Oakwood Homes

I had higher hopes for Oakwood homes. You would think being owned by a mega company like Berkshire Hathaway that they would put their best foot forward. They do the bare minimum in the developments that they build. Banning Lewis Ranch in Colorado springs is a perfect example. All they have done is add homes with very few new amenities and it is a mega development with lots of fees being collected. Oakwood from what I can see is fine with being just okay, they are definitely not trying to be the best. It's a good thing Norwood owns the rest of the property so it won't all be overbuilt without adding anything new or even keeping it looking the way it is priced. Oakwood is a mega company and has no excuse for being subpar, these half ass parks and little itty bitty ranch houses in these huge developments they build are a joke. They need to go to Texas or Florida or AZ and get some pointers on how to develop a master planned community. You want charge half a million starting and up to a million dollars then you need to spend the money to build communities that reflect that price point. People are going to go where they get the most value from a community overall at that price point no one has to settle for the less that Oakwood tries to give.

Whatever you do don't purchase a home from Oakwood Homes. The workmanship is shoddy and warranty issues are not addressed as they should be. They are excellent at making excuses and deferring blame to others. I am in an Oakwood development in Colorado that has been abandoned by the builder to maintain the common areas even though it remains their responsibility. Unfortunately the community is quickly looking like a ghetto. There are plenty of reputable builders who will strive to complete all work satisfactorily and respect homeowners need for follow up. These people are money grabbers and completely unethical.

At all costs, stay away from Oakwood Homes. First of all, they do not honor items in their sale's contract and new home center agreements. We paid for custom electrical options and door upgrades which we never received and the response from Shazam, their warranty division, is to seek arbitration. Mark, the person running their warranty division will make promises, in writing, to resolve issues and then change his mind on them weeks later. Shazam and Oakwood simply has no integrity. Secondly, we've had literally over a hundred construction defects and material deficiencies. A few weeks after closing our entire 2nd floor bathroom flooded due to incorrectly installed plumbing. After the initial damage, they did not start fixing it for nearly 2 months all while black mold started growing. Nearly 15 months after closing the bathroom still isn't entirely fixed. We've had several roof leaks, as well, which has ruined the ceiling drywall in our bonus room area. Perhaps worst of all, many of the walls in our house were not square and were not plumb. The main floor of our home has a massive lump in it, which deflects nearly 1/2". The quality of their homes are very bad and somehow the customer service is even worse. Please, do yourself a favor and stay far, far, away.

As we began the process to build a new home in Banning Lewis, we settled on a home we loved. As we started pricing it out, everything turned out to be an upgrade. The model we looked at was 150k more than base price. That didn't even include the design center where we were told to expect another 30-40k. We were also dismayed at the lack of stucco options. Instead we get extremely flimsy and cheap looking plastic siding. In an area known for golf ball sized hail, we explained that they seemed to be cheating out their homeowners. The sales lady said "that's what homeowner insurance is for...wait for a hail storm and make them buy you stucco...."' Each and every time we would. Is it the model, they always pressured us with "don't forget that prices go up $10k next week....we need to lock your contract down now!" Of course we check back two months later and prices never budged. Lies, deception, what you see isn't what you get, and plastic houses. Steer clear!

We purchased a new construction home through Oakwood Homes and the whole process has been wonderful! We signed our contract in June 2016 and closed on the home earlier this month, March 2017. During the whole construction process we were always informed of where we stood in the construction phases, if anything was needed from us, and just overall keeping us informed. We were able to see the house as much as we liked and loved seeing the whole process. We were first time home buyers and we never thought we'd be able to purchase a brand new home, but with Oakwood we could get everything we wanted and more! Most of the design center options were reasonably priced and having a designer there to help guide you for mixing and matching flooring, doors, accents, etc. was extremely helpful. When it came to closing it was a breeze and we really appreciated the Oakwood team we had during the whole process. The quality of the materials and workmanship is outstanding. We would definitely purchase another home through Oakwood.

We intentionally decided to take a lot of the cosmetic designs to save money at the Design Center.We were upset that not only did we not have access to vist it prior to contracting and on prices to really estimate the final cost, but a lot of what was done from them is of poor quality. The entire floor trim to the house is made of compress wood and cardboard that has deteriorate within the first year, and was installed prior to the flooring being put in so there is gaps visible all around, extending to the cabinets trim. When I decided to start paint some of walls, we started understand why picture frames and flooding shleves look crooked even with using a level, just about all the large wall have bowing on them, it was not visble at first because it was all one solid color. When we installed the kitchen backsplash, it was the same ordeal, we had to make adjustments to create an eye appealing straight because going by the trim or cabinet would not work. We also started getting a leak in our sink, when we look closer, there was mold eating away the ring of cardboard connecting the garbage disposal to the pipes. The vynal floor has started to tear as well. Since we didn't catch this by the year walk through ( We had not started any projects yet) there is nothing they can do as the told as we were told. We find ourselves feeling like we bought "the money pit home" we are replacing, repaint so much, that we have not even had real time to enjoy the home. I would not waste my time again with them. I had rated them high when working with them, but now, we just feel lied to about the true quality of the home we were buying. They are great people and even there preferred lender is great, but the minute you close, you cannot reach anyone . People are better off buying an older home and remodeling it, than buying a new one build with poor quality items. Big Regret.

I live in one of their houses. A few years back, when tile in my shower failed, I discovered that they had installed standard gypsum board for backing the tile (not even moisture resistant "green board"), and their was no water proofing membrane before the tile was laid on mastic. When I called their office and spoke to one of their "customer service" representative, they said that that installation method was "allowed" at the time of the install (1986) by Douglas County Building Dept. I disagreed with the practice even if it was "allowed." I am an architect and have build homes myself. I had to repair the shower myself though this WAS a LATENT defect that should have been taken care of by Oakwood.

We built a new home with Oakwood in 2011. We purposely bought a less expensive home and added a lot of upgrades. Our flooring was upgraded at a substantial cost. The flooring was installed wrong. This has also been confirmed by the flooring manufacturer by photos,emails etc. Now our floor is buckling and cracking. Oakwood refuses to fix the problem . I now have to take them to court. Do yourself a favor and do not buy an Oakwood Home.

We absolutely love Oakwood Homes! Everybody was wonderful, helpful, and made this (our second home with Oakwood) a great experience.

Ron was amazing! He made our home buying experience truly a stress free enjoyable time. Jim and Scott were very informative during our walk through's. Everyone was amazing, thank you all for everything you have done to assist us in this process!

I truly enjoyed the home buying experience and the staff at Oakwood Homes. I would definitely buy from them again!

Oakwood has always made me feel like I was a valued client regardless of the price point of the home. Any request or concern I had was met in a timely fashion. I rarely had any issues but the one instance in a design change that was out of scope from the architecture drawings was met with no stress and they took care of it (regardless who paid for it).