Complaint Review: Americas Home Place - West Tennessee

10/1/09

I serve currently as a General Manager for one of more then 30 Americas Home Place locations.  I have been employed with Americas Home Place over 7 years now and have served in many capacities in regards to building custom homes.  I write to share with you my opinion from within the company and also share letters of recommendation from our clients who have personally had Americas Home Place build their dream. 

Though there will always be issues with any company or business I want to focus a little more on the big picture and not just the worst of the worst.  As a company, we are proud of who we are for many reasons. We are here to face our problems and we are here for our customers.

It is disheartening to read stories from clients that claim we have failed them and their expectations with building a new home.  I will be the first to admit that home building is never flawless or perfect, and in rare circumstances we have failed our client.  There are instances where we have made mistakes, however, we do all we can to repair those mistakes within reason.

Building a strong, quality home is extremely important to our company; equally important, is our relationship with our clients.  It may be easy to repair the one, but often much more difficult to repair the other.  I know that I do all I can, and Americas Home Place does all it can to serve our clients, to build a strong lasting relationship, as well as a strong, quality home.  In most cases we exceed our goals with flying colors.  Americas Home Place is without a doubt, genuine and sincere in its efforts to fix any wrong doing, and works hard to achieve a resolve with clients in the rare circumstances that we may have fallen short. 

Americas Home Place has been building custom homes for over 37 years and continues to successfully serve our clients.  Our referrals from past clients are what continue to make us the strong company we are today.  We serve our clients on an intimate level through our local offices and strive to exceed our clients expectations in building their dream home.

Below you will find just a few letters of recommendation from thousands of satisfied clients that I have had the opportunity to work with over the years.  We are proud to say, a vast majority of our new home owners provide us with superior ratings with their overall satisfaction and building experience with Americas Home Place.

Sincerely,

Brandon Wilkinson

March 5th, 2009

I contracted with Americas Home Place (AHP) in June, 2008 on my Kingwood Country Club property in Clayton, GA.  I wanted to share my satisfactory building experience with AHP in Clayton, GA.

Brandon Wilkinson (General Manager) and I started the process over the phone and I felt comfortable with him and AHP and flew from Florida to Georgia to get things started.  AHP went out of their way to deal with the Kingwood HOA and their building requirements.  At the completion, I even told the staff at Kingwood how pleasurable my building experience was with AHP.

AHP was VERY PATIENT with me. Several times Brandon was at the office past 6PM on the phone working with me on custom details I wanted incorporated into my new home.  I know I was not the easiest customer to deal with, being a realtor of 30 years and understanding contracts, the building aches-pains and negotiations involved.

Mary Webb (Office Coordinator) was very knowledgeable and helpful whenever Brandon or Nate was not available.  Nate Bell-Ellison, (Construction Superintendent), was in control at all times with the SUBS and the scheduling of each phase of construction from Start to Finish and he communicated to me on a weekly basis and sent me photos of the home as it progressed.

Overall, I was very pleased with their ability to complete my custom home on time, and within budget. I have dealt with many builders as a Real Estate salesperson over my 30 year career and I must say that AHP is a reputable as it gets. In these challenged economic times, it is wise to deal with a larger company that has the cash flow needed to stay afloat. So many independents have gone bankrupt and left customers high and dry. Rabun County can consider itself lucky to have such an exceptional builder right here in the city of Clayton.

I wish Americas Home Place continued success throughout these economic challenges.

Regards,

Bob Cable, Customer and Realtor  www.bobcable.com     

I don't know where to begin, but you guys and gal at AHP place were not only our builders, but GOOD friends. I'd even say GREAT new friends. The closing was terrific and I'll put this in an email soon. Both Nate and Mary are the best we ever ran into (and YOU also). Yes, they're a tad crazy (like you), but golly we (Jackie too) had fun with everyone of you during the entire building process. I'd even work at AHP (next life only).

I've not seen Jackie this HAPPY, since we moved into our old home 32 year ago. When we down sized, she became very despondent (not deeply depressed, but close to it) when moving three years ago into our Pulte home. That has all changed now. Jac is a brand new person since moving into the cabin on Tiger Mountain. She will tell you this also and probably will the next time we see you guys which will be next weekend.

