Richmond American Homes Reviews in Phoenix Mesa, AZ

All Issues noted on first walkthrough where not finished by final walkthrough, the kitchen sink was clogged since the move in date

Richmond American has several areas the home buyer has to deal with from sales, design center, electrical company for added options, mortgage company, home insurance company, mortgage department, loan officer, etc. It seems everyone does their own thing and your giving the same information to different people at different times. The process becomes extremely draining. They need one person to gather information who can pass it along. Their computer system constantly sends emails requesting documents to be completed even though the documents were completed and submitted to individuals already. Last but not least, we selected the deluxe upgraded shower in the master bathroom only to find out during the walkthrough that the glass shower door was not installed. We were told it was the responsibility of three different people and then it was put on the buyer that it was not selected in the design center. The assumption was that if you selected the deluxe upgraded shower and you picked the upgraded tile the door would be there. Obviously it was not so now we will have to hire a company to make the door and install it at our expense. Moral of the story, CHECK OUT EVERY DETAIL BEFORE YOU SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE. Never assume anything. Times have changed drastically. ... More

Overall my experience with Richmond American has been alright. In the beginning, my sales associate through Richmond Casey was great. He went down step by step through the process and what I would be needed to do and what I should expect throughout this process. He sold me on being very intuitive and putting a personal touch on all aspects of the home buying process and he'd be there will us every step of the way. Turns out 2 months before closing, Casey just ghosted us basically and left my wife and I to practically fend for ourselves. He should probably change his sales pitch. For all of our walk through, he no showed, no email, no text, no nothing about him not being there. When it came to closing, he never communicated to us via email. He'd call me and tell me he was working on things on the back end but nothing he was working on can true and when I asked him to email me everything we talked about so I had it in writing, he never sent it. I think my realtor and I asked Casey to put these things in writing 6-7 times and he never did. The only bright spot of things was the superintendent Justin. Justin was there for us during the walk throughs and closing period when Casey was not. Justin made sure any issues that we saw were taken care of or he scheduled someone to come out to fix those issues as soon as possible. He has communicated great and overall has been Richmond Americans saving grace for this review not being vastly worse. We love our home; we love the community and quality of the home with the materials it was used to build it. It was our experience during the last couple months with the sales associate Casey that left us with a beyond sour taste in our mouths. We are glad Justin was able to help us in the end! ... More

Overall experience was fine. Like all other homebuilders the craftsmanship of the subcontractors was lacking and we had to call them out on several things. The contractors who come to fix the problems do a good job though. I think there is a lot of pressure put on the subs to work quickly and so at some point they quit caring. Our house is nice and we love the floorplan but I wouldn't say it was an exceptional value.

Very efficient on responding to emergency calls however the response to normal issues are too slow which is to the unacceptable level.

Had a lousy time dealing with the underwriters very lengthy plus the loan process equally, the home came with no ceiling fans or garage door openers or outside garage lighting and needed quite a few touch ups. Block wall had a big gap on corner back yard.and they used flat paint on most of the house except bathrooms

Salesperson and Superintendent are great. Their process was not enjoyable whatsoever. I almost pulled out of the deal due to their financial/underwriting department. Really check your home on the walkthrough. Walls are paper thin. You can hear the other people in the next room and the washer/dryer are EXTREMELY loud. You can not wash without it sounding like one’s in the room with you even when door is closed.

We very much like our home now that we are moved in however: we were give major misinformation and promised things in the sales process that couldn't be delivered in the actual agreement; preclosing fixes still have not been completed even though we have now been in the house 30 days, many excuses are quickly given when issues arise but action is slow.

My new home buying experience began with excitement. Things began to go wrong and the responses were addressed slowly or not at all: frame to garage door, electrical issues, closet bar holding clothes loosening and the insulation between the foundation of the house and the walls not completely sealed when the doggie door was installed. I’m currently awaiting for the compressor on the air conditioner to be replaced, the unit is completely out of service, which was really loud to begin with, but it was working.

Average experience Home purchase. Difficulty with Builder with contract terms and underwriting

So far, overall, we like the home and the neighborhood. There were incidences for us that could have definitely been better. There are 2 problems we had purchasing this home. One being that before we moved in, we did our our first walk thru to blue tape any last-minute imperfections that could be addressed and very little of it was actually addressed and Jesse kept trying to divert my attention and make excuses as to why those things were'nt done. Im also pretty sure that he took all of the blue tapes off before I got to the Final Walk thru for those areas so i wouldnt notice. I believe that the issue really lies in being overloaded with houses to inspect when it really shouldnt be rushed. There are the other checkups for the first year, and we understood that, but these things we requested were more than fair for the final walk thru before we moved in. The Second was the Insurance side. The agent i was forced to go with was awful, didnt even qoute me for the right house 5 times and was just sluggish. I think it would be fair to let people choose who to use for their insurance needs, especially if they have a relationship already built with their own agent. ... More

