Highland Homes Reviews in Austin, TX

Issues are still not addressed.

This is my second Highland Home & the experience has been pretty bad. Since I met with one builder at pre-construction meeting& then another took over I don’t think there was any real ownership of my build. Things just did not get done as promised. Shallow stairs are not, lighting changes were not done as told, trades that did the paint, grout, fence, fixtures, flooring were just sloppy. Job site was the dirtiest I have ever seen & I have had 5 homes built.

Sales process was professional. Massive problems with issues reported before closing - still not taking care off. Too many times we had invest our time for issues and no results. Simple things (i.e. shoe mold in kitchen) is still not taken care off. No communication from Building Manager. Very frustrating. More and more smaller problems occur and NO action after reporting.

As a Vetran I feel I was robbed of my Earnest Money for chosen another Highland home in the same Neighborhood.I lost 12,500 which as a Vetran it does not come by easy.If Highland Homes treat Vetrans this bad everytime they will not get too many stars.

Highland homes has always been known for exceptional customer service. However, post pandemic I do feel that the bottom line, making money, has now trumped what highland homes has stood for for so long. The experience of buying a home with highland was supposed to be an amazing experience, so I thought. Little did I know that we would experience such horrible things in route to closing and honestly after closing. Highland waited until 2 days before our closing date in December to push our close date out 2 weeks. There was zero transparency in the decision making process on when or why our close would be pushed. What was more horrible about the situation was that my family and I had moved half way across the country and would now be stuck in a hotel. Once our close was push and I was physical close enough to check on the house, there was literally no work done on the home for the first 2 weeks that the home was pushed out, thus forcing another closing push by highland homes. To make matters worse, my home family contracted Covid while staying in the hotel and no place to separate or quarantine. Highland homes offered no compensation at that time for any of our hotel stay. Finally after 3 and half weeks in a hotel we finally closed in mid to late January. However, there were and still are so many poorly crafted aspects of the home that need to be fixed. All in all these are my thoughts: I feel like highland home was ok with allowing customers to spend top dollar on their homes but were not concerned at all with the customer experience during the process. That is a direct contradiction of what highland homes’ values have always been. I also felt that highland homes struggled with having labor to actually build our home. If there was a lack of labor, customers deserve to know that so that way they can have realistic expectations. Also, the labor that they did have to build our homes was poor as so many things that they installed had to be fixed and still need to be fixed post close. My wife and I never heard from any of the project managers involved in building our home, given the fact that there were so many project delays. If your bottom line is customer service, then you start with transparency and communication. Communication is a foundational pillar of any relationship of any kind and if you don’t have that then the relationship suffers tremendously. We are two years removed from Covid and materiel availability has remained an issue. Staying ahead of the supply chain and offering customers knowledge of who the vendors are and any vendor issues in real time would also help customers have realistic expectations. Highland should know that you can’t just hide behind your product and your words. It has to be your actions. Given the last year of building our home with highland and all that we have experienced, highland homes a great deal of work to do to restore the faith that we initially had in them being one of the nations best builders. ... More

Level of work poorly done. Contractor would reply in timely manner when contacted. Sales person and contractor both lied that the home will not have a driveway with an incline. Being disabled makes it difficult to climb on slope from sidewalk to the home. I am very unhappy with the work done and selling as soon as I have some equity accrued.

Today is a good example ( almost 7 weeks after we closed) the doorknobs we paid for were not installed. Instead, we received the "standard" doorknobs. We were told that they'd be here today around 8:30 am and it is now 12:15 pm and no one has yet come. This has happened too many times to count! Love our salesman and the head of the building department but they are not keeping after some of their workers or vendors!

Overall, the quality of the home we purchased from Highland is good. Being able to see work that was put in behind the walls was encouraging. Unfortunately, it is clear that the builder was pushing to close before the end of the year to lower their tax burden on a developed lot vs the raw land it was before the building process began. The finishing topics in several places were sloppy and it felt like the term "in compliance" was used many times during our walk through. We were only able to complete our first walkthrough 5 days prior to closing so almost all blue/green tape fixes occurred after closing. Since the home was "completed" so close to closing, there was almost no option to shop around for mortgage rates because of the 14 day window lenders suggest so the only option was to go with the highland home loans, who's rates are higher than what we were offered elsewhere. The list of items to complete post closing it quite long and we were pressured by the project manager to sign the open items list about a month after closing with none of the items completed. It is currently almost 2.5 months after closing and most of the items are still open. Another issue we had was a leak resulting from when the sidewalk was poured. both downstairs bathrooms and the master closet flooded. I wouldn't have expected this to be caught since the issue was underground but the repair has been very slow. It's been nearly 2 months since the event and most of the repairs are still outstanding. We are happy to be in a home but performance from the builder was as continues to be frustrating for us. ... More

