Pulte Homes Reviews in Chicago, IL

Have been in my new home about 5 weeks now and feel I made an excellent decision to buy a Pulte home in Trillium Farm. While we still have some minor issues to iron out all seems to be going quite well.

Home is in good shape so far with only a few issues identified. Service Manager responds to service requests quickly. Construction manager was able to answer all questions during building process. Sales manager was not responding to emails and phone calls sent during home construction and was not very helpful. Overall we love the home plan we have selected and plan to utilize most of the space.

I think Pulte is like most large builders. You get a solid home that is built on the principles of mass production. A lot of your experience is going to be based on the local subcontractors and their quality of work and attention to detail. I have not had any major issues or problems with my home, but some custom build homes I have had in the past were far superior.

Design of heating, cooling and plumbing on a concrete slab needs improvement.

Build is good. But long time to complete.

Schedule adherence was great. In general, the house is built good and looks good. However there are aspects that left 1)quality of materials for cabinets etc 2) lack of quarter rounds on hardwood floors is an eye sore 3) No transition where carpet and tiles meet and it looks a bit dangerous 4) heat is mostly going into one side of the house(hopefully can be fixed) 5) feels like we can hear every sound from outside

Great selection of materials, options, and upgrades.

Wendy was by far the most responsive and customer friendly of your team.

I was just excited about the entire build process with Pulte. Right from the start of the home selection process, through the interior design session and the actual build the Pulte team were always very helpful and constantly providing me with all the information I needed. The quality of the home is very good and I feel I got real value for my money invested. I can only offer great recommendation for Pulte as a valued home builder based on my experience.

Inability to negotiate anything in the contract T&Cs, a bit upsetting. Other than that, builder did a good job all around.

Don't be afraid to pick out your own items in the house, even if they don't offer it.

Everything up front has bee great After closing response is slow! Don’t blame it on virus!

Field staff and sales staff were great. Closing was a disaster

I've had several fixed or to be fixed issues with the home thus far. High speed in bathroom fan did not work, honeycomb leak in basement, sump drain had to have rocks removed from it, Master bathroom sink drain does not close, stripped screw on outside garage door handle, water running off side of roof and has not been looked at for almost 4 weeks, poor paint/patch job on outside garage door, crack on outside shower trim. Some of these I've not put tickets in for yet as I can only be around so often

Follow each step with a close attention for details

Buying experience was ok good communication initially. Once the build process started only two opportunities to see the build process pre drywall and final walkthrough. On final walkthrough about a dozen minor issues. Home inspector said the AC wasn’t working, sump pump was the cheapest quality you can purchase. Most issues were fixed prior to closing found on the final walkthrough. Closing process with Pulte was horrible they delayed closing by 5 days everything is on their timeline.

Home construction completed within time frame. Not sure where it is a smart home as advertised. For the price we expected the interior doors to be solid rather than hollow core doors. Also response time for a continued problem has been slow and no return calls.

First time home builder, fell in love with a neighborhood where Pulte had the remaining lots. The build process itself was pretty painless - there was a decent rough schedule of when to expect things (and when not to, with some of the supply chain issues causing delays), and progress was pretty consistent. On the whole, I do like my house, and I think it looks nice - we've had a couple service issues (shrunken joist causing a dip in the floor), but Pulte Customer Service has been responsive thus far. The design center experience was actually pretty fun, though I remain a little bummed that Pulte stays (intentionally) limited on customization options - I love my standup shower, but to not even have the option of adding a wall niche for shampoo seems really behind normal trends (they offered a glass shelf instead). The frustrations started later in the process during the finish work - I didn't appreciate the letter "forbidding" me from visiting the house, and while I can understand that they don't want buyers distracting workers and that they're trying to actively avoid changes, it doesn't do much for your confidence in the process when you're told you can't see the work going on. There is a very short "celebration of craftsmanship" walkthrough ahead of the close where you can go through and point out issues with paint/finish, but I think it's unreasonable to assume everything will get caught in one hour. Additionally, more time would have allowed me the opportunity to actually think about some of the things I was seeing (the mantle I selected at the design center is a good match to the floor, but I don't love it against the rest of the room, so I would have at least liked the chance to do a change order even at extra cost). The other major frustration has been with the handling of the weather-affected items on the exterior. I built over the winter, so I knew that I would likely close with the driveway/landscaping still pending, but getting those final items completed was a genuine irritation. There was no communication of a schedule (the "official" response from the project manager was "the subcontractors don't follow the schedule I give them, so anything I give you would be wrong", which is an unacceptable non-answer that actually makes me more concerned that my house has quality issues if Pulte has such little authority/control over its subs), so crews would just appear with equipment at random. I work from home, so this was a massive inconvenience, as I'd be on important calls and unexpectedly would have a tractor 10' behind me in the backyard grading the lot, or I'd run an errand and come back to discover my driveway had been blocked off for asphalt while I was gone (was super lucky that I had my car out already, because the crew "was surprised" that it wasn't a vacant house, so they hadn't even rung the doorbell to warn me). I would HIGHLY advise anyone building over the winter to try to push the closing to after ALL work is completed, because Pulte is ineffective (or just not interested) at minimizing the inconvenience to you once you're in the house. ... More

