Ashton Woods Homes
Reviews and Complaints

Just wanting to put this out to whomever may be thinking about building a ground up home from Ashton Wood Homes. This is what we learned: What you see may not be what you get. What you’re told may be conveniently forgotten. Take the disclaimer for gospel, even the ones they produce after they take your earnest fee.

We started our experience in April 2017. In our case from day one it was an adventure! From the questionable utilization of bath tubs (raw sewage) and yes, we have pictures, the published elevation pictures not matching the final build out, the questionable stone work, the patch work exterior fencing, to just mention a few.

We finally decided to cut our losses in early September. We thought since the closing estimate was mid-October it would give them enough time to sell their product to someone else. They were more than willing to immediately remind me of no refunds. Interesting business model keep the earnest fee and option percentage, then sell the house as a spec home for a higher price. Guessing keeping the thousands of dollars in prepays is more important than satisfying a customer.

I just wanted other home buyers to know about my experience and hope it helps you make an educated $400K+ decision.

Apr 13, 2017: Emailed design center about changing the edges of the Silestone to something other than the basic square edges. Design center emailed back saying there were no options on the Silestone. I’m now wondering if that was a true statement because the superintendent asked. We would not have chosen square edging.
April 25, 2017: Design center sent email to say our cabinet selection had been discontinued. So we went back to the design center. I didn’t like the look of the new cabinet so I decided to make changes which led to changes in wall color and carpet.
May 8, 2017: Sent salesperson a text requesting to change back to the office vs the additional bedroom. Text was read but never answered. I decided to get our realtor involved, by the time we got an answer we were told it was too late.
Jun 12, 2017: Pre-orientation: Met with superintendent to review contract.
- Superintendent asked if we would be getting wire or wood shelving in the closets. We ask salesperson why we weren’t given that option. She said she would have to send a request for pricing.
- Superintendent also asked about the color of stain we wanted for the patio and trim. Again, we were not giving an option on selecting a color. Salesperson said she would send pictures of the colors so we could choose, haven’t received.
- Layout that superintendent had did not show the French doors to the patio that we had purchased. Salesperson could not find our record so I pulled it up on my cell phone to prove we had ordered the French doors.
Jun 24, 2017: Received pricing on wood shelves from Ashton Woods sales office; signed document
Jun 29, 2017: Asked about the second bathroom having an opening but there wasn’t a window installed. Superintendent stated that was a mistake and that would be sealed as well. Sent email to salesperson saying we would like to go ahead and purchase that window. Waiting to hear.
Jun 29, 2017: Superintendent called regarding the door opening that was cut for the outside door. It was cut for an 8 ft. door, he needed to know if that was what we ordered. We were not given a choice at the time we had decided to have a door installed. Superintendent stated they would reduce to a standard door. Had we been given the choice we would have selected the 8 ft. door to match the size of the remaining outside doors.
Jun 29, 2017: Received email from design center that the pull out shelves we signed for in Apr could not be used in the cabinets as requested. The cabinet company said they would have to be 4 smaller slide out shelves for each cabinet versus the 2 larger shelves for each cabinet.
Jun 30, 2017: Still waiting for salesperson to send stain color choices.
Jul 25, 2017: Spoke with our realtor about concerns with the elevation. He sent left message with superintendent asking about the stone. Also spoke with salesperson about the stone. Waiting to hear.
Aug 7, 2017: Received email from design center that it had been brought to their attention that the flooring diagram did not match our selections. She wanted to know if we added wood to the family room or if it was carpet and needed us to confirm ASAP. I answered her saying it was carpet and to please review our contract because we had gone back and forth several times on disconnects between design center, salesperson, and superintendent.
Aug 16, 2017: Text from salesperson asking again about my questions on the elevation. I explained that we wanted exactly the same elevation as ordered.
Aug 16, 2017: Send text to salesperson asking if superintendent ever got back with her on the issues with the elevation. She spoke with superintendent and he stated it would be fixed.
Aug 17, 2017: Received email from salesperson that Mason wanted to clarify the pics we sent comparing the elevations. He stated knowing the elevation was not exactly the same but wanted to clarify what we were asking.
Aug 18, 2017: Send email to salesperson about contacting superintendent so we could explain concerns with the elevation not being what we paid an extra $2k for. She said she would have superintendent call.
Sep 3, 2017: Sent email to salesperson stating the master garden tub was unusually small; the wrong toilets had been put in the other two bathrooms (we paid for elongated); and also concerned the fence was not being aligned with the boundary on the left side of the house and the right side not installed as discussed during pre-orientation with the superintendent and salesperson.
Sep 3, 2017: Salesperson emailed saying, “Can you tell me what is different from what was discussed in your pre-construction orientation?” She also stated that the once they receive the start package from the city and plan/elevation may vary. We asked if that was the case when we spoke with her in person a week prior to 3 Sep and she didn’t think that was the case. The issue isn’t just not getting what we paid for, the issue is also the bad workmanship on the stone.
Observations:
- Salesperson lacks initiative in providing information timely and with resolve
- Salesperson not knowledgeable of all options available at the time of signing the initial contract
- Design center not fully knowledgeable of all options available based on the information given to them
- Superintendent seems a little frustrated not having same contract as approved by customer
- Disconnects from salesperson to design center to superintendent; seem to be working on different sheets of music
Overall, there are major disconnects within these three main functions within Ashton Woods. I feel like this house is being “pieced” together.

