Builder in Mclean

[Anonymous]

Sorry, reposting on this thread since it seemed more recently active.

I'm evaluating builders in the Mclean area for a rebuild. How are these Mclean builders like Focal Point, Kul homes, Artifact, Classic, etc for a medium budget semi-custom/model home (not custom)? Any recent experience would be helpful.

Any comments from customers who've built with Relux homes, both from someone who has gone through the process recently and also some who've had it for a few years to check how their Chinese sourced materials (frequently used items like kitchen cabinets, floors, toilets, door locks, lights etc) holds up.

I visited a couple of friends who bought a finished home within last couple of years and another who built with them and they are in general happy with the product that they got, except for some complaints with hardwood floors (had to replace the whole house), toilets, etc. I liked the product and they look quite glossy and the price seemed to be a tiny bit cheaper than other builders.

Heard that construction experience was difficult with management not being very responsive, lack of adequate supervision or follow up during construction and terrible owners who don't care or understand the concept of customer service. Heard that post sale customer service for warranty issues seemed to be extremely difficult process. Also heard that they recently had their entire warehouse burnt in a fire and are dealing with some law suits/investigations.
Somewhat tempted, but makes me nervous!

[Anonymous]

Any comments from customers who've built with Relux homes, both from someone who has gone through the process recently and also some who've had it for a few years to check how their Chinese sourced materials (frequently used items like kitchen cabinets, floors, toilets, door locks, lights etc) holds up.

I visited a couple of friends who bought a finished home within last couple of years and another who built with them and they are in general happy with the product that they got, except for some complaints with hardwood floors (had to replace the whole house), toilets, etc. I liked the product and they look quite glossy and the price seemed to be a tiny bit cheaper than other builders.

Heard that construction experience was difficult with management not being very responsive, lack of adequate supervision or follow up during construction and terrible owners who don't care or understand the concept of customer service. Heard that post sale customer service for warranty issues seemed to be extremely difficult process. Also heard that they recently had their entire warehouse burnt in a fire and are dealing with some law suits/investigations.
Somewhat tempted, but makes me nervous!

We have built with Relux homes and I have given detailed posting of my entire experience. Here you go again. We built our house in 2017 and our house is still under warranty.

If you are a perfectionist and you expect a perfect house with perfect construction experience then maybe Relux is not for you. If you are expecting the best house for your money I would not look at anybody else beyond Relux homes.


1) Look and style: Relux uses one of the best architects in the area and their houses look amazing. We have not stopped receiving compliments from friends and neighbors and the random passer-by. They use unique combination Limestone/Stucco that gives the front elevation an nice look.

2) Construction quality: They use 2 by 6 framing, R21 insulation on walls, insulated garage doors, Moen Faucets in master bath and the Kitchen sink, Farm sink, Freestanding tub in master, marble tiles, post-finished wood flooring standard. Ceiling height was 9 ' basement, 10 feet main, 9 feet upper. Nice trims, Recessed LED lights all 3 levels and on and on...

3) Inspectors feedback: I have had 3 inspections done during construction and multiple inspections done during we found very few issues and the inspectors told me the construction quality exceeded** the standards they have seen elsewhere. He qualified by adding some cheaper builder names.

4) Customer experience: Bad to worst in terms of responsiveness. Dont expect a response to your email. If you are lucky you will get a good project manager. we have had good and bad managers. You have to be on top of things, they easily miss or forget upgrades that you paid for. You have to follow the construction progress carefully. They dont seem to be very organized and dont remember the customs or unique changes you requested for. They are also very reluctant to make changes at the last minute. If you dont have the patience to go to the construction site weekly maybe they are not the best choice for you.

5) Warranty support: Warranty support has been good so far. Our project manager always answers my phone and is responsive. We had a bad leak during one of the rain storms and they were quick to fix it and patch it up. So far so good.

6) Chinese stuff: They use Chinese cabinets bathrooms and kitchen, light fixtures, LED, all hardware like interior door handles etc. Thier Iron doors come from China but look very nice in my opinion. The kitchen cabinets are shaker style/soft close and look good. So far everything has held up.

All lumber and construction material was sourced from home depot.

7) Pros and Cons:

Pros: Good looking houses, good quality construction (you will experience minor problems .. again if you are a perfectionist this is not the builder for you). Best deal for the money hands down, you get a lot for your money. Dont even bother looking at NDI, focal point, classic etc. They dont Nickle and dime for minor issues. The owners seem to genuinely care about building you a nice house.


Cons: They are not responsive to email before or after you sign contract. They are not organized.. they will not do a good job remembering your upgrades and your unique changes. They are not perfectionists you will find hidden spots with bad paint job or missing caulking. More hand holding required.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the prior owners' comments.

