Pulte Homes Reviews

Process is extremely cumbersome. Pulte takes longer than advertised times for each phase of loan approval. Constantly asking for same documents all the time (pay stubs, bank statements, etc.)

Builders dont pay attention to details Very bad for being a new home

While the initial process was fantastic- we were soon shifted to another sales agent and a CM who was very unresponsive to our requests and issues at the beginning. I had to go above their heads multiple times to try and get things accomplished- This company will NOT share anyone above them with you- so you have to investigate yourself. While our home is beautiful, there are so many small things that really added up. We never really felt like anyone cared much for our concerns til I made a much bigger deal of them than I should have needed to. It is very disheartening to spend that kind of money on a home, only to be met with consistent "no's" unless I supremely pushed. The lack of attention to detail is glaring and can be seen in so many spots in our home. I get they arent custom, but that does not mean that you should take shortcuts to save a buck or a moment. Its obnoxious how many items we needed to clean up after them on, fix after market, and beg them not to do during the process. ... More

The Good Throughout the entire process, Linda was kind, helpful, responsive, and did everything she could to answer questions and guide us through the process. We had a great experience with her. The home is filled with thoughtful features, a finished crawl space with lights and power, a whole house fan that can cool the entire house down in an hour, plenty of lighting, timer lights on an the outside doors, and great insulation that makes the home stay cool through the heat. The network closet has conduit to pull cable from the street, and is prewired. The electrical is well done and done with care. There are little touches that make it clear the electrician cared about their work. Our builder rep at closing, Daniel, was kind and amazing. He helped us list all our concerns and chased down issues for us. He went above and beyond to ensure our satisfaction. Unfortunately, Daniel left Pulte before all of our issues could be resolved. During the design center we were rushed and our consultant was either unknowledgeable or something else. We were told that if we added anymore network to additional rooms they were required to add an additional 8 port switch beyond the included one, which they wanted 800$ more for. We opted to pull our own cable instead to the last two rooms. On close we discovered there is no switch included at all, the cat5e is just bundled with a tech loop in the cabinet. During our final walkthrough we found many issues with paint over spray, finishing damage, and issues with finish work (cracked base boards, etc ). Some of these issues were resolved before move in. Others we were told to make a list and file with customer support. Our refrigerator was not ready on close and we were told it would be here on May 10, we are now being told June 24, but only because I've been trying to chase down a rep to keep me up to date. Right now we have a cheap fridge that freezes or veggies and can't keep our frozen food cold but produces plenty of frost. We are very thankful we bought our washer and dryer ourselves. Our stove was damaged on delivery so they needed to replace it, no big deal. The replacement showed up on May 10th with no warning while we were both working and in meetings. Our landscaping on the left side was dead on close, but we were assured it would come in within a couple of weeks. Our plants are still dead and we have not heard a response on the issue yet. I dropped a can on the tile from around 2 feet and our tile chipped. The grout comes unsealed, so we spent 4 hours our first night sealing the grout Both Mike's in charge of the build site are very kind when you meet them and seem to genuinely care when you talk in person, but they do not respond to email after the fact. Overall, the home is wonderful with many great features. However, the responsiveness, and finish work is quite poor. ... More

When we had an outside inspection, we were told this was one of the best construction he has seen.

Zane made the whole experience a great one so did the title company. He was always responsive to texts and willing to help. However, I was delivered a house with some issues, which I believe is unacceptable. When I reached out to Pulte, they had people over within 2 weeks to take care of the issues.

So many things we noticed wrong about how this house was built. As if the workers got lazy towards the end and left so many mistakes. Ac broke our first month, crooked cabinets, uneven baseboards. Frustrating. Our sales rep, Eric was also not helpful at all during our process of buying. Always seemed bothered when reached out to.

Need to have more attention to detail.

I paid extra for a refrigerator there top of the line one that they had to offer. On the day of closing they put a temp one in and told me that it would be 2-4 weeks the fridge was on back order. After 4 weeks no one contacted me I had to reach out to them and the person that contacted me said he was not sure when the fridge will arrive. He would contact me which one has it. The fridge that is there stands out like a sore thumb. I am totally disappoint in the lack of communication and the sense of urgency. I paid extra for what?? I had family members laugh at the fridge cause of it's size and it is quite embarrassing. ... More

Overall, the experience has been good and the response from the Field Manager has been really great. However, some of the concerns that were reported earlier still need to be resolved like parquet finishing and repair, water leakage noise in living space, water leakage from dishwasher, cracks and peeling of plaster in some areas need to be addressed. On the external environment, the noise of running train, noise and dust from on going construction could be better managed.

