Del Webb Reviews

Kevin was the best construction manager he showed us Quality at every encounter, we recommend him to all! Rachael was incredibly helpful. Tara made closing a breeze because she was so exacting & early!

Having built and remodeled a few homes we have a perhaps more critical eye when looking at the construction and finish work - so take that into consideration while reading the review. And right up front, if you asked us if we'd do it again? Yes we would. Always start with the good - Scott our build manager and Lisa our sales agent were excellent! Responsive, understanding and professional - and enjoyable to boot! First off, the permitting/approval process, which to be fair is mostly out of Del Webbs control, took 3-4 months . PA signed in early April ground broke late July. Once the dig started the process moved along pretty rapidly as we closed mid November. If you have the option of watching the process - all I can say is I did as we glad I did, found it fun to watch things unfold. Del Webb is a 'national builder' which as it turns out is different from a 'custom' builder. Perhaps this sounds obvious, but options you have in regards to 'twiddling' your new home are very different. With custom you can do whatever your checkbook will tolerate. With a national builder, you choose from a select set of options. Both in the construction and the finish. While I would have liked to tweak some of the construction choices, (floor trusses instead of beams, mover/remove a wall, shift some plumbing) those aren't options. That being said, we really liked the model we picked out so all is well. The same is true for finish materials. I would have liked higher grade carpet and flooring options but those were not available. What was available isn't bad, I just have the feeling they'll have a shorter lifespan and need replacing sooner. Regarding countertops and tile - while the options were somewhat limited the quality seems really good. Lighting we've found is a excellent way of personalizing your home - so we left it at base builder level and replaced it. A better value for you dollars. One thing I was particularly pleased with was the fit and finish on the trim, doors and cabinetry - all done with care and resulted in very professional look. The one item that was a disappointment, but not catastrophic was the final clean. Construction clean they call it - which really means it not clean - really. Not that it's filthy with debris scattered about mind you. But - my wife had to scrub the floor several times to get the grime out of the flooring, not the experience you'd like upon walking into your new home and the first thing you find yourself doing while moving in. A last comment on national vs custom build. While we were watching our house build, I looked at similar size custom homes being built with similar amenities (but not the Del Webb Community experience), and they were easily 20% to 35% more. From our perspective very consequential price delta and one that didn't warrant the extra investment. And finally, (yes I'm long winded and this is the abridged version!), the 55+ community experience. As one person put it to me, it's the difference between being in a neighborhood and being in a community. You see your neighbors, say hi and maybe hang once and a while - the Del Webb version of community is very different. There's a plethora of activities, groups, and socialization opportunities that you can choose from to tailor your lifestyle experience. And in truth - that's at least as important as the house you build, and why you're building into the community in the first place. Good luck on your journey! ... More

The community is a nice one and the other homeowners are very friendly

The home-buying process was extremely easy and well-explained, no complaints. Rachael, the design specialist, was fantastic. The choices of finishes are pretty expansive, and if you have the money, you can buy most everything. Due to the cookie cutter nature of Pulte builds, however, we could not get things like an outlet in the floor of the office, multiple paint colors, dimmers on any of the lights, or a wet bar. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets are definitely “builder quality,” and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about that, unless you do it post closing. Overall, we are very pleased with the process and the product, and would recommend … as long as the buyer does not seek a true custom build. ... More

We had an overall great experience with our builder for the DelWebb North Penn Community. Unfortunately, we purchased in a very hot real-estate market and feel the price was higher than we wanted to pay. Not really a knock on the builder, just a sign of the times.

We have had very good experience with Pulte Builders. The construction manager for our home, Ben, was fantastic. Our experience with the home warranty group has also been positive. Overall, we are pleased with Pulte and their attention to detail.

