Highland Homes Reviews in Austin, TX

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

Work was very rushed. Very disappointed with the purchase. I'm still dealing with issues on repairs to be completed that should have been done before forcing me to close just to make a year end number. Worst experience I've had ever buying a new home.

very quick respond from the Builder

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.

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

Even though the build of our home took longer than expected (due to factors outside of Highland Homes' control), we stayed informed at every step of the way, which is something very important to me. My construction manager did a phenomenal job at checking his own work and now that I've been in my home for several months, I've yet to come across any quirks that usually result from some degree of carelessness. I fully trust Highland Homes at Santa Rita Ranch and would very likely be looking at Highland Homes if I were to do a new build again.

There were some issues but overall they turned out a great product and was very responsive

Good builder. Good quality home. Had a great experience with the sales rep and construction manager. Highly recommended.

kiara honest builder delivers on time and fixes issues

Highland Homes has a great sales team. We never had any questions unanswered. Though we liked our building manager, highland homes outsources all the work and lacks a quality team and building manager hardly does quality check, We ended up following on many things after closing ( from a minor thing such as front door weather strip to a leaked window replacement ) which is frustrating at times.

Overall happy with our new home. Some punch list issues still exist that have been difficult to get much traction on.

The quality of the materials and workmanship in Highland homes is not what you would expect for houses of this price range, the wood they used in our house during pandemic supply chain issues was substandard, base boards and all interior trim were installed as fast as possible leaving behind A LOT of small little cosmetic issues, if there is a spot where is hard to see around the trim, chances are there is no paint on it. If we try to remove a small stain from a wall using a damp cloth, the paint dissolves and the paper that wraps the drywall gets exposed immediately, several crooked electrical outlets around the house and a long list of small issues. They claim to cover all under their warranty, but they of course don't come to install higher quality materials you claim warranty fixes, they just come to fix things using the same original materials and they will give you 4-5 hours windows that you have to stay home from Monday to Friday for every single detail you need to get fixed. They offer competitive prices for the BASE model of the houses, but things that you would expect to be standard are not, everything is an upgrade and once you are done "upgrading" your house you are at least 50K - 60K above the "base price". ... More

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

New house took 15 months to finish. you could say it's normal due to supply chain issue, but then some houses on same street/same builder got finished under 10 months, so not sure what to say. Issues started out from foundation phase, you need watch like a hawk on every step and ask to be corrected, if you dont live nearby, good luck! Not a single time you were contacted and updated about progress, you always had to ask. Lots of quality issues, but so far they were all medium to minor ones, so something you can live by. But no way it was pleasant experience.

Great communication… we had weekly updates while our home was being built. Excellent help with selecting paint colors, brick and stone for the exterior and the design center was great. Our new home is wonderful!

A lot of empty promises are made about fixing items under warranty and there is no follow up. Almost 4 months into a new house and there is still a lot of items to be fixed. Also, cabinet door was fixed on the wrong side and they won’t fix it. HH forgot to put a water shut off in the garage. A lot of mistakes. Hoping HH will reach out when they see this review.

Great Quality and customer service

Don't move in until all issues are resolved!!

Highland homes is really good and very responsive so faar we liked the quality of the construction

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

At the end of the day, our house turned out great. It was the process and timeline that was a bit of a struggle. Communication about next steps and timelines was pretty poor. Some of the final finishes looked pretty rushed but since it was already almost a year long for our build, we just needed to get in the house.

I really can't say enough. They were great!

The whole team were great, kept sending me updates, pictures… great team from builders to the mortgage Thank you all

We had several issues that stemmed from a lack of communication from the design side, like door trim that has known issues with the doorknob hardware, a kitchen island that was both more expensive and not what we we told we were ordering, and options like pre-sealed grout that we only learned about after the fact. That coupled with some issues like, tile needing to be regrouted because it was done poorly, and flooring being stained by banister varnish, left us feeling frustrated by the process overall. We understand that our home was built during the covid pandemic, and we always tried to be patient and understanding, but a lot of the work felt rushed, poorly done, or needed to be redone. We really appreciated our second building manager, who really seemed to be focused on trying to get our house back on track. ... More

Great company!! My representative responded expeditiously! Thanks!