With all below comments considered, we would not advise our friends or family to use homes by dickerson.

This process is second to none, the engagement we had throughout the entire process helped us stay informed on all the decisions we made and are extremely happy with our new home

We are happy with many aspects but also disappointed with others. There were issues with communication throughout the process and issues with the home itself that were disappointing.

Given that this is a custom builder, I was disappointed in the quality of the work. I expect that custom builders would pay attention to the details. Haven built 3 homes, I will have to stay that the quality is not that much better than some other reputable builders. For example, the tile work, roofing, flooring, windows and ceilings which is very visible to the eye have poor aesthetics.

Although they advertise to be custom, they work within the box and don't seem to want to go outside of their areas to meet our needs.

They built a really nice, eco-friendly house that we are happy with.

For a custom home builder in a price point >$500k I really expected the build quality to be better. Many issues with flooring, paint, crawlspace, doors, trim and landscaping.

Absolutely not, too many issues that could have been resolved prior to orientation

Fantastic customer service experience

This experience, which certainly can be exhausting, frustrating and confusing, was made extremely pleasurable, without those issues. This is due to the well developed and thought through process, and the well versed, caring, and considerate staff. They all kept our best interest at heart, and worked to make certain the our desires and expectations were met, and gave us the best advice and recommendations when needed, or requested. They made us feel as if we were partr of a team.

The home build is of excellent quality and design.

They were highly attentive to our needs. They were very helpful during the multitude of choices that we made.

It was a pleasure working with HBD on our new home. The designer was easy to work with and had a lot of helpful advice. The project manager did a great job getting the house ready for closing.

I feel like they are always upselling you.

While, we are very happy to be in our new home and absolutely love it...we did feel that some of the products were not up to our expectations...such as windows and interior framing lumber. We realize there are cost and availability factors involved...but in this price point, the quality should be a five star.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - The wonderful relationship I had with the entire building team far exceeded my expectations. We met Nick Thagard a year prior to our sales contract. He stayed in touch with us and did an excellent job in helping me with my building vision. He was extremely knowledgeable about all the options HBD could offer while staying within our budget. He represented HBD well and remained by our side throughout the whole building process. Turner Hairr was invaluable as our designer. I depended on her beautiful taste and design knowledge every step of the way. She was so patient and kind during the selection meetings and she turned my vision into a beautiful reality. I enjoyed working with her so much, I was her first customer in the new HBD Design branch of HBD. She worked with me on the layout of my current furniture and helped me select the appropriate new pieces. She and I are both extremely pleased with the end result of all selections she helped me make. I could write paragraphs on what a pleasure it was to work with Brandon Jones, our project superintendent. He remained in contact with me throughout each stage of the building process. I learned early on to rely on his expertise if there was a decision to be made. I always asked him what he would do and confidently followed his guidance throughout the entire build. He was very reassuring throughout the 8-months of construction and had an excellent working relationship with his subs. If I had a concern or question, he always addressed it with the ultimate goal of making me happy. I could not have asked for a better partner in building my beautiful new home. We are extremely pleased with the quality of craftmanship and with Brandon's guidance, kindness and patience from beginning to end.

We would recommend HBD to a friend along with some areas to be cautious of. But, overall I believe they produce a good product and stand behind it

The home may be nice (we haven't seen it yet), but the process was difficult.

Additional Comments

Additional Comments - I can not say enough good things about Shireen. She always responded to us in a timely manner. She never left us hanging.

I think each individual part in the building is not always done that well. One of the areas is plumbing. I have had some problems there. I have also had some problems with the Parker people with the grounds and how they have done that. That is all part of their plan. I was very pleased with how the architect did some things so I could have the plan I wanted. I am really pleased with the contractor Adam. He is very responsive. I am not at all pleased with the decorator. She is not very responsive or helpful.

I am very pleased with Adam Friedman and also Susan Fredon. Adam Friedman was very efficient in putting in the patio and also a gas line. That was helpful in getting us the 5-star recommendation for utilities. Also, Susan Ferdon helped us get a mover to help us move to our new home.

Very professional team. Excellent customer service.

Sales Knowledge

Sales Knowledge - Nick was a joy to work with. He offered insight into our project and made helpful recommendations.

Expertise

Expertise - Brandon is a true asset to the team. His level of professionalism is well beyond his years. I would rate this as a difficult build, due to our myriad of special requests. Brandon handled them all and was a pleasure to work with through the entire process.

They go way beyond expectations, especially Chris and Jaboc with their team. They gave us a quality job well done.

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - Jonathan is great. Easy to communicate with and responds quickly to calls or email. As a real estate agent for many years dealing with new construction, Jonathan is very reachable and responsive to issues.