I simply  can not believe her new lease on life. We were sitting on the porch today and she said, " I'd like to bring the AHP staff down to Cumming and show the Pulte people how to build a good solid home. Now, I'll admit, we haven't lived in the cabin much, but I think she'll love the cabin even more as time goes by. She didn't even want to come home today (nor did I) and already wants to go back tomorrow. But we can't do that, because of our volunteering jobs.

Oh, Stewart was a fun guy also. I just didn't have much time to get to know him. You can share anything in this email with anyone you desire. As we speak now, Jackie is telling one of her girl friends of what a great cabin we own. See ya soon kid.

Your friend........Gene Alderman

Dear Tim,

Ive written this recommendation of your work to share with others.

When my husband, John and I really needed someone to walk us through the process of having our first home built Tim was there. Tim provided us with a level of service we had never encountered before. He literally held out hands and walked us through each phase of the home building process. Because of Tim my husband and I were left with no unwanted surprises. Anytime we had a question or concern Tim had the answer, or found someone who did, and was able to ease our fears.

Tim is extremely knowledgeable about the home building phase and assured us that even if things seem to not go smoothly at times in the end we would still have a home we could be proud of and enjoy for years to come.

Tim is an excellent Custom Home Building Consultant. I recommend Tim as a Custom Home Building Consultant to anyone who values trustworthiness, consistency, reliability and superb and outstanding results when faced with the highs and lows of custom home building.

Your top qualities include: Great results, expert knowledge and high integrity.

Thanks for all your help, Tim. We could not have done it without you.

Kim and John Harris

Dear Brandon:

We just returned from our second trip to Lake Burton this summer, so please accept our apologies for not contacting you sooner.  We would like to thank you, Nate, and Mary for your efforts in creating a spectacular (and affordable) lake house for our family.  We would also like to thank Randy for promptly taking care of our service requests thus far.

In planning the construction of our home at Lake Burton, we visited several builders in Rabun County, including Americas Home Place.  We decided to use AHP as our contractor because the Pleasantview model so closely matched our vision for our new home, the relative ease of creating a customized layout (with lots of glass and plenty of deck space), and the affordability of AHPs pricing compared to other builders.  We really appreciate the time that you and Mary took during the initial drafting and option selection process to make sure that the home was what we wanted at a price within our budget.  We are sure that this extra effort limited change orders throughout the building process.

During the building process, Nate was an excellent project supervisor.  We really appreciated the frequent emails and pictures that he and Mary provided to allow us to monitor progress from Florida.  Whenever a challenge arose, Nate was quick to explain the situation and to give us our options.  He also worked diligently to meet deadlines and to bring construction to a close within budget.  We are particularly grateful for the little things that he did himself to enhance our home, including straightening deck railings, installing lights and fans, and providing hide-a-ways in the loft (which are a favorite with our children).  His suggestion to increase the size of the bottom deck was a fabulous one.  Because of this change, we now have excellent porch views from both levels of the house.

We are attaching a few photos that we took during our summer vacations with this letter.  Thanks again for making our dreams of a lake house a reality. 

Yours truly,

Randy and Heidi Martin

Hello Ms. White,

I wanted to write you back and tell you thank you for your help in addressing the problems I experienced during and after the construction of my house.  I also wanted to commend those at the Franklin, Americas Home Place office, who are responsible for correcting all of my problems.  Since our last contact, every problem I had prior to and since then, has been addressed and corrected in a prompt and professional manner.

I know I wrote several things in the evaluation that I was unhappy with.  I feel like I needed to write you back and let you know that I couldnt be happier with the service I have received since we last talked.  In my opinion, if you are going to point a finger and say that things are bad, you had better give credit were credit is due also.  Richard and his staff have certainly done everything they could, to rectify any problems we did have, as well as service any problems that have arisen since the evaluation.  Please see that this e-mail is sent to the same people that the evaluation was sent to, so they too will know that the problems I experienced are not going unnoticed. 

