When it comes to buying a home, new construction seems like the easiest way to go. You get to customize the home to your needs, pick out all your own finishes, and collect the keys to a brand-new, warranty-protected, made-for-you home. What could go wrong?
My husband and I purchased a new construction home by KB Home two years ago for that exact reason. As first-time homebuyers with a relatively small budget, we worried about the expensive problems we might inherit from an existing home purchase. What if the air conditioning died on us a week after move-in? What if there were hidden electrical problems and the house burned down? Not to mention, it was difficult for us to find an existing house in our price range that also suited our design aesthetic. We were thrilled to eventually discover a builder with homes that suited our style and our budget. Of course, that didn’t mean our new construction journey would be easy.
Why New Construction?
By now, you are probably fully aware that new construction homes come with their own set of problems. Search reviews for any big box builder and you’ll inevitably find complaints of poor construction, cheap materials, inadequate warranty coverage, and more. We knew that buying new construction would not earn us a perfect product or eliminate every last homeownership concern. Still, buying new and knowing a few potential issues upfront seemed less risky than buying an older home with wear and tear and potential hidden problems. We chose KB Home over other builders in the area based primarily on positive word-of-mouth from a coworker, as well as positive reviews on Consumer Affairs.
So, how did it go?
We had several problems in the first month or two, some of which I’ll share below. Overall, we are happy and feel that we made the right choice to buy new for our very first house. We’ve been in the house for about a year and a half now, and I want to touch base and share some of the unexpected drawbacks of living in a new construction home.
If you’re here seeking an answer to the question, “Are KB Home homes any good?,” don’t let this post worry you too much. Like any other major investment, there are both good and bad sides to buying new construction. This post focuses on the bad side. Keep an eye out for a follow up post packed with all the unexpected upsides of our purchase, like the insane jump in property value from new home sales alone. Our experience is specific to KB Home and should be helpful to any prospective KB Home buyers. Much of it is also applicable to new construction homes in general. Here are seven surprising drawbacks of buying a new construction home.
All That Noise, Noise, Noise, Noise
Let’s begin with the most obvious drawback: unless you purchase one of the very last homes in the neighborhood, you’ll be living with construction noise for some time. And I’m not just talking about the symphony of jackhammers, cement mixers, and table saws. I’m talking about the daily parade of construction vehicles, contractor’s vans, furniture delivery trucks, lawn mower and pest control vehicles and more working their way up and down the streets. The vibrations that shake the stemware in the kitchen cabinets. The potential buyers loudly discussing pros and cons of new construction on a self-guided tour of the neighborhood. The sand truck backing verrrry slowly down the road because it just can’t squeeze forward past all the other construction vehicles crowding the street.
The noise doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, but it can be frustrating nonetheless when you just want some peace and quiet. In our case, all the noise sometimes makes it difficult to get our baby down for a nap. It’s like every time I finally get her to sleep, a nest of riding mowers erupts outside and jolts her awake again. Before buying a brand new home, ask yourself if you’re willing to live in a construction zone for a couple of years.
Salesmen Day and Night
For months after move-in, this was one of the most annoying new construction drawbacks we faced. It was worse than all the construction noise. People showed up at all hours of the day to try to sell us on various home products and services, regardless of whether we already had them or not. Water softeners. Lawn services. Home security services. Fencing. Cable services. You name it, there’s probably someone out there trying to sell it, ringing the doorbell several times and staring the doorbell cam down with a determined glare. Remember the census workers visiting multiple times a day, even though you already took the damn census online in order to be left in peace? It was like that, for months on end. The first time I opened the door to nicely tell someone no thank you, he persisted and asked if he could just come inside to take a peek and do a free inspection. No, you absolutely can not.
Empty Lots Can be an Eyesore
If you choose to purchase a new home, you’ll likely be given the choice of a few homesites, or empty lots, on which the house will be built. While the neighborhood is still under construction, the lots still awaiting buyers sit empty. No big deal, right?
