Pulte Homes Reviews

Pulte homes will build a quality product if you MAKE them. That may sound odd because there quality standards that they must always meet, but believe me. If you have an experienced and organized field manager, things will go well. If not, you as the buyer will have to ensure things are being done appropriately. If you do not stay on top of the process (that means visiting every day or every other day), then something will be wrong and the contractors will cover it up. Plain and simple. The construction of my home actually went very well initially. Towards the end, I ran into many issues, including a major issue of flooding from a punctured pipe. It wasn’t the pipe puncture that was the issue because things like that happen, but the incredibly slow response to the problem was terrible. Ultimately due to issues with the field manager and contractors, a leak led to 2 weeks of no response, which led to mold being in the home, then more mold being found after the initial mold abatement was “completed”. There are a lot more details there that will be too long to type, but understand that I would have moved into a molded home with water damaged drywall. It took emails and phone calls to corporate staff to get some sort of movement. Now, there is a lot of good with Pulte homes. There were timely weekly updates on construction (when you have a good field manager), the sales consultants at the model home are top notch. They were like family to me and I never at one point felt like I was just another number or sale. I still keep in touch with the sales team. I can’t speak for all sales consultants, but mine in particular is very good, empathetic and trustworthy. I can’t say enough good things about him. I formed a good relationship with Pulte mortgage after a rocky start. I will say that if you as the consumer don’t do your homework when it comes to interest rates, you will not get the best rate. Pulte will match any rate that you get from other lenders. Ensure that you attempt to get other rates. Pulte won’t offer you the best rate initially. That is a fact. I will say that I was hoping to give Pulte 5 stars, but that is not possible. I will still recommend them over other brands, but there will always be a disclaimer accompanying my recommendation due to the issues I encountered. I was exhausted at the end of the home building process when I should have been energized moving into a new home. In summary, I believe my home is beautiful and secure, and has good value. Just ensure you take the time to make that happen. ... More

Very pleased with my home overall but I opted out of buying irrigation because my yard is so small that watering should not be an issue. Unfortunately the turf company laid poor quality sod over completely unprepared clay. Under the sod are multitudes of rocks and construction debris. The grass turned brown within 24 hours and now a week later, after heavy rain and copious amounts of water from a number of sprinklers I have purchased, there appears to be some hope that it may turn green. I have spent seven days outside, muddy, wet, bug bitten and suffering a shoulder injury from pulling a hose around from the one spigot on my house in an effort to resurrect this lawn because Pulte washes their hands of any responsibility for sod once installed. If it fails... it’s completely on the homeowner regardless of the quality of sod that the turf company throws down. Fresh, good quality sod, laid carefully over well prepared ground does not turn brown and appear dead within a day. This sod was not freshly cut and was hastily rolled out. Two and three inch gaps between pieces and large air pockets under the sod have prevented it from thriving. All I can do is continue to water and hope it survives because Pulte is not interested. ... More

Title says it all.

Customer service is real slow to respond to problems , had appointment for 3 problems today 8-12pm. Only one showed up. Called 24 hrs ago for another problem, left voice msg and havent received a call back

Found quite a few issues of shoddy work. Although Esteban is working to correct, it should have been resolved before I closed...