Before we moved in to the spec home, everybody wwas so responsive, so responsive. After that event especially when it comes to fixing things, even major things is absolutely negligent. You can't get a person on the phone or if they finally come out, they don't have the time to spend to look at and take into account. Leaking garage under door, inches space on roofing, uncentered doors, etc. So first, the workmanship. There are goods and bads. Labor quality is divided. Some do really bad job, some do excellent. It is up to who they contract. But it buffles me that they would recontract bad workers, way below certification quality. In our case the builder pushed us to move in in 3 weeks from us first seeing the house. Well we budged. But they didn't have time to correct things before move in. 30 day warranty came and still items were left to correct. Submitted warranty requests but nobody cares to answer phone after a month and followups on warranty jobs are gone with the wind. Is this real? Richmond raised the price of the house the next business day we checked it out by 15K. So we lost on that. Structure: Is fine and the paint on the finishes are really good, tile work is great, kitchen is great too. Layout: that is mediocre. We actually had to change and buy new furnishing from our previous house because of the layout change. They were either unusable for the space and sized wrong for the layout. Who designs these Emeralds? No real living room space. the whole kitchen, great troom living room area is 16 ft wide and elongated. Who in normal mind does that? Master toilet room is the smallest out of all, really. you have to wiggle around to sit down because the door hits you otherwise. Master walking closets are small. Nowhere in the house with 9ft ceiling did they use storage space. One shelving everywhere and 42 inches space above it. Bedrooms are tiny except the master. It is good sized. ours is 2100sqft. For the layout it should ahve had at least 2500sqft to give some space in the bedrooms. Garage: 3-car and Love the space. good work except for concrete guys on sheen, consistency on the surface. Tankless heater with stub for water softener. We got neon light that is a downside. Neon? Let's get up to 21st century guys! It is bringht though. I still installed my LEDs. Genie doors and openers are great although MyQ aftermarket system is more responsive. I did epoxy, water softener system, one shelving system around the walls to make it look very functional and enjoyable. I don't like that 9ft ceiling does not have any storage space above the garage door when they are open. Lost space. Doors: quite a few issues that should be fixed when doors are installed. They were not. Many workers came and pointed out to bad craftsmanship while assitant superintendent brushed some things off that these issues are just normal part of life. Windows: Are good Floor: I wish they had thicker carpet. Walls: many parts have only beams at 24 inches apart. No good! Lot size: Great! Roof: Here and there things. They havent fixed them yet after 30 days of request. Electrical: bedrooms dont come with lights. Are you kidding? and they sell the house like that to you. Not even functional!!! Some palces ahd the wiring mixed up. Color codes are horrible. Certified technician could not install a smart dimmer switch even after 40 mins of trying... We ended up doing it. LED lights were ordered throughout and they are great! Gutters: should be a lot better. So there are some really good things and really bad things. At this price point 500K, I definitely expect that things are in top notch order. Hmm...not and are responsive to requests. That bugs me and others a lot. Overall, we made the house look amazing inside. Did not have time for outside yet but it will be amazing too. ... More

All carpets had nails sticking out, all my doors are damage from the bottom, the silicone in my shower was not done right very sloppy work, all my kitchen cabinets schatched, many of my outlets are not on correctly, the paint job in this job is hideous, oh my wall isn’t straight. Whenever I vaccumm my electric goes out ( and was told that’s normal yeah noo) I just pray my ac and gas were installed correctly. Honestly I feel bad that I have no nice things to say but, it’s so frustrating that seems like every was done in a hurry and with do respect to the house or any care. Oh and my side gate out side is falling off. I don’t think at this no I would recommend richmond to anyone or I would buy another home with them. ... More

No attention to detail. Poor finish work. Worst cleaning for a move in I have ever experienced. Zero customer service 6 weeks after move in. Way over priced

No. 1: After demanding an ridiculously large deposit because this purchase was for an investment, the builder negotiated a price (list price to include appliances, etc.). Then, in addition to forcing us to sign its one-sided contract, at the end of the sales process Richmond American demanded a $500 processing fee just to do its own paperwork. There is no other word to describe this than dishonest. This practice should be outlawed, but no doubt it won't be because of lobbying by the builders. Also, the sales agent said we had to use the builder's title company, but later in the process we were given a document to sign saying that we were free to use any title company. In addition, some problems with the house that supposedly would be taken care of after closing never were corrected. Once Richmond American has your money, you are low priority. One helpful note, suggested by our real estate agent: Have a home inspection before closing. Our inspector pointed out several problems that I would have missed. ... More

Sales no help. Originally I worked with Moises whom was fantastic however the home I chose was not in his section after that I had to stay on sales to keep me posted. Then after move in 30 day review I am being ignored

The complete unwillingness to actually work with a buyer to get what they want is utterly astounding. Even on issues that would be a simple change they wouldn’t budge. The subs they use are either discount workers or brand new and don’t know the job. Found too many issues to list. As a previous framer and trim carpenter myself I would’ve never signed off on the work I’ve seen. The super is a nice guy but doesn’t ever actually get any of the repairs done. Buyers remorse!