In our case, it was actually a bit of a headache. When we bought our house early in the neighborhood’s development, every lot looked more or less the same. Some had conservation views, and some were on corner lots, but they all were formed of clean, freshly-turned and flattened soil. When we moved into our house later the same year, the unpurchased lots were decidedly less clean. Patchy grass and weeds had grown over the surface, which was littered with odd trash and construction debris. Ants living in the empty lots went unchecked, building their tunnels out into neighboring lots and swarming the yards of new homeowners. The HOA wouldn’t touch those lots until the builders were 100% done and ownership passed to the neighborhood association.
For several months, the empty lot next to our home housed a huge, smelly construction dumpster for the homes going up down the street. Dumpster trash and huge sheets of cardboard were constantly drifting across our lawn and onto the neighbor’s lawn, and it became our burden to throw everything back in its place. I will never forget the first time my siblings came to visit, and we woke up to construction crews noisily stacking four sour-smelling dumpsters for pickup on that empty lot, just a few feet from our cars. The dumpsters remained there for the entire visit. It was embarrassing, it was gross, and if I’m being totally honest, it made me reconsider ever buying a new construction home again.
Oh Yes, There Will Be Bugs
We had so many bug-related problems when we first moved into our house. Ants in the bathroom. A huge hairy spider in the living room. We even had a few small cockroaches in the kitchen! In a brand new house! After years of dealing with inherited bug issues in various worn-down apartment complexes, it was a huge disappointment to find out we’d somehow inherited bugs in a brand-new home as well.
In hindsight, of course, the bugs shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise. After all, our house was left open to the elements for a month or two, until all the doors and windows were in place. Food was consumed onsite, and we often found empty chip packets and Mountain Dew bottles lolling around the construction site. We set out several types of insect traps, sought out any little gaps that needed to be sealed, treated the lawn, and sprayed the perimeter of the house. Eventually our bug problems inside the house did go away, but we are still dealing with a massive re-occurring ant population in the backyard.
Quality Issues Around Every Corner
We knew going into the home purchase that there would probably be some minor quality issues in our home. Just because a house is new unfortunately doesn’t mean it will be perfect. For a while after move in it seemed like we found new issues every day. Half of our window ledges weren’t caulked. There was no hot water in the master bath. The interior paint on our front door was all scuffed up. Love bugs were getting past two layers of patio doors and into our living room (more on that in the next section). I’ll be totally honest, we spent the first couple of months flip-flopping between loving our newly expanded space and cursing our builders for delivering such a sloppy product.
Every time I tackled a project, I found something new to raise my eyebrows at. When installing kitchen cabinet hardware, pairs of horizontal cabinet pulls highlighted slightly misaligned cabinet doors that we’d missed in the initial inspection. When painting the baseboards white, I found several slightly curved stretches as well as small holes in the caulking that needed to sealed. When painting the doors, I discovered rough, unfinished edges, hinges intentionally caked with that yellowed builder-grade paint, and patches of wood transferred from freshly-painted doors shut into freshly-painted frames and left to dry that way.
Compared with the potential headaches that lurk in existing homes, of course, these are all relatively small problems. KB Home addressed them fairly quickly, and I was able to dress a few things up myself with a little DIY repair work. Quality issues aren’t exactly surprising drawbacks of a new construction home, but I was surprised by how just how many problems we found, and just how sloppy some of the finished work really was.
I Got 99 Problems, and The Home Warranty Process is Definitely One of Them
A good home warranty is a great incentive to purchase a new home. Our KB Home warranty covers a lot, but the request and repair process could use a major overhaul. I was and still am honestly shocked that there is no user portal to submit, track, and view trouble tickets. The only options are to call or fill out a web form with any concerns. The auto-generated email response is variation on “thanks, we’ll follow up soon,” with no trouble ticket number, no indication of what the problem was, or even a copy of the request as it was submitted. It concerns me that if I have an ongoing problem in the future, I won’t be able to show written proof of multiple attempts to solve the issue before our warranty expires.
