Royal Oaks Homes

Could have been a great process but after we closed on our house all the issues began. Lots of cosmetic issues, paint all over everything. Very disappinted because some things could have been caught by our project manager before we did our final walk. Had some other major issues going on but to long to write out. House appears to look great but could have had more attention to detail. Warranty dept has been great at sending the appropriate crews out. We've had people in and out for a year now since we closed, now thats sad. We need to get to a point where we can enjoy this major family purchase.

Worst builder ever. Cracked walls, cracked crown molding, no base primer paint on walls just one coat, painted horribly. No hot water the first two weeks we moved in, defective dishwasher releasing water all over the new hardwoods, crack hearth on fireplace. Terrible lot, it was not prepped properly, dead sod, drainage issues in the backyard, eroding berm in the back. Worst craftsmanship we have ever seen. Also their workers remove blue tape instead of addressing areas thinking no one would notice. Nothing is leveled, almost like the home was built by a blind 10 year old with no experience.

Our project manager was useless they had to bring in another one to finish the job. Home not ready for the closing that THEY scheduled, we postponed until it was ready, it still wasn't ready for the second closing. We were forced to close out of necessity since we were suppose to be out of our other home with the promise that items would be addressed after closing for 1-2 days after....we had men in an out for 3 weeks straight ...ruined our thanksgiving and  Christmas.

We have built numerous homes from scratch with different builders through the years and this has been the worst experience of our lives. We have never felt this much buyers remorse. Too many situations to list.

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT BUY OR BUILD WITH THIS BUILDER.

Update:

We were told the only way the flooring could be fixed is by taking up the entire second floor and that the builder wouldn't do that. So basically they told us they know there is a problem but they won't spend the money to fix the problem. Now we have another problem. We're a year and half in and it appear no flashing was put at the J channel where the third car garage meets the main structure of the home. Sent a warranty request and heard nothing did two weeks. My wife emailed the warranty lady directly and she claims she never received the request. Instead of trying to get to the bottom of the issue she just told my wife the warranty ran out already and gave her an email address for the roofing guy that installed the roof. This is a NIGHTMARE!!! Will update once we know what they're going to do.

A lot is left to be desired with the $320,000 home I bought 2 years ago.

1.  AC unit has a tough time cooling the house.  It gets the job done, but has to work extra hard.  Other home models have 2 units, but this model has 1, why?  Probably trying to cut costs.

2.  Interior paint done very poorly.  

3. GE Microwave is already failing after 2 years........they installed a cheap countertop unit into a space with a mounting kit.   You call this a "custom kitchen" ? LMAO

4. Drilled a hole for the main door dead bolt and damaged the door bell voltage wire.  Never had a working door bell.  Offered to fix it by tearing down some of the wall, I decline.

5.  Poor quality door handles.

6.  Main door has a glass pane

7. Major drainage issues with rain water on the driveway.  They basically installed a bunch of gutters and called it a day.  Didn't design anything for drainage........just put everything together in a rush to get their money and disappear.

Overall, an average grade builder.  Don't expect a lot.  Especially not with the drainage.

1/21/18: Drive way problems popped up with a patch Royal Oaks had to install on what was a new driveway, before we even moved in Dec. 2012. Of course they said it was a problem when they saw it recently and of course they wouldn't agree to fix it. Going to eventually cost us thousands to fix on our own.

Thought that since we were dealing with less of a cookie cutter builder then Beazer or MI Homes type of builder and paying a LOT MORE money we'd get better service. That was just not the case.

We have several complaints but the biggest is the ongoing issue with an HVAC unit that never worked properly when the outdoor temperature got really cold. We asked them to address it when they did some other warranty work at which time they said our unit would only be effected very infrequently. Well this past winter we had at least a dozen occasions where it was cold enough to cause our HVAC to go out. We decided after they wouldn't look at the problem the first time subsequent problems we would fix on our own and send them the bill.

