Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

Zach on Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

SHORT
Pros: Local office has some nice people, nice selection of products at low cost.
Cons: Project length is minimum double as described in sales pitch. Build is plagued with delays. GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING as verbal agreements aren't recognized. Homeowner is responsible for a substantial amount of legwork.

LONG
Preface: I will try to be as fair as possible, I've waited until the end of our project to fully review our experience and I'm a very reasonable and patient person. If you aren't reasonable, flexible and patient they probably aren't going to be a good fit for you.

I firmly believe many of the issues that come with this company come from the way their business is structured. Most delays come from offering their subs very little for the jobs (in fact many of the subs described their work as fill in work). Because of this nearly nothing gets done in peak season (summer) in a busy building market. They offer good pricing on their product but there are tons of responsibilities that fall to the homeowner that wouldn't with different contractors. I've easily logged well over 150-200 hours on site cleaning up after horrendously messy subs and the many projects that aren't included in their quote. Our project has taken a little over a year and 2 months to get to our final inspection (their sales team repeatedly says 6 months during their pitch). Ultimately we had a soured experience from the beginning dealing with their engineering department. Getting permits took over 3 months due in large part to delays caused by their blueprint team. After running out the 90 day clock their contract allows them to raise costs if you haven't "started construction" (this is when their first sub is there not when you break ground) so we received a bill in the mail to the tune of $8000 for a "lumber cost increase". Fortunately (and with threats to walk away deposit or not) they reduced it by half. Thank-fully our excavator was also a concrete contractor who volunteered to sign up as a sub and do our foundation for us. This officially started construction for us. Things went well until once again we ran into an issue that had to go to their engineering department. This delay took all of 3+ months and I'm certain the only thing that moved us along were the numerous complaints I made with our lender. I think the experience we've had has been better than many of the others on here (which is hard to believe because I haven't felt great about it at all).

Elena Argunov on Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

UPDATE.
I wanted to provide an update on our current project with Reality Homes. We closed our loan on August, the foundation poured in the beginning of October. Our first project manager was a person who clearly had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She came one day and stake the house and it was absolutely terrible. It was crocket, uneven and did not match blue prints. Every time we tried to talk to her she would turn away and not even talk to us. Then she left. There was no communication of whatsoever. We were called annoying just because we tried to figure out what is going on, Finally at the end of November the framing crew started the work. But they several mistakes in structure of our home. There is a lack of communication between construction, operations and engineering teams. There are some employees that actually know what they are doing but they admit that Reality Homes is a disaster. We are doing plumbing in our home and wanted to put some items that we like. But they rip us of and want us to pay three times more than it cost. When we try negotiate just a little bit it's feels like "talk to the hand".
My point is that the Reality Homes are really good in sales and initial stages but after that it turns to hell. Office people (construction and Ops) are rude and they don't care about their customers AT ALL. So if you still want to go with this builder my advise is to put a large amount of money aside because it will cost you al lot more than you anticipated.
As a side note, we love our current project manager but, unfortunately, he has no control over Reality Homes mess.

I will be posting pictures later when our home is ready. But I just wanted to give a huge shot out to the team that was working on our plans, contract, and project calculations. We were pretty hesitant at first due to negative comments from multiple clients of Reality Homes but we decided to give them a chance and prove us wrong. And all I can say we are definitely happy with them. They are very professional, responsive, and reliable.
Dear current Customers, please remember to post positive reviews. I know that when the project is over it can be overwhelming, but you need to remember that Reality Homes are the ones who made your dream come true and they deserve positive feedback.

Karli Murphy on Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

We are in the beginning phase of our build with Reality homes and have been pleasantly surprised with our experience so far. Lee Cadenhead Is very responsive and has a friendly positive attitude to all of our questions. We researched and spoke with quite a few home builders in the area, but Reality Home flexibility in design, prices, finishes and energy efficiency is why we have chosen to move forward with them. No other builder allows the customizations that Reality offers and for a one time flat fee. Steven Dann has also been a great resource there and has been very helpful with our questions and concerns regarding hiring the contractors and making sure we are covering our bases. We meet with the design team in a couple weeks to finalize our blue prints and will continue to provide feedback on here as we move along! We are excited and feel confident in our decision to proceed with Reality Homes.

Carly Harris on Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

We are in the beginning stages of our build with Reality homes and have been so happy with our service so far. Lee Cadenhead has been quick to respond to all our questions and concerns through this process. We looked at a handful of other home builders in the area, but Reality Homes' floor plans, flexibility in design, prices, finishes and energy efficiency is why we have chosen to move forward with them. We were able to complete a quote for our new home with all our upgrades and the bank was very impressed with how much knowledge we already have on the finish product of the home we are going to build. Here's to pouring foundation this spring! We feel confident that our new home will be exactly how we imaged and at a cost that you cannot beat!

Michelle Dannan on Reality Homes - Yakima - Model Home

Reality Homes is currently building our home in Ellensburg, Washington. The whole experience has been great thus far. We are dealing with Lee Cadenhead and Steven Dann out of the Yakima office and they have been awesome. Lee was our first point of contact and he did a wonderful job of helping us understand the building process and make the best decision for our family when choosing a builder. Lee is one of the main reasons that we chose to build with Reality Homes. He truly cares about the customer and not just making a sale. Steven Dann has immediately eased any concern that we have had during this process and has made it a wonderful experience as well. I am sure that there will always be bumps in the road as far as construction is concerned, but Reality has helped us navigate those bumps easily thus far.