Menu
Imperial Homes

Imperial Homes review: Poor service! 7

V
Author of the review
12:00 am EDT
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

My husband and I started working with Imperial homes of Maine in Eddington in April 2007. It's now October 2007 and our house still isn't completed. We purchased a land/home package and put $1000 down as earnest money so the Realtor wouldn't sell the property. Finally in Sept 2007 they delivered our house to the property and started setting everything up. I had a contractor come take a look at the property that had been fixed up by Imperial homes. This contractor basically told us that we were being "Screwed". They fixed the property wrong, and it's gonna cost us another $10,000 to fix it. The slab that the house was put on is 3" too small for the house, so when it snows, the frost and ice buildup is going to ruin the bottom part of our house (rippling the skirting). There's a huge ditch in the back of our house between the house and our leachfield that we were told was for drainage, but come to find out if Imperial had just set our house up 1 foot higher, they wouldn't need a pumping station as it would have been gravity flow. The dirt that the slab is set on isn't compacted, so the more rain we get the more our house is going to slide down this "drainage ditch". We were given a closing date by Imperial homes, gave our landlord notice that we were moving out, had to push back the date 3 times until the landlord couldn't let us stay any longer as she rented the apartment, so we had to move in with my husbands parents and pay for storage. Oh, lets not forget about Imperial calling me at work and screaming at me over the phone. Sorry, you don't treat your customers like that! Needless to say, they lost a sale! So, for anyone out there that reads these complaints boards, DO NOT BUY FROM IMPERIAL HOMES! THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER! I'm surprised there's not more on here about these guys!

7 comments
M
M
Michael
Houston, US
Jun 10, 2009 5:53 pm EDT

I have been living a in an Imperial home for two years and have to disagree with you . From the day we put our earnest money down to the time we moved in they went out of there way to make sure we where satisfied with the progress of the house. I talked with the super on several occasions and he was always more than helpful and went out of his way to answer every question and request that we had. We had only one correction that I saw that I wanted chanfed with the brick on the back of the house and it was fixed by the next afternoon. In the two years since we have lived in the house we have really come to appreciate the quality of the floor plan and the overall construction of the house. I highly recommend Imperial homes and should I ever out grow this house I wont consider anything other than an imperial home.

B
B
Bearbait
, US
Nov 10, 2018 1:25 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of Michael

I purchased a used 1992 Imperial doublewide that I thought was in good condition until I started to remodeling some of the rooms. I don't think they have people building them that know how to use a ruler, square or level. Some of the walls look like they were built with scrap lumber. I just finished putting on a new roof and it was covered with 1/2 inch OSB plywood. It was so weak I thought me and my brother would fall through some places. Walls not level or square corners. Cheap, cheap, cheap materials use to build them. Didn't use 2 x 4's in the inside walls they used 2 x 2's and 3/8's drywall. The outside walls are covered with 1/8 inch fiber board and put very cheap siding over it. You can feel the cold air coming in around the outside wall receptacles, windows and doors. All of which will need to be replaced to keep my heating and cooling bills down. I was told by the former owner that it was top of their line. Well I'm thankful it's not at the bottom of their line. I would be better living in a cardboard box.

N
N
new home owner
Pearland, US
Jun 05, 2009 2:09 pm EDT

I sympathize and agree with angry home owner. I live in a subdivision in south of Houston where Imperial is one of the many builders. My husband and I were interested in one of their inventory homes because of the unique floor plan that they had. We put in an offer through our realtor for the house last spring, but we were told that our offer was "too low" that the salesman wouldn't bother to write it up and present to his manager. The truth is..the house was built in 2007. It had been sitting there for a year with no activity and we thought we did them a favor by offering to buy it. Needless to say, we went with a much reputable builder and bought a house we really like. Until now, that Imperial house is still not sold. I walked by there out of curiousity a couple of times and notice that they don't even keep the house well maintained. There were grass overgrown in the yards, weeds blooming in between the driveway pavements, and brown/black mildew all over entrance way. That house looks abandoned.

I also noticed that the two houses down the street that were under construction have stopped. There's been no activity at all for at least two months now. I have not seen any construction people/materials around those sites. I also noticed that Imperial had put their "model home" on the market for sale. Usually, this is an indication that they will not build anymore in that subdivision. I wonder what will happen to the two houses under construction. I hope those potential buyers can get their deposit back! However, with all these scams reported on Imperial homes, I think they're heading for a loss.

Angry home owner, I hope you found ways to resolve your house's defects. After hearing your nightmare, I'm just glad that I didn't buy from Imperial homes.

If you look on jdpower.com, under home, you can find 2008 customer survey on homebuilders in Houston. Imperial homes has one of the worse scores. It seems that they pissed more people off than they can please.

A
A
Angry home owner
Cypress, US
Feb 17, 2009 12:47 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Imperial Homes has the absolute worst customer service. They use UNskilled laborors that work unsupervised and cannot follow a set of plans. The workers drink on the job, and urinate in the bathtubs during construction. Our house managed to just get past the warranty period when the corners of all the baseboard started to sepertae. The inside corners have all started cracking and I am beginning to think they were never taped, just floted with drywall putty. The shower leaks, there are cracked tiles, and noisy hot water pipes all in a house that was just built at the end of 2007. I took HUNDREDS of pictures of items that needed repair and I went back to check on them, and the drywall was already hung and I was told it was all fixed. No way to know if it was or wasn't UNTIL we had some heavy rain and every area I TOLD them would leak in advance...did. I do all I can when I see home shoppers on my street, to discourage them from using Imperial. I actually bring them in our home and show them the problems. Strangely, none of them ever came back. I will dance in the streets when they are driven out of town. They are ex-KB homes people and it shows in everything they DON'T do. The ONLY redeeming value is the floorplan we have. It is great, but the house sucks. Outside doors leak water and air, air blows OUT of light switch and outlet covers. I could go on for days. Bottom line, RUN don't walk from Imperial Homes. Mark G. is a used car salesman at best and my apologies to used car salesman for saying that. They have (had) ONE decent construction Supervisor and he got smart and left. All their salespeople know nothing about options or building, or customer service. Imperial is the WORST. They actually have the never to use "craftsmanship" when describing their build quality. HA !

S
S
Shoddy Homes Construction Hate
,
Jul 10, 2008 10:02 am EDT

I totally agree with "Very Angry Home Buyer". He/she tells you the truth. Imperial Homes is an ever WORST home builder and services I've ever experienced with. From a sale consultant to sale manager and from superintendent to project manager they all in the same page that they DO NOT care about whatever customers' concern regarding to construction issues. A superintendent name Jack does very careless and lack of supervision on his job and seems having least knowledge about the construction but always brags about his construction experience. I have all the evident photos of the shoddy construction that they built on (a suppose to be) my home. One of Imperial Homes Texas LTD sudivisions is Lone Oak which is represent for their very low quality of construction and services. If you want to see I can prove it to you. I thought this construction built from KB Homes, not from Imperial Homes as they use to ad on the public. So, don't ever go with Imperial Homes Texas LTD builder. Believe me, building your home with Imperial Homes Texas LTD builder is waisting your time and money.

K
K
K. Jones
,
Feb 04, 2008 11:25 am EST

I have dealt with Imperial and had a GREAT experience from start to finish!

B
B
billy bob
,
Nov 07, 2007 3:32 am EST

You are a disgrace!