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We've lived in our house in Euless (Sanctuary on Texas Star) about four months. They wanted us to do a feedback survey at closing, but I refused--the experience was that bad. We're having drainage issues in the backyard, and at one point I got so frustrated I sent a four page letter to their corporate office. Right now they're trying to fix the problem by adding dirt, which isn't helping. One thing I will say, the other builder out here is Rendition, and they take about twice as long to build their houses, so that should tell you something right there. Here's an overview of the letter I sent to them recently:

Currently I have water collecting in both corners of my backyard. I sent two messages about this problem before I finally received a response from the construction manager. The drainage problem is still there, and this was something I expressed concern about even during the early phases of my homeโ€™s construction. To make matters worse, when the house on the north side of us was built, the landscape crew completely covered up the French drain openings with sod. This is also hindering drainage, and I want the sod removed from the drain covers. I do not have the time or expertise to take care of this on my own, and I should not have to.

It was my understanding that the construction manager is supposed to meet with me 30 days after closing to address any outstanding issues, but this still has not been done although for the last three months Iโ€™ve requested a meeting with him. I work long hours at a stressful job, and he is not flexible when it comes to scheduling a time to meet.

Even before we moved into this house, we had already begun to regret choosing Plantation as our builder. Overall, it was such a bad experience we questioned whether it was a good idea for us to build at all. I was very unhappy from the beginning with the "package deal" I was forced into with Keller-Williams. Our agent, Kari, whom we did not choose, acted like she didn't care about us and often responded to emails with literally one word. When an offer was made on our house, she pressured us into accepting it without any negotiation although the offer was too low. She was not there for us, barely involved actually, and yet she still got paid thousands of dollars for the sale of my home. But even more incredible is that she also received a commission for the purchase of our Plantation home as well. At one point our sales rep, Becky Gutierrez, inadvertently forwarded the company's commission structure in an email, so I have a pretty good idea what everyone was paid. Becky also sent us another email by mistake that said our tentative closing date would be November 26th, but that would prove to be totally unrealistic.

There were also problems with the design center. For example, we were asked if we wanted dรฉcor light switches in the house, but we turned them down because they were $1,200. However, they were installed anyway. The same is true of the built-in stove top and ovenโ€”they were installed although we did not request it, and at one point Becky actually suggested I pay the extra cost. The back of our door was stained the wrong color, and the glass insert was completely different from what I asked for and had to be changed.

In October, when the framing, roof, electrical and plumbing were completed, we went inside and found water leaking from the upstairs bathtub. The wood and electrical wiring was dripping wet all the way down to the slab. We called Becky immediately and told her what was happening, and she said "Oh, at this stage the house is getting rained on, etc." (The affected area was in the center of the house.) We told her that the water needed to be turned off immediately before any more damage was done, and her response was, "It's really hard to get someone out there on a Sunday." So WE had to figure out how to turn the water off ourselves.

I had already purchased a Casablanca ceiling fan for the living room, to be installed after we moved in. The manufacturer of this particular fan requires that the ceiling bracket is attached directly to a roof joist with a lag screw. We tried repeatedly to tell Dennis (the construction manager) that we needed the outlet box underneath the joist instead of on a metal brace, but he refused to move it. He finally suggested we move it ourselves before the sheetrock was installed, and thatโ€™s what we did. That was why, along with having to turn off the water, we started to joke that Plantationโ€™s motto is โ€œIf you want it done, do it yourself.โ€

The water leak downstairs was just the beginning. We were originally supposed to have a utility sink in the garage, but somehow it was forgotten. Rather than tear up the slab, we chose to leave it out. There was also supposed to be a transom-like window above the front door, and someone must have ordered it because the window was actually there with the other windows, but then Becky told us it wouldn't be put in because it wasn't part of our elevation. This was going to make the foyer very dark, so we unexpectedly had to spend over a $1,000 for a front door with a window in it. One of the homes behind us has the same elevation and floor plan, and it also inexplicably has the transom window over the front doorโ€ฆ

Once the sheetrock was done, the house was still wide open, and we started seeing animal tracks. We told Becky and her response was "There aren't any animals out there." I went in the attic, which was accessible from upstairs, and found several piles of *** and urine. We also found *** in the upstairs bathroom. Judging from the tracks and everything, we figured out it was raccoons. We made this discovery ourselves, and we probably wouldnโ€™t have known anything about it otherwise. An expert checked everything out, and it was cleaned up, but a little vigilance in keeping the house closed up at night would have kept animals out in the first place.

A recurring problem throughout the entire building process was that no one seemed to care about anything except the specific job they had to do (and sometimes they didnโ€™t seem to care about that). Not only were doors and windows left open during bad weather, we saw food and drink all over the place, including after the raccoon problem was found. Even after the carpeting was put in, we would go over to the house and find it wide open where anyone or anything could just freely walk in. It seemed pretty obvious that workers from other job sites were using the bathrooms instead of the portable toilets outside. We took the responsibility of going over to the house every single day after dark to make sure it was closed up, because no one else would do it. Becky was not there anymore, because right after the initial contract was signed she moved to another location 40 miles away (and sometimes expected us to drive that far to meet with her). She did ask Lauren, the other sales rep at our development, to please check on the house and close the doors and windows, but she would not do it.

