Pulte Homes Reviews in Akron, OH

This was our first experience building a home and overall, we are happy with our home and believe Pulte built us a solid home. But, the devil is in the details. From the day the foundation was dug to actual closing, our estimated closing date was delayed 6 weeks. Pulte did their best to prepare us for this inevitability because of the current conditions on materials and trades, but it was still extremely frustrating. A week after they committed to a closing date, they pushed it back another 8 days which meant we had to reschedule deliveries and utilities. Throughout the build we noted a few issues, like poor quality of framing lumber (lots of warped boards, bark, splits, and just overall bad workmanship of the pre-fabricated walls. Then, our framing was rained on for a month straight with no roof, leaving all of our interior lumber discolored. Electrical and plumbing workmanship was excellent. Final finishing was a mixed bag - in general the drywall and paint were done well but there were some pretty glaring issues we were surprised to see on final walkthrough. Tile work was sloppy but by the time it was done there was no time to fix. This was the biggest disappointment for us, especially based on how much it cost to get subway tile in our main bathroom. Prices for options like upgraded hardware, lighting, ceiling fan boxes, bathrooms, etc. were generally reasonable but they add up quickly - why aren’t ceiling fans prewired in every bedroom on a home whose base cost is ~$450k? That said, the sales associate was extremely helpful in walking us through options and costs so we had no surprises when it was time to pick out specific finish colors and options. One excellent thing I will give Pulte credit for is the outstanding quality of our kitchen. ... More

Sales is outstanding. The agent on site in the model is top notch. The build process is tried and true. Quality and workmanship is solid. The financing process through Pulte Mortgage is excellent. However, upon occupancy customer service in the field falls down in addressing outstanding issues.

Process was seamless and easy

The overall build experience was positive. Dan was great to work with in terms of responsiveness, communication, and tried to be as accommodating as possible. The quality of workmanship was lacking (most likely subcontracting). Even after the pre-closing walk through, some of the fixes where not any better than the original issue(s). However, I will say that Dan will work to make things right.

The purchase and selection process was excellent. When it came to the actual home build, my wife and I were surprised at the lack of attention to detail by most of the trades. Multiple items needed to be fixed prior to our closing date. We have been in our home for almost six weeks and there are still multiple items that have not been resolved. We are also constantly cleaning paint drips and paint smears off of our floor from when the walls and trim was painted inside the home. The amount of paint that is also on our siding from the trim being painted is creating a lot of additional work for us in a brand new home, which has been disappointing and time consuming. Again, attention to detail. It is strange that moving into a newly built house has created so much maintenance work for the home buyer. ... More

Disappointment with the quality of the work through the house. It looked rushed and sloppy. Have had a difficult time having them come out to complete the rest of the stuff that was not completed before closing.

Pulte does a great job at selling a home, but that’s where the experience seems to end. With countless issues and no response in repair or communication, Pulte seemingly only works on the front end. Quality is not a high priority and neither is fixing quality issues. They were responsive in the selling/buying process, but once it’s sold they go MIA. We were also having a fence put in and a contractor did damage to our yard. When confronted about paying more to the defending company to fix it, the construction manager told us to find a new fencing company instead because f fixing the problem. Not impressed overall. ... More

The experience started out poorly when we were forced to accept a design that included windows in master bedroom which was not part of the original design. It seems odd that the city can require windows without owners approval. It changes interior design quite a bit. I thought the trades were very sloppy during construction with little cleanup being done a little concern for the next trades coming in. Our construction manager Dustin was wonderful to work with and had to correct numerous mistakes. In the end we were satisfied with the house but Dustin had to do quite a bit of follow up.

Good home, and Great support from the financial team specially Wendy Hendrick, however no response from the warranty team since closing two months ago. There are 5 issues identified during the closing on March 22nd and there is no commitment or timing from the warranty team to close issues agreed during closing.

Sales team and construction managers were responsive and helpful

Overall the experience has been fine. I was set on the lot so I built with Pulte. Our sales representative, Jessica was misinformed on a number of items so we had to push hard to try to get what was promised. Dustin was excellent during the entire build. Quality of material and some crews need to be improved at this price point.

Make sure your home is complete before you accept. We're still without proper drainage off the downspouts. This is causing water in the basement. A 6 week old home should not have water issues in the basement.

So we closed on Aug 30th. At that time there were still many unresolved issues with our home. The outside need to be completed, the grading needed to be completed, our actual final appliances were not installed, a window needed fixing or replacing, etc. When we did our walk through on Thursday Aug 26th we were assured all of these issues, excluding the appliances, would be resolved prior to closing. None of these were. The interior issues were still being worked on when we actually left the house to go to closing. In hindsight we should not have closed before all the work was done or at the very least was firmly scheduled. I have now had to go through the repair ticked process for things that should have been done prior to closing. It is getting fairly frustrating as only a couple of issues have actually been resolved now 2 mos after closing. We are still hopeful that Pulte will get these corrected in a very timely manner. ... More

