Madera West Estates by Richmond American

We love our home in Madera west and the quality of work Richmond American does in their homes although we have ran into a few frustrating things along the way. Pros: Majority of things are done great with high quality especially compared to many other builders. After searching for almost a year for a new build that we loved, we finally found Madera West and a beautiful home. The quality of materials Richmond American uses seems to be a lot better than other builders we were considering in the Queen Creek. The designs of their spec homes don't look cheap or like they are the basic finishes with zero upgrades. The flooring, cabinets, counters, and light fixtures are all beautiful in every spec home we walked through. We found several spec homes in the neighborhood that we absolutely loved and were considering. They do a great job with their design. Construction seems to move extremely fast with the new houses they are putting up. Even with construction going on daily, it isn't loud, dusty, or too dirty (occasionally some trash or materials flying around during dust storms but that is expected). They are quick to clean up any messes in common areas, they keep materials organized near the houses and aren't too loud(even being directly behind us, we rarely hear them). We have a lot of friends in new builds with other builders and our problems seem to be miniscule compared to theirs. Sales: The sales staff was great to work with and answered every question any time of day when we needed before closing. We closed within two weeks and didn't run into any snags. Before signing, we wanted to ensure we weren't going to have any 2 stories around us. The sales person at the time texted us saying "I confirmed there are no 2 stories that will be around your lot". 5 months later, we have a 2 story right behind our house basically in our backyard (it is a spec home, not a home built by someone who purchased the lot). A new sales person recently told us they aren't allowed to guarantee what houses will be in the empty lots beforehand although we have the written documentation from a Richmond salesperson back in March'24. Walk Throughs and Corrections: When we did our walk throughs we had a list of maybe 8 items that needed to be fixed, mainly cosmetic issues. On our 30 day list, the one big issue we had was that our oven did not work. GE came out twice and then it turned out to be not an oven problem but a wiring problem which then took Richmond another 3 months to have someone come out twice and finally fix the issue (which was a bad neutral that should've been caught in the initial walk through with the builder or prior to that for it to pass inspection). We now have had drywall that hasn't been fixed above our oven where they had to fix the wiring for it. They have scheduled several times for issues and the trades do not show up. We have taken off work all of these times expecting them to be here. We are now 6 months into our house and our 30 day list has yet to be completed regardless of how many times we have things scheduled and expected to finish with the trades. Our superintendent has been very responsive and doing the best he can to communicate but the relationship between Richmond and the trades is not reliable. Every time we reach out to the super, he is quick to call the trades or submit the order and send us an update. From our point of view, he is doing his job very well. It is expected to not have every little thing fixed, but going without an oven for almost 6 months and a huge hole above the cabinets/oven now, is costing us more money that anticipated considering our power bill is higher due to the hole, we take off work for the trades to come, and have had to buy supplied to fix some of the issues on our own because the trades don't show up half the time. In summary: The houses are beautiful and high quality. It is to be expected the houses will not be perfect. If the trades would show up and fix issues in a timely manner, we would be thrilled with our home.