Pulte Homes Reviews

Only issues were driveway wasn’t done, no garage opener, also miscommunication with the mortgage payments, I sent mine in week and half ago still haven’t received it plus loan has been transferred. I got a letter to still pay Pulte but got letter from other servicer yesterday, I could have paid new servicer without any issues, very disappointed with that situation. Other than that everything else is ok

My Microwave vent was not set right(I have outer vent). Sent somebody later to fix it but was not a good technician. Not that good painting.

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

The sales representative Maria was worse than a used car sales rep. It seemed like she was say almost anything to purchase a home from her. We purchased our home long distance, in a pandemic and did everything virtually. Everything was extremely rushed and Maria did not review all of the available options with us. Once we had our walk through with the construction manager he pointed out a lot of upgrades/choices that we were not aware of. We did not receive the HOA documents until months in the process and had we been aware of some of the restrictions earlier on we may not have purchased in this community. Also everything seems pretty cheap. The quality and fine details in the construction are definitely lacking. We have paint and grout all over the floors in multiple areas. I don't think our home is worth what we purchased it for. ... 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.

The experience was stressful. The quality is average. Walls seem thin and it sounds like a herd of cattle when my children play upstairs and I’m downstairs despite the fact I have pretty laid back kids compared to others. All the doors were dinged up you when we moved in and no wood filler and paint can correct them even though that’s what they’ve done over and over. Whatever you do, do not upgrade your color of paint for the entire house, save that two grand and hire a painter to come paint your entire house with a satin paint after. They will only use flat paint and our house is a constant scratched up mess. The magic eraser is my best friend. It’s going to be far from perfect, so to have that in your mind will help. Not for the detail oriented like myself. At the end of the day I love my house I just would’ve rather known what to expect on some of these things but you living you learn. I hope if I ever have a friend build I can help them navigate the process to know what to spend money on and what to do after the fact. It’s very hard when you’re spending your hard earned money on things and you’re let down. They have a warranty company and so far we’ve called them five times and have never gotten a response. We had to go above the gal that is in charge of it and we got an answer to a couple questions but since then we’ve gone back to calling her and we get no response. It’s absolutely unprofessional and I’m just so over everything that I don’t even have it in me to worry about it the home issues. I have a life to live work to do and three kids to take care of. I’m just trying to except the flaws. ... More

Home floorplan and value are great. Quality and finishing touches seemed rush and lacking in craftmanship. The only consolation is the Pulte warranty program.

Please provide more choices for upgrade selections.

This home was built very quickly and the neighborhood is in a great location. Overall, I’m happy with it. There are some things that I’m not happy about: the painters were not great and did a sloppy job, most of the door frames were cut with a dull blade or not to the correct length, the house does not seem as efficient as we were told it would be, and the neighbors stereo bass rattles the dishes in the cabinets of my kitchen. We had been told that the firewall made it almost impossible to hear your neighbors, so our neighbors are either that loud, or the firewall is not as thick as advertised. ... More

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.

Definitely rushed it at the end and you do not get what you paid for here. Poor craftsmanship from the beginning and will require a lot of work to fix on the latter end. Pay attention to all the details before closing and if you can, pick better material. Otherwise, the builder will use cheap material. Glad there is a warranty to get these addressed. Will have to see how far it goes in the repairs post installation/closing.

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.

Overall, the home is of decent quality, there's a number of details that weren't up to expectations. Lots of paint issues (lines not straight around door frames, uneven paint, missed paint spots, scuffs), those all had to be addressed at the final walk thru with some requested to be fixed very shortly after closing). They literally missed painting the entirety of the inside of a closet door. It just feels like quality control wasn't super up to par, like these very basic things that should've been caught by QC, but they weren't. Instead, the home owner has to point them out one by one to the builder to fix. Materials outside of flooring, cabinets, and countertops are very average quality for a half a million dollar home, things like bedroom level skirt board (floor mold) were poorly connected & painted, and carpet has these painful tacks sticking up vertically by the edges (builder says there's nothing they can do about those, I've never lived in a home with this problem before). There are two walls in the house that aren't straight, like the drywall is literally at an angle rather than just a straight wall ending in a 90 degree turn. This was not a fixable problem by the builder. It doesn't impact structural integrity, but it's aesthetically displeasing. Buying process was straight forward. Builder's settlement company was swamped during Fall of 2020 so they weren't super responsive (didn't respond to calls or emails), but they eventually got everything together in time for scheduled closing after I called sales to then call the settlement folks. Sales was easy to work with. Actual day of closing was quick and easy, just pre-closing docs and comms was very poor. Post closing, there was an issue with a water leak, but the warranty dept very quickly addressed the initial issue, so they are responsive to things, but this feels like poor QC on the builder side. Overall the house is of solid quality in terms of the build. It's just a lot of these details things that you'd expect from a "high quality home" (Pulte's own marketing words) weren't quite there (e.g. paint issues, using the cheapest flip switches, even for dimmers it's a flip switch with a tiny 1 inch slider that's super hard to use, instead of something a bit more high quality for a couple more dollars each switch). So if you don't care about the minor details, it's a great home for you, but if you pay attention to details, there was a number of disappointing aspects. While it doesn't disqualify it from being a good home, it's just value for price paid is a little disappointing. ... More

They build a good home

Pretty good value and generally responsive to our needs. Big company offers advantages of scale but also suffers from to many moving parts.

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.

Let me start by saying the Pulte mortgage was a nightmare experience. No professionalism no communication whatsoever then you assumed it would get better once you get into the house Pulte cut corners and lot of different area lack of power outlets lack of communication with the pool I was getting nobody went and explain to me what type of pool I was getting. I thought I was getting a bigger pool lack of knowledge in maintaining the pool nobody had has still to this day explain to me anything. Just as certain areas of the house you can see Corners were cut but it is what is this you live and learn. it was not a total nightmare there are other builders that are a lot worse but all I'm saying you can see Corners were cut to save money. if you want to build a better company and take pride in your name start by having the process from beginning to end be a smooth and pleasurable experience for all communication is key when it comes to a person spending half a million dollars on a house communication is key that they get everything they think they getting. I don't care Pulte mortgage operates separately they still hold the Pulte name and they are tarnishing it,and whoever Works under the Pulte name and doesn't communicate properly to their customers. buying a home it's a long difficult expensive process. I totally dissatisfied with the pool that I received within the first week certain things in the house we're falling apart that should not happen in the first week I spoke to certain Neighbors and they said that's Pulte which is sad. Again there are other companies that are a lot worse this is not my first time buying a home but this is the reasoning why you guys get a 3-star you guys can do a lot better and offer a little bit more for the money we are paying not a lot more just a little bit more little better quality and better communication. ... More

Base price was affordable for us.