Pulte Homes Reviews in Chicago, IL

From sales to closing, we have had a positive experience

The overall experience was easy and painless.

I did not like the bidding process to buying a home.

We are so very blessed to have a new beautiful home in Chasewood. The craftsmanship of the home is amazing. The entire experience from the beginning to the completion with Pulte was personable, genuine, and caring. Diane was truly enthusiastic with helping us pick our lot, explain our exterior choices, and beginning our home owning experience. We meet our on site construction managers, Jake and Mike, they always went above and beyond explaining every detail of our build. They provided a step by step explanation on the construction process in great detail. A timeline was provided to us and they did an incredible job keeping every part of this process moving along effortlessly. The communication with us was perfect. When the interior house was built, the design team was great helping us stream line our vision of our new house to come to life. There were so many beautiful choices to choose to put our own touch on our house. When our house was complete and we did our final walk through with Mike, we were speechless. He explained every inch of our house to us, provided us with comfort and confidence that Pulte built us a beautiful new home with quality craftsmanship, and cared about our future in our new home. He explained our warranty in great detail and even though our house was completed, Pulte is still there to provide us help with any issues that may arise in a new house construction. It was true….when we called Mike for a question….he was so responsive with a genuine nature to help us out. We made himself readily available at any time. Mike did an amazing job with our house, but the best part was his personality of true genuine happiness for us. He went above and beyond to make our first home construction build to honestly be perfect. Pulte provided us not only with a beautiful new home, but made us feel we were party of the Pulte family now. Thank you all so much! ... More

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

Knowledgeable, responsible, trusted, respectable team and persons. I love the house and community.

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.

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.

Our experience has been a mixed bag. Pulte has been pretty good with rectifying issues with our service calls etc. But there have been lot of quality issues we have been needing to address. As long as expectations are tempered and you are patient in the overall process things will get done. Our construct has been a great resource for us throughout the process.

If I could go back amd purchase my home from Pulte I wouldn't. They are very hard to get ahold of near the end of the building process. They are not very good at communicating and wouldn't respond to emails. They made us miss out closing date and then blamed us for missing it.

Never close on your new home until everything is completed. That includes your outside work. Sidewalks, driveways, landscaping and lawn. I was told before I closed on my new home in February that when the weather breaks they would do my sidewalk, driveway, landscaping and lawn would be completed. That is a lie! There are new houses built right now and they are getting their sidewalks and driveway done now. Here we sit with no sidewalks or driveways (just dirt and rocks). They told me and my other neighbors that are in the same boat that our outside work would not be completed for 2 MONThS! That is totally unfair and wrong. They said we would not get our sod till probably June! That is Not how you should run a business. There are a lot of people in this community that are very angry and upset. Please respond to me about this situation. Everyone told me you probably will not respond. Prove them wrong. Thanks! ... More

Maintain the timeline and delivered home at proper time as promised.

Pulte Team are the best team to work with, they were always available to assist with any questions and concerns about our new build. Can’t say enough about how Professional and kind they are.

There are some lows, overall an average satisfaction experience

Overall we like our home but numerous problems exist. Most are the result of careless mistakes that now require things to be redone and may be difficult to fix satisfactory.Wish more attention/oversight was given during the building process.

Quality of materials used is concerning. There are mold in basement which is not covered with in warranty. Radon level is high which is also not covered in warranty.. Any cosmetic damage that you see post closing is also not covered under warranty.. So basically you are taking the same risk when you buy from any ordinary builder except you pay premium price here..

It's worst and I am not going to think again going ever with Pulte Homes. Buying and building process with them was is fine but we are very disappointed with the quality of work and materials they used in the home even with everything we chosen to upgrade. I feel like we have overpaid them a lot compared to the value we received. I have contacted the service agent to get these fixed and still from 2 months waiting to get fixed With upgrades, Most of them marked to get fixed during the final walkthrough were still had open between the final walkthrough and the closing. we feel Pulte is focusing only on building many homes as they can and increasing the revenue number. Another thing I'm extremely disappointed with is that Pulte isn't flexible at all. You would have to work per their schedule and they will hardly make any changes you would want to make in the schedule even with early communication. I would advise new buyers to be very careful in buying a Pulte home. ... More

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

So far Everything has been Great

PLEASE READ MY REVIEW,after the closing we discovered that the actually house quality is a trash,all the walls and ceiling are unbelievable uneven,you can’t even install a shelf or any pictures,after one week from closing we saw the roof fell off on the half of the garage, the backyard door isn’t intact,when is raining all the water flows in the house,stove installed in only 2 screws,4 inside doors are not closing properly…and more more other things.

Responsiveness to completion and warranty issues is terrible.

I recently purchased a home from Pulte and have experienced numerous issues with the quality of the products and customer service. No one came out to repair the furnace in an emergency, leaving our house temperature to drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit for three days straight. I was troubleshooting over the phone. Additionally, there were condensation issues with the windows, which the builder refused to cover under warranty. Finally, there were no trims or molding on the basement stairs they had in other homes but decided not to do for my house. I was assured that all issues would be covered in the first year, but this has not been the case. This has been incredibly disappointing. I have paid 50K premium over the Lot premium price and bought upgrades of 91K, and still, Pulte has cheap out on so many things and given me a really bad experience with customer service, they do not want to do anything, ... More

Pulte has bitten off more they can chew. Sales associates rush you through bid process and choosing finishes. Builders are under pressure to finish in a certain time frame, hired workers who do not care about workmanship, and rushed to complete builds in the last days. It shows. Our brand new home already has a running list of work orders to get our home into the shape we would have initially expected. There has been virtually no response to our submitted work orders and we are having to reach back out , because understaffed. I hope we can get our issues resolved in a timely manner so we can enjoy our home and stop worrying about what needs to be fixed. ... More

I don't think I would ever go with Pulte Homes again in my life. The buying and building process was okay. I'm very very disappointed with the quality of workmanship and materials used in the home even with everything upgraded. I feel like I overpaid by a lot compared to the value I received in the home. Most of the items marked to get fixed during the final walkthrough were not fixed as they had only kept 2 day window between the final walkthrough and the closing. I have contacted the supervisor to get these fixed and still waiting to actually get them fixed. With upgrades, I did get to choose the stuff but it wasn't as much as I would have liked and also what their competitors such as Toll Brothers and Lennar are offering. I regret not going with the Toll Brothers who are way better and less expensive. I have a cousin who choose to go with Toll Brothers in Elgin and he was given so many options even with the standard options and the service he has been receiving is excellent. I feel like Pulte is only focused on building as many homes as they can and increasing the revenue number. Another thing I'm extremely disappointed with is that Pulte isn't flexible at all. You would have to work per their schedule and they will hardly make any changes you would want to make in the schedule even with early communication. I would advise new buyers to be very careful in buying a Pulte home. ... More