Eastbrook ream was great to work with and was very responsive to any issues that came up
Unfortunately, our expectations on purchasing a $1.1M home have not been met. With the repeated extensions in the closing on the home, we expected a completely finished home with a higher-level of workmanship as advertised during the several sales meetings we had prior to closing. When we had our final walkthrough, we were hurried along through the home so that we could "make the closing" 30 minutes away. During the walkthrough we noted several unfinished/damaged areas in the house (plugs in front and rear doors missing, damage to brand new front door that was done the day of closing by individual(s) that changed the lock, light globe that had been broken in kitchen, kitchen vent hood that was cut uneven with ceiling and missing trim, damage to vent hood by installer, damage to all 75+ spindles in similar locations along double staircase and upstairs overlook that was deemed to be "easy to touchup" which still isn't complete, master bath drawer face that was incorrect size, lower window sash that was incorrect, exterior paint touchups that were incomplete, interior paint touchups that were incomplete (still paint markers from Eastbrook Team walkthrough), etc.). The message throughout the walkthrough was consistently "don't worry we have that on order" or "Miles will take care of that during the 90 day warranty".
After closing we unfortunately have discovered numerous misses between "as-installed", the plan drawings, and the options addendum resulting in items that we paid for that were not completed as specified, or just not completed at all.
Our "90 day warranty" list is full of items that were either not completed during construction or damaged during construction/install and not disclosed to us.
As much as we want to be happy with the purchase of this home, there are just too many open items that shed a poor light on this experience.
Communication from Jessica Balder (weekly videos especially) was excellent during the building process. We also appreciated having a construction key to enter whenever we were in town. The construction binder was awesome and we referenced that a lot.
I was the new homes springing up around us and I can't believe how long it is taking them to go up. They sit seemingly for WEEKS at a time with no sign of completion.
In the beginning I would have but at this point probably not.
I have recommended Eastbrook Homes to friends, but with significant caveats, especially in regards to the sales process.
They are fantastic to work with. We had no problems, in comparison to other builders.
I would recommend Eastbrook Homes to a friend. They have a lot of experience and our build went smoothly.
The Eastbrook team does an excellent job with communication and kept me informed throughout my home project.
I would recommend Eastbrook but I would have areas for new homeowners to pay close attention to.
Overall happy now but did have some miscommunication and disappointments in the beginning. Some out of Eastbrook's control due to availability of items in uncertain times.
I would be honest in saying that we ended up with a beautiful house but the building process took a long time and there are things that I wish were done better/differently
Compared to other new builds they are average.
Eastbrook gave us decent value for our money. We appreciated the ability to customize our home in terms of architectural features and finishes. Because Eastbrook is more of a volume builder, rather than a custom builder, we found construction and interior finishes/cabinetry etc to be more or less middle of the road. The style choices are pretty well rounded, while maintaining the Eastbrook "look".
This is my second home that Eastbrook Homes has built for me, and they are a fabulous company.
Travis, Matt, Megan, and Matthew were wonderful to work with. Very responsive to our questions and concerns.
I would recommend with the following disclaimer(s)...Selection options are decent overall but if you want what you want you will be disappointed. You get a good product for a good price therefore you need to focus on value vs high quality. You are one of many homes so not an overly personal experience.
Walls not plumb in two locations , kitchen drawer still not closing right. Bathroom backsplash not caulked , the sink faucet combo selected splashes water on counter and us while using, master bath counter is two inches higher than the rest of the house at 37”, nice home but some detail issues.
Not sure, expectations of quality home and punch list pushed back beyond supply chain issues. Feel like my home was put on back burner due to all the new constructions/homes. The bandwidth (too many homes being build and not enough labor) not able to concentrate on completing the home in a timely manner .
This is our second EB Home. The 1st home building experience was much better than this time. However, the home is still built very well.
Too much was left undone at closing and not remedied within 90 days.
Please be aware that any critique i am providing below is based on the policies and processes of Eastbrook Homes, not the people I worked with.
If someone were to ask if I would recommend Eastbrook Homes I would tell them it would depend upon if he/she would be happy with a rigid process with limited choices. When I first started the process I was given access to a website about the Design Center. There was a video which was very enthusiastic about the options available and how the options were based on current trends. I guess that would be fine if I liked current trends, but given that current trends are black, white and gray, I was not impressed when I actually came to the Design Center.