Thank you for your time,

Ryan Raby

Americas Home Place:

It has been more than a month since we moved to our new house. We are very please with it and would like to express our gratitude to the great team of Americas Home Place in Asheville, NC. A year ago we decided to move to Asheville and buy a house in the area. Not being able to find a house that met our needs we decided to build one. We were very hesitant about the idea because it had to be built while we were living out of state. We made contact with a few builders in the area and found the styles and designs of AHP houses very attractive. We got in touch with Aaron McCracken, who from the beginning was very conscientious of our needs, concerns, and reservations. Aaron answered all our questions not only in regards to building a house in the Buncombe county but also about the purchase of the land, permits, codes, etc. For a few months we kept in contact via phone, email and one visit to the Asheville office. Aarons professionalism, friendliness, and openness help us to develop the confidence we needed to take the step of building rather than buying a house. In late January of this year, after spending a few days at the office testing Aarons patience, we signed the contract. At the time of signing we learned that Aaron would not longer be at our side while building the house. We were introduced to Rob Bullington, our superintendent. Rob picked up where Aaron left and continued with the same level of professionalism and friendliness that seems to be the trademark at AHP in Asheville. Rob kept us inform at every stage by phone calls, e-mails, and digital photos. Not only he managed all aspects of the construction, allowances, etc. but also gave us sound advice when dealing with utility companies and county agencies.  In every visit to Asheville, Rob came to meet with us at the house, tell us about the progress, schedules, and answer all our questions. Even after receiving the keys of the house, Rob has taken care of every pending item with the same attention as if we were starting the construction. In fact, Rob exceeded our expectations. We want also to mention Vera Parks, her customer-oriented attitude and pleasant manners made easy the task of writing checks. We briefly met other staff at AHP, Jeb and Scott, although we did not have the opportunity to work directly with them we have no doubts their executions would not have been less than excellent. Please share our comments of gratitude with your staff. You have a great team at the Asheville office and we will not hesitate in recommending them to any of your prospective clients.

Best regards,

Jose & Nancy Orench

This note is to thank each person who helped build our mountain dream home.

 First, Josh, who sent us a flyer on Seven Reasons to Build. We called and within a few days, not weeks, we had a set of plans to our liking.

Second, Richard, our contractor who made us feel as if he were building his dream home with his money. Richard also kept us well informed during the building process.

Third, Lisa, she kept the photos coming and the paper work moving. Lisa also helped us hire help on moving day. The twe gentlemen Lisa chose could not reach us due to no cell phone service at our remote location, but they drove up anyway.

Stewart, you should be very proud of your team. Building a great home in three months; unbelievable. We have our mountain dream home thanks to Americas Home Place.

Sincerely,

Nona & David Crews

The staff at Americas home place (Chattanooga) took a potentially stressful process (custom home building) and turned it into a very pleasant one on one situation.  We felt they cared about us just as much or more than just building a "house".

Bob and Margie whittles

Old Fort, TN.

Well my nightmare with this builder is over. After thinking seriuously about the problems with this house and the poor quality of the warranty repairs "I simply don't want them back!" Using AHP as my builder has been THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE! I've been LIED TO, STOLEN FROM, and bullshitted in general for all I can stand. The quality of this house is extremely poor. They used the cheapest materials and most incompetent labor they could possibly find. Walls are bowed, ceilings are bowed, cracks in drywall, creaking floors, ceramic tiles cracking, doors won't close, windows stick, plumbing makes strange noises, A/C wiring issues, cracks in concrete, Crown molding is split, the list goes on and on. They have since fired / replaced the original office crew, moved 100 miles away, and sent warranty people who only partly finished the job. I'm still waiting for warranty repairs to be completed from 4 months ago while new issues are coming up. I paid $10K for a "custom stairway" that has a loose handrail and is falling off. This company is CRIMINAL. They will lie and promise anything under the sun to get you to sign on the bottom line. Don't make the same mistake I made. Don't even consider using this sorry excuse for a home builder! I don't even want them back on my property. When they finished building the house the construction financing had been extended twice at extra expense, they went WAY OVER on the building budget, and the topper was that the appraisal came in under the building cost. Gee imagine that! Some numbers to consider... Out of pocket $ 65,000 property $ 25,000 site preparation (dirt work) was 15k over because AHP didn't bother to measure first time and work had to be redone! $ 5,000 utilities hookups $ 40,000 in construction cost overages Thats $ 130,000 out of my back pocket CASH! The balance on the house was 280,000. That's $410,000 spent on a house that only appraises at $280,000. I even have to pay PMI insurance because the debt to value ratio isn't favorable. What a f@$king I've taken from this outfit! I would be interested in joining any group or party considering legal action against this company. And by the way AHP knows about this site and wish they could make it simply go away. If you are a victim of this company and read this PLEASE POST YOUR EXPERIENCE so others won't fall victim to Americas Half-Assed Home Place! PS. This house looks beautiful from the road when passing by!