We recently purchased a home in Wicklow Woods. It is a development by Lennar Homes…read more We visited Blaine last December and toured the model home twice. The builder's rep was Sarah Johansen and she was excellent to work with. Really on the ball and knew the product and process. I tormented her with some pretty detailed questions and she didn't roll her eyes once or lose patience, whether in person, text or email. We picked our finishes while at the model and made some follow-up choices after returning home out of state. The process was pretty seamless and Lennar has everything dialed in. We pulled the trigger on the house within a week and scrambled to put a deposit down on one of the premium end lots. Little did we know that COVID was on the way and that added a whole other pile of stress on top of the usual home selling/buying experience, but Sarah walked us through everything and kept us informed throughout the construction process. She was there for us all the way through the closing process, and even did some extra things afterwards. Now that we are in our home and enjoying it, I will say that Lennar has been prompt in handling any little details that needed attending to, and are standard for any new-construction home. Alex Demers has been the construction manager that has handled any extra details about the house that needed repair or touch up. Alex is super friendly and always prompt with keeping appointments and communicates in a timely manner by email. Now, just so readers don't think this is a biased or manufactured review, I will note a few things about Lennar's business choices that were a disappointment. 1) We bought a home with a 3 car garage, which had a large door for 2 cars and a small door for 1 car. Only the large door had an opener. The smaller door had a rope for manually opening and closing it. This meant that, with all the unpacking we had to do, we had to find a company and schedule the installation of the single car door opener. Fortunately, there is a company, literally, down the street that does it, but it was still another task to handle and additional expense. Lennar did not inform us of this or offer an upgrade to have it done. 2) No rain gutters were installed on the house and no option or upgrade was offered. I consider rain gutters an essential and basic part of a house, and all of us in the neighborhood had to contact a third party and schedule and pay to have them installed. I'm sure these were corporate bean counter decisions, but in my opinion, a poor choice for buyers moving into an otherwise beautiful and upscale home. Overall, we are very happy with our Lennar home and have no regrets choosing them in a nice development.

During the build/design process, we were greatly satisfied with the overall ease of building. There…read morewere some architectural mishaps along the way, but the builder was quick to correct them with our proposed solutions. We had been very happy with the home until we discovered that the builder falsified records when reporting and certifying our New Construction Energy Code Compliance Certificate. We were told that our AC unit was a 3.5 ton when in fact what was installed was actually a 3 ton unit which was not compliant with the heating loss/gain calculations which were noted directly on the certificate. Hanson Builders failed to acknowledge their wrongdoing which has cost us thousands of dollars over the years in electricity bills. Hanson is still claiming the onus is on us, the homeowners, for reporting an inaccuracy on documents which were submitted, certified and approved by the City of Blaine. We took care of our HVAC and had no reason to suspect that Hanson Builders would lie to us about the sizing of our AC unit. Sadly, we are now left to wonder what other inaccuracies were slid under the radar by unsuspecting homeowners who placed their trust and reliance on a home builder who had a seemingly untarnished reputation. Hanson Builders has lost our trust and will be reported.

My life was like a whirlwind…read more I was married in October, found out we were moving from Washington state to Minnesota about a week later, went on a house hunting trip compliments of his new company Thanksgiving weekend, then we moved in December. The relocation package assigned us a Realtor named Nita who I will someday write a review on. ( She was awesome ) and we were given four days to quote find a house. Knowing absolutely nothing about the state of Minnesota other then the most freezing unimaginable winters (we flew in the day after Thanksgiving in 2010 which they claim was the worst winter ever ). Anyway, I could write a book about the painful cold here, but you people from Minnesota already know about them while others simply could not possibly understand. My husband and I had absolutely no clue what city whatsoever to want to reside in, so we saw no less then 100 houses within 4 days basically all over the place. ( No joke ) We had a major list with stars and notes on each house we looked at and we had a list with the top 5 homes that we personally liked the most. Well, the model home in Plymouth by Hanson builders was both of our number 1 choice having different second and third choices from each other.. Hanson homes have the most amazing functional and spacious floor plans. We worked with one of the builders reps named Lisa who was so helpful and was always quick with an answer to the many questions that we had. Our Realtor wrote up an offer and it was accepted. We actually had the same plan built on a lot that overlooked a really cool large pond with fountains, so we had the opportunity to pick all of the paint colors, granite, carpet or any additional upgrades we were interested in. Their person who was in charge of that was Nancy and she had tremendous helpful ideas on coordinating the right granite with tile, color choices etc.. They definitely have professional people who seem to truly care about their jobs that work for them. We did see many Hanson floor plans and they are actually pretty similar in many ways from the other. My conclusion for that is this. They have really perfected their floor plans so why change a good thing too much. If your thinking about buying a home, I would highly recommend you setting up an appointment to walk through them and see them for yourselves. They pay attention to detail and although there were a few little problems in the end, they took care of it right away to our satisfaction. The only reason why I did not give Hanson builders five stars was during the final walk thru, it was really not as clean as we would have expected. We did mention this and we were told that they just routinely do a spot clean. So here we move into this beautiful home and we had to do a deep clean prior to the actual move. That part was a little disappointing. But the end result, we are absolutely thrilled with each and every Hanson floor plan and we felt like all of the pieces fit together with all of the help from those who worked with us.

Worst warranty service I have ever encountered, you never get a response other than email and they…read moreare very unhelpful in getting the issue resolved. If you go and have it resolved on your own, it voids the warranty. So damned if you do, damned if you don't. Master bathroom shower leaking and destroying woodwork. The came to fix the issue over a 3 month period and finally had it all fixed(?) and all the woodwork replaced only to have the shower continue to leak and do it all over again. No one will call me or talk to me from Centra and there is no way to get an actual person on the phone.