I seriously cannot stand this company. Don't get sucked in and bamboozled like we did. Their "design studio" is a complete joke and you can't even go there without first putting money down and then they schedule you in. Options at the design studio were bare minimal and they will charge you for EVERYTHING as an upgrade. Even if let's say for example you do NOT want a ceiling fan in one room they will charge you NOT to have it, what kind of ### is that?! Then AFTER finalizing all the details we sign the contract etc. then months later get a call saying the color of stone we picked for our home "wasn't approved"...OKAY then why even offer it to us in the begining?! As months go by we are told that certain materials we chose may not be available, this is so frustrating! The money you put down is non-refundable but at this point I feel like throwing my hands up and saying to hell with this and purchasing from another builder. Ashton Woods shame on you! And FFS it's 2017 upgrade your design studio options!

I would give ashton woods zero stars if I could. This review is for ashton woods as a whole, and more specifically, jillian montalvo (Who is now currently working for david weekley) , elise green, and margaret g. (Who is now working for meritage homes in harvest green). My husband and I was shown a finished inventory home in aliana and was told that the home that was currently being built in bella terra would be identical minus the selections in flooring, countertops, and other miscellaneous items. We had then signed the contract and given the earnest money (Almost 7-8k) , taking valuable time out of our schedule to design our home at the design center. After a few weeks, when the framing of the house came about, we had noticed a significant difference in ceiling height from the aliana house and ours. After bringing this issue to attention, jillian confirmed with corporate that she was unaware that the different elevations had different ceiling heights. If any of you have experience in this area, ceiling height can cause a dramatic change to the overall outlook of the house. When we had signed the contract initially, we were under the impression that there were differences in the floor plan and layout not ceiling height! We then told them immediately that we were unhappy with the situation and wanted our earnest money back. As the usual horrible business that they are, never putting their clients first, they refused, providing limited options that did not satisfy nor remedy this issue.

Unfortunately at the time, we did not want to lose our earnest money, so we tried to deal with the fact that we had already been deceptively misled into signing a purchase agreement on a home that was not what we had been promised. We were then entrapped into an obligatory arrangement that had eventually precipitated into numerous problems down the line, including but not limited to multiple missed deadlines (Pushing our closing date further and further down into the year) , obvious defects in workmanship and materials, faulty construction, ill-engineered lots, and absence of accountability. After carefully inspecting the home on several accounts and submitting numerous complaints to jillian and our construction manager regarding specific construction aspects, two of which transpired during our pre-drywall meeting (I. E. Splitting of support beams, use of damaged materials, failure to properly follow the design and architecture of the plan) , instead of being corrected at the appropriate time frame, were either masked by sheet rock and left unrepaired or done at the inappropriate staging of the house, ultimately giving rise to new structural complications that will only undermine the home's foundation in the near future (I. E. Extensive cracking in the sheet rock in multiple locations).

