Drees Custom Homes Reviews in Austin, TX

We went through the entire build process with Drees and the Cons definitely outweighed the pros. Pros, weekly status calls were a nice touch. The Cons were slow progress, poor workmanship, dirty homesite, wrong items installed, creeks throughout the second level subfloor, paint and cement splatters on door hardware and porch railing, splotchy painting and staining, and multiple attempts to correct persistent issues with doors and walls.

Our home building process with Drees was terrible. We built with them several years ago, which was a great experience, and expected the same level of service and quality but did not get it. Quality control was nonexistent and we had to watch every step of the 18 month build like hawks, pointing out the issues ourselves or they would be missed or covered up. Food trash and beer bottles were tucked into the walls and left in the attic, paper trash was shoved behind the firebox creating a fire hazard. We had 3 water leaks during the build due to poor quality, one from an overflowing toilet being used by the crew which ruined the materials in the master bath with human waste. A fourth leak after the build from a drain line just pouring into a wall instead of being hooked up correctly. Two of these leaks resulted in mold causing us to tear out walls, cabinets, and materials to be replaced. The HVAC has required multiple repairs to correct issues from the installation. We’ve had electricians visit two times to correct electrical issues; lights that didn’t work, incorrect wiring in the main panel, etc. There are multiple other issues and I’m sure more will be discovered as time goes on; we will likely be in a constant state of repair throughout the full warranty period. We’ve had external inspectors come out to check multiple items at our own expense; it’s expensive but necessary to find and correct the issues to make the house safe for our family. All of this for a house costing well over $1million. Drees has fallen far from where they once were; if you buy with them get several private inspections throughout the build process to protect yourself and be ready for the stress of monitoring and scheduling every repair that will be needed. ... More

Drees never took our personal situation into account and they completely tried to rush us into an unfinished home. They cost us lots of money and more importantly our time. They never checked the home before our walk-throughs and we had to push closing multiple times causing us so much stress and hassle.

We were initially VERY excited to purchase our Drees custom home. We visited in Oct 2020 and in a matter of hours had selected the largest lot with the best view against a greenbelt. That is where the excitement ended!! We were moving from California and had been told that there was a very strong possibility that we would be moving in around Nov 2021 (given the delays in materials-COVID) we were understanding of that, but as November '21 approached we could clearly see that we were not going to be moving in. The date was shifted to Jan 2022....then March...then May worst case June!!! All the while, we were visiting the house almost daily...we would find weeks where NO work was being done on our house and the excuse...lets see...take you pick...we were told - You guys have so many customizations - They knew what it was when we signed the agreement....and we were well beyond any customizations - There are still material delays - Not true at all...they were having problems with the trades doing shotty work...having to rip and replace tile, wood work, stairs, stain on and on - Wrong design center items placed on the design sheet...which is partially our fault, but we dont know the codes for selected items...but caught them during the build and had a weeks worth of back and forth to resolve it...because the design professional that helped us had been fired! - We had 4 project managers during the build which was extremely painful ...each one has a different attention to detail and how they provide updates as well as how they communicate with the trades - We watched 3 homes start after us and complete ahead of us...the excuse...we had so many customizations...NOT TRUE!! We even watched 2 homes in the private part of the community start months after us and complete ahead of us - a lesser issue but one that annoyed me to no end, was I would periodically come by the build and find prospective buyers walking through our house...thats plain annoying - One of the last things I will mention as I could go on, but the workmanship was totally lacking for a house that sits at 7 figures...wrong grout, poor staining that is disappearing within 2mo of use, Due to the consistent delays we wound up losing the opportunity to lock in a rate that was beneficial to us...we actually had to pay to lock in a rate that was 2.3% higher than if they had delivered when expected...even if they were 3 months late we would have been better off....I really feel like Drees didn’t approach this build with a focus on quality and customer satisfaction....just check the boxes and close on the house....with a plethora of punchlist items left to resolve over the course of this next year ... More

This was our 2nd experience building home, 1st experience was fantastic and this 2nd one was mediocre. Work done by quite a few vendors are substandard quality for the price, it looked like the goal of the entire project was to finish the work, not deliver better product, some of the things were pure negligence, not much auditing by contractor once work finished by vendors, questionable decision by Drees to continue with vendors that have extremely poor public reputations, looks like profitability is priority over customer satisfaction!

I can not leave a good review for Drees. The timeline was a train wreck, the quality of the work is shockingly poor and all the GC's were a massive disappointment until Graham stepped in. His communication was and still is awesome. I will never recommend or build a Drees home again but Graham made the end of this terrible process not as terrible.