Build Native Custom Homes

We chose Build Native to construct our home in Dripping Springs, Texas. Working with Build Native was a great experience. Everyone we came in contact with was extremely professional and respectful. Our favorite aspect about Build Native was their use of green home-building techniques. They are extremely knowledgeable in building homes that utilize solar energy and that are energy efficient. Build Native worked with us to build our dream home, taking their time to make sure everything was done correctly and built to last. If you are looking to build a custom home in the Central Texas area I highly recommend using Build Native as your home builder.

I met with Native’s renewable energy consultant, Jay Thomas, at my Electrical Cooperative’s annual solar tour. The cost and environmental benefits he described made the decision to move forward easy. Native’s finance, project design, and installation teams were professional, easy to work with, and explained each step along the way. My 40 solar panel, 12 kW system was activated a week ago and is working great. The SolarEdge monitoring portal is a valuable tool that helps evaluate how it’s working in real time. Jay has stayed with us through the entire process and plans to help analyze our first electric bill after installation. I appreciate all their work from beginning to end and highly recommend Native.

This has been a nightmare. The salesman was okay at first but we purchased two solar fans from him at his request to better cool our attic in the barn and in the attic of the house. It took him months to bring the fans with many different excuses as to why he had not brought them. They put the panels up and we were pleased at first because our electric bill was cut in half. So when the sales representative finally brought the solar fans for us to store he looked at the Solar System and said that light should not be blinking. So I called the company and told them what the sales representative had said and they said the system was working fine. When we received our electric bill and it had doubled again back to the original cost. We called many times but the sales representative would not call us back. We finally found someone, which is really hard with this company unless you call the sales department. In the meantime we had a hail storm that damaged the roof. So we called them again to remove the panels so the roofing company could put on a new roof. They charged us over $8,000 to remove the panel and put them back on. The insurance company would only allow $4,000 and we told them that but they would not do it for less. The roofing company even said that they were way out of line. When they put the panels back on it still did not work and our electric bill continued to be double. They finally fixed the system but last night I received an email saying they do not reimburse for downtime. It was a rude email from the Business Development Manager. He and the repairmen said the we had a bad optimizer but last night he said it is working now. We received our new optimizer in the mail today that the repairmen ordered so I guess it is not working. I will ask for a repairman but I probably need to hold my breath. I have never had this bad customer service for a major purchase. This is not a good company and I would never do business with them again. I would discourage anyone from doing business with them.

We hired Native to build our home as it was competitively priced and they promised everything and more of what we wanted. Native is a company that was easy to talk to, they listened well and performed awesomely. My only reservation was that they were in transition of software and site supervisors, which did create some issues at times, so one would not know what the other had agreed to. Overall our project went great and smoothly, we got what we wanted for the price we agreed on, they are (if slow at times) responsive to any concerns/issues you have even now, 1 year and a half after completion and send someone out to look at it and take the appropriate steps to fix it. The only real issue we have is our wooden slat ceiling, the sub contractor must have had no experience at all with how to install a ceiling and somehow our usually overly quality oriented site super did not see this coming, but overall it likely has to be replaced. It is incorrectly installed, which causes it to come down in places, not dangerously but we had higher expectations. Native agrees basically with our observations and I am confident that we find a satisfactory solution. I will update this post when this happens and give them 5 stars. At this time this is the only issue we have not resolved satisfactory. You become almost best friends with these guys, they are very personable and always respond to your concerns, pretty nice working relationship.

