Be sure you do your homework before signing any contracts.There are many supporting documents in addition to the Construction Contract that you are asked to sign a minimum of 3 times before construction begins. Do not sign any of these documents until you have had time to carefully review them and get written answers to your questions. What you are told by the salesperson may not be what the signed documents say. I did not have a copy of all of the documents until they were presented at the initial signing. This was a mistake.There are several clauses in the construction contract which may have different interpretations. My experience with Reality Homes has been that if there are any specific questions related to the interpretation of a specific clause, they are usually answered with nonspecific answers. The staff from the project manager to the regional manager and operations manager were all adverse to answering most questions related to the possible interpretation of the contract or to the work of any of the subcontractors. Repeated attempts to get specific answers and resolution of well-documented questions were often considered harassment by the project manager and were often ignored until they became tired of repeated requests for answers.The business model is one in which the project manager has minimal authority to make decisions related to contract or subcontractor questions or disputes. If he makes an initial decision on site related to a specific question or subcontractor activity, do not be surprised if it is overridden by the Operations Manager. The Regional Project Manager is supposed to be the corporate contact. I was told my the former Regional Manager that he could only tell me what the Operations Managertold him to say. Both the Regional Project Manager and Operations Manager refused to discuss the merits of the supporting information (related to concrete work) which I had submitted.Reality Homes is very protective of their subcontractors. Even though subcontractor errors were documented when the foundation forms "blew out" while filling with concrete, senior management did not hold the subcontractor responsible for poor workmanship. If the City inspector approved the foundation, Reality Homes had completed their responsibility! Since the project manager was onsite every 2-4 weeks during most of the construction, most problems would have been passed over if I had not been on the site frequently observing the work. When requests for inspections were submitted to corporate, there were multiple times in which the lack of follow up by the scheduling staff resulted in delays of inspection approval and further work.If you are a "hands on" individual which expects things to be done as agreed in a timely fashion, read and understand all of the documents and reviews before signing. Otherwise, you will probably be in for a very frustrating experience.Gene NesbittServices: Install flooring
Goldie Digger
Mar 2021
My husband and I lost our home to the Santiam Canyon fire. After meeting all the builders we decided to build with Shari Meckelburg at Reality Homes. Not once was she negative about other builders, she actually shared positive things about like builders. She has been caring, truthful and painfully honest with us about the building process from the beginning, we have never done this before and nervous. She was able to help us with the list of home owner duties including destroyed septic, our now well issues , referral to a painter & deck builder Antony. Due to our schedules she has made herself available to us on Sunday's we felt bad to ask her to accommodate, but she did for us and our neighbors that too lost their homes. Reality is building our new home and 3 of our neighbors homes. Shari has much knowledge in her industry and my husband agrees. She was able to help locate our lost dog and donated to us a dog crate. We have enjoyed working with Reality Homes and look forward to our new home. We feel prepared and acknowledge building our new home will be a challenging adventure in these challenging times we live today.God Bless
Thomas Shell
Mar 2021
The woodburn office sales person (Shari) is unresponsive and unprofessional. Understaning Reality Builders is very busy this isnt an excuse for lack of basic commincation. The sales person is suppose to represent the company but i will not pursue using Reality now due to my poor experience ( lack of call backs, was made to feel like i was annoying asking questions, incorrect information regarding scheduling appointments, etc... ). I will be working with Adair now even though they are a bit more expensive up front. Worth the extra money as i cant imagine signing and dealing with building questions based on my experience. After seeing the poor reviews Reality has i get it now. I see some posts from several years ago about the woodburn office but sounds like this company doesnt care about improving as long as they make money! It will catch up to them.
Debra C.
Dec 2019
Run, do not walk. Worst builder ever. Charged me 16,000 for foundation work that easily could have been avoided. Put on the garage wrap wrong and tried to charge me to fix it, put the downspouts in the wrong spot, ordered the wrong cabinets 3 times but got mad at me when I called the cabinet company the last time to correct it. Seriously the worst experience. If I hadn't been living onsite probably still wouldn't be done with my house. They have every excuse in the book. The office staff in Washington is horribly rude. I had to threaten them with a class action suit to get them to get it done. Good luck finding anyone that was happy with this company.. p.s. Shari in the Woodburn office is a smart cookie. She really should go work for a company that is run well.
Chrissy Morris
Jul 2019
If I can post a below star status I would. We hired RH to build our home and although the sales process was good a they tried to be the communication between us and our scheduling coordinator. We has to reach out to her, because the communication dropped altogether with the project mgr. The lack of communication between PM and subs left us with vaulted trusses delivered in the driveway, and yard and caused the city to shut down job with truck stuck in street. The complete staff from PM, Staff Coordinator, and upper management stop replying to my emails, phone calls after a number of problems through the build. I can product pics and additional info., but I would stay clear and build yourself or hire a custom builder that has few homes built at time of build of your home. Reality Homes have no problems saying they suck because they have 27 + homes being built at one time. Don't hire!
