Pulte Homes Reviews in Austin, TX

Greats sales person , Not good construction manager

If asked "Would you recommend Pulte to a friend?" my answer would be "No." While many of the individuals I've interacted with while purchasing from Pulte have been helpful and pleasant, the overall process was neither enjoyable nor satisfying. Sales Process: 3/5 Build Process: 2/5 Warranty Process: 4/5 SALES: The sales rep was generally helpful and nice. I did find that it became much harder to get a hold of her AFTER we signed the initial contract. Overall, though, a decent experience. BUILDING: Though when we entered the contract we were told that closing should be able to happen within a couple of weeks. Instead, it was over a month. There was poor communication throughout that process and the opportunities to walk-through and blue tape the home were rushed. One of the major delays involved completely re-framing three windows in the main living area because the original framing was so bowed as to be unsafe. WARRANTY: Thankfully, our warranty rep has been very responsive and helpful. Which is EXCELLENT because there is a LOT on this house that needs warranty work. Almost every room has needed/will need warranty work, as well as the yard – we've had floor tiles replaced, grout refinished, counter enamel repaired, yard re-graded, and door frames adjusted – and that's not mentioning the work that has yet to be submitted: door latches not functioning, exterior doors not sealing, wall-paint flaking, nail-pops (and other settling issues), and on and on the list goes. Again, thankfully our warranty rep has been great to work with. BUT... if they had built the house right the first time through, most of these would not have been necessary and our buying process would have been much smoother. I have no intention of recommending or using Pulte again in the future. ... More

I'll start with the positives: The sales manager was the most positive aspect of this experience. He was kind, helpful, and consistent. The price of the home was also fair...but the low price was also paired with low quality. The negatives: Squeaky floors Uneven, lumpy carpet throughout the upstairs Cabinetry installed crooked Cabinet trim cut incorrectly Screw holes in drywall not covered up Paint drippings throughout downstairs floor Deep scratches on the glass on office doors Many of these issues were brought up in the walk-through and pointed out to the construction manager. He failed to address almost all of them and then pressured us to go ahead and close on our home and use our one-time warranty to cover the issues. This is our second home purchase, the first was with a different builder. That home was half the price and double the quality of this one. The inexperienced construction manager paired with the poor quality construction made this home buying experience very disappointing. Our new home feels like a sub-par product, rushed to market without regard for quality. I can't recommend buying here. If given the chance, I wish I could go back and buy somewhere else. ... More

Pulte home buying process took much longer than expected beyond what was communicated. After the lumber shortage ended, delays were CONSTANT. Much of the contractors in this community were unreliable, slow and didn’t provide as quality of a product as Pulte was charging.

Horrible experience. House was delivered after 2 years of signine and it felt like i learnt construction engineering in the process looking after everything at each step. Except for the last CM, we wouldn't even have closed in the 2 yrs. He is extremely detail oriented and focussed. He is Pultes chance for revival of their name.

I purchased the home through online search. Though some aspects of the buying is satisfactory I still felt that Pulte has not lived up to expectations in this community.

Solid experience overall, difficult time to really compare because of the supply chain issues and other factors out of Pulte control. BUT - the neighborhood currently has so much trash in it due to the construction and workers. I have to clean my yard, DAILY, of multiple pieces of trash.. cans, food wrappers, beer boxes, construction trash, etc. It’s really sad, and makes me disappointed that Pulte does not care for the environment at all.

If you’re looking for just buying home with minimal requirements its a good place not the BEST

Initial the process was slow primarily due to supply chain issues. But then the problem was with the construction manager never meeting deadlines because too many houses were being built in parallel. Thanks to Josh, a supervisor, he stepped up, made all necessary corrections, and reduced more delays. The overall delay was of 3 months. So, it is important having a contingency.