Even though my home was far delayed due to supply chain issues, it should never have been closed when it did due to problems that should have been handled pre-closing. The front door doesn't seal and going on 4 months not fixed - allows insects and cold air into the house. One of the walls is 4 inches off spec per several post build contractors informed me about - causing the trim of kitchen cabinets to not be aligned correctly. Severe damage inside a cabinet that was not caught by the builder during their own pre-closing inspection. That, despite them discouraging me to get my own independent inspector within a week and a half of closing. Water holds in the back yard due to poor grading. Some wall sections are not straight. Framing was poorly done. Painting was sloppy and missed in some areas, painted over cabinets in others. Some window's aren't framed square and require custom fixes. Baseboard that had a seam in the middle of a room when it should be a single run. Ethernet drop wasn't put in and took a month to fix. Careless attention to detail and a rushed build on top of a price increase while I was ready to sign but management and thus communication disappeared for weeks before changing hands. Wouldn't honor original pricing. The list goes on. ... More

Due to the workmanship and materials for my new home, I will not recommend others to build house with HighlandHome.

Poor paint quality, poor trim work, poor wall texture, bad cabinets. Moved in after 15 month wait, and still incomplete. It's a beautiful plan and a very nice area. Just, quality, from a highly expensive builder. Expectations are low.

-Lack of updates/ inaccurate and incorrect updates throughout the entire home building experience. -Constant follow-ups to inform the builder of the inaccuracies provided. -Treated disrespectfully and blown off. -Pointed out several issues prior to move-in that I was assured would be taken care of. (They weren’t when I moved in and I received no communications. I had to escalate and inform the necessary individuals of what the issues were and escalations continue.) -Issues with the AC leaking and a Gas Leak happened during first few weeks of move in. -Continued issues outstanding to date and the amount of follow-up/time spent on issues that should have been done correctly is mind boggling. -Many individuals within the same neighborhood have the same exact experiences and concerns -Horrible workmanship with no one double checking that things were done correctly. -Issues included on inspection report prior to move -in weren’t taken care of before I moved in. These remain outstanding. -Continue to find items that have failed to be done correctly regularly. Face value, it is a beautiful home. However, when you do your due diligence you find that the workmanship and information you have been provided fails to be accurate. Be ready for a fight for what is right and many many hours of your personal time invested having to work through items that should have been done correctly the first time. ... More

Highland homes overall construction is better than many builders but the experience we had was not the best. Cannot trust - they did not allow same garage door color for us since 2 houses from us had same color but allowed exact same floor plan as us next door ! And not only that this next door and their next door has same garage color and same white painted brick ! We had to struggle to get things right during construction process. Post closing also noticing that last minute stuff was all done like patches.

From start to finish, there was nothing that could go right for our build. From permitting issues for the the Sri way to having to redesign the driveway. Our 3rd party inspector found several issues with the proper installation of all the anchor bolts throughout the entire frame. All the bathroom cabinets and kitchen cabinets were heavily damaged BUT were still installed. Our building construction manager was informed about the cabinets but was told by the cabinet company they they would not be replaced only repaired. At this point I went to highland homes social media page and expressed my disappointment with the cabinets and the refusal to have them replaced. At the point I got a phone call from highlands regional manager who wanted to meet in person at the home to see the damages. He then expressed his apologies and said that was not to “Highland standard “ he made a call and the very next day all the cabinets were replaced with new undamaged cabinets. By this time we had Laos faith and trust in our building manager and his crews so we decided to show up unannounced to do walk throughs and this is when we found that all the paint and finish work was not up to “Highland standard “. The texture on the walls didn’t match and had to be done 3 time before it finally matched. Master bathroom tiles are loosing grout and the shoulder leaks. The bathroom window leaked for almost 2 weeks before it was resealed. We have grout in kitchen backsplash that is now cracking and separating. And now we noticed that anytime the furnace or ac is on, all the lights in the home flicker constantly.. so here goes another work order and letting more people into my home .. never ending bad dream.... ... More

since Highland is moving out of this community least care was taken to the customers. Construction manager feels customers are slaves for him. How many times we need to follow up to get the issues resolved. We bought a brand new home so that , there no issues and we are good at least for 2 years. Till date in last 45 days, i had issues with my Air conditioner and roof. I don't know what all are pending. Had faith in highland homes till i bought this home. But now its a question mark.