Another month out, we were then informed that the electrical pedestal was installed incorrectly for the homes on our street, and that collectively, we would all be impacted by this error. After the apparent abandonment on the construction of our home and our home alone, it became evident that we were the only ones who were forced to undergo this avertible event that could have very well been avoided had the lot been inspected prior to being released to buyers. This meant that only our house on the street would have no electrical power and thus no work could be done on the house at this point. Almost immediately after, we found ourselves, yet again, propelled into another setback; the meter which was scheduled to arrive on said date, was pushed back leaving two weeks of unproductivity and unresolved matters.

After writing a letter to corporate, elise green responded without any such remorse, informing us that per their contract, ashton woods has two years to complete the construction of one's home. Jillian then also openly admitted that the construction of each home would vary, some would be better than others due to the contractors they have. At this point, we were so displeased that we agreed to forfeit the earnest money rather than stay with a business who is clearly only out for themselves.

Immediately after, we signed with another builder in bella terra and received outstanding and superb service. It has been a year now in our beautiful home and we have never been more happy with the decision we made. Ashton woods is an unethical, money-making scam. The employees they hire are a disgusting reflection on the values they place on their customers.

Selected a stone to go on the face of our home because it was touted as maintenance free. After 3 months the stone began to crumble in the rain and iron ore is leeching out and staining the grout on our home orange. Had the company look at it. Their response? Not under warranty. We will have to take care of it ourselves by hiring someone with a 2 story ladder to come out and apply muriatic acid and power wash then add a sealer. Great. Our maintenance free home just became a maintenance nightmare! They have our money now and want nothing to do with the problem. his is what an almost million dollar home will get oyu in Austin TX with ASHTON WOODS.

Ashton Woods built our home without doing a soil test. Now, we have an under slab hot water leak about every three years, costing in excess of $5, 000 each time. An Ashton Woods rep told us they should have put a sleeve around all piping, but simply did not.

They will not stand behind their product, and I would never recommend an Ashton Woods home

Bought a home from Ashton Woods in Florida put a down payment after the home was build with many issues in the process, I could not qualify with the finance and Ashton decided to keep my deposit that was $30 thousand dollars. I had to hire an attorney to get a third of the deposit back and the home was sold before I even settle with them. The house was sold for more money than the original price. The CEO is the first con and the rest. The house was build wrong and they had issues fixing the home. Worst builder plus very unethical. I have not ever seen any builder or title company keeping the money of a buyer because they did not qualify. They know who I am, I do not have to post my name, because I took them to court. It took me a long tine to get some of my money back, I also hope they get sued in the federal court for using their power to steal money from families. The CEO is corrupted as well as everyone in Georgia head quarter.

After signing a contract with Ash ton Woods in Florida and picking up the lot. We gave more than $25 thousand dollars down to Ash ton Woods in different payments. Payments were sometime lost by the sales person and we had to re-write the payments all over again. Anyway when we went to close many months after they took building this home with so many mistakes, we did not qualify for the finance since new guidelines were implemented on the following year for student finance with conventional. Ash ton as well as the CEO in Georgia did not want to give us our full deposit. It took us lawyer fees and many other things not just the time to wait until we can get not all but some of our money back. This organization or company are a bunch of thief. We have never heard of such thing that a builder can keep the money on a buyer if they do not qualify for the finance. The finance is not guarantee for more than 30 days. Anything can happen with a buyer between now and 8 months from now. This builder is a thief as well as the top executives. Whatever you do check the BBB and other sites. They are not trustworthy. Also the house that we were supposed to get was sold to another family for more than our original asking price and we did not get a full refund. They know who I am, because after they decided to take our money they will not want to speak to us again. I do not have to post a name in this web page because they sure know who we are.

I would NOT recommend Ashton Woods to build your home due to our personal experience of constant delays and poor communications. If you are building in the Dallas area, I would advise that you consider other builders. I dropped Ashton Woods and hired a local builder, which I think is one of the best decisions of my life.

