic, while giving the design center as little as possible. This should have been a fun and exciting experience. Not one full of frustration and feeling like we were being ripped off. Then to find out, it wasn’t just us! If we had visited the design center before signing an agreement, you can bet we would have chosen to move elsewhere and gone with a different builder. Lets hope this is not indicative of what we can expect throughout our entire experience with Pulte. And you can believe, that we are relaying this story to EVERYONE we know! As you know, the housing market is growing, something needs to change at your design center or you will be losing out on the extra revenue of the upgrades and alienating your customers. Word of mouth spreads quickly and in this age of digital communications, you can bet that word will get around.

I've left 7 to 8 messages regarding this issue . The recording says they will contact me the next day.

After 7 calls in 10 days this is certainly not true. I'm really frustrated. I'm a patient person and have never contacted my HOA ABOut OTHER issues on my property, but pretty soon I will have them on speed dial. My bushes that died have not been replaced.

My grass bare areas have never been addressed. I have snakes living under my pavement in front. The carpet was worn before 1 year and I live alone. I'm disappointed.

Right now I need answers about the torn up land all along my perimeter and the pond issue. PLEASE!!!

We gave up on the Pulte Del Webb 55+ community in the former Possum Trot Golf Course in N Myrtle Beach, SC. Del Web sold one promised lot out from under us we had been waiting for months to be released after getting the lot price reduced to ten thousand dollars.

They promised us first dibs on a lot next door as soon as it was released. We waited several months. When they finally released that next lot they would not honor the price we had agreed on to build the house, or the lot itself. They wanted us to put a bid in for the lot we wanted, and said we should offer even a higher bid for the lot because they said their new policy.

Sorry guys--but that it not my policy-which is to be honest and keep my word. That lot was never sold and they built a spec home on it months later. We ended up buying a new home in a new development just up the road in Little River which was much bigger and much better. It was also many thousands cheaper and required only an eight thousand dollar deposit, We moved in last November.

Pulte Del Webb never got one cent from us.

I again want to thank pulte home-owner Harry Whitman for his video "Pulte's Deplorable Orlando Homes" for helping us avoid Pulte Homes. You're my hero.

We have contacted the construction manager several times about issues with the walls and the location of the media box. The humidifier and control panel for the humidifier were installed at the back of the heater and were very high up.

This construction is for a community of people aged 55 and over. After the first week and during the first regeneration of the water softener, we experienced a flood because someone had left a plastic membrane on the main drain hole. All the materials used in the construction were of poor quality. The painting job was also subpar.

There was paint on the ceiling, and the baseboards were not painted. The builder provides a one year warranty and is attempting to fix some of these issues. Inside the home, there is consistently high humidity during the spring and no one can explain why.

They provide absolutely ridiculous explanations. Therefore, we are exceptionally dissatisfied with our purchase, as well as the quality and craftsmanship of the builder.

List of Issues with Pulte A big fat -100 if I could. We bought our home in 2019.

I had excessive cracks in the home and stucco, I had a defective garage door, poor paint and some other items. Pulte would not replace the garage door insisting it was fine but to this day I am the only one in the neighborhood whose garage door is bent at the bottom and paint was always darker there. Also, they refused to restucco and would only fill or paint over cracks in stucco. I was advise of a 5 year warranty by Ryan regarding the windows and mold.

I called Pulte today 1/11/24 and advised I smelled mold and I believe my windows and stucco are failing. They will not do anything.

Here are the ongoing issues from day one.

1) AC never worked right and eventually found leak in coils and compressor and would not replace.

2) Poor stucco and paint. Paint coming off and stucco pealing and has come off around the windows.

3) Defective garage door

4) Cracked trusses and un anchored bracing in attic

5) 1/2 gabs between plywood exposing felt

6) Windows separating from framing

7) Drip line above window may be leaking (multiple cracks) and would explain window separation

8) mold smell when raining

9) Same interior ceiling crack coming back and extending

10) Same centerline window crack keeps coming back and growing

They would not make the proper corrections during the 1 year warranty and continue to not back their product.

11) Grading was never done correctly and I had to have people come in and correct

IN DWT, PSL, this community has gone from bad to worse. The resident board member who represents Pulte has threatened homeowners, forced several to sell their homes through coercion and intimidation (put rubber rats in someone's driveway) and then blackballed folks who won't use his wife to sell their house.

Pulte, surely colludes with him as he badmouths any one who complains about house problems (we know there are a ton) and then ensures they are not invited to functions and have other residents not speak to him.

Recently, when several boards were being set up, he posted incorrect information on Facebook 5-6 times and derailed the entire process as if it was Charlies' world.

The Property Manager allowed this to happen and clearly was not in charge. Also, he had several of us attend one committee meeting to enter in ballots (for a committee we were not a part of) so he could derail the process and put his people on the board.

How many more people have to leave before this guy continues to get LifeStyle Directors and Property Managers' fired?

He is on his way to get rid of these 2 but how does Pulte allow someone who already has been kicked out of one club for stealing from them to represent them? You have enough problems as is and you had better get this one under control

We have been in the home a little over 5 years and are now needing our fourth patch/repair of the master shower floor during that time. Pulte is now telling us that the repairs are only warrantied for a year and that we are now out of warranty for any future repairs.

All they've done is repair the floor temporarily to exhaust the warranty. Obviously the floor workmanship has been substandard and the subs have been putting temporary solutions to work rather than solving the problem definitively.

We would like Pulte to solve the problem for a reasonable amount of time. We consider this to be at least 3 years even though this still seems quite short for the life of a typical shower floor.

Representatives of Pulte have tried to tell us that because our townhome is three-story and the top story is wood that the shifting in the wind will cause a continuous problem up here.

This simply reinforces our concern that the overall workmanship has been poor and fraught with potential problems like this. I've lived in three-story townhomes and apartments many times over my life fan and have not had issues like this.

This comes on the heels of numerous other issues they have had to repair under warranty including replacing a stove top that was catching on fire and had been recalled prior to closing and was not disclosed.