Jim Gale
Jul 2019
The gal who helped us was really great, we just expected a complete home with the ability to see more options
Gene Nesbitt
Be sure you do your homework before signing any contracts.There are many supporting documents in addition to the Construction Contract that you are asked to sign a minimum of 3 times before construction begins. Do not sign any of these documents until you have had time to carefully review them and get written answers to your questions. What you are told by the salesperson may not be what the signed documents say. I did not have a copy of all of the documents until they were presented at the initial signing. This was a mistake.There are several clauses in the construction contract which may have different interpretations. My experience with Reality Homes has been that if there are any specific questions related to the interpretation of a specific clause, they are usually answered with nonspecific answers. The staff from the project manager to the regional manager and operations manager were all adverse to answering most questions related to the possible interpretation of the contract or to the work of any of the subcontractors. Repeated attempts to get specific answers and resolution of well-documented questions were often considered harassment by the project manager and were often ignored until they became tired of repeated requests for answers.The business model is one in which the project manager has minimal authority to make decisions related to contract or subcontractor questions or disputes. If he makes an initial decision on site related to a specific question or subcontractor activity, do not be surprised if it is overridden by the Operations Manager. The Regional Project Manager is supposed to be the corporate contact. I was told my the former Regional Manager that he could only tell me what the Operations Managertold him to say. Both the Regional Project Manager and Operations Manager refused to discuss the merits of the supporting information (related to concrete work) which I had submitted.Reality Homes is very protective of their subcontractors. Even though subcontractor errors were documented when the foundation forms "blew out" while filling with concrete, senior management did not hold the subcontractor responsible for poor workmanship. If the City inspector approved the foundation, Reality Homes had completed their responsibility! Since the project manager was onsite every 2-4 weeks during most of the construction, most problems would have been passed over if I had not been on the site frequently observing the work. When requests for inspections were submitted to corporate, there were multiple times in which the lack of follow up by the scheduling staff resulted in delays of inspection approval and further work.If you are a "hands on" individual which expects things to be done as agreed in a timely fashion, read and understand all of the documents and reviews before signing. Otherwise, you will probably be in for a very frustrating experience.Gene NesbittServices: Install flooring
Goldie Digger
My husband and I lost our home to the Santiam Canyon fire. After meeting all the builders we decided to build with Shari Meckelburg at Reality Homes. Not once was she negative about other builders, she actually shared positive things about like builders. She has been caring, truthful and painfully honest with us about the building process from the beginning, we have never done this before and nervous. She was able to help us with the list of home owner duties including destroyed septic, our now well issues , referral to a painter & deck builder Antony. Due to our schedules she has made herself available to us on Sunday's we felt bad to ask her to accommodate, but she did for us and our neighbors that too lost their homes. Reality is building our new home and 3 of our neighbors homes. Shari has much knowledge in her industry and my husband agrees. She was able to help locate our lost dog and donated to us a dog crate. We have enjoyed working with Reality Homes and look forward to our new home. We feel prepared and acknowledge building our new home will be a challenging adventure in these challenging times we live today.God Bless
Thomas Shell
The woodburn office sales person (Shari) is unresponsive and unprofessional. Understaning Reality Builders is very busy this isnt an excuse for lack of basic commincation. The sales person is suppose to represent the company but i will not pursue using Reality now due to my poor experience ( lack of call backs, was made to feel like i was annoying asking questions, incorrect information regarding scheduling appointments, etc... ). I will be working with Adair now even though they are a bit more expensive up front. Worth the extra money as i cant imagine signing and dealing with building questions based on my experience. After seeing the poor reviews Reality has i get it now. I see some posts from several years ago about the woodburn office but sounds like this company doesnt care about improving as long as they make money! It will catch up to them.
Debra C.
Run, do not walk. Worst builder ever. Charged me 16,000 for foundation work that easily could have been avoided. Put on the garage wrap wrong and tried to charge me to fix it, put the downspouts in the wrong spot, ordered the wrong cabinets 3 times but got mad at me when I called the cabinet company the last time to correct it. Seriously the worst experience. If I hadn't been living onsite probably still wouldn't be done with my house. They have every excuse in the book. The office staff in Washington is horribly rude. I had to threaten them with a class action suit to get them to get it done. Good luck finding anyone that was happy with this company.. p.s. Shari in the Woodburn office is a smart cookie. She really should go work for a company that is run well.
Chrissy Morris
If I can post a below star status I would. We hired RH to build our home and although the sales process was good a they tried to be the communication between us and our scheduling coordinator. We has to reach out to her, because the communication dropped altogether with the project mgr. The lack of communication between PM and subs left us with vaulted trusses delivered in the driveway, and yard and caused the city to shut down job with truck stuck in street. The complete staff from PM, Staff Coordinator, and upper management stop replying to my emails, phone calls after a number of problems through the build. I can product pics and additional info., but I would stay clear and build yourself or hire a custom builder that has few homes built at time of build of your home. Reality Homes have no problems saying they suck because they have 27 + homes being built at one time. Don't hire!
Jim Gale
The gal who helped us was really great, we just expected a complete home with the ability to see more options
Michael Beatty
Not attentive
Elliott Martin
These people are rude