Communication is terrible

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - The detail and quality of craftsmanship went above and beyond my expectations. I had heard of the strong HBD reputation when it comes to quality, and I was not disappointed as there were many times I walked into our home during construction to see above and beyond measures taken to ensure quality.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Great craftsmanship. Zach was very engaging when we had questions and really made us feel at ease with the whole process. Susan was a great designer and really helped us make selections that we love.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Susan, Adam, and Olivia were smart, available, resourceful, supportive, and incredibly dependable. I loved working with them and feel that my home is perfect because of them.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Lea Ricks was phenomenal. She was very helpful and responsive to our questions. Shireen Hameed was also a wonderful resource during the process of finding our home. We are also very satisfied with the quality of our home.

Homes by Dickerson built us a beautiful quality energy efficient home. The workmanship is exceptional we love our new home! We also loved all the support we had from the whole team architect, to the designer to the foremen.we have shouted their praises to everyone.

Expertise

Expertise - Our project manager and foreman were very attentive to every detail and made sure that all work performed by the subcontractors was done to the highest standards. We are very pleased and confident that we have a very high quality home, built to surpass the industry standards.

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - I cannot say enough about Chris Steyne. His level of professionalism and his attention to detail was amazing. We ran into a few situations that required some very creating thinking, and with Chris' knowledge and expertise, he was able to ensure each situation was resolved with an incredible outcome, down to the smallest details. Thank you so much Chris!!!

We are very happy with the company as a whole and they have been very easy to work with.

Outstanding service, excellent quality, professional and friendly staff.

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - Bryan Pendergraft was wonderful to work with! He did a fantastic job -- he is detail-oriented, thorough, knowledgeable, punctual, communicates so well, and is friendly and kind! We can't say enough nice things about him or the quality of the work he produced.

Sales Communication

Sales Communication - Ali Winslow was great to work with -- She presented the HBD plans without any pressure and answered all of our questions in a timely manner. She facilitated the process and worked well with our realtor.

Design Team Selections Meeting

Design Team Selections Meeting - Susan Falcone is the ultimate gem in the Design Team... She helped 2 very indecisive people make beautiful, coordinated, livable, functional, aesthetically pleasing decisions on a very timely basis! Her design in the model home definitely contributed to our decision to purchase a HBD home in 751 South.

High Performance Features

High Performance Features - HBD far exceeded our expectations and offered so many more green features than other builders in the area.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - The most outstanding quality of HBD is that you have truly exceptional people working for you. We were treated like family and we felt so supported throughout the entire process. We couldn't believe how reasonable the change orders were priced or how hard everyone worked to get our requests completed in a timely fashion. You have the best team and the quality of the home you constructed is far superior to your competitors in this price range.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Working with Susan Ferdon was such a pleasure. She helped us tremendously on lot and home plan selection prior to signing the contract and she was just as great and effective after we signed the contract. She was also excellent communicating with us to keep us informed throughout the process. There were many times that she filed in the gaps regarding communication that lacked a little from other areas. We cannot praise Adam Friedman enough about his overall project management performance throughout the construction of our home. Once construction got started he was outstanding in ensuring quality and excellence went into every phase of the construction process on our home.His attention to detail was amazing and much appreciated by my wife and I. We had specific requests regarding unique items we wanted in our home and he listened and did a really good job incorporating these into our home. His ideas and actions to overcome the inevitable snags were refreshing to see and to experience. The features and functionality in our new home that we hoped and planned for when we started the process with Homes by Dickerson many months ago were all realized. Needless to say, we're extremely pleased that HBD built our dream home.

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - Chris could not have been better. He was extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and a consummate professional. He pushed us in the right direction whenever we had questions and we always felt like we were in good hands. I would have Chris build my home 10 times out of 10

The building experience with HBD took longer than a prior build, was more frustrating and the home was less complete at the closing date. My prior build was for a 50% larger house and that experience was much better than my experience with HDB.

We like the product however we were a little disappointed in the items that did not get complete prior to the closing and still remain open.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - The staff (Brandon and Chris) were extremely helpful and considerate. It is obvious that Brandon cares about his work and wants everything that he does to be excellent. He works very hard and it shows. He really took time to listen to our concerns and help us with anything we needed.

Unfortunately, HBD built the house they wanted, not, given some disability on my part about which they knew, a house I needed, wanted, or could live in. Consequently, my basic choice is to sell it as quickly as I can.

Communications about the direction they were going were poor (relative to what I might have expected). I was warned NOT to come by the house except on the scheduled "visits." I resented that, and clearly I should have ignored that advice.

Specifically: If ANYBODY had told me of the possible problems such that they had to build the house much higher than the original (or approved) plans showed, perhaps we could have figured something else out. Or, I could have planned much earlier on the need to either rent or sell the house as soon as it was done.

The main problem turned out to be the "height" of the house, and particularly the stairs up/down from garage to main floor. These ended up being 6 steps in all: not really possible for me (for dealing with, say, groceries or suitcases, etc.), and not what I was expecting, as I anticipated no more than 3 steps which could have been far more manageable. HBD accommodated this problem by doing a ramp instead of stairs from the main floor of the house to the garage floor, which seemed at the time to be a reasonable way to go; it has a landing and one step, and the ramp itself is not too steep; it extends across about 80% or so across the back of the garage. However, the ramp turned out to be so wide (presumably by code) that it becomes virtually impossible to park a car easily in the garage and still get to the bottom of the ramp and close the garage door.

