Pulte Homes Reviews in Chicago, IL

Buyer beware with these guys.

Been in the home almost 2 months and I have reported several items that need fixed like shower doors with no bottom tract , dented bathroom door, cracked cabinet, cracked window, grout seems showing in kitchen granite etc . to name a few. No one has showed up to fix anything.

The final paint on the overall house interiors is very bad and requires so much maintenance. The appliances that are provided are not good and they take no responsibility to replace it within the warranty period. The price that we have paid for the upgrades are way too high than they are worth for. Even the lawn was not set properly by them.

Please be very careful when deciding a Pulte home. Your first experience at the model, just like with any other builder, will be a great one and you will see the potential for your home. First piece of advice, I would ensure you have a good sales consultant that knows what they are doing and is knowledgeable. Ours was the opposite of that and essentially ruined the home buying experience for us. She tried to charge us for things that were not needed, neglected to advise us that basic items, such as a master bathroom mirror and a garage door opener were not included in the purchase. Those two items we learned about the days leading up to closing. Floors are uneven in the home, the home was unfinished and dirty, and then responses to get workers to the house have been, at best, slow to respond. It has been nearly two months since closing and we are still waiting for "punch list" items to be completed regarding the interior of the home. Pulte and their sales consultants seem to be more concerned about profitability vs customer satisfaction which is unfortunate considering how much people are spending on these homes. (Note: I have requested someone from Pulte to contact me regarding my experience thus far and their neglect to do so speaks volumes about their feelings towards customer service) ... More

Entire home appears to have been finished as quickly as possible, with countless interior areas overlooked. Required tons of manual cleanup and touchup afterwards, as Pulte is essentially impossible to get ahold of after closing. Even if you get in touch with them (after several repeated emails), they become unresponsive again and do not address any issues. The other many negative reviews on this site are true. Drywall work was far from perfect, with plenty of visible seams and poorly covered-up mistakes. Windows were scratched and cracked. Cabinets had countless dents and holes. Doors were dinged, dented, and cracked. Buyer beware! ... More

Response from warranty representative is very poor

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.

Communication was nonexistent. A clear lack of communication within Pulte, from a sales staff who did not care about the truth, and a site manager who had no idea what was going on. Texts left unanswered for days. 6 months delayed delivery, but no heads up until the last second. Closing walk through the house was still dirty and a contractor took a poop in our toilet. No follow up on unfinished painted areas. Sloppy work on tye bsckyard removal of trees. They left a mess, rotten wood pieces with nails sticking out.

Code minimum builder. Need to improve customer experience

The overall construction and build quality was decent. The responsiveness during closing period has been great. Just after the closing the customer support experience has been one of the worse. Even for issues as urgent as gas leak they customer experience manager continued to ignore emails snd and any form of communication for weeks. I wouldn’t spend the money to buy a Pulte home again given how bad the move in experience was.

There’s zero accountability all around.

Building a home with Pulte was one of the worst experiences of our life. We had previously built two homes with smaller builders and had a positive experience with both. The other builders made every effort to meet our needs, with Pulte it was take it or leave it. We met with the Design Center and after making our selections were later told our wood flooring, wall tile and countertops were not available no effort would be made to provide them. Later while we were in Florida we learned the applince package was no longer available. Our predrywall meeting was another issue. It was scheduled on a date when I was out of town on a trip that had been planned for a year. When we asked to move it back a day we were told that was impossible. My wife went by herself and was left with the impression we would get a key and have access to the house during construction as we did with the previous two houses we built. We found out this wasn't true and we had to make arrangement with our sales rep to go in and see the progress on the house. We had no input into the closing date even within the two week window which was all we heard throughout the construction progress. Finally, the landscaping was down in a very hapharzd manner. We had no input and the landscapers gave no consideration to which plants did well in shade versus sunshine. It seemed like they grabbed whatever was available when they left the nursery and planted them. ... More

