Richmond American Homes Reviews

During the homebuying process, I was lied to about many different things and almost walked away from the company due to trust issues. Do not believe the sellers when they tell you anything. Get it in writing, although they will go back on that as well. They are only telling you things to get you to buy the product. The mortgage company that partners with Richmond American is manipulative and will not work with you until you threaten to leave them and get a mortgage elsewhere. Recommend refinancing as soon as possible if you did go through them. The overall quality of the house is adequate. Many details are missed throughout the home. Although there was plenty of time to finish the house, the finishing touches were rushed and repainting led to a lot of paint on the floor throughout the house. The carpet has many different items underneath it and is not smooth. It will need to be replaced as soon as we can afford it. There are many things about the house that I wish I could have done something before such as the discolored wood in the back fence since it has been there for so long, the sod used is not good, and the longer cabinet shelves do not have a middle of the shelf support. There were good things about the home and buying process, but if we weren't so attached to the area and the floor plan, we would have gone elsewhere for sure. I will most likely not work with Richmond American homes again. ... More

But make sure they do what they say at walk through

While we love our home and the build quality is beautiful, our overall experience with Richmond American Homes was disappointing. From the start, there was a significant lack of communication, which made the process frustrating and stressful. We often had to follow up multiple times to get basic information, and even then, responses were delayed or unclear. Additionally, I didn’t feel welcomed or valued as a customer. Buying a home is a significant life decision, and it was disheartening to feel like just another number to them. Despite the beautiful outcome, the journey there was far from smooth, and I would have appreciated clearer communication and a more supportive experience. ... More

Get everything in writing up front. Can't trust anybodys word.

It’s taken 30 days to get a response on my warranty items. Had me submit pictures for your app that they can’t even access. Nothing in the process was smooth or even I would say it was friendly.

Our original sales person, Jeff, was not transparent by failing to disclose important information regarding homeowner's insurance. He is no longer with Richmond American, and since then, Brigitte has been spot on. We also had an issue with our Assistant Superintendent, Kevin, who did not complete items prior to closing that he had agreed would be finished. He even removed the blue tape from places that hadn't been touched! The actual Superintendent, Rex, has been incredible, trying to resolve the issues that Kevin didn't rectify. Our biggest disappointment was the "included" front yard landscaping that we paid for; all of the plants were dead prior to move in and only the trees were living. Since then, we have spent more money on creating a beautiful front yard, the one we should've had with our home purchase. We are extremely happy with our home design choices and products, however, because of the major issues we encountered, we would not recommend Richmond American homes to family and friends. ... More

We were the easiest buyers ever. We walked in, said we want that house, and were ready to put 20% or more down using "their" lender. Unfortunately their lender Home American Mortgage Corporation is TERRIBLE to work with. Their complete lack of communication with the builder made the rest of the process unbearable. Richmond appeared to want to sell the house as badly as we wanted to buy it, but the lender was more or less useless, and seemed completely disinterested in making the deal work. Once we moved into our new home we have had some issues that still aren't resolved. I think that Richmond needs to realize that this is the thing that could set them apart from all of the other cookie cutter builders, but they choose to just sell the house and hope that the buyer doesn't bother them. I have always build custom, and from now on I will. Builders like Richmond are really nothing more than lending companies masquerading as builders. They bought cheap money and now are looking to loan it. They build mediocre homes so they can lend the money the bought previously out at a higher rate. What they forget is that this is people's homes, not just a play thing. They need to do MUCH better at follow up after the sale. ... More

Great size homes .

The Sales agent Mike was outstanding. The home buying process was a daister until Charles Baker wad involved. His steady and positive approach, helped me during my purchase. I commend him tremendously for his professionalism. Lastly, there is an issue with the oven that has never been used. It's been two months and it needs to be replaced.

I purchased a new Richmond home 30 years ago. The quality of the home then was was great. I can't say the same today. The appliances are unbelievably bad. Home builders are saving money by installing "contractor grade" items in the home. If they offered to let us upgrade to something better during the construction process, that would be fine, but they do not let you upgrade anything. When you walk through the model homes, the appliances and upgrades you see are what you would get months and months ago. When they cut costs, they didn't remodel the models so you can see what you'll actually get. ... More

Sales lady Lori provided good information about the residence and options of the house. However, when providing information about lenders, the information was not correct The lenders, the home owners insurance, the sales department were not in sync when providing me the right information I would get an answer from one department then a different one from the other department, and so on. Home American needs to provide uniform current and correct information to customers. Also, Issues with the construction of the house have been brought up as well. Hopefully this gets resolved in a timely manner ... More