The initial excitement and going to the design center was cumbersome but good. The last 2 months were absolute hell. My wife and I spend every weekend going over the workmanship issues, having them correct obvious items they should have caught. We hired an independent inspector 2 weeks before we closed; he found epic failures to the roof, electrical, A/C set up and general issues. How in the world does a contractor neglect to do the job right unless they were told to half-### it in the first place. At the last day of inspection before we closed, several items were still not done so we left and stated “fix them before we close”. **Here is the kicker**, they sent us a demand letter the next day to close in 5 days even though the house was not compete or loose our money and they would sell the house underneath us. It took emails and calls to the CFO and the President to get a human response. That being said, I actually never heard form the CFO or President of Ashton Woods, only a sales rep that stated our issues are being resolved and it would take another 2 weeks. So after the items were completed, my wife and I, just mentally exhausted, threw up the white flag as the workman ship is still not of quality and the end experience was a nightmare. We have never gotten an apology for the way we were treated, only a survey and being asked to give all high scores ( are you kidding me ) We are currently in the home and have issues still. Buyers beware………

We live in Lakes of Windermere, a sub-division built by Ashton Woods, and have had non-stop issues with the external stucco. We certainly expected to have small issues with any builder but we have had too many large issues with AW. Our biggest problem is the stucco on the second story of the house. Like many houses in the community with a second story, the stucco just peels, cracks and falls off. I'm including a picture from after Ashton Woods fixed the stucco and they should be embarrassed. If you live in Lakes of Windermere and are having similar issues, please contact me at [protected]@yahoo.com. I'm fed up with the situation and have spoken to a few other neighbors with the same problem and trying to figure out how we can create strength in numbers to hold AW accountable for these issues. Please contact me at [protected]@yahoo.com if you have had similar issues.

This builder is obviously ethically questionable. After touring property, it was apparent the everything was overpriced and building materials were substandard. Trash was left on site and materials appeared buried in the yards and trash placed in walls. The Champions Forest location has a deal with the Wells Fargo Bank, and appraiser is hired by bank/Ashton Woods conglomerate. When you attempt to gain an appraisal on your own (instead of theirs), they refuse to build the home, stating, "the home will not appraise for the amount we have agreed too." How will it appraise with their appraiser and not mine, I have to wonder if fraud is being committed and the appraiser is complicit. The foreclosures in the area are very high, and this is not being told to the extremely high prices of their homes. Lastly, this is in a flood area, but somehow, the elevation certificates have been rescrubbed by FEMA (according to Ashton Woods), without any elevation change to the original restriction. Obvious this property has some fancy lawyering required to give you high prices with less protection and warning by a builder who wants to get away with obvious fraud.

They built a model and put all kinds of upgrades in the model. Don''t be fooled. With the price they present you, you are not getting like the model. Not even close! The hardwood, you're not getting all of them. Just a tiny area in the kitchen, the rest is carpeted. The tiles, the model uses stones, you'll get a cheap white tiles. All the can lights in the model, you'll get about 10% of them. The rest, you'll get cheap dome light. Those fancy stair rails you see in the model, you'll get a cheap version of it. And those under cabinet lightings that make the kitchen looks good, that $1800 extra if you want added. Basically, you'll get bare bone cheaper version than the model.

You can of course, pay extra to have it to look like the model. But when you do, they house won't appraised to the amount of money you owe. That's the extra cash that you have to bring at closing. This not appraising to the value of the home, is the one they don;t tell you when they try to sell it to you. They will tell you after you put your 15000 down that you can't cancel.

So here, you are stuck wanting to have a house looking like the model, but you know it won't look like the model and they are building it anyway. Whether or not you can bring 40, 000 at closing, they don't care.

And not to mention their HOA. You can't plant a tree, you can't take down a tree. You can't put a dog house, you can't put up fence. Everything has to have their approval. They are allowed 45 days to approve a request. I submitted a request over 30 days ago, still haven't heard anything back.

RUN RUN runaway fast as you can! Buy a traditional home, already built, with no HOA. At least what you see is what you get. They should change their slogan to be: "What you see is not what you get. Tada... we are just here to temp you, take your downpayment, and leave you with disappointments"

We built our home in 1999 and had a window leak and discovered the leak was a hole in the mortar on the front of our home. Ashton Woods found the leak and was supposed to have fixed it. It is leaking again and John Porizek said that they would not take care of the same problem. I have photos from previous leak.
I am a Realtor and would not recommend Ashton Woods Homes

"America's #1 Most Trusted Builder" is Ashton Woods' corporate motto and used extensively on their advertising. The builder's sales representative went on and on about their reputation and integrity during our initial meeting. Unfortunately for my family, this could not have been further from the truth.