Well we found out our HVAC unit was improperly installed by Royal Oaks own sub-contractor via an independent 3rd party HVAC company. We had the 3rd party HVAC company fix the unit and sent the bill to Royal Oaks. Royal Oaks refused to pay the bill for the repair.

They're reasoning for refusing to pay was that we didn't give them the chance to look at the unit and/or make the repair themselves. I explained they were given the chance to look at the unit when we asked them to look at it when the initial warranty work was done and they declined.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I wouldn't even bother writing a review if not for the issue with the HVAC but now that we've crossed that bridge I'll also mention several other problems we had to deal with. We never got a promised sound system and they installed the wrong porch columns. We let both items slide because the move in date was already delayed by three months and tried to be good partners hoping the goodwill would be reciprocated. That didn't happen.

They also tried to deny us a sink that was in the blue prints. We asked for the whole porch to be created out of composite decking, they only did the floor. That is my fault for not reviewing the paperwork closely enough after they slipped in a change to what they would do.  

If you pay that much money for a house you should get a better level of service.

Overall I'd rate them 4 stars but at the moment they are a 1 in my book.  We have been living in our home for 17 months.  The selection process was good with plenty of options and upgrades.  The negotiations went fine, they did quote us one thing and then change it in the end.  (we settled in the middle)  We really wanted the house, so we moved on.

Picking out the counters, colors, lights etc was fun and went very well.  The build quality seemed solid, we were able to watch the construction almost daily since we were only moving 10 miles.  Derek was our builder and he was excellent start to finish.  He answered our questions and explained a lot during the process.  This was our first time building a house, so we were very thankful to have him.

The bad:  They ran our hot water lines the wrong way IMO.  The heater is on the 3rd floor.  It then loops to the 2nd floor kids bedroom, down to first floor bathroom, over to the kitchen, up to the middle bath on the 2nd floor and finally to the master bedroom.  It takes no less then 3 minutes to get hot water in the kitchen and over 5 minutes to get to the master.  Common sense says to run the hot water to the high use areas first or to split the hot water lines to both sides of the house.  I am not an expert but we waste hundreds of gallons of water each month just waiting for it to get warm.

The 2nd issue is a small issue.  How they handled it is a big concern.  We are/were very forgiving with the builder and we are not picky people at all.  We have watched Royal Oakes bend over backwards for some of our neighbors and they tell us all the little things they are having fixed.  Most are things we overlooked or didn't care to bring up.

When we did our walk through before closing we had an issue with the entry door from the garage and the door between the entry way and kitchen knocking into each other.  There was not enough room for both doors to open, so they hit each other.  While they were coming up with a solution they removed the door to the kitchen.  Ultimately they put stoppers on the kitchen door, so it couldn't open all the way and thus couldn't get in the way of the door to the garage.  We were happy with the resolution.  Later we found out that the light switch to the entry way is behind the door to the kitchen.  (I wish I had a drawing)  It makes the switch useless, so our entry way is always dark.  Its a good sized entry way with a built in bench, hangers and cubby holes for shoes and items.

We waiting until the 11 month walk through to point it out, which is what we were instructed to do with any items we found between months 1 and 11.   We did the walkthrough with Mark and he agreed it was a terrible placement.  He also explained how easy it would be to move it and he would get back to us.  They fixed the other small items throughout the house.  Well after 5 months we never heard back from Mark.  We asked again about the switch and they said they had no interest in helping because we didn't point it out prior to closing.  How could we point it out prior to closing when there was no door in the way due to another issue?  If its an easy fix why wouldn't they just handle it?  They are replacing driveways, floors and walls for our neighbors!  Why did they avoid the issue and never follow up?

Between the hot water and being told to pound sand over their mistake I am a bit salty.  It sucks after having so many good things to say about Royal Oaks and spending a ton of money on their house to be left hanging.

UPDATE:  We just had yet another piece of brilliant customer service from their warranty department.  We had a window above my daughters tub crack  around month 6-7.  (12"x48" ish)  They replaced it in October and explained its not uncommon to happen due to settling.  Well it cracked again.  Zero help from Royal Oaks.  The once warrantied window is now classified as a "courtesy item" and they are not willing to stand behind their work.

