DR Horton, good or bad?

One of our homes in Texas was a DR Horton home. We had no problems with them or the home. Loved it. Don't know anything about the ones here.

Just curious about the quality of the DR Horton homes going up all over the place. Has anyone heard anything - good or bad - about them LOCALLY, or have first hand experience with them and the quality/reliability of their homes, their sales practices, follow-up on home warranties, repairs etc.?

I hear good and bad. I sold one in Turtle Cove and the buyer does not seem to happy with the builder follow up. They have a few problems that DR does not want to resolve. I actually thought the project went well but was a tad nervous how fast the home was completed. Your best best is to get extra warranties if possible and make sure you pay to have the home inspected from an outside agency. I would also recommend getting an outside agent to help you with the sales process. It does not change your purchase price and you have someone in your corner that will help you negotiate your terms. Good luck and call if you need any help.

30a is a unique place. Many places, especially the master planned communities, require a home built to a higher standard than you would normally see in many other areas. Most of the builders that have built in 30a in the past have very discriminating taste and clientele. Turtle cove was meant to be entry level housing to meat that price point. I believe the houses built by DR Horton in 30a will be much different. Having said that, it remains to be seen if a company that large can compete with the other builders who pay such close attention to detail.

30a is a unique place. Many places, especially the master planned communities, require a home built to a higher standard than you would normally see in many other areas. Most of the builders that have built in 30a in the past have very discriminating taste and clientele. Turtle cove was meant to be entry level housing to meat that price point. I believe the houses built by DR Horton in 30a will be much different. Having said that, it remains to be seen if a company that large can compete with the other builders who pay such close attention to detail.

Entry level or not DR still has their stamp on Turtle Cove. They are using the same subs out here on 30A as they are everywhere else.

On a positive note. The homes are well priced. As a buyer, I reccommend paying close attention to details. Frame up. Be involved. Note problems early on and complain if you have issues. These can be a decent buy but you need to stay involved.

We went through a few of them during Parade of Homes, and it seemed like they built to Florida minimum code standards and were kind of iffy in terms of fit and finish. Not impressed even though they had all the buzzword options like granite and stainless steel.

Prices are good for south of the bridge, but I'd rather buy an existing home that seemed sturdier for the same price point.

I have a DR Horton home. No problems at all, but as Bobby J says, we were at the house every single day during the build. If there is an issue, it's more with the process than the product. They are great at cranking out homes, but if there are issues, they want to drive past them and fix them after the closing which is bassakwards in my book. They leave no wiggle room in the schedule.

For example...the framer builds a wall or room passage that is bowed or isn't square. The sheet rock guys come right behind them followed by the painters. Now, you have a bad wall or passage that is completely finished. They don't want to get their schedules boogered up so they let it happen with the intention that it will be fixed after the fact witch, or course, results in all those skills having to come back out a second time. Plus, we all know how easy it would be to get them back out because you would, then, be dealing with their warranty group.

We did have problems with arches being twisted and passages between rooms not being square. We had to play hardball and tell them not to bother to show up at the closing unless they were fixed beforehand. We dropped by two days before closing. When we got out of the car, we could hear them tearing apart stuff in the house to fix.

Bottom line is they do make a good product, but you need to be involved. That's really not different from what you should do with any home except the process moves so friggin fast with them that skipping a day can result in headache!

Bottom line is you get what you pay for. If a house is being built to "minimum standards", do not expect it to be there when the next real hurricane hits. If their walls are bulging, and headers are mis-aligned, it just reflects the quality and care of construction. Kind of scary that they are trying to buy prominence on 30-A. Hope the buyers there, truly know what to expect in terms of a home compared to the rest of 30-A.

We have represented several buyers of DR Horton homes. I was originally skeptical of the building quality. After watching the entire build process of a relatives home, I am convinced they have a solid product for the price point. Good or Bad, they have a niche. The people running the show seem to know what they are doing and respond quickly to any issues. I'm still not convinced they will have a place South of 98; however, there is no doubt we will soon find out.

Chris Cope, Realtor
30A Dreamin
find your beach at 30ADreamin.com

Anyone bought a D.R. Horton home? I've seen some and they are quite bland with no trees but I guess people want a place to Netflix and chill?

Anyone bought a D.R. Horton home? I've seen some and they are quite bland with no trees but I guess people want a place to Netflix and chill?

They are bland, but that's up to the new homeowner to change.

The thing to understand about DR Horton is that they don't build homes in the traditional sense, they use contractors and depending on the contractor that built your home you may or may not be happy with it.

My general recommendation for a DR Horton home is to buy it new and sell it before 10 years hits.

The biggest issue I've seen with home buyers is that they want it all right now. What I mean is that you have a freshly married couple recently out of college and rather than purchasing a 2 or 3 bedroom starter home, they want a full mansion with all the bedrooms and amenities they could ever dream of. Start small and start building equity instead of complaining that nothing's affordable and throwing money away on an apartment with a "trash concierge".

They are what they are. If you just want a place to live, they’re a good fit. If you want something fancy, exclusive, high quality, etc, there’s better options.

You can’t take the Horton home for $400k because the higher quality stuff is $125k higher, and then complain about quality related issues. Or I guess you can, but if you wanted quality you could have paid more for it.

I saw Prominence mentioned earlier in this thread and I’m curious if anyone knows how that’s turned out. I heard they were trying to give away the last few units for like $350k and could barely move them. Also that there are a few issues being litigated right now with the HOA, but all in all those seemed to have turned out OK for what they were designed to be.

I purchased a new DR Horton home in 2007 in Miramar Beach and was very happy with it.
Any issues were immediately addressed.
After living there for almost ten years DR Horton completely redid the master shower at no cost to me with new everything because the subcontractor used the wrong backer board. I didn’t even realize there was a problem.