We really like the design of the house. There is a lot of storage space. You do, however, pay extra for every little things. The things that come standard are so basic that everyone - from the sales person to the consultant at the design meeting highly encourages you to upgrade, which then, of course, drives up the cost for the house. Most frustrating has been our closing experience. We had a pre-closing walk-through date set. At 5 PM the night before, we got a call that the walk-through and our move-in date (scheduled for that weekend) had to be moved back. I understand issues around supply, but those should have been known earlier on. We already had everything set up to make the move happen - and trying to manage a move during COVID with a 1-year old baby is challenging enough without the company changing dates on you last minute! Many of the issues from our pre-closing walk-through had not been addressed. We have since added additional items to the list that we noticed (e.g., we paid extra for a mirror in our master bathroom since don't come standard - the mirror they installed was chipped. We didn't notice it during the walk-through as a lot of furniture had paint splatters on it - so I assumed it was the same with the mirror. But when I looked at it, it was chipped). Now, two months later, nothing has been taken care of. Last Friday, we were told that contractors would stop by to address all items on the list. The e-mail confirmation, however, only listed two of about 10 items. We called and were told all items would be addressed. I then rearranged my work schedule to make sure I was available during the time the contractors would come by. And nobody came. We called to let them know and now, almost a week later, nothing has been done yet. I have responded to several surveys sharing the challenges we've had with getting our closing items completed - we then get a phone call from someone higher up in the company promising that things will be taken care of. That sometimes results in an e-mail or phone call promising that work will get done - but then there is no follow-through. I would not buy from Pulte ever again. ... More

The only positive from building this house was Dave, the construction manager. He helped always and was very kind and caring. We have many areas where paint is there. We have many dents in our drywall that were just painted over and never filled in. We have paint drips all over the house on our floors. The three external doors all close wrong and weather striping is coming off. We have huge ditches in our yard that the city said had to be made or we'd have flooding. No one compensated us for no yard now but charged us additional money for a corner lot. At least they could have taken away the extra charge for the lot to compensate us for having no yard. We may have 15 x 20 piece of yard to have outside fun in. Our side yard on the garage side is so slanted that you can not even walk down that side of the house. We paid extra for a side garage door to go in and out of and we can not even use. They forgot the door and had to cut the concrete on the garage footings to put the door in. They also do not have the concrete slab outside the door attached to the foundation. Plus it is so high you a difficult time steppng onto it. It also has the under gravel showing and no dirt covering it. We have a dog and can not even put a fence up because of the deep ditches. Now for Morgan at the mortgage company. She made our life miserable with her uneducated knowledge of the closing process. We knew more than she did and had to tell her numerous times what she needed or needed to do for us. She even stepped in for someone off on our day of closing and caused us a huge delay in our delivery of our furniture etc. from our movers because she said she didn't have the correct paperwork even though the person doing the closing had received it from them and had it on the closing paperwork. She did nothing to help but did more to make us crazy. We would tell people at Plute at different levels and they would ask who we were speaking of and we'd say Morgan and they'd go Oh. Like they had heard this many times before about her. I also used your insurance company for our house and haven't received anything regarding it or paid for anything. I keep having to ask for information and help to get our house covered. I will have to do this again today to see if we do have house coverage. So I'd say we have NOT had much good come from buying a house from Pulte from many of the Pulte owned companies. Sad to see the workmanship on something you pay hard earned money for. ... More

Overall experience was terrible. It starts with Sales doing a poor job helping you through the many options. Then it continues with promises from both Sales and the Construction making promises that are never kept. The contracts are written to steer you to use Pulte Mortgage, who is non-responsive unless they want something. Communication is very poor throughout the process. Then to top it off, when you finally get to the ‘Celebration’ phase of the process, the quality of the house they built is not very good. In true Pulte fashion, the final walk through is setup 90 minutes before closing, so you get rushed and miss many of the shoddy items until later. They got our money, but do yourself a favor and avoid any Pulte built homes. ... More

The home was not ready to turn over way to many quality issues that should have been corrected if Pulte expected higher quality work. Very disappointing

Stay away from Pulte Homes if you can - everything is so expensive, poor quality, bad handing of issues, no peace of mind !!!

My overall experience purchasing a home with Pulte was deeply disappointing. While they are incredibly efficient when it comes to collecting escrow payments, that urgency doesn’t extend to providing timely or transparent updates. We received our official closing date with less than two weeks’ notice—seemingly driven by their internal push to meet end-of-month sales numbers rather than any consideration for the buyer’s planning needs. The sales process was equally frustrating. The sales team uses scripted enthusiasm to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, suggesting that you’re getting a remarkable deal that required “pulling strings.” In reality, the pricing and incentives turned out to be fairly standard—nothing extraordinary. When I expressed this perspective, the salesperson was visibly irritated, which was unprofessional and disappointing. As for the build quality, it leaves much to be desired. While the finishes might look nice at first glance, they mask the use of noticeably low-grade materials. It’s a “looks good from far, but far from good” kind of situation. Post-closing, the customer service has been a major letdown. The service team is slow to respond, and when they do, it’s typically to deflect responsibility rather than offer solutions. Several issues were dismissed outright or deemed outside of warranty, even though the home was brand new. Getting help from the service team feels like talking to one of their flimsy interior walls—no support, no resolution. In short, this has been an incredibly frustrating experience. While Pulte excels at collecting payments, they fall drastically short when it comes to communication, service, and build quality. I would advise prospective buyers to proceed with caution and go in with eyes wide open. ... More

Less than two months since we moved in, there are numerous issues that need to be addressed. The workmanship and materials used are of poor quality. Additionally, the communication regarding the completion of exterior items is extremely poor. We had to follow up multiple times to obtain a timeline for their completion. Overall we are not happy with the purchase and value for the price paid.

