Urban Home Builders

Gary Zygmont is a great builder and I highly recommend him to anyone building a custom home in Austin. He knows how to navigate the complex city codes. I built a custom home with him in the past and when I had another project to work on, he was the first person I thought of. He is very organized and responsive. We were able to have our house finished on time. I reiterate, if you are looking for a builder, look no further and you won't be sorry!

Gary is fantastic! We worked with Gary and Urban Home Builders to build our home and we couldn’t be happier. After looking at houses on the market for a year without success, an undeveloped lot came on the market in Northwest Hills. We contacted Gary and, after walking the lot and hearing his vision for the project, we decided to purchase it and hire Gary as our builder. Building a house can be a daunting proposal, especially in Austin, but Gary’s system breaks it down and makes it very manageable. He is an expert in navigating Austin permitting and code. His vendors are also excellent; they are professional and easy to work with. Gary is honest, reliable, and diligent. He is always available and responds to all calls, emails, and texts immediately. Our house is beautiful and the quality of work is top notch. We look forward to enjoying our new home for many years to come. I highly recommend Gary Zygmont and Urban Home Builders to build your next home.

Urban Home Builders built a home next door to ours and did an extraordinary job of communicating and working with us as neighbors. Owner Gary Zygmont was accessible, responsive, and an excellent builder. Our neighbors' new home is beautiful and was completed in record time! The double-sided fence he built between us is top-notch. If we were building a new home, we'd certainly call Urban Home Builders!

Gary Zygmont of Urban Home Builders is a stand up guy. I would highly recommend using him as your contractor if you are considering building a custom home. My wife and I are very particular and we found Gary was able to deliver a great home in a timely manner. He is no doubt far more transparent then other custom home builders, we were able to go forward with a full understanding of cost expections. Austin can be a difficult place to build but Gary was able to effectively navigate the red tape and easily pass every inspection. He is easy to work with and is very responsive. I can't imagine working with anyone else. He defies every cliché you might associate with building contractors. He is honest, aims to please and an excellent builder.

Building a new custom home is a daunting and terrifying process. We had heard horror stories from friends and colleagues about their homebuilder and their home building experience. As busy professionals, we looked hard to find a builder that we could trust who would build us a beautiful home with solid construction for a reasonable price. We found that person in Gary Zygmont and Urban Home Builders. After spending almost two years working closely with Gary, we would unequivocally recommend him for a custom home build. Gary is truly always available for questions and advice, to listen to rants and to offer support. He is very organized and detail-oriented and kept us constantly apprised of where we were in the building process. He is honest whether the news he has to deliver is good or disappointing. He offers solutions to problems that arise during construction and has a positive attitude but realistic approach to addressing them. He was flexible with his time and frequently met us in off hours (nights and weekends) to accommodate our work schedules. As a reflection of his leadership, Gary’s employees and subcontractors perform high quality work and even keep a clean worksite. His recommendations for architect, color designer etc. were exactly right, reflecting our budget and taste. Even after our home was completed and Gary had been fully paid, he has continued to be readily available to answer questions and quickly performed any needed adjustments. Our home ultimately appraised for more than we expected with several appraisal reports commenting on the high-quality workmanship of the home. We love our new home and highly recommend Gary and Urban Home Builders for an exceptional home building experience.

My husband and I contracted Gary to build our home in Central East Austin. Very early in our process he was able to reccomend architect Paul DeGroot to design exactly what we had envisioned. Over the course of the drawing process, Gary was copied on all correspondence and was able to provide real world cost implications and advice as we made design choices along the way. Once our plans were finalized, Gary was able to commit to a concrete contract cost and time frame. He was good to his word and when we decided to add/subtract to our build he was able to adjust accordingly. Clarity and transperancy is probably one of the most important desires any clients could have going forward with a home build. However, beyond meeting his contractual obligations to his client, he superseded our expectations in many ways. 1. He was cordial and respectful to our neighbors, considered their concerns and kept a very tidy construction site along the way. (He's even been invited in for coffee.) 2. He was always quick to respond by whatever mode of communication you prefer, whether via text, email, or by simply picking up the phone. 3. He was patient and tolerated us and our many change orders. 4. If anything was not exactly as we envisioned, (which is natural part of the process of a custom home build,) he worked through every reasonable avenue to make things right for us. He left us feeling that our happiness was his number one goal. 5. His quality of build and finish out is EXCELLENT. And we are very picky customers and were constantly attending open houses and assessing his work against other builders in the area. 6. And this is were it gets a little weird. One day prior to signing the build contract with Gary, and to our complete surprise, my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma. Though we were not given expectations on how he might respond to treatment, (grueling chemotherapy,) we felt at peace with entrusting Gary with our dreams for a new home. He did not disappoint. For those of you who are considering working with Gary, please know, he is not only a fine builder, he is a wonderful person. He went beyond call and extended himself to us during this difficult time. We are so very happy with our home now that it is fully completed and just as happy to call him our friend . I would highly encourage you to follow me and the build process on Instagram @swedehome and message me directly should you have any questions or concerns. Deb Roberts