The craftsmanship and attention to detail is severely lacking, heavily impacting the final outcome. Just because a home is livable it doesn't mean the buyer should be forced to accept lippage in the tile, bulging walls, inconsistent masonry, and questionable framing, amongst other things, like we were.

I had a very bad experience with Highland Homes. I moved in to new built house and on day one, water leakage issues in two bathrooms and one bathroom is clogged with water. Drywall are very uneven. I trusted Highland Homes for Quality and didn't do any inspection before moving to the home, but later realized, it was a mistake. I started realizing the construction quality is really bad. I hope that will realize and do a self inspection before handing over the home to the buyer.

Not satisfied with the building process. Was always kept in the dark even with repeated requests. Identified issues before closing and was promised will be done in the next few weeks. It's has been almost 4 months, still long way to go.

Great sales consultant. Poor workmanship throughout the entire house from the carpet, to the cabinets, to the floor, to the shoe moldings, to the paint, to the plumbing, to the windows. All of these items had issues and has negatively impacted my home buying experience with highland homes. We chose Highland homes because of the high quality that was promised and expected. Unfortunately, we will not be recommending a highland home to family and friends.

What is my character limit here? Because I need a LOT of space to explain. The process started fine, with some adjustments for COVID. But even accounting for some delays, Highland construction was hideously mismanaged. - From August to October, virtually zero progress because the local construction manager was not scheduling inspections with the city of Kyle. 10 week delay. Lots of yelling and screaming when we found out, they reassign a new construction manager who assures us he is on it. Expected move in now pushed from November to February. - House was making some progress at least, inspections being scheduled. We pointed out several items that would need correction - assured by construction manager that they would be taken care of. - February passes, still slow progress, being told due to inspections but when pushed on it admitting that they were failing inspections. Escalated to Highland Regional Construction Manager to get control of the situation. - March and still no closing date scheduled. Several items we had been pointing out for months are still not corrected. Construction manager assures us he is "on it". - April, and FINALLY a closing date. Several items still outstanding. Main one of which is outlet and switch covers (48 in total) that were cut WAY too big (some over 1/2 in too big) during drywall phase. We ask to get them fixed. Contractors spackle and paint WITHOUT REMOVING THE COVERS, so covers are now covered in spackle and paint, texture is missing around them. We complain about this and some other items enough that the regional manager, area manager, and local construction manager all meet with us at the house a week before closing. We are ASSURED it will all be fixed before close. - Day before closing - multiple outlet and switch covers still not fixed, along with a number of other items. We escalate to delay closing. Are ASSURED it will be fixed by end of day. [Narrator: It was not fixed by the end of the day] - Closing day. We sign papers. We go to inspect our new house and get keys. EVERYTHING IS STILL NOT FIXED. We yell at the construction manager, we call the regional and area manager. We are ASSURED it will be fixed before we move in the next day. - Moving day. We arrive at the house at noon. There are drywall workers with 5 gallon buckets of spackle, spray guns, and spatulas working all around the house. Plastic sheeting is spread on most of the floors. WE HAVE 3 MOVING TRUCKS OF STUFF ARRIVING IN 20 MINUTES. On the phone with Regional Manager who says they'll get done and out as fast as they can, but we need to not put stuff around the walls because they need to come back and paint the next day. So basically, we can move our stuff in but can't really unpack. It took a WEEK to resolve to the point that we could actually put furniture where it belonged. - Post move in, it took 6 WEEKS just to clear the Closing punch list (stuff that should have been fixed before closing). Contractors showed up with limited to zero information on why they were there, and us having to explain every time what needed to be done (this should be Highland Homes job, right?). - Post closing, still finding items that were clearly not installed correctly that should have been identified by any competent construction manager. Entry way doors with zero weather stripping as an example. - In the end, we love our new home's floor plan, our lot, and our neighborhood. But never again will we put up with such a horribly mismanaged construction process. ... More

The workmanship of their contractors are some of the worst I've seen in central Texas. The construction manager tries to keep up but he was constantly missing details and big things in the house. The floor was an absolute disaster and doesn't look anything like the design center. They all point fingers at each other to excuse the poor workmanship and materials.

Better designs then the competition. They entertained some custom changes that other builders would not. However, the title work and finish was not finished completely. Disappointing for the price point. We still have a list of I Owe Yous from the builder months after moving in.