Throughout the entire build process, everyone we dealt with was terrific. The only issue I had with the build design was that the layout that was assigned to us was the opposite of our neighbors on both sides of us. That meant that while our neighbors on either side of us have layouts that provide them with SW views, (which I desperately wanted when we selected one of the most expensive lots available) our layout gives us a SE view which is much least desirable to me. The arrangement also means that all of our windows on each side of the home face directly into each of our neighbors’ homes, as a result of being a mirror image of both. After the home was completed, I met one of our neighbors who informed me that for an additional $2,000 we could have “flipped” the floor plan, as they had opted to do, and had the SW view I wanted so badly. Our sales rep never mentioned that option to us for some unknown reason. Again, all the personnel we interfaced with were extremely pleasant, helpful and responsive. I couldn’t have asked for better customer service than what we received. THEN came the completion of the home which upon initial walk through appeared to only have minor cosmetic repair needs. We loved the materials we selected and the overall appearance of the home. Once in the residence, however, we had time to more carefully inspect the finished product and found a significant number of defects in the workmanship. For some reason, the way it was designed, many, if not most of the cupboards when fully opened bang into doors or walls. To prevent damage, we’ve had to stick little rubber bumpers all over the place. Also, the quality of the workmanship proved to be VERY sloppy. That’s the best word I can use to describe it. Things were installed crooked, we found excessive paint globs on just about every wall, uneven caulking so that in some places along the windows it’s about 1/16” at one end and over 1/4” at the other. Very sloppy paint job around all the windows and paint splattered on the porcelain tile floors that nobody bothered to clean up so i’ve been going around with my fingernails chipping it off. There are gaps around cabinets where there shouldn’t be. We selected and paid for the “Upgraded kitchen appliance package” but I am not at all impressed. The fridge is relatively small for an “upgrade” model and the drawers in the refrigerated do not glide in and out at all, and the bottom drawer scrapes as you pull it in and out. When I reported the problem to the Pulte Warranty Service, I was told that they would send me some lubricant. I haven’t yet received that but i’m doubtful that it will solve the problem as the parts that scrape are plastic. There also seemed to be missing shelves in the door because there’s a huge gap between where the bottom shelf fits and the next one above it has to go. The oven, as it cools down, whistles quite loudly. I was told that it’s just a “hum”, but whatever it is, it’s sufficiently annoying to me that i’m reluctant to use it at all now. The washer is apparently made to use very little water, so even with a large load the items seem to be sitting in about 2” of water which tends to cause it to go out of balance frequently and the entire machine shifts in its position about 15 degrees —- and it’s a heavy machine! When the microwave completes its cook time, rather than signal the end and then shut off...the fan continues to run until you either open the door or press “cancel”. The maintenance supervisor received our initial Punch List and came over to review everything. So far he’s been very responsive and understanding. Although nothing has been remedied yet, it’s still too soon to reasonably expect any action. We have a 3 car garage that consists of one large entry door, a shallow divider wall and one small entry door which actually makes it more difficult to get 3 cars into it than if it were one single garage door entry or if the space between the doors wasn’t so wide) both doors are already having issues after just 6 weeks past closing. I called the garage company who was able to schedule a check on them the same week I called (this week) With all the complaints we have, I want to stress how wonderful everyone was to deal with. Pretty outstanding, actually. It’s really a shame that the product doesn’t measure up to the personnel Pulte hires. They made the entire experience so easy, stress-free and kept us informed about everything during the entire build period. We also went through Pulte Mortgage and Insurance and got a much better insurance rate than with All-State or even Geiko, which impressed me. The Mortgage folks were equally outstanding in the service they provided to us. I would give the construction quality a 2 1/2 stars and the people we worked with all 5 stars. This is definitely a “production” home build and it shows in the final product. I think it took about 3 1/2 months from start to finish on a 2480+ sq. ft. house with a lot of unskilled and poorly trained labor. For a $520,000 home, the finished product falls way short of that price point, in my opinion. Going forward, if all of my “issues” that CAN be resolved, are, I hope to have another opportunity to submit a final review wherein I can provide a much more positive response for prospective home buyers. ... More

Check icemaker in frig, ours was block of ice missing the cube tray! Check all tv hdmi cable are easily accessible, ours was hidden deep inside the wall, had to dig it out. All receptables are on , none are “tripped” , cable man had trouble powering the internet panel...check gutters during heavy rain, water missing gutters.

Have had a gutter issue since purchase. Finally someone responded this week. Grass was dead at time of closing waiting for it to be replaced.