This was the worst experience in regard to communication period. Our agent Mayra shared no concern with my and my wife's concerns to the home purchase. She seemed simply satisfied to getting the signatures required and the deposits then after that she simply disappeared! She made numerous blunders. Not mistakes but huge blunders and wouldn't answer her phone or return messages as needed. When we finally got to move into the house, we had to wait 30 days to receive the builders' incentives appliances. Washer, Dryer and Refrigerator!!! The house is pretty awesome but here we are waiting for the construction issues to be corrected! It seems as though there is no communication among the Richmond employees. No one seems to know who is responsible for what. I'm hoping that soon all construction items will be completed because we have warranty issues cropping up that I am holding on to so as to not confuse these workers. Once again fantastic product but that is as far as it goes. ... More

Half day home gallery selections. Need to make many decisions involving thousands of dollars in upgrades the same day. Absolutely no changes were allowed after the selection was done. I had asked for extra insulation bw floor after selection which was not honoured. The agent was rude and blunt. The use the signed contract when asked for any changes to prove their inflexibility. The attitude of sales agents change based on demand for the community. Their lender was subpar and could not even close my jumbo loan. They are probly ok for conventional loan. This wasted my time and efforts. ... More

The builders will address things well and are fairly responsive. The sales team is not responsive and will not do much to keep promises.

I'll be honest, it was a pretty rough experience overall. I put the money down in January. They initially said July was the goal, and then pushed to mid August, then mid October, mid November, end of November, mid December, end of December, mid January, then I finally closed (barely) at the end of January. There was a different person to work with every other month, between sales reps, superintendents, construction managers, etc. They had to redo something about nearly every part of the house because they did it wrong or failed inspections, and turnover was well over 100%. I had to compare notes with several of the contacts at the company each week to try to figure out what was actually happening, and I was going out there myself once or twice per week to see who was right. They were scrambling to finish at the end- I was missing countertops and tons of aesthetics during my initial home walkthrough (blue tape) and they were still finishing up the morning of closing. They didn't get my certificate of occupancy until literally hours before closing, so I couldn't do utilities beforehand, and closing took 3 hours because we had to wait for the CO to propagate through the various groups. I worked with some good people like Melissa, Darlene, Taffie, and Alan that kept me from pulling out completely, but it was a rough process overall that took over a year to complete. It's a good house, with many things I really appreciate (large yard, gutters/architectural shingles were included, great drywall work, heavy emphasis on energy efficiency, tall ceilings, etc.) but it was a lot of work to get it done correctly along the way. ... More

Purchased and contract was to close in 2 months on a specific date when the home was to be completed. 1 week after contracting the insurance provider is the one that told me the builder is closing 2 weeks earlier. I could go on and on about the disappointment but let's just say the home was no where completed when I closed. The title company was hacked- not there fault but the had no communication an entire 2 weeks before closing. I never knew where I was signing or when. It was not a good experience. I felt sorry for the sales professional doing everything she could but the disorganization she had to work with within the company was unbelievable. ... More

Our new Richmond home in the Trail Crest Subdivision located in Port Townsend is very nice and the interior workmanship is great. However, several of my neighbors and I are having post construction drainage issues that are not easily resolved, and it could have consequences to the house foundation. The yards have also become marshes from improper landscaping prep and poor drainage. Richmond's contractor should have followed the design engineer's drainage and grading plans, but I understand this did not happen. I'm waiting to hear back from Richmond on what the repairs will be to address these issues. Our contacts during and post construction, Julia and Ryan, have been great to work with. This is a big concern and we hope to have a long-term fix to these issues to protect our investment. ... More