One example was the backsplash and bathroom tile options. There was a small box of tiles from which to select, and the colors were a variation of black, white and gray. There were maybe 12 to 15 tiles in the box. I could walk into any tile store in the country and see dozens if not hundreds of options. It's not that the options take up that much room. They are generally on an inspiration board with one full size tile showing the depth and texture of the tile, and then 1 inch tile pieces showing the color options. I don't think you have a limited selection because the supplier you use has boxes of black/white/gray tiles stacked to the rafters in a warehouse. Most things these days are made to order. It is not as if the tiles were needed the next week or even the next month. There was a minimum of 6 to 8 months in between when the selections were made and installation. Plenty of time to have the tiles made. I ended up selecting a gray tile for the master bath which was fine. The guest bath has a beach theme and I was looking for a sand color tile (again, hardly unusual).. I selected one but was so unhappy with it that I called and asked if there were any other options. I was told to work directly with your supplier. I sent the supplier a picture of what I was looking for and surprise, they did have what I wanted. And big surprise, the cost was $800 more. Really?
I wanted a blue tile for the kitchen backsplash and the little box didn't come close to what I wanted. I ended up purchasing the tile on my own and having it installed after I took possession of the house.
It seems that Eastbrook has a hard time thinking outside of the box. I know that is a very trite expression but in this case it is appropriate because a house is basically a box. Whenever I asked for something that was outside of the limited box I would get a deer in the headlights look. They were not unusual requests but you would have thought I asked to have vinyl tile on the roof and roof tiles on the floor It reminds me of something that Henry Ford said when he was making Model T's. When people wanted a different color Henry said they could have any color they wanted as long as it was black.
I wanted my kitchen cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling. In order to get that I needed to get "stacked" cabinets. I wanted the one foot top cabinets to have glass doors. I was told no (the apparent default answer to any request) and that the supplier only made solid doors. Two hours later I received a call that the supplier could provide glass doors and that was the only option. That was fine because it was what I wanted but wouldn't it have been better to check with the supplier first before saying no?
I also did not like the lighting options available. My style is cottage and again most options available are the trendy black metal. I bought most of the lights myself. I was told it was very nice of Eastbrook to install the lights and I will give you that. However, ceiling lights are included in the cost of the house and I did not receive credit for the lights I purchased. As a result Eastbrook made extra money off of me..
I would like to point out a MAJOR design flaw. There are two light switches on the wall that connect to an outlet in the living room. Turns out the outlet is on the wall next to the fireplace cabinets as one enters the Michigan room. Who would put a table in front of cabinet doors? Even a floor lamp would prevent one from opening the cabinet doors. I had requested and received a floor electrical pocket under where the sofa is located. That would have been the logical place to connect to the wall switch. I have had two previous houses, both new builds. and the wall switch connected to the light on one side of the sofa. I was told after the house was built that I could have requested where I wanted the switch during the planning process when we reviewed the floor plans. I think it is a bit much to expect a customer to understand an electrical floor plan. It just looked like a bunch of lines to me. At the very least the customer should be asked where they want the outlet to be placed. So basically I have two useless wall switches.
A minor flaw is in the guest bath design. In my floor plan the doorknob on the entry door bumps against the doorknob for the linen closet. This means that the entry door can never be fully open. I don't have a suggestion on what would be better but maybe the designers can put their heads together can come up with a better option.
Once I signed the paperwork the first thing I was told that if I asked for any changes the answer would be NO, and if there was a change it would cost more money. I recently retired after working 41 years for the Disney Company in various management positions so I admit I have a high standard when it comes to customer service. There were times when I also was not able to give a guest exactly what they wanted but we always came up with an option so that they were happy. We tried very hard not not just say NO and walk away.
I am surprised and disappointed that more is not done to finish off the utility room. Fully drywalled would have been best but even plywood painted white would have been better. The material on the walls in the utility room kind of smells.
There is probably more examples I am forgetting but you get the gist.
I visited the house often during the building phase and I would like to say that the sub contractors were always very nice and answered any questions I might have. A particular shout out to Nathan the tile guy and Russ the landscaper.
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The financing process was amazing. Avoiding multiple closings and the complexities that come with applying for a construction loan made the process so much easier. LMCU was amazing. The Eastbrook team was also very helpful. We loved the design studio and having the opportunity to see our finish selections first hand. Everyone was helpful and quick to respond to any questions we had. Any issues were resolved for the most part. However, the timeline to completion was not accurate which cost us thousands of dollars in rent that could have been avoided. There were several major oversights and errors during our build that led to delays or in one instance not having our home foundation, garage and front windows completed according to our plan. among other things. Some of the contractors did subpar work and we were left with a very long punch list for completion at close that has still yet to be resolved more than 60 days after move in. I'm assuming many of these issues are due to the amount of homes that closed within a short period and the workload placed on everyone. However, due to those issues the experience was frustrating at times.
Our new home is absolutely beautiful. Everyone involved (Kyle, Katelyn, Carin, Jonathon) was great to work with. There were a few hickups along the way, but this team made every effort to address and find an agreeable solution.
There were items promised that were never kept. They told me that it wasn't written down. Because of that, they won't give me what was promised. I believe it was written down, but they didn't read it.