We loved Richmond. And were excited to sign to purchase with them. However, the problems started almost immediately. We would visit often as the home was being built, but kept finding problems. Doorways put in the wrong place, non responses to inquiries about things we were seeing. Eventually, we spoke with the jobsiye superintendent who was very confrontational, and when asked why our completion date was pushed back by a month, responded with "I have up to 2 years to build your house, and I van delay it at any time for any reason, or NO reason!" I was aghast that he would speak to me that way, and filed a complaint with Richmonds main corporate office. He was eventually removed, but damage was already done, and we were met with missed deadlines, no communication. And rudeness up until closing. We almost walked away and took the loss of our deposit, but the realtor for Richmond who was awesome, talked us into waiting. . Now we are in and mostly happy. ... More

Hala Sales Rep was good and helpful. Tom a Superintendent was good. Others involved, not so good. You have no power after you sign the sales contract and JIO so make sure everything is addressed to your satisfaction before you sign. Some will say you have power to make corrections get fixes done until you close - not so. You are at their mercy as soon as you sign the sales contract/JIO. They will hold to the closing date they establish at the expense of quality workmanship or construction completion as long as they get the Certificate of occupancy from the county. (Pinal county). Lot of unfinished work/corrective actions needed to be done and were not completed before closing (roll over items) and after closing the repair work was very unorganized and many assigned workers to correct/fix were no shows so follow on workers could not do their tasks. We have pages of items we identified at the first walk through, some were major such as twisted /not square columns. Very few if any of the first walk through items were corrected before closing and many have yet to be corrected over a month after closing. Due to some problem with the way the sewage lines were installed in our house and many others on our street and neighboring streets, the sewage lines had to be dug up and corrected to satisfy the counties requirement. This caused a big delay. No advance notification of people that would be contacting us for financing, Insurance, title, etc. so many phone calls went unanswered since we did not know if it was a spam call or not. Some items on the JIO that we signed and agreed to were not installed. Those items supposedly were not on the instructions the builders received to build the house which we did not sign nor agree to. More than a month after closing and we are still waiting for some of those items to be installed. Material used was poor and low quality in many cases. Although there were some nice touches throughout the house. Warped/twisted material was used and later, if caught, had to be replaced. That warped/twisted material should have been discarded and never used in the first place. The worksite was usually left in a disgusting state at the end of each work day with lots of trash, litter, drink cans, food wrappers, etc. left on site. In one case what appeared to be a bottle of urine was left in a room for what seemed a couple of weeks. My advice is to get to know you construction superintendent, inspect the progress of building regularly, and report defective material and workmanship quickly. Take lots of photos/videos throughout the construction process. Take lots of pics of the framing/electrical/plumbing before the drywall is installed so later when you want to hang curtains or pictures you know what is behind the sheetrock. ... More

So I closed three weeks ago. I submitted my list of repairs things that still needed to take place. You would think the air conditioner not working in August AZ over 110 degrees, and the fire alarm going off would’ve given a prompt response. Nobody ever contacted me until finally today. I got a decent human being and he was going to help. Thank you Dan. Other than that Customer Service from other employees was horrible.

Many small issues were not taken care of. We were told smoke detector batteries were replaced. They were not. Back deck repair to ceiling never completed. Many bent screens were not replaced. Bathroom mirror promised replacement was never done. I have called Paul about these problems with no response. We were not asking much to have these problems resolved. Guess I will be repairing myself

The builder did ok. House wasn’t really clean when we took possession. Title was fine. Would never use the builders lender again. The incentive was not worth the pain of working with them or the horrible rate. Highly recommend using another lender.

new buyer at West Park community in Queen Creek, after hearing Richmond American as good builder. But I am a bit unimpressed. The workmanship could be better, especially on paint. After Cody being the superintendent at the very end of my house closing, things seem to move along better. But after my house is closed, my issues, like the 30day work list, don't get any attention after weeks' communication to my sales rep, superintendent, and Richmond American Home Care.

Not all the items addressed at the final walkthrough were fixed. Not all the items purchased were delivered at the day of closing. Not feedback from construction regarding roll over items. Customer Service is too busy to prompt respond to requests.

They only care about you buying the house. On our pre close walk we found out the microwave had been used but they didn't care to change it or do anything to fix the problem since they already had the earnest money. They said they would only clean it and that microwave was very stinky. Seller Moises never had a solution, only kept saying that was not part of the deal, Horrible seller that only cares about making money and not the customer.