I grew up working in custom home construction, and when my wife decided to build a custom home in Austin, I was less than supportive of the idea. I knew the work involved and didn't want to compromise on quality. I feel our choice to use Urban Home Builders assuaged these concerns more than any other builder we considered possibly could have. Gary acted as if our home was going to be his own throughout construction, and his attention to detail shines through in the finished product. So much so that it impressed my father...no easy feat given his background in high-end home construction. Gary has an incredible ability to read people and communicate with them at their level. This is very important in custom home construction because of the emotions that can be involved during the process. He also made a significant effort to work with the neighbors, which ultimately resulted in better relationships after we moved in. Finally, I can't imagine any other builder navigating the Austin permitting process as well has Urban Home Builders. A firm understanding of the rules and regulation coupled with the ability to negotiate with the City saved us thousands of dollars during construction, and more importantly, delivered the product we wanted.

Gary was the ultimate builder – honest, reliable, a clear communicator, and all work completed on-time and on-budget. He is so detailed in his pre-work that there were essentially no surprises and we knew exactly what everything would cost. The finished project is great and now my wife can stop bugging me for that new kitchen. I can’t recommend Gary and Urban Home Builders enough.

Here’s a review from a person who does not tend to fluff the details. We wanted our 1940s cottage renovated. What do I mean by renovated? That’s a question I asked myself before we met with Gary. In my mind, it was some updated fixtures, new paint, and while we are at it let's throw up a second story…. simple enough. After talking with Gary I realized it was more and I was extremely excited and nervous by “the more”. We took our house down to the studs and replaced a third of our foundation and all of this made me nervous ... very nervous. I know, I thought this was going to be a five-star review. Please be patient, I’m getting there. Gary knew what was best for the future of the house and what we would be happy with in the long run and I am ever grateful for his wisdom. The process, on paper, seemed overwhelming but it wasn’t that at all. As well as being a home builder, Gary is an unofficially licensed therapist. As things seemed overwhelming Gary would step in with his cool, level headed voice of reason and simply ask what it was we were fretting about and then talk us through the process to a solution that allowed us to have a full night’s sleep. I know, I’m making this sound more like a touchy-feely story and less like I story of a house I wanted built. Next paragraph. We had plans, we talked to Gary, we REALLY liked Gary. Gary said it would be done in seven months. House was done in five months. We are moved in and happy beyond what we could even imagine. Gary rocks! It shows in his constant communication with us, his customer. It shows in the way his subs bent over backwards to make sure everything is done to his standards. AND it shows in the house we are currently living in.