We purchased a new build from dirt. The overall experience was frustrating to say the least. This was our first time buying a new build, so we did not know a lot of key things we should have received from a builder. We met with the sales guy multiple times before we finally decided to buy from Richmond. We pick out the lot from the RICHMOND plans, paid our earnest money and were told it would take 12-14 months to build. This was on 2/27/23. Around July we asked our sales guy if he had any idea what our backyard was going to look like. He said that should have been discussed on our plot call to go over the plot the city(not Richmond) finalized. I told him we never had a plot call. He instantly had a look of fear in his face as he realized this was a HUGE mess up somewhere in the chain of the Richmond organization. So he gave us a copy of the plot designed and approved by the city. We looked at it and realized our backyard had a huge retaining wall in the middle of the ENTIRE YARD. No other house in the whole neighborhood has this crappy retaining wall. Had we known about this retaining wall, we would have NEVER picked this lot. The city signed off on that plot design on 2/24/23. We signed our paperwork on 2/27/23. It was a huge miss from Richmond. We didn't know about a separate plot as we were shown Richmond's plot, they were not the same at all. We had the option to forfeit our earnest money or take the house. We ended up sticking with the house. But this was a huge miss by Richmond for a home buyer. Future buyers, make sure you get a city plot call before you give them any money. I wish we would have known that. The design center was great. The woman we worked with was phenomenal and super helpful. Our sales guy was either let go, or moved on to a new position so we were transitioned over to a different guy. Our first guy was super responsive, replied to calls, texts and emails. The new guy that we were transitioned to was horrible. He still hasn't replied to 4 different emails I sent him, which it's past the point now. Our superintendent was amazing. We had a great experience with him. He was very responsive, fixed things we noticed wrong right away. He was definitely the best person we worked with at Richmond. I stopped reaching out to the new sales guy that took over our deal and started reaching out to our superintendent because he was so responsive. As far as workmanship, I would say it's mediocre. We have a crooked wall in the bedroom in the basement. We have the wrong grout color. We had a corner of our backsplash fixed three different times. We had major roofing debris in our gutter which caused flooding on our front porch. I think some of the work done was not quality work by the contractors that are hired to do the work. Our house was completed in 6 months instead of the 12-14 they originally said. Which was unexpected, but also not an issue for us. Like I said, our design center experience was great. And our superintendent was awesome. I don't know what we would have done if we didn't have him. ... More

It started off good but changed construction supervisor before closing. Things I was promised suddenly disappeared. After closing found issues that I’m still waiting for warranty to repair. And 1 item I’m not sure how they are going to repair but I can’t move in until it is resolved. I’m not sure I would buy from this builder again

We originally contracted for a home that didn't fit on the lot. After this fiasco, they increased the lot premium trying not to honor the lot premium under the original agreement. They call it a custom build to order home. But the reality is they restricted our choices in materials. They mandated a set of rules that essentially yielded a standard spec home at a custom price. Nothing was custom. We couldn't even pick a location for a TV outlet. Thank goodness we had a realtor that helped us when the builder wanted to break promises. The builder altered the plan decreasing our window sizes to suit their bottom line. I would never buy from Richmond again. ... More

The home is nice and for the most part well made. Warrenty gal Gale for inside the house is amazing. We have a drainage issue so our front and back are flooded and killing the grass. There’s also a drainage cap missing. I brought this up as soon as we moved it. I messaged our sales rep Chris D. and he pretty much blew off the issue and said there’s nothing he can do to help us. He became rude about helping us after we bought the house.

Seller was in a rush to close. We found out later, the seller’s representative wanted the commission prior to transferring to a different company. The builder failed to properly submit all building permits and documents to the county. We have been in the property for five (5) weeks and we still do not have a valid address. Do your research before buying with this builder.

-moved in missing air vent and exhaust fan in a bathroom -scuttle hole access to first floor attic is blocked by an engineered truss (no access) -toilet in primary water closet smells of septic and no on has come out to check after our request was made -walls are out of square (no tools needed to determine it’s that bad) -inspector notified Richmond team of TWO GAS LEAKS. We were promised this was remediated. Gas supplier had to come and turn off our gas because the subcontractor claims they were never notified and we slept our first night in the home smelling gas but not able to detect where the leak was or if we were being paranoid because the leaks were “fixed”. These items I’ve listed scratch the surface of our issues and dissatisfaction purchasing this home. I worked for Richmond American homes in Washington state while this home was being built for us. This home’s lack of quality is incredibly disappointing to the brand. ... More

The purchase of the home itself was not the issue; however, I encountered problems with the washer and dryer included in the sale. Upon moving in, I discovered that the dryer was dented, and I requested either a replacement or a credit for the damage. Additionally, the washer and dryer were not connected, even though the purchase agreement included a $2,000 charge for a washer and dryer that were to be installed and operational at the time of closing. This situation has left me feeling as though I purchased a used product rather than a brand new home. Furthermore, no extra paint was left for touch-ups, the overall experience has been disappointing given the expectations set during the purchase process. I respectfully request that Richmond credit me for the damaged dryer or provide a credit for the unit, and address the issue regarding the washer and dryer connection as specified in the purchase agreement. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your prompt response and resolution. Please note the Will and Denny are great to work with and they have nothing to do with the issue at hand. ... More

Unfinished home upon closing and it's been a hassle to get anything fixed or finished in the 30 days since closing. Still waiting!