There seemed to be a lack of coordination and communication between the workers, and even between the workers and the sales office for that matter. At one point we decided to change the living room and sunroom from tile to carpet, and we paid the change fee and signed the documents. Inexplicably, tile was still put down in those areas. We never could figure out if these were just mistakes, or if it was all part of a bait and switch scheme, or if it's supposed to be some kind of surprise.

The construction process was extremely messy because, unlike Rendition, Plantation does not provide dumpsters, so the debris piled up in the yard and the garage. By the end of December our house was almost completely finished and the landscaping was done, but the driveway went for weeks covered in a thick layer of dirt and mud, which was constantly getting tracked inside, including on the carpet. We raised our concerns, but it fell on deaf ears, so we actually took our own power washer over there and cleaned a path on the driveway in an effort to keep out some of the dirt. Meanwhile, 75 days after construction started, the house was still not finished and many problems had to be addressed. Someone on the street behind us, whom we already knew, had their larger home finished in 75 days. At this point, Becky started taking this tack that no matter what, the house had to be completed "by the plan" even though it often made no sense. The shower door in the master bathroom was supposed to be arched at the top, but instead it was made square. And although we asked her to just leave it that way, she insisted on tearing out the tile, sheetrock and framing, causing further delays. The same was true with the tub, which was finished with tile around the edges even though the spec home had wood trim. We ultimately asked them to leave it that way, but she insisted on adding the trim, which did not match, and we later had to have it replaced.

In December, something went wrong with two of the upstairs windows and they had to be replaced, which meant tearing out and replacing the brick. The wall underneath the windows was also severely bowed inside, and had to be redone. Almost all of the windows in the house were not locking properly, and we were told they needed to be adjusted, but even after that some of the locks are still difficult to close. In the front yard we noticed water pooling on the sidewalk, because it's actually sloped toward the house instead of away from it. We brought it up, but Becky irately said that it was done according to city code. Some of the electrical outlets inside were put in the wrong place and had to be moved. Two of the bathtubs were badly chipped down to the cast iron and had to be fixed. The house has a number of recessed lights, and at one meeting Dennis told us that they had to be removed and replaced because the wrong type was installed. We even had to point out that there was no doorbell on the downstairs level. Higher quality workmanship would have prevented a lot of these issues from happening in the first place.

That lack of quality workmanship has resulted in several warranty calls on our part. One of the toilets would not flush properly, and when the plumbers could not fix it, they had to completely remove it from the floor. That was when they found that someone had dropped the knockout flange into the waste drain, so that water could not flow through. In the kitchen, the gas line next to the stove was rubbing on the underside of the cabinet drawer and prevented it from opening and closing. When we tried to run the air conditioner the first time, it would not cool. The service tech said that one of the lines was not properly connected and all of the coolant had drained out. The coach lights on either side of the garage door were loose and had no sealant around them, so we had to get those fixed as well. The upstairs bathtub drain is so bent it will not close, and weโ€™re actually worried about getting it fixed for fear that there will be another leak.

Location: Euless, Texas

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Guest

You are a crazy *** ! Get a life and find the positives rather than focusing on the negative

Guest

You are soo right. I worked for Plantation homes for many years in the Dfw area and this type of service is very normal business practice.

Even down to sales people being threaten to get good surveys on construction work with which they have no control of.

The sales manager claims to be sultan of sales but all he does is copy know sales training programs to only copy to their own sales force. They are a joke and poor builder

Guest

Hi, we are neighbors, and sadly we are also having problems with Plantation homes. Our experiences are almost identical.

It's been over a year, and they are still passing us around, and refusing to acknowledge their shoddy work. I wonder how many of our neighbors are dealing with this?

Guest

I am so sorry for all your troubles. I know my advice is too late for this purchase but I hope it may serve you in the future.

I learned a long time ago, get an independent home inspection. No matter the age of the home, the issues revealed by the inspection, will help ease surprises, and may also, help you walk away if warranted

Guest

We are currently building in the Water's Bend subdivision in North Fort Worth. We have aleady seen several of the same types of issues.

The quality of workmanship on our home is some of the worst I've ever seen. Almost nothing is done correctly the first time, and they really don't care. If you don't stay on them, they will just cover up the mistakes and go on with the process. Anyone is is considering building a home, pick another builder.

Plantation Homes/MHI builders had an A+ BBB raing when we started this process. I checked it again today, and it's now a B-.

That should give you an idea how long this process has taken us. They broke ground on our home in May, it's now the end of October, and the house is still not done.

Guest

I am the plantation homeowners and i am not happy with quality workmanship. also service like warranty work.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-874162

I too am a plantation home owner in Richmond, we are experiencing several issue with our roof, house is only 2 1/2 years old.

Guest

I am looking to build a Plantation home in Rosenberg, TX and am now concerned with whether they are as high quality as I've been told. I may need to rethink this. I'd hate to have tom drive that distance every day to check on the home during construction.

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