In addition to the poor reporting options, waiting for repairs can be a frustrating and time-consuming hassle, involving multiple contractors and lots of wasted vacation time away from work. I expected to report an issue and have a KB Home warranty rep reach out to find the solution and send the appropriate contractor out. I never heard from anyone working directly for KB Home for any of our warranty issues. The contractors reached out directly, and their solutions were not always satisfactory.
When I reported the love bugs getting through our patio door, for example, the contractor who responded literally told me that it’s just because love bugs are smarter than the other bugs, and there’s no way to really keep them out of the house. I pointed out that the door seemed to be misaligned and that there was a big enough gap for the bugs to creep through, but he said no, no, they’re just smart bugs. The door is fine.
So what did I do? I submitted a second warranty request for the exact same problem, though of course I had no written proof of the first request to refer to. The issue was eventually resolved, but not quite to my satisfaction. It’s just one of those things I have to live with.
I’d like to emphasize that the warranty coverage itself has been fine thus far. We’ve only had a couple of things not covered. First was a horrible patchy paint job on the inside front door, since we failed to notice it during the final inspection, and paint touchups are not included unless it’s due to damage from something that is covered. Second, a heating element on the dishwasher broke literally the day after our one year appliance warranty ended. We’d been the house for a little under a year and thought we still had time to get the part replaced, and were a little miffed to discover that the appliance warranty was good for a year after initial installation, rather than a year from the date we actually moved into the home (about two months after installation). For the most part, however, our issues have been addressed.
Lack of Community
You know how it goes in the movies. A new family moves in, and the neighborhood busybody shows up with a plate full of cookies and a mouth full of gossip. Because everyone in our community moved in around the same time, there was no welcoming committee. We rarely saw neighbors out and about for the first month or so. Everyone was so busy settling into their own homes and making up for work time missed during the move. I’m a pretty independent individual and value my privacy, but even I felt like there was a neighborly element missing from our new home community.
Now, as the neighborhood nears completion, we recognize our neighbors and wave to them as they drive by. We hear children playing, see couples strolling, and families riding their bikes. In the beginning, however, it was pretty bizarre to move into a family home and feel like we were the only people in the neighborhood.
So to answer your burning questions…
Are KB Homes good?
Overall, yes. While there were a few small mishaps along our new home journey, overall I am happy with how things turned out. Our house is safe and spacious, the design basic but beautiful, and communication with various KB Home departments (sales, design, warranty, and lending, to name a few) fairly straightforward and simple.
Is new construction worth the hassle?
In my experience, absolutely. I’d say that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks of buying a new construction home. I have never purchased an existing home, so I can’t really compare the two options. As someone who has survived the new construction process, however, I can wholeheartedly recommend new construction homes to anyone willing to put up with a bit of noise, a bit of mess, and quite a bit of waiting around. As long as you have realistic expectations of how the build will progress and what life might look after move in day, new construction can be exciting, enjoyable, and fun. It is so satisfying to see your brand-new home go up piece by piece, and to ultimately live in a place that is 100% your own from start to finish. Not to mention, you get to take advantage of benefits like fast-rising property values and included home warranty coverage. More on the perks of new construction coming soon!
Have you ever purchased a new construction home? Are you currently looking for one? Sound off in the comments below and share how it’s going!
Dave says
Your articles about KB have been great. We are about 2 months from closing (on the street pictured in the article no less. I was so pleasantly surprised to go, “Hey, that’s my house!) and your insight has been super helpful in knowing what to look for during our walks. Thanks!
Adventuring the Great Wide Somewhere says
Thanks so much! I’m happy you found them helpful. Congrats on the new house!
Cayla B. says
Love the insight! Just purchased a KB home in Orange County, CA. I’m glad to hear the experience wasnt too bad and now I know what to look out for. Thank you for this!
Cayla