We contracted with Urban Home Builders and Gary Zygmont for a complete renovation of and addition to our 1940's cottage. This was no run-of-the-mill job ... Gary and his team took our house down to the studs, destroyed and rebuilt the back 1/3 of the house to replace a crappy patio foundation that had been closed in at some point by previous owners, and added an 800 SF second level. From the get-go, we had a stellar experience with Gary. During our introductory meeting, he spent as much time as we needed talking with us about our project, his process, and the way he does business, and did an exceptional job of setting our expectations up front. His ballpark estimate was right in line with the other bid we obtained, which immediately gave us confidence in his estimating. We signed with him without hesitation. About a month before the project was set to start, I realized I had completely lost my mind ... it was a *terrible* idea to move out of my home for 7 months. I was afraid to call Gary to tell him the news, so I sent him an email telling him that I thought we should delay the project for at least 6 months because I just couldn't deal with rebuilding my home in addition to everything else in day-to-day life. Like a trained therapist, Gary listened with compassion and then broke down the monumental, paralyzing mountain of stuff that had to be accomplished into its most basic elements ... and it turned out that it really was manageable. "I know it doesn't feel like it, but you're almost done with the hard work," he told us. He sent a list of what we needed to do, with deadlines (this is something he did countless times during the project, which was great!), and helped me get a grip. Much to my husband's relief, the project proceeded as planned. Did I mention that we expected to be out of our home for 7 months? Gary finished almost 2 months early. How? In my opinion, it's because he respects and watches out for his subs, and they return the favor by moving mountains to get stuff done for him. It was truly a joy to watch -- at one point during the project, one of our neighbors remarked that there were almost always people at our house, and they were *always* working. Speaking of our neighbors, living next to a project like ours can be a nightmare. Gary walked the neighborhood before the project started, talked with our neighbors about what to expect, and left letters with each neighbor with his personal contact information. I know of two times during the project when neighbors had complaints ... in both cases, Gary immediately -- and very diplomatically -- addressed them. Now that we're back in our gorgeous "new" home and we've paid the last bill, Gary's level of service hasn't faltered a bit. We've reached out to him with a couple questions and issues, and he has responded immediately, reached out to subs or vendors as appropriate, and obtained exactly the "fixes" we believe are necessary - at no cost to us. The workmanship throughout our home is absolutely gorgeous, and the materials are of excellent quality and exactly as specified by us and our architect. He even added a number of "Gary-isms," such as rebuilding a fence for us (not in the contract -- we had planned to have him reinstall the old fence) because it faces the street and the old fence would have looked terrible next to our shiny house. I can't recommend Gary and Urban Home Builders enough.

My experience with Urban Home Builders was the best custom home building experience I have ever had. When looking for a builder it was paramount to me to find a person whom I could trust since the last experience I had was beyond terrible. Gary is honest, reliable, hard working and his attention to detail is superb. His customer service is unbelievable! I was always able to get in contact with him and he responded to my calls and requests almost immediately. I have a beautiful custom home that I love and its appraised value right after finishing construction was significantly higher than its cost. I first contacted Urban Home builders when I was in the process of purchasing a property and Gary provided me with valuable insight as to location, lot purchase price, and size of house I could build. He spent a great deal of time educating me about green building and the building process in Austin, all of which was done before he was even hired. Urban Home Builders gave me a recommendation for an architect that I couldn't have been happier with and then they worked with me during the design process educating me about different building options and pricing. It was very important to me to maximize value and minimize price. Building in the city of Austin can be challenging at times and Urban Home Builders was awesome at being able to navigate the project through the process. No matter how much planning and preparation is made prior to construction issues will arise during construction and Gary dealt with them efficiently and effectively. There were a couple of times that I was afraid that I had made some terrible selections (i.e. color, size, style, etc.) and Gary quickly alleviated my worries and we were able to work it through so that my end product matched my vision. I highly recommend Urban Home Builders to anyone desiring to build a custom home in Austin. If you have any further questions about this builder I am available to discuss them with you, and do not hesitate to contact the builder for my phone or email.

I cannot recommend Gary Zygmont and Urban Home Builders highly enough! Our project was a remodel of a recently purchased home, including adding a bedroom, a complete kitchen overhaul, and updates throughout. We have four small children and I was very nervous about embarking on a home remodeling project during this stage of life. Gary put my mind at ease from the first meeting, and he delivered on all of his guarantees throughout the project. He clearly takes pride in his work and does not settle for any part of the job being less than perfect. The fact that he is able to maintain this high of a standard for the quality of work while still meeting all promised deadlines is remarkable. He was easy to communicate with and very responsive to our questions, concerns, and suggestions. When people would ask how the remodel was going and if we were pleased with our general contractor, I would answer without hesitation, "It's been great. We absolutely love him. I can't sing his praises enough." I would get some surprised looks--apparently this is often not people's feelings toward their GC. :) While the scale of our project was not large for Urban Home Builders, it was huge in the life of our family. People who saw the before and after of our house walk in and say, almost without fail, "Wow! I can't believe they did ALL of this in that amount of time." We are so grateful for the work Gary and all of his teams did on our home and for such a positive experience throughout the process. Had the project not been completed by the promised deadline, our family of six would have been frantically searching for somewhere to live. Instead, we walked into a beautifully completed and perfectly polished home that was ready and waiting for us and for the next chapter of our lives that would begin here.