Trabar Homes, LLC

Trabar Homes built our forever home in Stem, NC in 2019. This was our first experience building a home, and it was truly a great one! We could not be happier with the quality, craftsmanship, and overall experience with Trabar. We have recommended them to family and friends and will continue to do so!

I have taken the time to create as unemotional, balanced, and fair review of our experience with Trabar Homes. In order to give anyone who is thinking about using Trabar Homes in the future, awareness of what to expect. When the plans were submitted for permits, the changes to the deck and windows were not redrawn, we were told this was to save time. On the elevation pictures it showed a rock face on the house, we were told this would not be on the finished house, however this detail was also left when permits were requested. This will come into play later. We did not like the builder’s option for HVAC, and chose to upgrade for a better system, the upgrade price was very reasonable for the increase in quality. Magan, the builder’s agent assured us at contract signing that we would receive weekly updates, even if the update was “there is no update”. This was not the case, and ended up having to get our agent to constantly make contact with Magan at first, who then gave our agent Rick, the superintendent’s number. Almost all contact had to be initiated from our side. Trabar Homes had at least two subcontractors quit on them during the process, leading to delays in various areas, which had compounding effects on closing delays. When the footings were poured, the footings for the deck were poured in the wrongs place because the plans change were not on the building plans. The crawlspace is very tall on one side of the house, Trabar installed a full size door, no extra charge. This was an unexpected and welcome item. When we moved the deck from off the dining room to the living room we were told we would have a double window, we did regular checkups on the house and found the window had been framed for a single window. Trabar corrected this, and instead of a small window on the other side of the dining room installed the single window no extra charge. Because of the elevation of the house Trabar had to move the attic stairs into the house, we requested they be placed in one location, and without consultation were installed in a different location, upon request Trabar moved them to the first agreed location. When the siding company arrived to do the siding they had not ordered the correct amount of siding due to the plans showing rock front. The inside of the house, as a finished product is as expected. Having nicer finishes as standard options was one of the reasons we chose to go with Trabar. The superintendent Rick’s attitude towards building houses is, to use his words “this is my house until I give you the keys.” Customer service was below expected quality from the super, which was not helped by lack of updates as promised. Attention to external detail was not as expected. Due to the construction of a tall crawlspace, a lot of warm moist air was trapped close to the floor joists, the vents were lower down so air could not effectively mix, resulting in a large amount of organic growth. My company can remediate this, gave them an offer to dry out crawlspace, and treat the growth accordingly. For a few hundred dollars less a smaller company was hired. This company only treated the growth, and did not dry out the crawl, which resulted in the growth returning in other locations. Trabar did offer to pay a 1/3 of the cost to have it remediated properly. The landscaping, the bushes were nice, and mulched. Grass seed was spread decently, however the straw that was placed was inadequate for any type of seed protection, or erosion prevention. Original closing date was set for mid January 2018, final closing date was May 31st. Recommend regular inspection of the building process, and having flexible living conditions during the process. Being prepared to invest in a good duct cleaning, as they will only vacuum out construction debris, but will not deal with the dry wall dust coating the duct work, and some yard care and repair.