Our experience started with the builder’s representative pressuring us to act quickly as she had “other interested” parties looking at the lot we were looking at purchasing. I suspect this could have been true and after a lengthy and arduous house hunt process that spanned years of research and planning, we decided to go ahead and sign the contract in good faith.

1st red flag: The builder’s representative had informed me and my agent that Ashton Woods would pay $5K plus ½% of purchase price toward closing costs if we went with their preferred mortgage vendor. During the contract signing, I noticed that the amount had been reduced to $3K plus ½% toward closing costs. Considering that the property we were looking to purchase was almost $700K and despite the fact that both my agent and I heard the $5K amount from the builder’s agent, we decided to over look this and proceed with the contract and make a $10K earnest money payment.

2nd red flag: We felt a sense of urgency in contracting for this property partially because the build was already underway and the planned upgrades and options were not up to my wife and my specifications. We met with the builder’s agent at their design center several times and in at least 2 instances, we asked the builder’s agent to confirm that the hardwood option we wanted was considered a level 2 option. Unfortunately, the hardwood flooring options were not labeled, however; both the builder’s agent and her colleagues confirmed several times that the option we wanted was indeed a level 2 option. When we were formalizing our options with a different design consultant a few days later, the design consultant informed us that the hardwood option we wanted/selected/confirmed was not level 2, but an option that was significantly more expensive. Considering that we wanted hardwood throughout the entire house (including finished basement and stairs to all 3 levels), I was flabbergasted. Having already made my earnest money deposit and considering that there was a level 2 option that was “similar” to what we wanted, we decided not to press this point further although we were extremely disappointed.

3rd red flag: Also at the design center, we noticed that each option we chose entailed paperwork that needed our signatures to proceed. We noticed that the paper work was existing documentation for a previous buyer that was interested in this property. Their names and signatures were still on the documents we reviewed. Their names were scribbled off with pen and our names were manually written in for us to “re-sign”. I didn’t think too much of this assuming that it might make sense from an environmental perspective to re-use paper in this way. Had I known what was in store for us next, I would have stopped the process immediately. In any event, following our upgrade/options selections, we made an additional down payment on these options (30% of price).

4th red flag: A few weeks following our design center experience, the builder’s agent emailed to me and my agent a copy of our final sales contract. Upon opening up the contract, I noticed that the price for our house was significantly different. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that this was not our contract, but the contract for the previous buyer. I’m not sure why the decided not to purchase this house but I became immediately alarmed because the contract documents included a lot of personal and confidential information including: Customer Name, phone number, address, email address, demographic information (including income level, employment status, age, etc), and copies of their earnest money check (which included the bank name, bank address, routing and account numbers).

At this point, I was thunderstruck. How does “America’s #1 Most Trusted Builder” allow this type of sensitive and private customer information to be so easily distributed to 3rd parties who have no right to have access to this information? I immediately became fearful of what could happen to my personal/private information with this builder. In an industry that deals with the most significant financial investment of most peoples’ lives, I questioned whether this builder had any policies or controls in place to protect sensitive personal and private information of their customers.

I relayed my fears to my agent and we both reached out to the builder but their reply was that by the letter of the contract, they did nothing wrong and apparantly don’t have any obligation to protect any private/personal information.

As you can imagine, I questioned whether I could conduct business with a company that in every step of the way was misleading or simply inapt in their jobs. Unfortunately, I had a significant amount of money tied up in the contract already and would lose my earnest money and upgrade deposits. Even more concerning was that home prices have been rising significantly and mortgage rates were increasing rapidly as well. If we cancelled the contract, we would not only lose out on our down payments but we would have to start our house search all over again. We had foregone several other properties we were considering to focus on this house (many of which have already been sold or prices increased). For us to find and purchase a home in this category would set us back hundreds of thousands of dollars in price and mortgage rate increases!

Unfortunately in our situation, Ashton Woods stone walled in each step of the way as we tried to gain some answers and resolutions. They made no effort to ease our concerns regarding these missteps on their part and their answer was more or less: take it or leave it.

