I would NOT recommend using Cardinal Crest Homes. I do love what we designed with our architect and that our family gets to live here, but we could have achieved this with other builders.
CC sold us on their well maintained instagram/general aesthetic, the Buildertrend app to help keep us updated and know the money we were spending, and their presentation as experts in the field (It is my opinion there are better people out there). What I found time and time again is that CC lacks experience and expertise in building a completely custom home like ours. Additionally, they spread themselves way too thin across projects so that their employees are covering so many things, they cannot properly follow up, take the right notes, complete orders on time or schedule things in a timely manner. They place tons of blame on their subcontractors, don't monitor their progress or do quality control checks.
Areas of improvement:
-Communication: CC should create office hours or clear expectations of how to get in touch & what mode of communication is best for ALL involved. Also, I expressed privately to the owner that I felt one of his employees was treating me differently than my husband as an opportunity to improve. Instead he told that employee and then the employee called my husband, not me, to discuss this. Never did they truly try to understand my point of view and up until the end, they dug in that I was wrong. It was the WORST part for me. I know through my own social media that I am not the only woman to feel this way. The only person to be consistent, clear and communicate effectively was the designer. She never made me feel like a burden or annoyance.
-Clarity of expectations/ following through on their work: CC kept moving from one point person to another - We had 4 project leads in total during the two years we worked with them. CC relied almost completely on us to download the next lead on outstanding items. They would say things were getting done, scheduled, or fixed and while many things did work out just fine, some of the bigger features of our home are low quality.
-Consistency: We heard from their subs that work was done poorly (including Pella, the floor people, painters). Just because they completed something didn't mean it was done right. CC showed up late to almost every appointment or many times did not show up at all. There came to be a certain speech given at our appointments with them “we want to get this right.” “You are a priority.” “We are working so hard for you.” “The owner and I talk constantly about your home.” Actions didn't show this.
Their number one priority is value over quality - this was shown through almost every milestone within the process. To type all of this would put us well over the 3000 character limit that allowed. This leads me to believe that not only are they not capable of executing a custom home, but completely out of touch as to what good, quality work looks like. Do not recommend.
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