Because the front porch and main floor of house are also 6 brick steps to the front yard entrance, instead of the 3 shown on plans, using those would not be so easy for me as well. (The egress from the main floor to the backyard is, I believe, 8 steps -- would be extremely difficult for me to use them to get "back" into the house. All in all, I do not want to feel as if I'm "confined" to this house because of the difficulties of getting in and out.

The explanation for the change in height of the house was concern about water coming into the crawl space, because the house next door (also an HBD house, which was begun and well along when my construction started) is itself so high. This point about water may be accurate -- I remain vaguely dubious -- but it could (or should) have been known even at the time I settled on this lot, and I will never believe there wouldn't have been another solution other than the one HBD took and did not discuss with me (or even warn me about). That is: I picked my lot deliberately because it is essentially flat, and several nearby houses have no more than 3 steps, just not mine or the one next to me that caused the putative "water runoff" problem. IF ONLY somebody had warned me about this early on, so that I was not placed in such a difficult situation (and could have avoided a terrible shock) upon discovering the problem at one of the "allowed"/"scheduled" walk-throughs.

In hindsight (of course), I probably should have considered MUCH more carefully building a new house by any company that might bill itself as "custom." My husband and I built 4 "custom" houses in North Carolina -- two in the Chapel Hill area starting in the mid-1990s, and two on the Outer Banks in the 1980s -- but they were done with "true" custom builders/general contractors. They were all very successful houses, entailing considerable interactions with the builders and their crews, in part because my husband (now deceased) knew a great deal about the trades and skills of homebuilding (and could do most of them himself). There was very little of that type of interaction from HBD, except some decisions about exteriors/interior things such as brick, color, kitchen cabinets, and so forth, that made it a custom-built house. I asked for a few things to accommodate my walking/stair-climbing disability -- some were okay, some were going to be possible only at an extra cost (even tho the costs were equivalent at a local Lowe's home improvement store -- I checked). Once I decided I would not be able to live in the house, I cancelled a remaining change order and let HBD just do their own thing.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Every step of the process could not have been better. It was incredible from the first meeting, through the design process and project management, to the customer service.

The appliances they choose are inferior but everything else was nice.

Condition of Home

Condition of Home - We had several "same day" projects remaining from our home orientation that were completed after we closed on the house.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes & Dislikes - We appreciate the design/layout of the home. While we didn't have a role in the selections, (this was a spec home), we love everything.

Recognized Excellence

Recognized Excellence - We appreciate the responsiveness and knowledge of both Wes and Mike.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - They met my expectations because the project manager was exceptional.

It was a very seamless process and we couldn't be happier with our new home. I will definitely continue to recommend HBD.

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - Zach was wonderful I cannot say enough about how happy we were with the whole process

Clean & Safe

Clean & Safe - Very clean job site! I have been to other builders job sites from clients of mine who were building and HBD exceeded my expectations

Design Team Selections Meeting

Design Team Selections Meeting - Susan was amazing as well. She helped me so much through the design studio process and I love everything in my home!

PM Professionalism

PM Professionalism - Lea was very professional, reliable, and responsible. She stayed on top of everything during our build, and ensured our satisfaction was foremost. She is excellent at her job, and an asset to the company.

Design Team Selections Meeting

Design Team Selections Meeting - Turner did a wonderful job helping us pick our selections. She was very respectful of any strong design opinions we had, but offered her advice on anything we were unsure of. She never showed us any design options that were not included in our plan unless we asked for other options. We LOVE the way our design options came together, and have Turner to thank for that. During every design meeting, she was very calm and good-spirited, making the design meetings even more enjoyable. We would highly recommend Turner to friends and family, and would without question request her if we were to go through this process again.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - Everyone is professional and knowledgeable.

Areas Of Satisfaction

Areas Of Satisfaction - The ability to customize and make give it more personality. People took the time to understand us and seemed to truly care about the project as if it was their own home. Bryan Pendergraft was a fantastic project manager.

Additional Comments

Additional Comments - Love our new home and would do it all over again. Thank you.

While the quality of the home is excellent, there have been significant issues regarding resolution of warranty items.

Expertise

Expertise - Grady went above and beyond. He answered every question promptly and politely, regardless of how many other homeowners he was working with. Grady is an asset to your organization and his approach to client care should be used as a model for others.

I didn’t have pleasant experience with the people from the start and they agreed to give me some credit but I saw cutting corners in some products and work , very obviously noticeable.
I also felt that I was a woman only buying a home so many points were not taken seriously.
On top of that the project manager left as soon I closed , so no solution.
Yes the person has taken over is trying to finish the work left behind.
The House was not cleaned by professionals inside and outside like other owners.
So many little things , I can’t keep writing.
Thank You

The 9 months building this house was the worst 9 months of my life. Immeasurable amounts of stress. Total nightmare. So disappointed in this company, how they do business and how they chose to treat me.