Empire Homes built my house and we closed in Sept, 2017. First of all, for those of you that don't want to read the entire review, just stay away from Empire Homes. We have had so many problems with Tedd before and after closing. I hope that by detailing some of them here, it will keep someone else from having to go through all of this and wasting both time and money. The lender specifically ask about a close date and was told by Tedd that the last day in August would be the move in date. I ended up having to get an extension on the loan because the close date ended up being at the end of Sept. We didn't know when the final move in date would be until less than 2 weeks before. This made it very difficult to schedule things like the movers, work, giving our landlord 30 days notice.
During the planning portion, Tedd repeatedly said how we would have multiple meetings at NFM. We did not meet with him once at NFM. We ended up paying over $1000 more for appliances because Tedd did not order them when he was supposed to. Multiple times, Tedd said that he would show us samples of wood staining. We never saw a single sample from him.
The issues started well before the house was finished. We discussed many things with Tedd while going over plans for the house. He didn't take notes and just agreed to many things verbally. Many of the things he agreed to were later forgotten. If one cannot remember a list of things (which is understandable), then write things down to future reference. Examples? We paid extra to have stones placed on the side of the house. Tedd forgot to put the stones on the side of the house, but charged for it. An extra closet was put in one of the bathrooms without our permission. While we were NOT happy to have a closet added, it was something that we could deal with. However, the selection of closet door was terrible. Tedd agreed to replace the door and told me he would order it a few days after closing. 45 days later, when we asked about the door, he said he would have to order it.
We were told we would have meeting to pick things like bathroom sinks, bathtubs, toilets, etc. This meeting never happened.
I am suspicious of the character of the people that Tedd hires to work for him. We saw some kids (10-12 years old) painting the house. Kids do not belong on a construction site. Apparently, someone stole tools from our house as it was being built. Because of this, Tedd refused to give us the code to access the house.
One week after moving in, some of the lighting in the kitchen fell down. Two weeks after moving in, three electrical outlets failed in the kitchen. Ended up being failed wiring.
Three weeks after moving in, the garage door opener stopped working. Turns out that the motor was bad and had to be replaced. Perhaps remanufactured parts were used in the construction of my house?
Regarding the tile in the backsplash, we ordered the amount that Tedd requested (plus some extra to be safe). This tile was not in stock and had to be special ordered. Turns out that the person doing the tile needed a lot more. I had to order more and the tile work wasn't completed until after we moved in. The people doing the tile made a complete mess.....made the carpet dirty. Additionally, there were making inappropriate conversation for the workplace. My girlfriend was home at the time and didn't appreciate hearing them talk about women while they were working.
I paid hundreds (like 600 or so) to have Cat 5 wiring in the house (the document from Tedd actually had a typo and calls it CAD 5 wiring, btw). The lines come together in the room with the water heater. I had to pay Tedd's electrician (CT Electric) to terminate these with RJ45 plugs. Unfortunately, this electrician decided to terminate the opposite ends of the cables (on the wall plates in the rooms) with RJ11s. This is very strange, as the wall plates are in locations that a phone should clearly not be (over the fridge where a TV should go), over the fireplace, in the bedroom where the wall plate is obviously high up because the TV would be wall mounted, etc. There was only one RJ45 put in....on the balcony. All other Cat 5 ends were terminated with RJ11s. If you are reading this and know anything about Cat 5 wiring (and what it is used for), you should be thinking this is very bizarre. CT Electric is a disaster to deal with and is typical of the people that are used by Empire Homes.
When the people placing the sod broke part of my retaining wall, we had to wait about a month for Tedd to have it fixed. We are now nearing two months since moving in. List of things that still need to be fixed: Damper for exhaust fan, many paint defects, damage to the baseboard (physically damaged, not just paint) in the office, and clear coat on the wet bar (looks like someone placed some objects on it before it was completely dry).
