Pulte Homes Reviews in Orange County, CA

Our family loves our new home and am so happy that we are living in such a great home and community. The overall experience was great. If anything Pulte was very patient with us as we were having some delays with our lender and closing in time. The home is such a modern and amazing home with a great layout. Everything about our home is perfect with the exception of a few minor details. Seems like the floor boards are bit loose when you walk on them because it doesn't feel completely solid while walking on the wood floors. The stairs have nails coming out upwards and at times you will step on them and get poked by them. I wish there were a remedy for it but i was told that it was to keep the carpet on the actual steps. Lastly the sliding doors don't seem to lock smoothly. You sometimes have to shut them a certain way in order to have the door actually lock. Overall still a great home. ... More

There were issues which were noted done during the demo and was promised to be fixed before certain date. However till date those issues are still issues and not yet fixed. No or zero communication/follow ups on those open items. Lack of responsibility in addressing the issues post closing.

The house is good and John.is very responsible person. Answer the.mail and fix the.problem quickly.

Floor plan was great and construction quality is decent

Good service and design but the quality of workmanship is not very satisfying. Many times I want to repaint. Not sure about the materials but it has strong smells after one month

The work is very rough, and one door does not close after 2 months of use. A beam is skewed a bit as well. Kind rough for the work to be done here

The site/construction manager is quick and responsive to any quality issues and address it in a satisfactory way. This is the only worthy note of the whole process. Other areas need improvement, especially the sales, the quality and the design of the house.

Could use some work with workmanship and quality. Julian

A lot of people are a part of the home buying process which created unneccessary headaches due to communication issues. Once in the home there have been NUMEROUS quality issues that were missed during the repair time after the walkthrough. Some things were covered up and would never have been discovered until they became an issue if it wasnt for the fact that we decided to change some fixtures. Mis-cut holes in the ceiling that was covered up with extra caulking and paint, cracked cabinets that, dents and dings in cabinets which were just painted over with a seemingly different sheen of paint, dings in the flooring, HVAC that has had to be repaired 2x in one month due to a failure to "hoop it up properly", bubbles in the drywall, refrigerator opening to short by 1/2 inch so my standard fridge will not sit in properly without being cut, crack in the shower enclosure from what appears to be an accident, sink hole in the front yard that was just filled in with bark chips, plants that are not surviving (was told they were going to be replaced but still hasn't been done) and so on. AND IVE ONLY BEEN HERE A MONTH! Love the area, love the neighborhood, workmanship definitely not worth the price tag after seeing whats actually been done. Would probably have gone somewhere else in the area. Do your due diligence. ... More

Home buying process was okay, could have been better. Financing was okay but mostly because we were on top of it and kept following up with Pulte. They sent us letters twice saying we were not compliant even though we had submitted all the paperwork they asked for. Freaked us out but when we called they said to disregard and they would look into it. Lots of problems with the cosmetics lien paint splatters all over my countertops, neon orange spray paint on baseboards, construction manager missed an appointment where my mom drove an hour to attend, chips in my bathtubs and counter tops that need to be fixed, messy paint job on top of windows, etc. and poor insulation you can hear every toilet flush and shower really loud. They said nothing they can do about it. And the fridge we ordered is not here yet with no ETA update. ... More

Very inflexible. Once contract is signed they do not accommodate even minor simple changes.

I've purchased new homes before and this was my first time with Pulte. It was not that great of an experience. They have major communication lagging between their own internal teams. Their Mortgage Group was descent and easy to work with. Construction was always behind which is expected but they were not even ready for initial walk through date. Had to set up a second walk through. Be on top of your stuff as you get close to the closing date cause no one else will be doing that for you.

Overall happy with the home, but finish work is pretty poor. Paint runs on walls and trim. Backsplash not installed correctly. Caulking ridiculously smeared on tile and cabinets from lazy clean up. Oven not level. Paint & stucco drops all over patios. Rust stains everywhere in garage. Scratches on windows. Warped closet doors. No trash bins in kitchen cabinet (waiting over 1 month now for fix). Just to name a few. Builder has been amazingly unapologetic about the lack in quality. It’s been inconvenient to have (and still have) workers continuously come to the house to fix things, and then not do their best and have to return. I suspect with over half of owners being absentee landlords overseas, they get away with this stuff all the time. Unfortunately, it sucks for the rest of us who live here and take pride in our homes. ... More

The good: The warranty team led by John and the last construction manager Mauricio (our construction manager changed 4 times) are good and responsible people. The bad: Almost everything else. Cheap material, poor build quality, irresponsible construction site maintenance. Pulte seemed to have hired some of the most irresponsible contractors, and used the lowest quality material for items like windows, gates, trim pieces, or anything that has no upgrade option. Attention to detail is non-existent. As homeowners, both my family and some neighbors I talked with can clearly feel that Pulte does not care about the living standard of home buyers. The construction site is very dirty and littered with trash, too. ... More

We. Loses escrow on our new home at the end of November 2022. This property was bought as investment property and we immediately listed it for rent. We were fortunate to find a qualified renter who agreed to move into the home at the end of December. Three days after moving in, the half bathroom toilet on the second floor backed up . After further inspection, it appeared when the toilet was flushed on the third level, it stopped up on the lower level. Being it being New Year’s Day , the tenant contacted the emergency number for Pulte. They responded reasonably fast and were at the property the following day. After an inspection, it was noted that the main pipe was installed incorrectly and they had to open up the ceiling in the garage , below the half bath, and correct the piping system. The walls and ceiling were damaged with water and had to be cut out and replaced. Two fans had to run for three days to dry out the interior of the walls. I was OK with the response for Pulte to fix the issue but was very disappointed with their compensation. We reached out to Pulte from day one but they were slow to respond. This is a brand new home! and Pulte should step up and pay up! ... More

