Grand Homes
Reviews and Complaints

I have read several complaints and I have to say, I disagree with the ones implicating Velente in any dishonest treatment of his clients. My husband and I worked with Velente through First Texas Homes in the Mira Lagos community. Unfortunately, we had an unforeseen extended family situation come up that affected our ability to continue with the home building process at this time. Velente worked VERY hard on our behalf to get our earnest money back.
My husband and I still plan to build with First Texas Homes in the spring of 16 and will only work with Velente because our experience with him was only positive. Velente was thorough, creative in helping our desired changes become a reality, found ways to save us money and remained professional, endearing and supportive when we made MULTIPLE changes from the model chosen to architectural upgrades. If I were Velente, I would have jumped for joy when learning our contract had to be terminated because we never made it to the designer phase of the process. Oh the nightmares of those changes 
For those unhappy/complaining about the process, I have some wonderings:
- Did you take time to read your contract before signing it or were you too caught up in the excitement of the moment to ensure you, your family and finances were prepared for every dip and high of the home building roller coaster ride?
- Did you read your contract after you got home or were you salivating over the extras and options provided by the builder you chose?
- Did you research the company you were trusting to build a dwelling for your most valuable possessions – your family, or did you get caught up in the models and how they were decorated?
- Deep down, are you upset with the builder, person who sold you the lot/home or yourself because you did not look out for YOUR best interest as you have been taught to do so all your life? If you are not mindful of your business and how your decisions affect those around you, who will be?
I can ask the above questions because my husband and I got caught up in the emotions of the ride. Fortunately for us, we not only read the contract before it was too late, but we also had Velente working with/for us and not against us. For those who are still upset, I ask that you be honest with yourself and your actions or lack thereof in the home building process because your misplaced written anger can cause a future home owner to get an unfair/skewed impression. If you have been on this Earth any good length of time, I am sure you have had someone wrongfully say something negative about you/your integrity – how did that make you feel?

THE FACTS AND THE TRUTH.

Velente does not have the authority to return earnest money once a contract is signed, approved and turned in. He can only submit a request for it to be returned. He explains the contract very thoroughly. The contract is very clear as to when earnest can be returned or if it will be retained. There will be those few who do not comply. In these situations, the company makes the decision to retain their earnest money, not Velente.

As for the complaint regarding the Realtor, it is unethical to ask to add a Realtor once a person has come into our office alone, signed a registration card indicating they heard about us through a source other than a Realtor, found a home with us and after that process asks to add a Realtor. We love Realtors, but if a person has a Realtor, they must have their Realtor accompany them during their first visit. The Realtor must be the procuring cause as to how they heard about us.

Come visit and experience why countless of happy homeowners have invested in homes with us.

I just had the opportunity to meet Mr. Velente Martinez who is now at First Texas Homes in Mira Lagos. We arrived at First Texas and Velente was too occupied to even greet us. His assistant gave us a list of properties and keys and told us to head out on our own. Once we arrived with a home we fell in love with, we were told that we could not use our real estate agent since she didn't accompany us to the property. I advised Velente that my realtor had given me all of the information, but was unable to accompany me during this particular visit, and was still denied to use my realtor. Velente attempted to get $1500.00 in earnest money to hold a property. My wife and I were smart to leave, and later that evening, Velente called to see if we needed assistance with our existing home. I told him that I had a realtor, and she is ready to list my home within the week. He mentioned that he could help me sell my home quickly. After some online research, I found that Velente owns Flycam Tours, a real estate marketing company. I found this to be a conflict of interest, and called the corporate office to ask why wasn't I able to use my realtor to represent my better half, and Velente is able to chose his own realtor to sell and purchase my home (un-level playing field).

I spoke with Operations Manage, Kathy, who defended my interaction with Velente, and told me that she was aware of his side business, and that it was nothing more than a marketing company that he has no financial interest. I offered to provide her documented proof, and she refused to answer the question. Ultimately, she told me to go somewhere else and purchase my home. This was surprising considering the house that I was interested in is over $300K, and I was coming to the table with good credit and a significant down payment. PLEASE BEWARE OF VELENTE AND KATHY...SCAM ARTISTS!

A Highly Dysfunctional Company and Culture

Community Sales manager (Former Employee), dallas Texas – December 17, 2012

Pros: twice a month you get to eat and drink for free on thursday night at the pizza party

Cons: long hours, dysfuntional sales and corporate level enviroment, and false advertisement about the product and sales success