How can a builder that represents itself as “America’s #1 Most Trusted Builder” do so little/nothing to address these concerns? I was willing to move forward but the breach of private/personal information was the last straw and I have completely lost all faith in this company in attempting to find a mutually satisfactory resolution to our concerns.

We moved into our Ashton Woods home in April, 2012. In the few months since we've moved in, some major concerns have come up. First, our block fence was constructed to have a section of about 8 blocks that were one step higher than all the others. It looked awful. We at first refused to sign the closing papers until the issue was solved, but we were reassured that it would be taken care of. It took over a month of arguing for it to happen, and my husband finally met with a supervisor's supervisor before the fence was fixed. Another issue is the drainage from the roof when it rains. There are 3 metal brackets designed to direct the flow of water off of the roof. They definitely do the job-- all the water from the roof pours directly down onto the sidewalk and entry to the house! If it is raining, you can't come in the front door without getting buckets of water poured on your head.
Finally, the air conditioner is the biggest frustration. We have one room that is constantly unbearably hot, and our pantry gets so warm the chocolate and Crisco are softened. The final straw came last night, when our brand-new air conditioner stopped working. As the temperature in the house climbs, we are told we aren't a "priority" because our home has 2 air conditioners. It will be 4 days before anyone can come out to look at it. Meanwhile, we will live in the master bedroom, I guess. How can a 4-month-old air conditioner stop working? And, above all, how can a company that supposedly takes pride in their work be so ambivalent about customer satisfaction? We have a beautiful home, but I wish it had been built by someone else. And I fear what problems may arise in the future, as it's only been 4 months so far!

Since the beginning we had the worst experience with the mortgage company. The good faith estimates were never accurate. We wanted to give more money and it was denied. We had to wait 45 minutes after closing to get the key of our house. Also, we have to apply again and pay $400.00 for a new application so that we can send the extra money. The final inspection we were treated like if we were ignorant people. Phrases like clean is in the eye of the beholder were used. They installed defective tile floor all over the first floor. They claim that with an acid wash they will be corrected. They never did corrected the problem. The second floor had a squeaking noise when people walk. The doors were installed incorrectly, we have to take care of the problem ourselves. They promise arches all over the house and we only got 2 arches.in top of that when they build another house with the same model they did the whole house with arches. We wanted to build a pool and requested a permit to use the back of the trail and we were denied the access. We had to pay an extra 1000 dollars so that the company that was going to build the pool could get access to the back yard. Now days neighbors are building pools and using the back of the trail for their constructions. I also, wrote a letter to the CEO of the company and they never replied back to us. If you are planning of buying a new I will suggest using another builder .

Behind our neighborhood is a upcomming neighborhood houses being built the property owned and opperated by ashton woods I dont know how well thier houses are built but I do know this they didnt excavate the ground right when they first started it was a large hill and my property sits right below it so in view thier property is higher than ours. Well when they did the ground breaking they cut into about twenty feet deep of that hill another words they leveled the hill into stages or steps and each step or stage thier placing houses along so that they overlook a valley like view. when they excavated the hill built the streets prepared the lots thet didnt put any flex base and m.s.e. maintained stablized earth anytime you cut a large section of hillside earth out to build on you should use those two counterparts because if you dont wont have adaquit water drainage. Now my complaint is they have already established homes and landscape above us we have had alot of rain this year and its created a mudslide its thier mud thier slide its forced my rot iron fence down has killed ten fur trees and has pushed my whole backyard against my house Im not talking inches it comes up to my waist and i stand at 6ft.8in. They havent done anything but put plastic sheets down on thier property thinking it would prevent the ground from asboring more water I guess they have no clue to the power and force of water. If I were the property manager I think that it might be best if I sent somebody over there telling them hey we are trying to fix the problem or something to that effect but nobody has came to our door or contacted us by any means. If they were a respectful company and organized they would have this already taken care of. Seven days a week they have a agent up there selling thier houses and since this has started around two months ago i've mabe have seen a total of four workers here and there trying to fix a mudslide large enough to colasp four to five fence lines and push four yards ranging from 35 ft. across down the line to 28ft. across and thats yards as in our backyards. The proof is right here in the pudding come and see it for yourself in the 7400 block of pebble ridge dr. fort worth, texas 76132 pictures can be doctrined but your eyes they cant be