I want to believe they read my original review and have blacklisted me from any help.  I really hope this is not their standard of business.

This is not how Royal oaks building group really is. Their customer service is bar none the worst in the home building experience. They have maintained the fact that we didn't maintain a yard that is unmaintainable as they put our "Bermuda starter grass" during the winter storm of 2015. That along with the massive amounts of rain and dry air have made it where even the best golf courses and landscapers had trouble. They never planted a seed in our back yard until the one year checkup in which they put in starter yard "summer rye" which is dying before we have even hit 90 degrees yet. I have personally watched them replace two different side yards of my direct neighbors who had the same problem, yet because we are a younger couple they think we wouldn't take this to the media and BBB. Our entire yard, with as much work as we have put into it, still looks terrible. Why? Because it is on dead clay below our "Bermuda" and "rye". Today's excuse for not replacing it was with what they sent with the landscaping in the contract and it states there is a deficiency of standing water still remains after 24 hours of rain. I have sent numerous videos and pictures of standing water in the side yard and back yard days after the storms have passed. I have told them that we will take this to litigations and they think this is a joke. They just built new homes and their starter yard looks like what we have requested since day one. They now have built the model home with Bermuda through the whole entire yard, which will be false advertising as this is not what you will get. My main concern is the fact that they think our yard is not maintained, only after we complained for over a year. We cannot maintain a yard that is built on dead grass and clay. We have tried and spent 1,000 of dollars on weed n feed, landscaping, numerous mows, and weed killing. The yard cannot be grown as it is dead. They obviously know how much it will cost if we were to be awarded a yard that was planted the way it should ( see the model home) this is exactly why they are putting the blame on the purchaser and not the seller. We are not the first house to complain about this, but they have multiple excuses that blame it on the homeowner, when in fact they never had anything feasible to work with to have a "maintained yard". I have read all the BBB complaints and they always deflect and put blame on the homebuyer. At what point is enough is enough? Be like any other builder and do your job correct and there will not be an issue this substantial. Sincerely, an upset homeowner who wishes they didn't choose "Royal oaks" do not take the long winded post for a joke, we are upset and will continue to let people know the issues we have had with this builder.
Royal oaks and their terrible customer service will deflect back to the home buyer and say we have not maintained our yard, when we have maintained the best we could on a dead yard. You can see it with other lots that they built and created land space on places that weren't condusive to plant grass on. We had a complete mud pit for over a year and were told to wait until our one year warranty, in which the builder took the cheap approach and put summer rye grass which is already dying. Just as they have done with other yards here, we want the Bermuda replaced. It CANNOT be maintained because the entire yard is DEAD. It has been DEAD since we moved in and that was noted when they built during the coldest season that even the best golf course could not "maintain" their yard. We are not the first people to complain about the yards, but we are the only one they have refused to replace. We have watched them replace the entire Bermuda on numerous yards in person after constant complaints. I fully expect as I have read on here and about the business that they will deflect all on is as the buyer, but the irony is the HOA who we have NOTHING to do with sent us a letter stating we needed to re-plant our grass as it was dead and when Royal oaks and their terrible customer service will deflect back to the home buyer and say we have not maintained our yard, when we have maintained the best we could on a dead yard. You can see it with other lots that they built and created land space on places that weren't condusive to plant grass on. We had a complete mud pit for over a year and were told to wait until our one year warranty, in which the builder took the cheap approach and put summer rye grass which is already dying. Just as they have done with other yards here, we want the Bermuda replaced. It CANNOT be maintained because the entire yard is DEAD. It has been DEAD since we moved in and that was noted when they built during the coldest season that even the best golf course could not "maintain" their yard. We are not the first people to complain about the yards, but we are the only one they have refused to replace. We have watched them replace the entire Bermuda on numerous yards in person after constant complaints.

The only reason I have given this company one star is because I had to check something in order to write this review, otherwise I wouldn't even rate them as a one star.

