I'm looking at entering into a contract with them here in San Antonio. Any thoughts or feedback is certainly appreciated.

Currently building a home with them.

Long Story Short: They are pretty good. Wont jack up prices. Good quality of builds and subs. They have a well-put together supply chain and are good on the communication front with respect to delays or issues.

More Details:

• They are pretty good in terms of building solid quality construction. In the DFW area, if you look at newer houses - most of the times you will see the highland homes built houses have that declared. Don't see that much with other builders (example would be like "Stunning Highland Homes built house" - even if the house is 7-10 years old)
• Won't jack up prices - the price you sign on is the price you pay, plus any additional adders like upgraded tile or countertops, etc. Other builders (not neccessairly the ones I posted about below) will absolutely pass on cost increases to the buyer.
• They use the same subs on all their houses. This means they use the same quality brick masons, framing crews, etc. They do this by essentially just scheduling the crew all around the area to keep them busy. They like this because it builds the relationship with solid contractors, the contractors get steady work flow and know the methods/requests of highland homes.
• Supply Chain: In our neighborhood development, there is Perry and UnionMain also building homes. These builders were promising homes to be done 150 days after inking the contract. That has gone real south in the current environment as these builders have been delayed getting windows, brick, etc. I've seen on the local facebook page for the neighborhood people posting complaints about signing in late November of 2020 and being told June. Then they were told August cause of lumber delays. Then October cause of brick delays. The people then chose the brick they could most easily get and then finding out its now a December completion to actually being updated again to January or later in 2022 completion.
• By Comparison - My wife and I signed with Highland in late January. We were told late September/October completion at the time. Through out the build, we've been updated on slight delays or misses on somethings. This has caused our actual completion to slip to early November, which isn't bad in the scheme of things. The only items we missed was the "miami white" countertop we selected was no longer available. They even had us select our brick as one of the first things to do because it would take 20-24 weeks delays.
  
  

Issues:

• Minor gripe with the way the AC contractor did some of the duct work - but highland corrected.
• Our project/build manager missed some of our requests (things like an outlet in the hall closet to charge the wireless vaccum). Over minor things but we are managing the build from another city, so it wasn't always easy to go check on the house consistently.

Overall, I would highly recommend Highland Homes compared to other builders out there. Just from a comfort and practicing what they preach type setting.

I'm a TREC inspector here in SA who built about 250 homes with Perry and Princeton Classic prior to becoming an inspector. I've inspected a couple of their frames and finals in the last few months and will agree w most of Red Pear's assessment above. Generally a great builder who will make corrections as needed.

One of the frames was a **** show though. The left front second story room side wall was recessed in 5 1/2" instead of cantilevered over the first floor plate. The subfloor was exposed for about 15'. It was odd and going to be a difficult fix since the soffit didn't extend far enough to allow them to just furr the wall out.

Buyer had been under contract, without escalation clauses, for over a year and didn't want to rock the boat too much because the home had already appreciated so much. Cant wait to go to the final and see how they fixed it.

We have been in a 3 yr old Highland in north DFW for about 2 months, it was originally a spec so has a mix of builder grade and upgraded features. There are quite a few other Highland homes around us and it's a running joke amongst our neighbors, as well as local plumbers, that the builder grade Highland toilets are complete S&!*. Pun intended. I would pay whatever the extra is to get higher quality toilets as it's likely cheaper than having a plumber come back later to change out. The drainage between the home is also known to be a problem, not so much because of Highland, but that the homes are so close together they just don't get a ton of sun. We haven't experienced it yet because we haven't had much rain since we moved in, but our neighbor said she just got Highland to agree to add some drainage after fighting with them for 2 years. Might be worth seeing if they will proactively add some drainage help if you're buying on a smaller lot. Other than that things seem pretty solid for a large production builder.

