Highland Homes Reviews in Austin, TX

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.

Initially everyone was great. But as closing came, things were different. Brick color was different from what we chose. There were so many little things that was promised but didn’t happen. Frontyard was just not great looking. Trees look dead. I asked the builder multiple times… not much response. I had to ask to power wash the garage. Had to ask to clean the floor before moving in. I wish the handover would have been more official and smoother… and 100%. I had bought some houses from other builders.. had completely different experience. Builder was nice.. but didn’t meet the expectations. ... More

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.

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

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

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

Quality of materials and work of subcontractors is atrocious.

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.

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.

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!

construction manager missed upgrades, sales team gave no updates or responses, and important options were never presented during selections. Extremely disappointing.

If you’re considering working with Highland Homes and their preferred lender—don’t. This has been one of the most frustrating and disappointing experiences of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. They had our loan documents for months, and every time they asked for updated paperwork, we responded immediately. And to be clear—none of the delays were due to issues with our approval or finances. We were fully qualified. The only thing standing in the way was their incompetence. Somehow, our paperwork still “got lost in the shuffle.” One week before closing, they casually informed us the deal would need to be postponed because they still hadn’t sent the documents to the VA. That delay? It cost us another 39 days, forced my family into temporary housing, and added an incredible amount of stress to what should have been an exciting time. Throughout this nightmare, there was a constant game of blame ping-pong. No accountability. No urgency. Just a whole lot of “not my department.” And if that wasn’t enough—now that we’ve been in the house for nearly two months, we still can’t receive mail. Why? Because the developer forgot to install mailboxes on our street. You read that right: mailboxes. Gone. Missing. Never installed. Despite repeated visits to the post office and escalating the issue, Highland Homes has done absolutely nothing to resolve it. Just more deflection, delay, and disinterest. When you spend $1.2 million, you expect a minimum level of competence and customer service. What we got was a masterclass in how not to take care of your buyers. Bottom line: Buy the home, but bring your own lender—and a backup plan for basic services. ... 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.

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

We purchased our Highland Home on a 70-foot lot in the La Cima community. While the home is visually attractive, we do not believe it was worth the price paid. Our appraisal came in below the contract price, and Highland strongly contested it, relying on trade adjustments rather than true comparable market sales to justify the higher value. There were also construction issues that should never occur at this price point. The exterior brick was installed incorrectly — set inside the foundation edges rather than flush or evenly overhanging — which resulted in a loss of interior square footage. We paid for several upgrades, yet every upgraded feature had quality issues. For example, the upgraded soft-close cabinets (a feature that is standard even in many lower-end builds) were poorly constructed and remain an ongoing issue to correct. The drywall and paint work throughout the home were subpar, with visible imperfections everywhere. The flooring appeared rushed and shortcuts were taken, including the use of quarter rounds to conceal poor workmanship. When those quarter rounds were later painted, paint was splattered onto the flooring, requiring multiple planks to be replaced. Overall, attention to detail was clearly lacking. The home felt rushed to meet closing deadlines rather than properly finished. Electrical outlets and switches were placed inconsistently or impractically. Doors consistently creak. Concrete work throughout the property looks unfinished and careless. Additionally, Highland offered a smart-home package to buyers who paid less than we did, then informed us midway through construction that the package was no longer available to us. Low-voltage wiring was improperly placed, incompatible, or missing altogether. While not legally required, we believe Highland had an ethical responsibility to disclose known safety concerns or potentially dangerous conditions or individuals in the area, which was not done. Based on our experience only and on our opinion only, we would not choose Highland Homes again and would advise prospective buyers to thoroughly inspect workmanship, upgrades, and pricing justification before proceeding. ... More

We have had issue after issue. Some of our service requests have been submitted multiple times. We have received a faulty water faucet a total of 3 times! We have still not received our gold lighting that was in our signed contract after 3 months of being in our home. Our roof leaked after the snow day which left our ceiling stained. The buying experience was great but the service sucks! I gave it two stars because our sales consultant was wonderful. It’s after buying the home that’s been the most stressful! This home cost too much money to have this many problems.

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

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.