I've purchased three new homes, and my experience with Pulte was the worst compared to Shea and Lennar. The entire process—from loans and communication to workmanship and customer service—was disappointing. Despite my familiarity with home buying and real estate, Pulte failed at every step. Issues remain unresolved, and communication is virtually nonexistent. Receiving the keys felt confusing and lackluster, unlike the special experience new homebuyers should expect. The loan process was frustrating, especially without a rate tracker. The sales team misinformed me about upgrades, and the home walkthrough revealed unfinished work that still hasn't been addressed. Post-closing support was poor: I had to follow up multiple times with escrow and dealt with unhelpful customer care. Vendors sent by Pulte didn’t follow up, and I had to fix my dishwasher myself within the warranty period. Construction made exceptions for neighbors but ignored my needs. While I love my new home, I would not recommend Pulte to anyone. ... More

Overall not a pleasant buying experience. Lack of communication and transparency. Sales and Mortgage teams are completely disconnected. No point in going with Pulte Mortgage if there is no proper ownership and communication. Delays in construction timelines not communicated until we ask for it. Very poor sales experience. Lost all happiness of moving to new homes with hard sales process. I would expect better transparency, flexibility and talk to customer to create positive experience in the current market conditions.

I had very bad experience with Pulte. This is our first time with Pulte and we had other builders before. When we first went to the tour, the sales rep told us there were a couple lots releasing and we can put offers. He was selling us the house we bought. He said this lot has the biggest side yard and best view. We put an offer and got the house. When we came to do final walk through, the biggest yard was gone. Our side yard is the same as other lots. What is worse is that our front yard is smaller than others! When our realtor connected to the sales rep, he said he never talked those and we signed floor plan. We went back to the documents we signed. There was only floor plan and never mentioned how big is the yard. Sales rep just mentioned the value of the house already went up compared to what we have right now and we should just buy it. We can't move back as our loan is approved and we will lose the deposit if we give up. We had to move on. How bad experience we had. ... More

poor engineeringquality，price cut too fast

I am currently living in a Pulte home and yes the house is standing but their are so many small details that I am still trying to work with Pulte to fix. My experience with Pulte has been a nightmare. The absence and lack of communication seems to be consistent amongst all levels and teams at Pulte. After the initial deposit, I spent 3 to 4 months figuring out the difference between what the Pulte sellers agent told us about the home we were buying vs what we were actually getting. After we overcame that obstacle, we had to deal with Pulte consistently telling us our home was on track to close with no problems or delays for the dates they presented only to be delayed multiple times. The house was ultimately delayed multiple months with us the buyers receiving notice sometimes 3 days before our estimated close date. The Pulte team ultimately NEVER blamed their ability to plan or their operations, but instead continued to blame someone else. Truly telling. My loan officer said she has never experienced this type of lack of customer service in her 30+ years in the industry. Also it never got better... the day of escrow, Pulte waited until 8PM to communicate that they are sending their required documents to title. Obviously we could not close that day, but we could not close the next day either because Pulte did not sign the documents correctly. You would think that would be the end, but after we got the keys to our home we go in to see our home was not complete. The final FINAL blue tape inspection had already been complete yet nothing was fixed or updated. Why waste our time coming in 3 times and confirming what needs to be fixed if you are just going to ignore everything. What is worse is that there was zero communication from the Pulte team that this was happening. We actually had to call the Pulte team and ask and schedule when they are suppose to come fix all the outstanding items. Spoke to all my neighbors and everyone's experience seems to be consistent with mine. At least we all shared in the misery. ... More

Purchased a home with this company and honestly nothing but issues. They come and fix but it takes time/only available on weekdays and just an overall pain to deal. They also didn’t march the model home entirely and weren’t very helpful with much after the sale, don’t recommend

Worst ever experience with Pulte, totally unlike "Pulte". The construction manager at this Irvine site was a totally irresponsible person, should never had been hired. The quality of the home under his supervision was so so so bad, we had to fix all issues after closing. The list of defects are more than 10 pages long. Still trying to fix it with the warranty team.

Promised times/dates provided by Pulte were NEVER updated. It was only until we showed up on site that we were informed on numerous occasions. Closing date was cemented, Pulte Mortgage asked us to wire our Escrow funds, and we ended our apartment lease. We didn't receive a call for closing location, so we called... and only then was informed the day prior closing needed to be moved. We could not stay in the apartment longer so we had NO WHERE to stay. We had to move to a hotel with our personal belongings moved to a storage unit. Sales, mortgage and construction not communicating with each other and when concerns were presented, we were instructed with again, false info or told to wait... but then it's too late. In addition, since move in, on-going repairs being made as botched installs are rampant. Scratched glass, paint splatter, new carpet installation was done prior to workers finishing, carpet had large amounts of dirt. Literally DIRT! Caulking missing in areas, plumbing leaks. Pulte is focused on you turning and burning rather than doing it right the first time. Cashing in on the high demand during pandemic. ... More

This is our first home and we bought with a lot of excitement and hope. But unfortunately all of our joy of buying new home just disappear within a week as we found numerous build quality issues in each and every part of the house, it is just 3rd we are living here. We do not know how many more we yet to come across. It is just killing our confidence and making us lose trust in this Pulte builder. Even pricing Vs Upgrades they provide are very inconsistent. Interior and exterior build quality and materials are of poorest quality and on top of it workmanship is very very shoddy. It seems they did not even follow very basic quality check before handing house to the customer. There are countless chips and cracks in wood work and drywall, patches/mismatch painting. If I continue to write I can go on for whole day but I want to conclude and say we are very very disappointed to say the least. Now we have uphill task(s) in front of us creating multiple service requests, manage various service appointments and ensure they are not going to break anything lese while fixing something. ... More