We purchased a home already under construction. The sales person was exceptional. However, the build process was not. We viewed the house about 3 weeks before completion and there were many issues that were not done. We provided a list and then had our build quality meeting about 1 week before close of escrow and virtually none of the items were corrected. After the meeting there was blue tape all over the house and even 1 wall was out of plumb and still remains that way. We were told that 100% of these items would be corrected and a final walk through was scheduled for the morning or our close. While they made a decent effort to correct the issues many still remained and some are not corrected today. On the day we moved in were were inundated by ants which destroyed most of the food we had purchased and ruined most of our cleaning supplies which we had to re-purchase. Paint was splattered on the floors, some walls were thin on paint, cabinets were damaged and also much of the sod was damaged or dead as well as planted trees which were also dead. Pulte has tried to fix most of these issues but should have not set up close of escrow until they were all complete so that we are not dealing with these issues while we are already in the home. ... More

Rushed the closing with lot of items pending at the end of the year. The final walkthrough was almost skipped before closing. Was promised that all the items will be done soon after we move in. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all moving into the house with lot of contractors coming to finish the work while settling in. The contracted plumbing company was the worst of all and the other companies took their time due to whatever reasons. After a month there are still some pending issues.

Overall it was a long wild ride. The early sales process was simple but even at the start there were unsatisfying choices that had to be made. When you’re told you can have the exact exterior you want, sign, THEN find out actually you can’t have what they said you could - that was disappointing. The build process was frustrating but somewhat expected. Build quality is cheap cheap cheap. They fired the crew that framed our house, wavy walls isn’t a good look. They did their best to fix most of the major issues. Overall we’re happy with our home but would be hesitant to buy a pulte again.

We love our home and we know there is a staffing crisis but we’ve had lots of issues. Our PM Josh did a good job but we discovered some things our first month in the home. Here’s a list of our outstanding work orders: Electrical team didn’t properly install exterior light plug, cat 5 wires or high surge protected outlet for tv mount. Still waiting on tv outlet. Garage door makes a “popping” sound-awaiting repair. 2 Blue exterior light boxes exposed awaiting mortar. Outdoor light “sagging” Caulk around bathroom window. Cabinet door above microwave unhinged Rehang study door (small scratch in glass) No privacy lock for the master bedroom Gaps in front pillars need mortar to cover. Almost every issue is an open work order. ... More

Lack of communication from the start. Nobody realized that the option for large frosted glass window in master bath was not allowed by the computer with the walk in shower. It took multiple times of reviewing paperwork to figure it out. Field supervisor was out at the beginning and nobody picked up the ball. Finally heard from him a month after contract and then after that only about every four weeks and that was only after bringing in someone else. That supervisor was out closing week and punch list was not completed before we signed paperwork and even then the fill in just gave excuses. Thankfully none of it impacts living there but Stull have stuff that looks haphazard. ... More

attention to detail may improve small issues that should've been taken cared before I moved in were not fixed

It’s taken quite a while to get my warranty issues resolved and it’s difficult to get return calls. I have requested 3 warranty issues be resolved in mid November and only one has been fixed.

I waited a while to do this survey as I did not want to do it right when frustrating feelings were taking place as I could not be factual in my comments. The overall process with the purchase of the house went well. From the sales representative, which was always kind, responsive and engaging to the closing team, and everyone in between. I moved in over 2 months ago, and a week later, and encouraged by the field manager and even the closing team, I checked the house in more detail to see if there were things that needed to be taken care of, and indeed they were some, and may be more to come in the future. I placed the work order on the builder’s portal and after the reviewing of It, the repairs started to take place. Not wanting to give into specifics, what I can say is that almost two months later of placing the WO the repairs have not been completed just yet. Vary of reasons have happened, and I’m not trying to blame anyone, truly, but at the end there is still work pending to do. My advice to new buyers is to look in detail the conditions of the house prior closing and point them out. It is really easy to miss things when you do the walk throughs with the field manager as the happy feelings of getting the house can “blind” the buyers. Please know that the house in general is fine and I love living in it, good the laid out, it is spacious and so, but there are things that the more I’m in the house, the more I realize that they were not supervised properly to deliver a house close to being perfect (with exceptions as in everything and completely normal) as it is a brand new house what I was getting. I’m giving this review not to talk bad at all about Pulte and their employees as a corporation, but to share my ongoing experience. I’m not mad for the time it has taken to fix the things I pointed out, although I got to admit that I’ve been frustrated at moments, but I know they will be fixed at one point. I know I’ll place another WO in the mid future and that’ll I have to wait, but as long as they get fixed, and fixed well, not just in a surface level, I’m going to be ok. Regards. ... More