Our experience with this company has been less than ideal. We do like our house, however there are parts where you can tell cheap material is used.

We had to be on top of everything with this building process. They installed wrong fans, wrong faucets, built the footprint of our house wrong, etc. Items that we upgraded in the house were not put in and we had to correct this multiple times. The carpet that we upgraded to a higher level than what is included sheds terribly. It leaves bald spots whenever you vacuum and at the thresholds with the hardwood floor it was poorly placed and I can pick it up and see the concrete slab underneath. NOT IMPRESSED.

The preferred lender that they used was one of the worse in the business. We went with their lender because of the plus for closing costs. The lender was still asking for paperwork the day before and of our closing, needless to say we closed late. We left this group and refinanced ASAP.

At our one year walk through they did surprise us. They fixed multiple things that day. Due to the bad weather at the time, a few things that needed to be fixed on the roof and siding needed to be rescheduled. The man that did our walk through said he would open up another ticket and have these things fixed. After three weeks of not hearing from anyone, I called the warranty department to check on this process. This took several phone calls prior to having my call returned. Whenever my call was returned, no one had any idea that I still needed items fixed. Items that I had signed off on with the representative from royal oaks. Two months after my walk through I am still being given the run around about when these items will be completed and am still not having my calls returned.

Overall, some of the employees that we dealt with were great, such as the agent that sold us the property. Aside from that, I am less than impressed with the company. Check around before you decide to use this building group or if you go with them be ready to watch and make sure your floor plan is built correctly and the selections you choose are correct when installed.

We bought our house in 2014. Since then the AC sub contractor has gone out of business and the ac in my house is crappies out again. We have had issues since the beginning and royal oaks has done nothing to fix the issue still..... RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

These homes might look great at first but within 6/8 months of settling they start cracking everywhere, glue is coming up from the pergo flooring, tons of soft spots from bubbling. Painters missed spots everywhere and have gotten paint splatter on the lighting hardware and flooring. They left windows open too long during construction some of the white paint is stained a rusty red color. The weather strips on doors started to fray, front door doesn't fit properly I can see outside on the left corner. The paint is cheap, when I was cleaning the baseboards with mild soap and damp cloth, paint started coming off. Bathroom cabinets are not even and are a cheap material. The garage door wall switch broke. The home was wired wrong in the living room and masterbedroom, some outlets weren't even connected, dryer was hooked up wrong. The electrical box was labeled wrong too left & rights were mixed. we had electrician out to fix and he could not fix it all. We now have wall switches that do nothing and they cannot figure it out. The heating /AC broke down 2x, whole thermostat had to be switched out. The neighbors had to have all their windows redone. The window blinds do not fit properly and cannot be opened all the way. They forgot to put in some window screens. The vent in my bathroom started rusting and the wall above the shower  cracked in the first 8 months. I have to shower with window open because the fan isn't strong enough and I fear mold. The shower door was put on backwards. The nails/bolts are cracking thru the walls. The bathroom mirror downstairs and upstairs had scratches on them. I noticed it when I was cleaning the installation workers finger prints off the mirrors. The stair baseboard is cracking now after 1yr. The cement driveway/sidewalks/back patio are chipped and had started cracking (before the cold weather). This is happening in another neighborshood by Royal Oaks. I walk with a friend and its awful, they were notified and would not fix it. They blame the weather. The workers leave the roads filthy of silt, rocks and other debris. The yard fill has so much construction trash, bottle caps and medium sized rocks. The grass will not grow properly after seeding/watering. We cannot mow. The mower shot 2 rocks at our home so we trim across what little does grow with a weed eater or hedge trimmers. They only sod the front. I have been talking with a few neighbors and they have some of these similar problems. Do yourself a favor and make a friend who is stuck owning a Royal Oaks home that has been lived in so you will see the truth. Save your money and buy older homes the quality is a lot better. I will say I've seen better quality materials used in the Portofino neighborhood in Clayton NC. Unfortunately for most those prices are unobtainable.