Drees Homes Reviews

We decided to build with Drees, because we believed they built superior homes. We do like our home and think aesthetically it looks nice. Unfortunately several issues have clouded our experience. Several of the subs who worked on our house did a sloppy, careless job and would also often leave food, drink, and trash onsite after they left for the day. Days before closing I noticed and killed a large cockroach in the house and was hoping it was just a one-off. Unfortunately, that was not the case and we are now experiencing a cockroach infestation that we are trying to mitigate ourselves and with exterminators. We believe that a dirty construction site and a lack of sealing the house properly have likely led to this issue. A brand new house should not have cockroaches.There were also times when a sub would be sent to fix something and it would not be done correctly, so another sub would be sent out. We would suggest looking into hiring a new pool of subs for these reasons. Our house has been under construction in one way or another since we moved in (2.5 months ago) due to items on our punch list during our walkthrough along with a few additional items we noticed after moving in. We have truly appreciated our contractor, Josh’s responsiveness and willingness to fix the issues, but our problem is that there have been ALOT of issues. Three of our windows have been leaking and have caused water damage and have caused a mold smell in the house. We appreciate the responsiveness of Jimmy to have them fixed, but unfortunately the window replacements may take a while to come in and other broken windows that happened during construction have not yet been fixed. To put it simply, we do not believe this should be the experience when buying a new home. We have had one issue after another and are getting tired of new problems popping up and have concerns over what future problems may arise. If we could do it again, we would likely go with a different builder and hope for better results. ... More

Did a building your own kit instead of using a custom builder and we should have gone custom. We moved in June 10 after months of delays and no work being completed. Our punch list from our walk thru June 2 still isn’t done. Took our construction manager off our house and sent him to a neighborhood 3 weeks before we were supposed to move in. Communication as to delays was horrible. Communication as to completing this punch list has been nonexistent unless I reach out and follow up. If you’re building in an established Drees neighborhood, they’ll be great. But I would not recommend it for an alternative to a custom route. A single home in a single lot is not the priority…despite it being $$$ ... More

My house has too many water leak issues in the basement within the first month of the move. These things should have been taken care properly before handing over the house. Its almost 2 months now and my basement is a mess with broken drywalls and the tarps are torn for fixing. Most of the windows were not properly caulked due to last month thunderstorm may windows had too much water leak due to poor caulking. These caulking and water proofing are the basic things that needs to be done for water prevention into the house. I have called drees more than 5 times in last 2 months for multiple water issues. ... More

my biggest disappointment is the trashy lot i have to look at every day. I think it is the Drees dumping zone.

Issues were not addressed properly.

If you get a good project supervisor/manager everything should go smooth. We did!

With it currently being a sellers market it was clear that the Drees staff didn’t care about quality or timeliness, just closing the house and moving on to the next one.

We were constantly advised that issues would be taken care of, however, they were not. Too many issues for a home that you are paying a half million dollars for. Items that were supposed to be handled within two weeks of closing have still not been taken care of almost three months later. Just too many headaches and issues.

Overpriced. Made with the cheapest materials available.

We moved to Drees 2months back. We are not satisfied with quality and workmanship. Some portion of the wood is not stable. It is going down or is soft. Paint finish is not good. Countertop is slanted.

The process can alternatively be described as either a straightjacket or as well organized. There were supply disruptions...which is understandable. But, instead of pausing and waiting, the schedule was maintained, with the result that necessary preconditions for installation of later phases were shortchanged or not met at all. This resulted in mistakes that were difficult to rectify or required compromises.

The overall final product was decent without too many issues - some of which were encountered with COVID-19 issues, but the communication throughout the entire process was terrible. Issues arise and we understand that, but all we asked for was to stay informed and updated but that was never the case and we had to follow up numerous times to get answers.

Overpriced lots and options. Did not meet my expectations

very disappointed by quality of material and labor used in the building the house

Several miscommunications on Drees’ end during building process that cost us a lot of time and money. Building experience almost entirely dependent on foreman assigned to job and their individual communication skills. Craftsmanship much lower than expected and several major issues with home at close. Once you close they ghost you and it’s extremely difficult to utilize your home warranty. Drees does not stand by their product.