We were excited to build a new home. But when we moved in, there were several items that were not completed. The house was not cleaned at all except for the carpets which had mud stains. They should have not been stained by workers. We had to clean the garage, which was filthy, and the attic was supposed to be straightened but not done. We pointed out that there was paint on the floor but that was not cleaned moving into the house. We had to do all that work that should have been done before we moved. The driveway was covered in oil paint from the house next door. The workers should be informed that these are expensive properties and care should be used while working on house to prevent damage. They do not take care when doing their job like getting paint on the new flooring. Also, our property should have been power washed before closing. We had our work-through and taped "bad" spots on the walls, but they did not fix until over a week later. Several pieces of the tape fell off, so they ended up not being fix. In fact, some of the items we pointed out were not finished the day before closing. We pointed out stuff before closing that needed to be done (and said was done) but later found out it was not done. After closing, we let the contractor know some problem issues. We had pointed out before closing, 2 bushes were dead, so they needed to be replaced when the water ban was lifted. These were eventually replaced but think that the landscaping should have been watered or not put in until water ban was lifted. We had several issues that had to be fixed. Our vanity lights were not installed before moving in. The lights came in and under the LED lights, the wall was not painted and textured, which we asked if it was done so the lights could be installed when they came in. It was an additional 2 weeks before the wall was fixed so the lights could be installed. We had to fight to finish the bad paint job. We were told we had been given the opportunity to QC the house, so it was our problem. We are paying 700,000 for a house and think that the builders should QC their homes. We pointed out that they did not paint house right after we QC'd and tape came off. They had sent painters, but we were not informed they were coming. They ran in, slapped some paint on, and ran out. We did not have chance to point out spots they missed. After bringing up our point, new painters came out and they did an excellent job. We also had an issue we pointed out before closing that was not addressed until a month plus later. There was a piece of trim in the master bathroom the was not finished. It cutoff at a very sharp angle. We asked that to be fixed but it took long time to get addressed. There were many minor issues. Some took a long time to get addressed after bringing them up, so I ended up entering warranty issues so that they could be addressed. After that, things got addressed and there are no outstanding issues. As far as what we requested, we ordered a lighting package, but it was discontinued. The new lighting came with a single pendant light. We wanted three pendant lights so builder ordered pendants from another lighting package that had 3 pendants. We are very happy with those pendant lights. But we were supposed to have an extra outlet in the garage between the two garage doors, but it was put in the back of the garage where we cannot use it. It was supposed to be near the front so we can use power tools to work on projects. Lastly, the quality of construction is poor. Being that we are from a strong union state, our standards may be higher than here. The fence is new but most of the nails are not nailed into the studs and will need to be re-nailed. The windows are not even. House seems like it was "eye-balled" instead of making sure it was level and plumb. We are happy with our floor plan and our design choices. But we would probably not recommend Highland Homes since their quality of work is low and they do not turn over a clean house. ... More

Too many issues not built for durability. Lots of issues with sheet rock finish, trim finish, leve 1 quartz had finish issues, door handles keeps poping out, concrete finish is sub par. Overall thry just using the brand and contractors they used to built homes is not doing good job

I’ll start with the good. Ethan, the sales manager was awesome. He seemed to care, took the time to answer questions and even sent us updated pictures. Hank, the loan officer was very helpful and informative and answered all of our questions. Now for the bad. We had 3 different construction mangers. So things were missed every time there was a change in personnel. There is such a lack of communication. Tradesmen just show up unannounced and whenever they want. The affidavit when we moved in was “to take only two weeks” is still not done 4 months later. We still don’t have the official affidavit copy that we have asked for several times. The craftsmanship is not good and it doesn’t even seem like they care. When they come and “fix” something, it’s not fixed, it just “looks” better, but not properly done, and then something else gets messed up and we start the process all over again. Tradesmen just randomly show up unannounced, but when there is a scheduled time, they don’t show up at all. So much of my time has been wasted by tradesman that can’t get the job done. We had so many issues with the tile work, cabinets, painters, brick issues and so much more. I can never get the construction manager to give me an answer, let alone support for the fixes that need to be made. I have to continue to just randomly email to get something done that was on our affidavit. The saddest part, is that I would never refer this builder to someone else. This was supposed to be our forever home, I feel they have taken that away from me and don’t even care. I can’t even been to describe the level of frustration and saddened we have felt over this. We feel like no one cares about what the end product should be or what it has made us have to do to get things done. ... More