Not sure if I just had bad luck or this is the beginning of downward spiral on what was once a good company. Short version: READ EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU VERY CLOSELY especially before signing. It's crazy but this is the brief version. We were interested in solar and they were one of the companies that friends recommended. First sales person came out and we really liked him. They weren't the cheapest but with something that's going to be a 25 year relationship, cheapest isn't the object. Then when we started to move forward things got very slimy very quickly. He'd send me emails with proposed system specs and costs in the text of the email but then the formal proposal would be different. Different system output, different design, different cost. Thought we'd worked it out but then the official sign here contract had something different again. Final straw for me so I moved on to our second choice vendor, Longhorn. They came out for a site assessment and found that our home actually wasn't going to be good for solar. Too many big trees. Not a terrible problem to have but disappointing. Longhorn said they didn't want to move forward because they didn't feel like we would end up happy with the output or the cost. (If you haven't talked to Longhorn, you should.) Per Longhorn's recommendation, I'd like confirmation for the AE person about the system design. Okay, don't know about you but that really sets off alarm bells for me. I request a different sales person. Who knows, maybe this guy and I just aren't compatible. Then nothing for like two weeks until out of the blue I get a call from someone with the company asking how things are going. Is it that you really don't know the answer to that question or are you trying to gloss things over? Turns out so-and-so is no longer with the company. They are terribly sorry and are going to do what it takes to "make things right". Next day I get a call from sales person number two. She doesn't seem to have any information about my situation other then she's supposed to fix it. And she assures me she's going to do that. Now I'm a little optimistic again, these things happen. Companies can have problems with individual employees. But then I get a proposal from her. She's "upgraded" me to a micro inverter system. So in fact the other guy was likely going to sell me a giant paperweight for my roof. The output is less and the cost is more. Oh and the proposal lists 14 panels and 11 inverters. I'm no solar expert but seems like those numbers need to be the same. She confirms yes they do and kindly sends me another proposal with an even higher price fixing her incorrect count and a note about being out of town for the next week so we'll talk later. Also there was a 1.74% discount to show their concern for my two months of headache. Now I'm furious. My reply is there needs to be a big discount or we're done. Unfortunately some companies only respond when it's about money. Here's the part that takes the cake. She again assures me that they care and things will be okay, they have this great new product that I will really be pleased with. But she tells me she needs me to get approval from their preferred financing company before she can really get things worked out. I do that, then let her know I won't be going with Dividend Solar financing because their interest rate is 2% over Velocity. She says that's fine, with a little bit of a tone, then proceeds to send me a proposal that costs even more per kW then the previous proposal even with their "knock out incentive"! Really you just tried to upsell me?!?!? It's disappointing because we really wanted solar but beware there are companies that will prey on that. Also, if you move forward with these guys see if you can find out who assumes the liability for the installers they use? They use a third party they are very close with but I couldn't ever get a straight answer what would happen if one of them fell off my roof.

From the day we moved in until now, 5 years later, my husband and I are totally satisfied with our Native home. It was a bit of a dream come true. We had worked for several years trying to figure out how to have an affordable energy efficient home but it wasn't until we discovered Native that it all came together. Our solar power system works seamlessly with our HVAC system. The home is incredibly well-insulated. It is big enough but not too big. And when the electric bill comes we look at each other and just smile. Our home is great looking as well; all Native homes are! The Native team is a great group of intelligent and well-trained individuals who work for and with clients, the end product being complete satisfaction. I don't believe we could be more pleased.

Native installed a 11 kW solar array at our house. We love it! They were professional, clean, on time and did a quality job. We have since hired an electrician (for other work around the house) and he said that the work they completed was top notch. Thanks Native!

Native built our energy efficient, low impact home including the 20,000 gallon potable water system, the 7 KW solar array and the geothermal heating and cooling system. We could not be happier with our home or with their service. Their expertise, professionalism and genuine passion for what they do resulted in a home that is wonderful to live in and the envy of everyone who visits!

Native built an addition on my house and remodeled my kitchen back when they were called Hill Country Ecobuilders. We had an original 1950s central Austin home and ended up with a new home that fits our family really well. We love our house! Very professional and great communicating timelines and status updates.

Recently completed the second phase of a 18.4 kw Solar Array. The Whole Team at Native worked with me, and my crazy array ideas. The first 9.2 kw array was built with Cedar Trees cut down from the lot where the array was built. The second array was just built with steel. Both arrays had to be raised as the lot faces Northeast. Both of these were difficult installs. Everyone at Native worked hard to get the install done in a timely manner and never tired to charge me for 'extras' I would work with them again, anytime.

Love them! Very professional and honest people. Looked at solar panels and was going to get them had my condo's HOA allowed it.