Buiding a new home is NEVER going to be perfect from start to finish. Expect some bumps along the way. Having said that, the BIG DIFFERENCE, is the manner in which those bumps are handled. Our construction manager, Jay, was the reason we ended up with all expectations realized for our beautiful home. He was always on top of our build. He communicated with us on a regular basis, When I called or texted or sent an email, he was quick to respond and deal with our questions or concerns. The area in which I think improvement is needed, is in the workmanship. Too many small details by the tradesmen are overlooked or simply disregarded. Again, that is another area the construction manager is a very essential position in new home building. Luckily, we had one of the best and he made sure those details were "fixed" ... More

Steve was our contact in the construction of our home. He was very responsive to our concerns and questions. We never had a problem getting in contact with him and as we were not able to visit the job site he worked very well with our local contact person. Any issues with construction were addressed immediately. Great job and a great house. Thank you Del Webb and Steve.

We would rate the personnel as very professional and friendly with a desire to be helpful. Our home is beautiful and well constructed. There are generally small issues which have been repaired to our satisfaction. One major concern with our lot grading is very frustrating in that it is wrong. There is agreement, but no resolution or push to resolve the issue…

Except for a couple notification issues regarding changes to site plan and walk through, Dexter was awesome and kept us informed of work being done, and he provided great recommendations.

We recently built a Prestige model in Sun City HH. The builder was great to work with. We were kept apprised of the building process and appreciated the check-in meetings. As with any new construction, there were some issues upon moving in that needed to be addressed. However, the construction manager was very responsive in addressing our concerns.

We had a great experience with Pulte. Their mortgage people, Robin, Chris, and Theresa were exceptional. Their service department with Scott is great. He is very knowledgeable and wants to help resolve any issues. They are lucky to have him.

The realtor who I worked w/was amazing! Very knowledgeable and responsive to all my questions. The contract supervisor was terrific too. He also was very responsive and sent weekly updates during the entire building proces. I felt like I was being “nickled and dimed” as everything was extra instead of being part of the package. For example, why weren’t kitchen island lights or outside gutters included in the price of the home like so many other builders do? Lastly, the workmanship was okay…not great!

Experience has been relatively painless. Happy with landscaping. Home seems well built.

We found everyone we dealt with to be so nice and accommodating.

Very well built home overall. Brian, our construction manager was great at attending to any issues we've had.

Homes are not high quality and there are many areas where a higher quality product should have been used for the price you pay for the house.Quality of work ie painting and attention to details need improvement to say the least.

The sales contact Mark was very helpful through the early process. We may have missed out of some of the normal sales flow because this was a "spec" house with no customization possible and the last house in the phase available. The compressed timeframe from initial signing to closing put pressure on all phases but that was Pulte's decision, not us forcing it to happen that fast. I think we missed a lot of opportunity to learn things as we went along because of that. The mortgage loan process was exasperating especially the income verification portion with having to repeatedly provide essentially the same information and the list of "fees" being endless. The initial contact with Levon and the closing were the only bright spots in the process. The walk throughs were lacking some details about specific systems that proved to make learning more difficult than it should. We've never received a manual for our thermostat which we requested multiple times. We've have a few quality problems with electrical systems but have managed to work those out. William, our warranty contact has been great and helped us a lot. The design of the house, given that this is a Del Webb over 55 community, leaves something to be desired with high sink counter tops and very little obviously done for the target age group but nothing causing a major problem so far. We are happy with the house and the community and would recommend it to others who want something with much less hustle and bustle, many fewer cars, lots of social activities and neighbors who are very friendly. ... More

Dana did a great job of communication and keeping us informed. Overall the home is completed well. There are some things that in the design process should be pointed out so changes can be made to make logical choices that are not visible until after you move in like light switch placement when certain door choices are made and other similar items. These things Pulte should know and could point out to buyers. Also attention to detail around trim finish, paint on switch plates and the low quality of the under- counter lighting finishing were a bit of a disappointment all of which we have resolved on our own. We realize we are not buying a custom home and as such the above items perhaps should be expected in a spec home even though the cost was above the typical tract house. I think the final inspection process by the Pulte team needs to be a lot more critical and detailed so as to catch many of these things. One last item is the SST offerings, in particular the WiFi access points. In today’s environment these really are of little use. The WiFi routers supplied by the Internet providers (Cox, Quantum) often free, provide the same( or in our case) better WiFi coverage throughout our home AND yard. As of today the Access points we have are of little use and remain the single largest regret we have about the purchase experience. ... More

Overall experience was very good. Advice is to make sure you are aware of all choices/options/upgrades ahead of time to eliminate any miss understanding during the construction.