I am a great fan of Centra Homes, I like the fact that they are local, and have one person for each…read moreof their developments. I personally got to meet the one who was in charge of building the homes in the development which I think makes it more personal and an enjoyable experience. Very nice, respectful and knowledgeable of the industry. I think their prices are great and of slightly better quality than some of the other builders I have seen in the same price ranges.

STAY AWAY!!! This is the worst experience I have ever had with a builder. Dealing with this…read morecompany is like dealing with a crappy used car salesman! When we met with them I explained that we are looking at building the same house as their model house we walked through with the same upgrades. First off Josh told us that the lot we wanted to build on was $10,000 more than the model lot even though it was smaller and in the middle of the development. He then went through all the upgrades in the model house and "accidently" forgot to tell us that the fireplace was an upgrade. When I told Josh that the cabinets were an upgrade he told me I was wrong, but yet it was listed on MLS as an upgrade. His MLS listing also said that a fully sodded lot and irrigation system was included but apparently that was also false advertising. Josh said that he did not know that was in the description and continued to talk in circles trying to see how much money he could get out of us. Josh's direct quote was, "This is a cut throat business and it's first come first serve." Josh would not even quote us a price for the house we wanted to build but yet that was what the initial meeting was for. It's too bad that Amelia, who was very nice and professional, has to work for such an egotistical, arrogant, person who I feel knows very little about construction and how to treat potential customers.

We recently purchased a home from J P Brooks. We wanted some additions before moving in. The team…read moreat JP Brooks was able to do them for us without a problem. The whole process of building to purchase went very smoothly. We are very happy with our new home and had a great experience with JP Brooks.

I have known Shelly for a long time. She has helped me buy 2 houses over the years. Shelly is…read morevery, very good at what she does. She always has your best interest in mind. Shelly returns calls and emails very quickly. She and her team will work hard to make sure you are getting the best customer service. Shelly will find the best products available which will work for and help you. Shelly is the best in the business. There is no one I would trust more to help me with my home loans.

Shelly is very supportive and knowledgeable throughout the entire process. She is very easy to work…read morewith and had my best interest in mind. I would highly recommend her to my family and friends.

Chris and his team build an exceptional home and the quality of their design is outstanding. You…read morewon't find anyone who works harder to make sure the job is done right. The thing that I loved about Chris is that he is a humble man who worked right alongside his team, even vacuuming and tending to every detail to get it ready for our big reveal. If we ever build another home it wouldn't be with anybody else!

We used Norton Homes to build our new construction house. We felt so comfortable working with them…read moreand could tell they cared about what we wanted. They were flexible with our decisions, and they allow you to truly design a customized home. We even got to pick a lot that wasn't in one of their developments. There are so many "upscale" features that come standard with many of their models that we hardly had to upgrade anything (which saves a lot of money compared to national builders). They were also right on schedule. We recommend them to any of our friends looking for houses.

We LOVE Family Speech!! Kaylin, in the Edina office, came in and saved the day a year and a half…read moreago when we had lost hope that we could find a speech therapist that could help our son. He has Down syndrome and sensory issues, was wary of any new providers, and had recently been diagnosed with Apraxia. She is so wise, intuitive, patient, joyful, knowledgeable, creative, fun, always willing to learn more, and she thinks outside the box! My little guy considers her to be one of his very best friends! He will do things no other provider would be able to get him to do because he likes and trusts Kaylin so much and she makes the environment just perfect to challenge him. I have learned so much from her and we are seeing such exciting improvements in Aaron's speech and overall development. We have added OT and we LOVE Andrea too!!! She was able to really understand where Aaron is on so many levels. I REALLY appreciated how she (and Kaylin) truly listened to me about Aaron's strengths and weaknesses and took his diagnoses into account. We were able to pinpoint what his immediate needs were, which involved backing up to make him more ready to accomplish the many tasks ahead of him. I LOVE the approach at Family Speech! It is so relaxed yet always challenging in a completely non-threatening way. We always make progress-every week! We had not had that experience anywhere else during the first 3.5 years of his life. Andrea has new (and super fun) ideas and activities every week. They draw Aaron in and he then uses them at home all the time. He also benefits from having other kids in the same area while he's there. Everyone at the Edina office has been so flexible and had their focus on the goal of success for Aaron. I don't want to forget to mention Brenna who fills in for Andrea...she is great too! Love all the info she shares each time and her joyful and patient approach with Aaron is so sweet! She always joins him where he's at and works from there. Karrie has been so helpful to our family in finding a way for Aaron to make progress despite his tendency to be sick a lot. She too sincerely wants him to succeed and has been willing to go out of her way to help make that happen. Kelly too!! I had a few blips with the office staff (over the phone) too BUT the managers have worked through the issues I experienced and I am completely satisfied with and thankful for how they resolved them! Thank you to everyone at Family Speech!! Our lives are constantly changing for the better because of your help and commitment to helping Aaron succeed!

I had a basement finishing with bathroom install project!…read more Jim and the team were fantastic!! Attention to details, expert workmanship, professional, efficient and so great to work with. i couldn't be happier with the outcome!! Awesome!!

After working with another remodeler to build a new kitchen for a couple of months and becoming…read moreincreasingly concerned about the lack of professionalism. I contacted Vail Builders after seeing them highly recommended on Angie's List. Jim Vail promptly returned my phone call and set up an appointment to measure the room and to meet with my wife and I regarding our ideas. In just a couple of weeks, Jim had created a set of preliminary plans and the most comprehensive contract I've ever seen. Jim is thorough and extremely detail oriented, which is exactly what you need in a general contractor. Jim is demanding of his subcontractors and responsive and fair to his clients. The results Jim helped my wife and I create are spectacular; they exceeded our expectations by a large degree. I will plan to hire Vail Builders for any and all of my future building needs.