Let me start by saying - the home is gorgeous and we will eventually be very happy with our decision. The house isn’t falling over and I do believe we received a fantastic deal in this market. Now onto the bad. I feel like we were deceived by our salesman. Several items that we thought would be included in our home turned out to be options that were not included. A tiled shower and the wood/metal stair railing are just two that come to mind that were never even offered to us to ‘upgrade’. Upon moving in, many items were not even completed. Closet doors not finished (no gliders in the floors and no paint), a cracked window, flooring installed in closet not all the way to wall, walls needed patched, towel racks coming out of walls, etc. Most of these things have still yet to be corrected. Then during the first week and a half in the house, we had two water leaks. The first took far long to repair and the second was just okay. During this, we found out that our water shutoff valves for the upstairs were installed wrong and did not work properly. Also, while most of these items have been repaired, we are still waiting for the fan to be replaced in our half bath as it was likely damaged by the water leaks. We had to have our front porch concrete re-poured because of an obviously visible incorrect slope. This took two weeks to repair and while doing so they left our siding on the ground in the mud not even lying flat. During the re-pour they got concrete on other siding that still needs replaced. Workers used my hose (not a big deal) but couldnt even clean up after themselves leaving in sprawled all over the front yard. A porto john was left on my front yard for several weeks although houses on both sides of me were still being built. I had to dig up a 10-12 foot piece of wood (2x6) that was mostly buried but had a 1-2 foot section extending up through the ground and clearly noticeable leaning against the house. Honestly the list goes on and on and on but I think you get the point. I never expected to have a perfect house, but I didnt expect so many things to be wrong, nor did I expect things to take so long to fix thereafter. If you go with Pulte, don’t ‘trust’ they will get it done because they wont. Be the bad guy and hound them til its completed to your satisfaction. ... More

For the price paid, I expected a lot more from the builder but they counted penny's on everything. Not including the lawn is one thing. But, that maybe is a perk that some builders provide but, the kitchen cabinets do not come with handles, the bedroom doors do not have locks etc. Also, we were not told most of the options during the initial discussions so we really missed out on somethings that we may have considered if got mentioned.

Typical contractor grade materials. The can definitely reflect which sub contractors cared more vs. which ones were just in and out. Rushed to get work done to hit their monthly close numbers. Left a significant amount of open items not completed after we moved in. My recommendation: explicitly ask at time of initial home review what items are included and what are not and get it in writing. follow up with the build on a weekly, if not daily basis and bring to attention immediately.

The language of the sales person changes once you sign the contract, they never give you all the correct information to make informed decision. But the knowledge of sales person was good and helped us make great selections. Construction manger very rigid, he is just for passing information, only time he was responsive was when he wanted a rating of 10. Customer service team responds to issues as per their convenience. The whole home construction experience is designed as per Pulte convenience and not Customer convenience/satisfaction. At the end but the house was good the experience was bad.

Get projects done before closing.

So far, quality of home is better than previous home from lower cost builder. However construction process was a nightmare.

As long as you follow the standard design, you should be OK. If your model is flipped, or you have some upgrades, you will need to keep on top of things. Many small finish details get overlooked at the push to the end.

There were lack of details in finish. When we did our final inspection on our closing day, we found several issues such as dirty floor, stained kitchen faucet, missing pendant lights, missing cabinet piece in kitchen island, not levelled cabinet door, visible nail marks on molding, construction debris on roof, and etc. Although the majority of these were addressed, we are still waiting for our pendant lights and new kitchen faucet after two months. In addition, our driveway and walkway were poured more than 7 weeks after moving in. Our yards still not graded, so we might not be able to put grass seeds this year although we moved in spring. It is frustrated not being able to enjoy what we already have paid in full. The most frustrating issue is with our hardwood floors. We have hardwood floors on all three floors, but we found out that there were a lot of drywall dust trapped inside of grains of hardwood floor pieces. We raised this issue during the final inspection and basically got no solution. After trying few different methods, we realised we need to manually get the dust out of individual grain using a small screw driver. I stopped almost immediately because it could damage the hardwood pieces. Therefore, it looks like we are stuck with dirty hardwood pieces because they have no intention of cleaning for us. I believe this could have been prevented during the construction if the work was done more carefully or the floor was put after drywall was completed. It is definitely disappointed to see these floors every day. We feel that we deserve a better quality finish product, considering the price of the house and the payment was made on the closing day. Please check all the details of your house as much as possible before moving in and make sure that the majority of work gets done immediately after your inspection. I actually think the final inspection should take place few weeks before the closing day instead of closing day, so the issues can be fixed prior to move in or closing. I think we have little or no leverage after closing when discussing and prioritising outstanding issues. ... More

Watch any deals they offer, those tend to disappear! Quality of paint and trim work is extremely poor. The painters will paint over dirt and anything on walls without wiping them down first. House looks great if you aren't one to pay attention to details.

Look at all materials before closing

The house itself is great for the most part. Once closing takes place, they forget about you. We've had to beg for 6 weeks to get the final grade completed. Lack of response to e-mails and texts is maddening. There is still a list of items that need done. In summary: pre-close, great (A+) - post-close, horrible (F).

Quality of work could have been better. Really not worth spending so much money in pulte. There are other builders like Dress home and the quality of work is excellent.