In my 20 years of professional sales, I have never met a group of screwed up sales organization. As another quality sales person, who lasted 5 weeks stated " I thought this was a front for a CIA Run Operation experimenting with how people respond to abusive, weird and outrageous behavior...None the less, here I go... First the owner surrounds himself with kiss butts who tell him anything he wants to hear. Not what he needs to hear! Why not, because he is an egotistical, emotional, loose cannon. The owner thinks his homes are the be all and end all of homes, priced too high and not in touch with what is really going on in his marketplace..NO TRAFFIC at All...Why is that, because everyone is afraid to tell him the truth...Oh yeah, get this, from all of his sr VP's to all the low end employees, he gets off by having everyone refer to him as Mr. Last Name, we will call from here on as Messiah...What a joke...As for the culture, it is out of wack. First they have bi monthly sales TeleBlitz's on thursday nights until 830pm. They make all their sales persons come in at 5pm in Addison ( love the traffic 1 hour to get there) for a speech from the Messiah and then they have an Amway Rah Rah session for an hour...Here's the best part, they provide dinner and alchohol to grease you up for a fake phone clinic. Everyone has to make calls from the corporate offfice cubicles and set 6 appointments for the up coming weekend. What really happens Mr Messiah, is that all the sales people sit around for 2 hours and blow smoke up everyone elses butts, eat the food and get drunk on the booze. You might as well call it a Pizza party...Then at 830 everyone turns in a call activity sheet showing 6 appts for the weekend.. Duh, two things happen MR Messiah, they either alreadly had the 6 appts made before they appeared for the Rah Rah session or they just made up 6 appts...False sense of sales security, the VP's all think its great, we have appts, we'll sell 20 homes this weekend! LOL...NOT What a great way to treat PROFESSIONALS Sales people, like little kids at a telethon! here is another great point of the useless region sales managers, when filling out reports, if you dont have numbers, like appts, walk up prospects, or activity to report on your 3 weekly sales reports, The JR Messiahs have you as one states all the time, "Just Make Up Numbers and Report false numbers", "Because no one checks and follow ups on activity"... I am NOT Kidding... Mr Messiah is always getting False numbers, and these people he pays, give them the numbers, WOW...

As for the sales force, in my 3 months, they average a 70% ROLLING QUARTERLY TURNOVER RATE... the other 30% ARE MADE UP OF VETERAN 3-6 YEARS REPS. this is why they stay. When i first came on, I asked about the person I was replacing. I was told by region sales manager that "he wasnt selling enough". The gentleman I replaced had 3 contracts being built and it represented the the ex sales person about $22, 000 in future commissions over the next 9 months...That blows...I' will come back to that in a second...about 1 month in, the sales women I was working with in the community/development gave up a half deal in another community of the region SM so that the other community sales person could get his first deal...he had been there 3 months, no sales. To make the Region Sm look good, he asked the salesperson to give up his half to justify this other sales person value to Mr Messiah. when I asked my partner why he gave up $6, 000 in commission, she stated "no problem, because this sales person wont last and when he is gone in two weeks, I will get the whole commission when they are paid out back to me...HUH...Now back to the other $22k, those commission where given to another veteran sales rep. because the region SM didnt like someone, he terminated him to give his commissions to another kiss butt !. the funny thing is that the majority of verteran sales reps are lazy, sit on their computers and play on facebook and screw off all day, pad their numbers...waiting for someone to leave.

The whole corporate scene is not about results, its about looking good and putting on a dog and pony show for Mr Messiah

I currently own a grand home and i will tell you that buying a grand home was the worst decision we have ever made. Grand homes has demonstrated poor record keeping, weak customer service, dishonesty, shady business practices and empty promises. Apparently their idea of a warranty is our home owner's insurance. Grand Homes equal Grand Money Pit! Do not buy a grand home until you come see my kitchen. Call me [protected] OR [protected].

I'm a former Grand Homes employee (been selling new homes for almost 20 years) and they are by far the most dysfunctional home builder I have worked for! The company is run by a pack of greedy thieves (gotta love the People Matter lapel buttons management wears! The pervasive attitude of the management is you should consider yourselves "lucky" to be buying such a quality home with a quality brand name. The ownership believes the Grand name brand is similar to Mercedes or BMW in the automobile industry---the only problem is, Mercedes and BMW will give you a discernably better quality product and service for the higher price, than Grand gives you for their ridiculously higher price. The sales agents are forced to memorize scripts lauding the national awards and accolades they have garnered (expect a panned routine in every sales office you go to) to counteract their miserable local reputation.

Here it is in a nutshell: whoever the competition, Grand Homes' included features will always be lower, they will charge lot premiums on pretty much every lot (builders usually charge premiums only on corner lots, cul-de-sac lots, over-sized lots, or those that afford rear privacy---some builders charge no lot premiums at all) only for the sake on an "extra revenue stream" (exact quote from management). They are considerably higher priced up front than most of the competition, and the design center costs for everything are astronomical, to say the least.

Eight out of ten new hires do not last a full year, so in many cases, your sales agent will have little or no exeprience in the industry. Realtors generally do not like Grand Homes because Grand offers the weakest compensation program to attract realtors. For the sake of extra profit, they would rather realtors to take their prospects elsewhere. Ask any realtor you know---they'll say "good looking house; aweful company"!