We like the location and the space of homes on lots. We were disappointed with lack of flexibility to change material. For example, we wanted the room off the kitchen (that was suggested for an office) to be a butler’s pantry. Pulte would not do this. We asked to leave the room so that we could make it what we want. Their response was no. Therefore, we have paid more money to have cabinets made and we are going to dispose of the cabinet and countertops that was installed. What a sinful waste of money and resources. There was only one option for the roof and limited (very similar to every other house in the neighborhood) color palette choices. The lighting selection was also limited and not attractive. ... More

QUALITY CONTROL should be much better. Some sub-contractors do not clean up messes they made to material that was previous installed. Pulte personal do not seem to check after them to see they have done the job right or cleaned up afterwards.

To be fair, we have never contracted for a home to be built before, so there were a number of misunderstanding between us and the sales agent. We also made some bad design choices. Our sales agent was not new to the building industry, but was relatively new to this role. She does a yeoman’s job following up on questions, but by now I hope she is recognizing what is important, and what is trivial so she can better guide future customers. Positives If we asked a question of our sales representative, we got an answer. If a change we were thinking about was too expensive, our sales agent was sometimes able to get us a more cost-effective solution. Our field manager was generally regarded as one of the better, if not the best in Columbus. This guy is universally recognized for his ability to work with the customer. He did everything he could to remedy disappointments, to the point that he overspent his budget on our house. Even though we are now in a larger house, it is much tighter and better insulated, so in that respect it is more comfortable. Pulte will put ADA features such as wider doors in at pretty much their cost. We missed on one door, but the field supervisor added an extra stud during framing so we could open that space in the future if we chose. Disappointments The Design Center consultant said it best. “Pulte is a production company”. This works to the buyer’s advantage in controlling costs and getting the project finished, but it is a disadvantage to folks like us who missed key design elements. We never had luxury vinyl tile (LVT) before. It SHOULD NOT be offered as an option for the great room area. It looked like a wonderful option in the design center. However, it is loud underfoot, shows dirt easily, and is hard to clean. Since it is a floating floor, the LVT in our new home transmits vibration right through the subfloor and granite to items in the cabinets, island and countertops. We chose the free-standing gas range. We like the range, but you cannot walk within 20 feet of it without rattling the burners. Verify and clarify every detail that you can before the plans are submitted to the architect. • Know exactly what type of light fixture is going in every location. Base level fixtures are not aesthetically pleasing and/ or create dangerous conditions when it is time to change a light bulb. • Verify where the light switches will be. We have found several places where the switches are inconveniently located or where a three-way would improve livability. • Upgraded carpet pad is a separate option that we almost missed. • We had a huge misunderstanding over the style of window “grills” (field supervisor’s term) “grids” (manufacturer’s term) or “mullions” as they are called in the “Included Features” document. The net result is we have replaced the glass in our picture window. The “upgraded” paint still feels cheap and scuffs easily. Bottom line, make sure you understand details you see in the model are very likely not what you will see in your house unless you specifically agree to it in writing. Then you have to balance builder’s price to your budget. Some of folks take the standard feature, then rip it out if they think they can do something better themselves. We found this to be absurd. We wanted an ADA height toilet in one bathroom only, but were only given the option to have all ADA or all standard height. Whose house is this? Why should our toddler grandchildren have to scale a tall toilet when a standard toilet is hard enough already? Make sure you are willing to live with the size of lot you chose. None of the driveways in our subdivision had been installed when we went into contract, so we did not see this issue. The two-car driveways are not wide enough to get out of the car without stepping on to the grass (and/ or mud). They are only 1-car length, so you cannot stagger parking to facilitate getting in and out with two cars in the driveway, which is tough on seniors. If you can, find out what the grade will be looking like up to the entrances. The driving force for us was to get to a home where we could live better given our arthritis. Our lot ended up with some extra incline and extra steps at the entrances making it that much harder (and potentially dangerous) to enter and exit on icy days. Pulte delegates warranty work to the subcontractors unless it was an appliance issue for which Whirlpool has a separate service provider. We have had a four warranty issues so far that were eventually addressed, but it takes patience. For the most part, these were installation issues. • The pendant lights over the island were not hung to even lengths. • The horizontal dryer duct was not installed before the ceiling was sheet rocked. Everyone missed this on inspection. This was serendipitously caught after I dropped a pair of pliers down the opening while connecting the dryer • The dishwasher had multiple installation issues and factory defect. These were correctable on site. • The outlets by the sump pump were incorrectly installed with respect to GFI requirements. We will say that all of the service representatives were courteous, explained the problem, and completely. ... More