Pros:
- Pretty good value for money with the product you get ~$120/sqft range (including finished basement)
- Most site work costs included in cost, that other builder charge a lot.
- Decent quality materials used - Heavy duty items like lumber, drywall, roofing etc are local materials are locally sourced from HomeDepot (Cabinets, acccessories, tiles, quartz, electric/plumbing fixtures etc are non-branded Chinese material warehoused in bulk. Some are pretty good quality like the iron door, LED lights etc).
- Fancy Thermador appliances

Cons:
- Hire cheap staff that is not the best talent and don't provide good customer service. There's lot of turnover in the front office and difficult to deal with. Extremely unorganized office and is mostly unresponsive - no periodic project reviews or keep you in the loop.
- Owner lacks customer service mentality and is totally unresponsive (only responds to change order requests once contract is signed)
- Lot depends on site manager and project manager. They seemed overworked and not providing enough supervision and sub contractors end up making costly mistakes.
- You have to be on top of things and visit the site frequently and track with detailed plan about things that could get missed or not done right (which we would expect them to do for paying their margins). It's a good bit of stress to go through this long process of a year. Not the right choice if you just want to outsource to them and not be involved with the details (even though you paid them to do).
- Be upfront and get in writing on what you are getting, including exact brand/models that are going to be used.
- The default MI windows are not the best and better to upgrade
- They try to be cheap and offer very little credit if you want to switch to local/better products.
- Very few selections for finishing fixtures, since you are limited to a couple of chinese materials in their Fima warehouse. So, most Relux homes interiors looks the same, not the ideal choice if you want some unique custom home. Very few color options - mostly forced to brushed nickel, since faucets, door handles etc only comes in that.
- They outsource their site engineering who are not the best, and may not come up with the optimal site grading plan. Best to review with someone knowledgeable instead of just signing it, since it's impossible to change it later.
- Warranty service is lacking big time (not very unresponsive)

It's a shame that they don't care to keep the customer happy, who are the best source of marketing.
They could've been a top builder in the mid range Mclean luxury market with their product and price point, if they could improve their customer service and provide more options and tend to attention to details on the final finishing fixtures.
Other builders like FocalPoint and new comers like Kul homes, Artifact etc seem to be eating into their market share big time.

[Anonymous]

There is currently a Focal Point home for resale on Old Dominion Drive frontage road across from St John's. You could look at it to see how it is holding up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is currently a Focal Point home for resale on Old Dominion Drive frontage road across from St John's. You could look at it to see how it is holding up.

Already? That sat empty for so long after it was built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is currently a Focal Point home for resale on Old Dominion Drive frontage road across from St John's. You could look at it to see how it is holding up.

Already? That sat empty for so long after it was built.

I just looked it up and the current owners were in there less than 2 years so I don’t think this will give much of an indication of how Focal Point houses will hold up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is currently a Focal Point home for resale on Old Dominion Drive frontage road across from St John's. You could look at it to see how it is holding up.

Already? That sat empty for so long after it was built.

I just looked it up and the current owners were in there less than 2 years so I don’t think this will give much of an indication of how Focal Point houses will hold up.

It is a data point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is currently a Focal Point home for resale on Old Dominion Drive frontage road across from St John's. You could look at it to see how it is holding up.

Already? That sat empty for so long after it was built.

It is in a poor location.

[Anonymous]

I’ve watched lots of homes go up from different builders. I would avoid Relux and Architect like the plague.

Relux builds homes that look shiny but based on the flaws and skipped steps I observed my guess is the homes will fall apart in a few short years. Like someone else said, people who own the homes will talk great about them because they don’t want to compromise their equity. This builder is just plain awful.

Architect has been a nasty neighbor to live with during the build process. They just focus on getting done and moving on to the next house. They leave their equipment in the road for the neighborhood to deal with 24 hours a day, and have some of the ugliest houses I’ve ever seen crammed into a 1/4 acre lot.

Focal Point and Brush Arbor do a good job of building spec homes. The builder I have seen with he most attention to detail is Riverstone Custom Builders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve watched lots of homes go up from different builders. I would avoid Relux and Architect like the plague.

Relux builds homes that look shiny but based on the flaws and skipped steps I observed my guess is the homes will fall apart in a few short years. Like someone else said, people who own the homes will talk great about them because they don’t want to compromise their equity. This builder is just plain awful.

Architect has been a nasty neighbor to live with during the build process. They just focus on getting done and moving on to the next house. They leave their equipment in the road for the neighborhood to deal with 24 hours a day, and have some of the ugliest houses I’ve ever seen crammed into a 1/4 acre lot.

Focal Point and Brush Arbor do a good job of building spec homes. The builder I have seen with he most attention to detail is Riverstone Custom Builders.

do you mean Artifact?

[Anonymous]

Focal point home owner here.

Quality is ok. Homes look nice when new. Was in our price range in Mclean.

What bothers me is that the seam between the granite slabs in the kitchen seems to have opened up and the grout/filler has chipped out. I have not seen this with other homes.

[Anonymous]

We built with Bucahanon Price. Good quality builder. Since they build only a few homes a year, super responsive and great to deal with. I can answer any questions on our experience with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Focal point home owner here.

Quality is ok. Homes look nice when new. Was in our price range in Mclean.

What bothers me is that the seam between the granite slabs in the kitchen seems to have opened up and the grout/filler has chipped out. I have not seen this with other homes.

That's an easy fix. Any other issues? What are your ceiling height

[Anonymous]

What about sekas

[Anonymous]

Sekas,

We owned a Covington Model in Vienna. Overall, great house. Very few issues. Walls, floors, plumbing, held up well. It was mostly builder grade. Basic granite and cabinets for 2007 build. We have seen some homes here in Mclean that are the same exact model but with upgraded kitchens that look really nice! Floor plans were easy to choose from.