To top it all off, if you are currently under contract, expect it to take at least 3 to 4 months before your home will even start (highly dysfunctional main office), and another 5 to 7 months on top of that for it to be built. You see, Grand Homes has screwed so many subcontractors in the past, they no longer want to work for them---no matter how much more money they are willing to pay to lure the subcontractors back. Part of the superintendent's job in the indiviual communities now is to take their business cards to other neighborhoods trying to convince subs to come work for Grand. Invariably when the sub sees the logo on the card, they laugh and shake their head (as quoted by my old superintendent). Grand right now is chronically short on subcontractors.

The public should be made aware Grand Homes is an utter mess! If you are under contract and do not like their program, they will threaten to retain your earnest money. Greedy thieves!

Even More reason to Beware... Velente is now working for First Texas Homes in Mira Lagos. I guess Grand got smart and got rid of his _ss.
Happy Grand Homeowner.

I agree that this company is completely dishonest and plan to lie to people from day one! Run as fast as you can, and if I have to lose my earnest money for this life lesson, I would be far more happier than having to give more to this company! Although I would not lay down without a fight to get my money back! This company lied to me and attempted to put me on the wrong lot and plan to build my house on the lot that I didn't want to buy! I don't know how these people could go home and sleep at night?!

My wife and I purchased what we thought would be our retirement dream in June 2008 in Grand Prairie, We immediately suspected there would be a problem when some the appliances were changed out to less expense products. We have had plumbing to burst and leak in the walls only to be told our warranty was for only one year. We had tiles in the bathroom to unseat, roof leaks that have caused My wife and I purchased what we thought would be our retirement dream in June 2008. We immediately suspected there would be a problem when some the appliances were changed out to less expense products. We have had plumbing to burst and leak in the walls only to be told our warranty was for only one year. We had tiles in the bathroom to unseat, roof leaks that have caused
interior damage, hot water heater that began leaking! Oh substandard brick was used and replaced on several homes but not ours, We have had professionals come out and we're told we have poor workmanship throughout the home. The house looks like a Mercedes, but performs like a Studabaker. The dream has turned to a nightmare I would not recommend this builder to my worst enemy.

Grand Homes are beautiful, but why are they so darn expensive? They don't look worth near the proposed prices, especially considering all of the complaints. I am a Pharmacist with a 396, 000 dollar budget and 80, 000 dollars for a down payment, yet it seems that their homes are out of my reach. The home they want to sell me is a measly 3 bedroom 2.5 bath with only 2, 500 sq feet for almost 400, 000 dollars! WHAT THE HECK! Unacceptable...

I CURRENTLY OWN A GRANDHOME AND BUYING A GRAND HOME WAS THE WORST DECISION WE HAVE EVER MADE. GRAND HOMES HAS DEMONSTRATED POOR RECORD KEEPING, WEAK CUSTOMER SERVICE, DISHONESTY, SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES and empty promises. APPARENTLY THEIR IDEA OF A WArranty is our home owners insurance. Grand Home equal grand money pit. Call Helen at [protected] or [protected]. Do not buy a Grand home until you see my kitchen

Our house is only 4 years old and developed a water leak from an improerly instaled and cracked fitting on a drain line. The result of this is mold through out the kitchen, and the removal and replacement of kitchen cabinets, as well as the cost of having the mold removed and cleaned. Grands standard response is well you know there is only a two year warranty on the plumbing. This not the only problem we have had with them with regard to their warranty on their work. The water issue is just one of the problems we have had with them. It really says a lot about a company who hides behind their warranty claims when the true problem is poor construction and the quality of their work.

In the last sentence, the word is "make" mortage payments.

The residents in Keller, Texas are racists and apparently Louise Lewis is well aware of their idiotic attitudes. The cost of the homes is a sure way to keep most minorities out of the neigborhood, even if it means the whites struggle to may mortage payments.

If you don't believe anything that has been written here against this womans, go ask ANY Grand Homes representatives and I promise you not a one of them will say a good word about her person. (we did) She even thinks her managers, vice presidents, and owner are idiots becuase they don't listen to her. Somebodys tell her to lay off the make up casue the world already has one Ronald McDonalds. If you are not a white persons, leave her and the company alone. RACIST!

Me, my friends or my relatives never ever select this builder again.
Just 3 month old house having series of problems...electrical, roof, ac, springler, etc etc..they dont care...I will try level best to pass my experience to everybody everywhere...

wish you bad wishes to grand homes...

2 months ago, we went into this Keller community only to be treated like degenerates by her after asking her for floorplans. Her response was "ask my assistant in the other room, she hasn't done anything all day". Come to find out, she is a nice kind woman who provided emmence information that Louis wouldn't. So after all of this, Louis returned to service us as normal people. After 2 hours she realizes that we are not able to purchase in her community and informs us to go elsewhere down the street angrily. So on our way out, we ask the assistant for a brochure and Lousie tells her to do something else. Going to get the brochure she mumbles under her breathe typical incompetent to her assistant. At this point we have realized we will NEVER deal with a racist red headed ghost who wears a dusters. Your phony awards mean nothing to us, Don't buy from Grand and never buy from Lousie the Racist!