Overall happy with the home I purchased. The Pulte realtor was excellent. Moved in a little over a month ago and am constantly having Pulte come out to fix things. Feels as if they rushed through the building process. Definitely inspect the home multiple times before your warranty expires. Considering getting a professional inspection as well. Would buy again if the price was right.

very nice neighborhood and great construction our granite is fading. I am concerned about the quality

I had my house done before the end of this year which supposed to be finished at the end of November 2020, I know this pandemic had effect the supposed to be completion date. The builder missed a lot of things like screens on the windows and carpets nail on the stairs still out, even my two sons got wounded bec of that. Tiles that are uneven on foyer and kitchen area, paint that was missed. I was kind of upset because I put 20% down payment and I know Pulte works even better than that, I hope they will fixed this issue pretty soon.

Quality of workmanship is a concern

This is my first house and I do like it overall. However, there are some annoying issues. The electricity of the jacuzzi somehow isn't done at all at closing. I found it out days later that the bathtub isn't working and the plumber came finding out that there's no electric outlet and the plug is just left dangling. And as the house closed the builder's no longer responsible for it and the warranty is taking forever. (House is closed 2 months before and it's still not resolved till now). The dishwasher is also not correctly connected with the sink, while this is resolved fairly quickly by the manufacturer. Not sure how these issues occurred. Perhaps the inspection didn't go through the appliance in detail. These issues are a bit annoying and disappointing, but other than them the house is quite nice. ... More

The sales department seemed as though you (the customer) were bothering them when you were trying to review and purchase the home. It was like they did not want to sell you the home. However, once I purchased the home, the General Contractor Manager and the Customer Service Manager were extremely helpful, and responsive.

The sales people were very pushy, and it you would see costs creep up unless you look at everything in detail. They try to push the other Pulte services on you. The house however is good quality, but some of the things seem old style.

Use cheap shower door in master bedroom. Lightnings and kitchen appliances are not very satisfactory, so I have already changed or planned to change it.

I found a new construction Pulte home when the frame was already up, and was told that due to that, no design/customization could be made because Pulte had already made all decisions and purchased all materials. The sales associate just seemed very un-accomodating in that regard and I'm not sure if there was a window of opportunity to make some design changes to my liking, or not (I am a first time home buyer). Regardless, if changes were not feasible, I should have been provided with a full rendering of the interior/exterior of the home so I could know what to expect and make a better informed choice about purchasing the home. In the end, I was not totally satisfied with the appearance of the exterior and would have made selected some other interior options as well. Additionally, I was informed by the Sales Specialist that there was a Amtrak train track near my street/homesite but that she had seldom heard any trains come by and it was just Amtrak that passed quickly. However, both Amtrak and very noisy freight trains come through routinely throughout the day AND night. Had I known about the train aspect, I would not have purchased this particular home. This is also of paramount importance because due to COVID-19, I work from home and it is important to live in a community where there are little to no noise distractions. I feel that the information provided to me and my realtor (who was present with me at the time) was both misinformed and misleading. Of note, the temporary sales office in the community was not as close to the train track as my home, so the Sales Specialist would not actually know about train activity during the day or night unless she spent significant time near my street/at my home site. I, along with my realtor, would have appreciated a more honest answer regarding the trains so that I could have avoided purchasing a home that is not in a location to my satisfaction or tolerability. ... More

The employees are very nice.

No good finishing, moved closing date 3 times with 5 days of anticipation. No communication between branches.

Pulte Mortgage and Title were a disaster.