Purchase of the property was made relatively easy by people involved. Lack of communication was a bit frustrating during the process. Construction and materials used is subpar in certain areas. Most materials appear to be builder’s grade. Once moved in noticing many issues. Most screens on windows are bent, large dried concrete spills on basement floor, exhaust fans that are defective and need replacing, windows that don’t remain open, tiles and sinks damaged during install, scratches in windows. Not satisfied with materials and construction for price paid.

A lot of open issues during closing, which the construction team did address afterwards.

Now that we’ve lived in our new house for close to two months we are settling in and are happy with the finished product. Pulte completed some of the punch list items and a few are outstanding, however we are optimistic they will be completed. After a two year search of new and existing homes we found Trillium Farm. The home designs and proximity to Blackwell Forest Preserve were the main selling features for us, Going into the purchase we had read other reviews so we had a sense of what to expect and this was helpful information. As others mentioned, Pulte rushes you through the various phases but is slow in other phases. Our contract signing day was close to the end of the day near the end of August 2021. On that day we had to select all the options and the exterior color scheme or our place in line would go to someone else. It felt incredibly rushed considering the size of the purchase we were about to commit to. Pulte has pre-set color packages. It would have been helpful if they had generic exterior color renderings to see what the combination of finishes look like if they expected us to make such a quick decision. The design studio experience could also be improved. Pulte emails out an electronic design book with small images of the available selections a month in advance of the appointment. Pulte could provide some aids to prospective buyers narrow down selections in advance. Links to manufacturer websites could help. Also, an opportunity to visit the design center on a weekend in advance just to look around and not be pressured by a salesperson would have made the selection day (time constrained) 3-hour design experience so much easier. Once we were in the construction phase, we did not receive the regular communication promised by Pulte. Since we lived in the area, we started making weekly visits to check on the progress directly, and this gave us some peace of mind that work was progressing. The completion deadline shifted several times. We were trying to time the sale of our existing house with the completion of the new one. This is where things became very expensive because we trusted their “firm date”. Instead, we had to rent back our house for a month, then move to a hotel for three weeks, put all of our belongings in storage and compensate a moving company for two moves. ... More

Pretty happy with our new Pulty home. Our superintendent resigned recently, but it appears thing will get better with our new guy. We were a little disturbed that all our neighbors have a punch list of minor thing as we do, even though they have been here for 10 months. Just little annoyances. Everyone is very nice and easy to work with once we make contact. They should finish up all the existing homes before they plunge ahead with the new ones. Glad we purchased when we did as the price keeps going up. I was aware of the quality going in, but keep reminding myself that this is not a custom home. ... More

Good experience overall. However, Pulte doesn't offer customization. It would be nice if 1% to 2% of the budget was for personal customizations especially for older people. In the noise of building there were too many lapses on their part of what we wanted. Their response usually was that "is was not in the contract", well yes, if Pulte didn't write it down and put it in the contract. But overall the workmanship is good, layout is good, and response from company is good.

Service getting delayed for seat installation

Overall, we do love our home. It's a beautifully designed home and the perfect space for our lives. Generally speaking, the workmanship is okay. You can tell there some things that were quickly done with little attention to detail. But compared to what I have heard/seen elsewhere, I don't think it's truly that awful. The nature of the pandemic has affected our home coming together and getting our appliances worked out has been messy, but I feel our construction manager has done the best he could given the circumstances.