The builders and labor workers do not care in the quality of their work. Really pay attention to your warranties and things like that because Drees will not point things out to you. Or try to go above and beyond to help you.

The house craftsmanship is terrible seriously 90% of the stuff in this house looks like a blind man did it.I will never buy drees the rest of my life. For the price of the house they cut corners every way they could

Would never buy another home with Drees.

We are so disappointed with the quality of our Drees “custom home.” The interior finishes are awful and we will be spending time and money trying to fix them. Trim throughout was so sloppily installed, it looks like a bad DIY…nearly every floor trim joint is a lumpy, caulked mess. The “professional” painters left paint splatters on the floor along the molding as well as many missed areas of paint, paint splatters on granite, paint on switch plates and outlet covers, paint on ceilings, and interior doors as well as paint embedded in the joints of several floor planks. Overall, just a big mess. Our outdoor light switch was covered over by insulation. Floor boards were undercut in several places, filled with caulk and called good. Cabinets have numerous chips, crack in door and most of the soft close features don’t work. Every toilet paper holder was misdrilled and the extra hole just left - not filled and painted. Many of the exterior trim boards are defective and the paint job is awful. Lots os missed caulking. Our outside post lamp has had issues since our early August move in and still no repair. In general, the floor plan and lot is beautiful, but we definitely did not get good value for our money and we would definitely seek out another builder. We have built two homes with other builders over the years and this by far is the worst quality, yet we paid for a high end house where are other houses were more entry level. ... More

If you want a home that is full of unskilled workmanship for a premium price, then by all means buy from them. If you want to spend the first several months angry over all the items that were not finished before you moved in that you can’t get an estimate on when or if they ever will be done then go ahead. Our brand new driveway is crumbling apart, they do no soil prep, give you a lot full of rocks…not a yard, they push closing so they can get that 2% commission, they don’t care if you’re not happy with the finish work (they promise to make a list and come back to fix at a future date, hope you don’t have to work that day, or 10 others bc there’s SO much that needs fixing). This is a brand new home, I am in disbelief at what we’ve been through so far and our troubles are not as bad as some of our neighbors. Seriously, just don’t. They’re going to jack up the prices for phase 2 so you’ll get everything mentioned above for extra! Who doesn’t want a front yard that’s essentially a retention pond? Who doesn’t want a backyard that’s like a cliff? The builder needs to do a better job grading the lots. Come with a realtor so you have someone on your side to help you advocate for yourself. They tell you don’t come onto the construction sites without them but if you want to try to head their mistakes off at the pass, plan to come by every night, they literally need that much babysitting. Would NEVER build with them again. ... More

Too much to share in writing. We’re still struggling to receive full compliance of materials and service work and installations.

Drees does not respect the customers time from scheduling meetings, contractors showing up without prior notification post-close, to lawn completion. We have been left with a dirt yard for going on 3 months after closing. For dog owners, this defeats the purpose of purchasing a home and has left us with an absolutely miserable experience. We have had to take time from work, rearrange schedules, and make arrangements for our dogs to be cared for with no end in sight. While we are incredibly happy with the quality, our experience has overshadowed the quality leaving us regretting our purchase. ... More

Initially we signed for a home only to discover during our home inspection that the roof was incorrectly installed and there was a leak. There was water damage to multiple areas and materials to the home. A couple weeks later we stopped by the house and discovered the sump pump failed and flooded the partially finished basement. Drees fixed the issues (and a few others discovered on the inspection) but we pulled out from this house. We ended up getting another home which we haven't had many issues with but communication is terrible. We are still waiting for the yard to be placed and receive no updates unless we initiate communication. Overall I would recommend doing your research before deciding on a builder. ... More

We love the neighborhood but the quality of work for the price we paid is very disappointing! Even after coming back several times to fix items, we are still waiting for them to come again. Everything is way overpriced. I needed to match towel bar and called their distributor and she quoted me $60 for one towel bar. Lowe's has same bar for $22. Our builder Brock was the only positive in the whole experience. He is such a genuine person who did all he could to make our experience a good one. Unfortunately, he wasn't the one doing the work.

They nickel and dime you and at the end of the day you end up replacing showerhead etc.