It has been just a short while since moving in to our brand new home. There has really only been two issues that a work request has been generated for. A lighting issue fixed no problem, sliding door screens are damaged need replacements, no word on this and it’s been several weeks. Other than that so good so far.

This is tract housing. If you build custom, you must buy your own land, have no access to the DW amenities, and it costs more. Tract housing is never going to be the same quality as a custom build. But the DW amenities are exceptional. Loads of fun! So, you have to decide what's important to you, before you choose to buy with DW, and be realistic. The main thing we liked about DW was its people. When there was a question or problem, they were immediately responsive. Even when we were "in the wrong" or behaving badly (there's stress with building) they dealt with us graciously. My understanding is DW has none of its own crews. It hires subs. Therefore the quality of the work depends on DW's access to good subs. The subcontractors for pavers did the best paver work I've ever seen. Perfect. The subcontractor for tile was not (lots of bad cuts and blatantly visible errors and thin or missing grout or wrong caulk). There is no way to know, before you buy, which subs are good or bad. Be sure to ask detailed and specific questions. For instance, we paid extra for the upgraded kitchen. We then paid even more for the upgraded top-of-the-line cabinets. We assumed for the bundle of money we paid we were buying plywood cabinets. Nope. The cabinets are pressboard. Had I known this, I would have paid for no upgrades, let DW put in anything, then ripped it out and redone it after close. They also use PEX which they lay underground with underground attachments. We didn't know this. I would have preferred an option to pay for PEX homeruns sheathed through a pvc housing. No such option was given. It should be. So ask good questions. Although our salesman was excellent, there is a whole lot of detail, and we did not ask enough questions at/before contract, and found out during the process about these things that we did not like. Likewise, DW added some extras that we didn't know about or expect, and which we truly appreciated! My impression and experience is that DW sincerely aims to please and to exceed expectations. DW is as solid as you can get, I believe, in terms of builder integrity. But nobody is perfect. Some friends hired an inspector to watch their build and report to them. That is a very good idea. That way you always have "eyes on". After we closed, and went back to our old home to move. While we were gone, a DW sub had plugged into our outside electrical socket. The sub ran an extension cord across 3 lots to plug into our electrical outlet. We complained, DW corrected it. Per the response we got, this is not unusual. But this should not happen. DW blamed it on the sub but DW should supervise its subs. So, after you close, if you are not there, ask your neighbors to look out for you. I guess that's really the crux of it. DW has people with beautiful personalties trained to deal with customers. They're really super about treating their buyers well. But, the subs seem to run loose, and therefore quality is inconsistent. We are delighted with our house and with the community. DW people are service oriented and personable. We would change the plumbing, the cabinets and the tile sub and paint sub. But, it's tract housing, so.... know that before you buy. The community and amenities are delightful. The houses are beautiful, updated styling, open flow, truly attractive homes with lots of design choices. DW has been doing this for a long time, so, they know how to deal with seniors, and they hire good people, and build great communities. As far as I know, DW is the top company for 55+ housing. We're happy, and grateful to them for their great work and service. ... More

Everything was fine. No significant issues.

Great to work with, kept us informed of progress, answered all questions very promptly, went out of his way to explain things in an understandable way. Proactive about all steps along the way. He earned a 10....

Was a great help and always very responsive to any issue we had and a great asset to the organization.