My wife and I are looking at houses built by Comfort Homes in the Clayton area. It looks like you get good size lots and good prices per square foot. We are a little concerned about the quality we are seeing in the houses. Does anyone live in a Comfort Homes house or have some experience with them?

9/19/2007 10:16:01 AM

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"We are a little concerned about the quality we are seeing in the houses."

Be a little more objective about this. If you are seeing some messed up paint lines that does not mean the house is going to fall in, it just means they have crappy painters. Look at the quality of materials they are using compared to other builders in the area. Are they using that cardboard width sheathing or something more durable like OSB?

9/19/2007 10:59:54 AM

you're not going to get incredible quality from a tract builder, period. can you get something that'll hold up well for a first time buyer? sure. they're main concern is getting people into as many houses as possible at a good price. quality takes a back seat to that much of the time, but you can still get something that's more than adequate for the price.

like ^ said, be more concerned with what's behind the walls/under the floors, not what's on them. in addition to a finished home, i would reccomend catching a house that's just been framed and roughed in. go through taking note of materials used, quality of work, etc.

when i worked in that area of the industry, i can't say i ever really heard anything one way or the other about comfort homes. nothing bad, but they didn't have a reputation of doing anything special either.

also keep in mind that with most tract builders, the only reason you get a large lot is because of the quality of the land, not because they're nice and want you to have a yard. it either doesn't pass compaction tests very well in spots, doesn't perc well, etc.

9/19/2007 2:36:15 PM

I know the owner of the company as well as his son, who attends NCSU btw. They are stand up people, but just like bigblueram said, they aren't custom home builders. They do build some larger custom homes that probably have a finer attention to detail. They do have a warranty on all new homes I beleive, and the son is one of the many people employed by comfort homes that takes care of warranty issues (ie they have a dedicated staff to come out and fix any issues). They have been building houses in the central NC area for quite awhile and seem to still be thriving.

9/19/2007 4:21:49 PM

do they have a website?

9/19/2007 4:48:08 PM

I don't know if I trust a home builder that has a dedicated staff for warrenties. That means they do enough fixing of things they fucked up that they need a dedicated staff.

9/19/2007 9:24:54 PM

balls up and build it yourself.

stop being a pussy

9/20/2007 7:32:12 AM

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"I don't know if I trust a home builder that has a dedicated staff for warrenties. That means they do enough fixing of things they fucked up that they need a dedicated staff. "

They all do. When you build as many houses as they do it is much cheaper for them to staff people for this than it is to sub-contract it out.

9/20/2007 9:53:08 AM

^yep. any of the larger volume builders are going to have a dedicated warranty department that takes care of any minor issues. larger repairs are usually referred back to whatever subcontractor did the work in the first place. in the event that sub doesn't do repair work, then they'll have another one they use.

9/21/2007 1:37:09 AM

Honestly, a builder who has subcontractors who stick around is worth buying from... knowing they'll be there to do your 1yr warranty work is a blessing in disguise!
Whatever you do, do not buy a Lennar home! Every experience I have had with Lennar (both personal [family owns new lennar home], and work [company I worked for was contracted out to build amenities for multiple new lennar neighborhoods]), everyone who is contracted out by Lennar either quits (most freq.) or becomes impossible to get in contact with. Just one example... when my parents bought their home there were a few simple issues that we found. One issue: Shower door not properly installed (they had left off the crucial piece that keeps h20 inside)... it took 3 different subcontracted companies to come out, none of which were the original installer, before it was actually fixed.

9/21/2007 2:13:40 AM