We are very disappointed in the representation of Pulte through their sales representative Jane. She was extremely aggressive and rude when we asked about a drainage system that was placed in our backyard.The drainage system was not represented on any surveys, nor was it disclosed to us. When we saw the house it was covered. Instead of trying to come to a solution we were told "Just cancel" multiple times. This was very unprofessional and unreasonable as we were to close on the property in a few days. After speaking with her supervisor a solution to the issue was presented to us but not to our expectations. On the other hand Our Site Manager Bobby was amazing. He went above and beyond fixing everything that needed to be fixed. He was always reachable and completed any task quickly and with a smile. He was a pleasure to work with. ... More

The sales team is awesome and would work with you in getting the house bought for you. They were patient and very coachable. Once we bought the house, we ran into multiple issues when we first moved in. Chipped upgraded cabinets, circuit issues, laundry power plug, oven shutting down, new dishwasher flooded, window drafts, and a couple others. Robert the manager was constantly trying to get things fixed with a lot of delays with multiple vendors. It did leave us a sour taste at the beginning when we first moved in. When en things finally slowly got fixed, we were able to get started. So we think that the builders have done a sloppy job with the house. Pulte is a good company but watch out for the house builders and to make sure they did the job correctly. ... More

We had an awful experience with our sales person. Much confusion and back and forth. A lot of information that was provided was just incorrect or portrayed poorly. The one person who made it better was our building manager, Lily. She was one of the only competent, honest and reasonable people we worked with.

Our loan officer, Christina's communication experience was terrible. She only emailed us, or answered incoming questions she never gave us knowledge of the market or programs that might best suit our needs or goals, pre empted any sort of financial goals and I will never refer a buyer to Pulte Mortgage for that alone. When Pulte's appraiser produced what your Regional Manager said "was a lazy" appraisal our Loan Officer delivered that 28k news via email and did not call and explain how funds would then come from us. Your Regional Manager made a call, put in for a recert which was denied. That appraiser should be removed from your rotation after using a 16yr old comparable and ONLY used NMLS homes and 0 of the recent homes sold. Without the Regional lowering the purchase price, we would have walked and been happy to lose our earnest money. Our processor Kelly was wonderful and she too agreed that the communication from our LO was not what anyone as a buyer should experience. We were told by Bobby only 5 homes in the neighborhood were aloud to have balconies, which we learned was a lie after he was promoted and was moved out of the community. We were told our microwave was on backorder for no time frame so we were forced to take an unmatched appliance. I was told it was a happy choice by my building manager without her concern of how I would view this choice. I have never seen more emails in my life. Too many emails and not enough verbal communication is confusing the buyer. Without OUR OWN realtor involved we would have spent 28k extra dollars and went in under water in value. I am grateful to our realtor and Kelly, our processor for their help. I would never encourage a buyer to use a builder mortgage company without appraisal knowledge and the ability to walk away. We went thru 2 onsite community representatives, 2 building managers. When we experienced a problem after moving in Larry was nowhere to be found and no ability to leave a message. ... More

As a new home, its fine. If you were looking for a fresh brand new home that is perfect, this isnt it. There are a lot of minor aesthetic imperfections all over the place once youre able to look at things beyond a normal walkthrough. In fact you may be missing things or had the wrong thing installed from the many options selected in your plan. Double check that during your walk through. This is pretty much the reason my review is low for workmanship and materials. There is zero, absolutely zero reasons to have the wrong options installed so that they can be replaced later and a missing option is even worse. So you'll be working with the warranty dept a lot. Project manager and warranty dept are all fairly responsive so someone can help you with all that. But shouldn't have to go through all that if it was done right the first time or have someone do a walkthrough with the options checklist (should not be the burden of the home buyer). Other than that, I actually love my new home can't wait for it to actually be finished. ... More

Missing items on the outside of the house makes me feel like the quality of workmanship was rushed.

Chips on quartz in master bath, stains on wall. Dent on dishwasher.

More attention to detail and quality, ownership of as much of the end to end process as possible rather than blaming "trades" and other departments for issues.