Some details of lot layouts and community buildout were not shared prior to purchase as most would expect. Parts of the community with excellent retention of shade trees and landscaping, other areas not. Overall an OK experience at the Oakfield price point with minor issues post-move in. Paint quality is absolute builder grade and some of the recessed light fixtures were not well installed. Paint will mark easily forcing repainting after movers. The houses go together quickly. A very nice kitchen (which had 3 separate upgrades by us) but the wall between the pantry (a nice feature) and the garage, is apparently not insulated because the pantry gets amazingly warm in the summertime. Some framing issues with corners not being close to square, not a huge issue, but a real quality issue from our perspective. Ask lots of questions... ... More

This is the second home my wife and I have constructed in Indiana and the fifth home owned. Overall, there has been a lack of quality control and attention to detail during the construction process. Following are examples - Dishwasher was either defective or installed incorrectly. The result was the soaking of the subfloor of the kitchen. The level of damage required a water restoration company to come to the house to remedy. The process is ongoing and may require disassembly of the cabinets. Landscapers have cracked sidewalk and driveway while operating a bulldozer. In the building process, after drywall installed, workers punched a hole through the wall to run an extension cord. The steel I Beam running the length of the basement has construction mud caked in multiple spots. Pulte process appears as we will fix on the backside rather than quality control on the frontside before the owner closes on the house. We specifically chose Pulte because of the floor plan of the house and the Hidden Pines neighborhood. ... More

Surprise. No drawers in the bathrooms' counters. Shouldn't "cut corners" this way. Painting is OK but not really "professional".

Need better response - Bought a Model home that was promised to be like a new build but later to learn a model doesn't have the warranties that a new home has.

The design center was the worst experience. The base price of the house is not even close to a realistic price unless you want poor quality materials. The trades are not paying attention to detail and are just rushing the jobs.

All depends on how Pulte handles the problems AFTER the closing, we were told to wait one year before we can report any problem.

Great neighborhood but seems like things were rushed at the end. A lot of less than quality work mad been found after we moved in. We are getting lots fixed but horrible drywall work can’t be fixed. But we love neighborhood and house design.

The sales process went well. The start of the build process also went well. We decided to build with Pulte since we had a great past experience with them. Different area, different people and service I guess. The quality of the workmanship was below average. It looked like they just did the work without any care. It definitely shows that it was just a job and not have any care in what they do. We still are waiting for issues to be fixed after a month and multiple inspections.

Still waiting on my lawn to get replaced as promised 30+days ago.

Small details that matter like painting job done in the doors, the installation of the material in the bathrooms, the refrigerator door dented, the finishes in the balcony (terrace) demonstrate lack of detail orientation or care for final output and are not aligned with the price paid for the upgrades. Since I still have to follow up with the community manager I can not in all fairness give any rating to trustworthiness since I am waiting to see if the company follows through with the promise to complete the work in question.... please consider trustworthiness as my believe that they have every intention to honor their word and will follow up. ... More

Follow-up on issues that were not completed at closing has not been in a timely manner.

Labor quality is lacking poor supervision from the beginning got a Dan involved towards end and things went better but could not fix past items already covered Workman had no respect for others work and damaged finished product still need some repairs on marble in master bath

Have had some quality issues with the home. Had a gas leak, A/C didn't have coolant due to a loose fitting, lumps in the floor under the carpet, hollow sounding floor in the kitchen. The person that handles the warranties had been very responsive. The yard grading is somewhat of a disaster in that the backyard has a really step hill that wasn't there when we purchased the lot. The neighbors on either side have flat yards so I'm not sure how it ended up this way. Having a hard time getting the builder to do anything about it. The house cosmetically is very nice. The stonework was very well done and the cabinets and trim are really nice. ... More

We recently moved into a new Pulte home. I was surprised by the issues with "fit and finish" that have appeared. Maybe shocked rather than surprised.

Overall a good (B) experience and friendly people. Disappointed in the workmanship though. Some of the things seem like they were done by an immature and not a professional. Pulte need to re-evaluate their contractors (HVAC, Electrical, Drywall and landscaping to be exact)

This was our first home purchase and our experience throughout the building process was phenomenal. Unfortunately, that level of service ended when we signed on the dotted line and handed over the check. There were a few remaining issues to be resolved at closing which we were promised would be handled promptly. That was not the case. We were left to project manage those repairs on our own along with the additional ones that popped up shortly after closing. Word of advice — when building with Pulte, do not close on the home until all issues are resolved or added to the escrow list.

We love the house. Everything seems almost perfect. From location as school, shopping, restaurant to sercurity. 1 month from the day I move-in, there are some minor things happen like hot water, squeaking door, foggy window, air thermostate.