This bad experience started with a bidding war on lots. Then the high prices for features, then not disclosing that home wouldn’t be ready at our forced, rushed closing date. They stated that our landscaping and driveway wasn’t done due to their bust schedule even though other homes not even sold had theirs completed before winter hit. Then their mortgage people’s refusal to us for withholding funds since the home wasn’t completed at closing and Bradyn, the manager, had no estimate when it would be completed since they had 30 more homes to work on. Poor response from him and poor craftsmanship on exterior trim work, etc. I will never buy from them again, nor recommend them. ... More

So glad you asked. Where do I start? Home was in a FEMA flood zone. This was not disclosed at time of sale. Amy, salesperson, could not show me samples or pictures of the exterior siding or brick when asked. Closing credit was to be applied for flood insurance but this was not done. Flood insurance was not purchased by Pulte as indicated on closing documents. Issues with basic functions like heat and water. Issues with home are not being properly addressed. I feel if Pulte can make a nickel more profit as opposed to customer satisfaction they would choose the nickel. I am happy with the layout of the home and the community. Overall very disappointed At this point I would tell people to avoid a Pulte home ... More

Absolutely not a great experience buying home with Pulte, they do not maintain the community after the closing. They do not respond on time, for warranty issues, have been trying to reach construction manager, their responsiveness is absolutely disastrous.

This was not a great experience. My first review was very in depth but it ‘drew business away’ but new home source wouldn’t post it because they are paid by the builders to host their information - just to be transparent. This was bad from start to finish it has been months since closing and many items are still not completed on our punch list. We do not have final occupancy from the village. It has been a struggle every moment of the way. Good Luck!

They gave me an unfinished house. After multiple follow-ups they send someone to finish up some paint work, and he leaves it half finished. The quality of such expensive houses is very questionable with mesh door not getting locked, and flimsy pull out drawers in the kitchen.

We understand we are living in unique times with unprecedented challenges. That being said Pulte has failed in their production and delivery. For the most part the employees are well intended. There were minor problems with the sales department and mortgage department. These were normal and generally handled in a professional manner. Unfortunately, Pulte constructions has not adjusted to the current economic conditions and challenges they present. Instead of giving us better quality finishings, as we expected, corners were cut on material purchases and sloppy work was done. Needless mistakes. Our bathroom doors banged together. We were told that the door stoppers they used met specifications so that was normal. Really… it is normal for the doors to hit each other after the stoppers have been adjusted as far as they can? Very frustrating on a simple item. We had to go out and buy doorstops that cost a few cents more, take the doors off, install the new doorstops which resolved our problem. All at our expense. This is just one of many examples. We have had to fix numerous items ourselves. The process has not been a pleasant experience. What is shown in sales literature is not what has been delivered. Most of what we read negatively online turned out to be true. Based on the terms of our contract we had to close on a Home that was not finished in a professional workman like manner. Some of the work in the home is of good quality. Most of the work in the home lacks expertise and care. Sloppy finishing work. Needless mistakes. Many of these mistakes could’ve easily been fixed during the production process. Everything was rushed in an effort to close prior to the end of the year. Warranties and repairs are only as good as the people doing the work. They tried 6 times to replace and install our kitchen cabinet doors. We have decided to do it ourselves and hire our own contractor. This nonsense is mind numbing. Pulte has thrown out thousands of dollars of perfectly good cabinet door because of mistakes being made. Needless mistakes. We understand that this is a production home but that doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable to do substandard work. It has cost us a significant amount of money to fix many of their mistakes and make our home look nice. We have no reason to think that there are any significant issues with the home build. We are hopeful the structure will hold up. In conclusion: the issue is sloppy work, substandard contractors, poor craftsmanship, lack of attention to detail and workman unable to fix these issues. In most cases we had to repair finishing items ourselves at our own expense. We would not recommend Pulte to others. ... More