East Dallas Ag said:

---

We have been in a 3 yr old Highland in north DFW for about 2 months, it was originally a spec so has a mix of builder grade and upgraded features. There are quite a few other Highland homes around us and it's a running joke amongst our neighbors, as well as local plumbers, that the builder grade Highland toilets are complete S&!*. Pun intended. I would pay whatever the extra is to get higher quality toilets as it's likely cheaper than having a plumber come back later to change out. The drainage between the home is also known to be a problem, not so much because of Highland, but that the homes are so close together they just don't get a ton of sun. We haven't experienced it yet because we haven't had much rain since we moved in, but our neighbor said she just got Highland to agree to add some drainage after fighting with them for 2 years. Might be worth seeing if they will proactively add some drainage help if you're buying on a smaller lot. Other than that things seem pretty solid for a large production builder.

---

What's your lot size?

50'

East Dallas Ag said:

---

We have been in a 3 yr old Highland in north DFW for about 2 months, it was originally a spec so has a mix of builder grade and upgraded features. There are quite a few other Highland homes around us and it's a running joke amongst our neighbors, as well as local plumbers, that the builder grade Highland toilets are complete S&!*. Pun intended. I would pay whatever the extra is to get higher quality toilets as it's likely cheaper than having a plumber come back later to change out. The drainage between the home is also known to be a problem, not so much because of Highland, but that the homes are so close together they just don't get a ton of sun. We haven't experienced it yet because we haven't had much rain since we moved in, but our neighbor said she just got Highland to agree to add some drainage after fighting with them for 2 years. Might be worth seeing if they will proactively add some drainage help if you're buying on a smaller lot. Other than that things seem pretty solid for a large production builder.

---

As a DFW Inspector who has inspected thousands of new construction or one year old homes, I would say that the issues you listed are a common problem for all new construction around here. Builder grade toilets are crap. Upgrading those is a good idea - not sure if builders will allow that or not, but switching them out after should not be a problem at all or particularly more expensive since builders mark things up so much. Swale drainage between houses is an issue on at least 75% of the new houses I inspect. I would say that Highland proactively puts drains in more than most. But obviously they don't all the time.

As to the OP, I tell people that Highland would be my first choice for a new construction production builder around here. No builder is perfect and I have seen some Highland lemons, but they are consistently better than average and from feedback I get have some of the best customer service in the industry. Of all the builders around here, Highland is also probably the most common name I run into where people are on their second or third Highland new construction.

With any builder, be onsite as much as you can. Make friends with your builder and be nice to the subs. Those simple steps can go a long way in helping get a better built house. It is amazing how many issues could have been avoided if the sub had spent an extra 5 minutes on something.

East Dallas Ag said:

---

We have been in a 3 yr old Highland in north DFW for about 2 months, it was originally a spec so has a mix of builder grade and upgraded features. There are quite a few other Highland homes around us and it's a running joke amongst our neighbors, as well as local plumbers, that the builder grade Highland toilets are complete S&!*. Pun intended. I would pay whatever the extra is to get higher quality toilets as it's likely cheaper than having a plumber come back later to change out. The drainage between the home is also known to be a problem, not so much because of Highland, but that the homes are so close together they just don't get a ton of sun. We haven't experienced it yet because we haven't had much rain since we moved in, but our neighbor said she just got Highland to agree to add some drainage after fighting with them for 2 years. Might be worth seeing if they will proactively add some drainage help if you're buying on a smaller lot. Other than that things seem pretty solid for a large production builder.

---

Thanks! We're going to be on a fifty foot lot too. What drains did they get put in? Did yall get any drains put in?

We built a Huntington 2019. Closed two years ago in October. I placed a warrant request this summer, well past the warranty, and they still came out. Ended up not being their issue, but they still came.

I also agree on not paying on cost increases. Our floors, some tile, and some counters were bumped up to an upgrade from standard soon after we selected and they didn't change our pricing. They also let us bring some of our own fixtures that they installed.

Toll Brothers was the other builder in our neighborhood. The base Huntington selections were nicer. Little things like individual component faucets in secondary bedrooms were standard compared to the single piece unit that I even see pure custom builders install to cut costs (I.e. hot, cold, and faucet are separate and not a single unit).