D.R. Horton

[bbinks]

Mello needs to have his head examined.

Celebrating the selling out of a local business to the national franchise should NEVER. EVER. EVER. be celebrated. The proper chamber response should have been "We are saddened to hear the loss of a family locally owned business that has operated in the metro for nearly 50 years, we will work closely to ensure other locally owned builders have the resources to flourish to build quality lifetime neighborhoods for our residents"

Here's the facts: The suppliers Celebrity sourced with locally, will disappear as they get supplanted by the out of state providers DRH use.

I don't have a dog is this fight, but it's pretty well documented the quality of the DRH homes leaves much to be desired. It's built cheap cheap cheap.

Most of their prefabricated structures come from Builders Supply or SES. It's not going to be cheap to bring all that in if they change.

[omaha79]

I can say this is a terrible situation. D.R. Horton is absolute trash and their name is mud nationally. They have lawsuits from sea to shining sea. Videos like this shine a light on the shoddy workmanship, mold issues....basically homes being built from the worst materials allowed by law.



I can also say that I've lived in two Celebrity homes from 2007 to present. Coincidentally, both built in 2007. They are of reasonably average build quality. I have had major issues in both, but fixable.

First, the roughly mid 00's to mid teens Celebrity homes used the 3 tab shingles. They were all over the city. Mine was already beginning to fail within about 7 years and everytime we had high winds, the shingles were flapping. But, I never had enough wind or hail damage to get a new roof from insurance. After several times of paying a repair person in vain, I bit the bullet and paid $10k out of pocket for a new roof. But, I was told around 2015 that Nebraska has always had some of the most "builder friendly" building codes and several roofers called it downright criminal that builders were allowed to put 70 mph shingles on in a state that routinely gets those winds and strong storms. I still see some original roofs in my new neighborhood and it looks like a war zone every time the spring winds hit.

Slowly, those roofs are being replaced, but I've long suspect it's at least a contributing factor to the astronomical price increases Nebraska has seen in insurance costs which have far outpaced other states. Basically, insurers have had to pay for the sins of Celebrity Homes roofs for 2 decades minimum. I wouldn't have bought my new house if it had the original roof, but it was replaced in 2018.

In my new house, I had an issue with the unfinished basement room taking on some water due to some issues with the exterior drain tile system. But, a clean out of the sump pump along with getting interior drain tile along one wall, and knock on wood, it's no longer been an issue.

These are major issues, but that's all I've had in nearly 20 years of Celebrity home ownership. Anything else, I'd consider general minor repeairs due to wear and tear.

D.R. Horton will make Celebrity look like a luxury homebuilder by comparison.

[Toto]

Holy |expletive|. I was against DR Horton because of their cheap ugly houses. That video makes them out to be a thousand times worse than I thought.

I hate the for rent neighborhoods and they seem to be popping up all over the metro.

[omaha79]

Holy |expletive|. I was against DR Horton because of their cheap ugly houses. That video makes them out to be a thousand times worse than I thought.

I hate the for rent neighborhoods and they seem to be popping up all over the metro.

It's so much worse than you could imagine....

[djc311]

Holy |expletive|. I was against DR Horton because of their cheap ugly houses. That video makes them out to be a thousand times worse than I thought.

I hate the for rent neighborhoods and they seem to be popping up all over the metro.

It's so much worse than you could imagine....

From what I have gathered by comments I've read from the local Horton management, they seem to like to cater to landlords that just want to rent out their crummy houses.

I'm just glad I don't live in one - I envision their homes having the vinyl siding issues that Hearthstone used to have before they went belly-up. I remember driving down 192nd by F St (Oakmont was the subdivision) that Hearthstone built and one summer we had some brutal heat. I would estimate at least 30-40% of the homes had at least some vinyl siding literally peeling away from the houses... it looked like the siding was running down the sides of the houses.

After they fixed those, the next thing that came through were some high winds that ended up ripping a lot of the vinyl siding off (the same houses). I felt awful for them; they just couldn't catch a break!

Anyway, I hope for the sake of those that have purchased Horton homes that they don't have similar experiences but I can easily say their reputation is to build junk.

[omaha79]

Holy |expletive|. I was against DR Horton because of their cheap ugly houses. That video makes them out to be a thousand times worse than I thought.

I hate the for rent neighborhoods and they seem to be popping up all over the metro.

It's so much worse than you could imagine....

From what I have gathered by comments I've read from the local Horton management, they seem to like to cater to landlords that just want to rent out their crummy houses.

I'm just glad I don't live in one - I envision their homes having the vinyl siding issues that Hearthstone used to have before they went belly-up. I remember driving down 192nd by F St (Oakmont was the subdivision) that Hearthstone built and one summer we had some brutal heat. I would estimate at least 30-40% of the homes had at least some vinyl siding literally peeling away from the houses... it looked like the siding was running down the sides of the houses.

After they fixed those, the next thing that came through were some high winds that ended up ripping a lot of the vinyl siding off (the same houses). I felt awful for them; they just couldn't catch a break!

Anyway, I hope for the sake of those that have purchased Horton homes that they don't have similar experiences but I can easily say their reputation is to build junk.

Yeah, we considered between Celebrity and hearthstone in 2007. Hearthstone had more ability to upgrade and customize and, at the time, I thought the idea of vinyl siding was a great deal. Well, we picked Celebrity on cost because Hearthstone started going up quickly if you didn't go with the base of the base builder grade. Low and behold, within about 2 years, the hearthstone neighborhood next to ours had vinyl siding rippling off the houses and within a couple years later, it was falling off at every wind storm. Looked like a tornado went through 3 times a summer. Just such junk.

I'll say when we moved, really nothing truly failed inspection on our Celebrity and the one I bought was similar. That's not saying there weren't corners cut, but the experience with Celebrity was much better than anyone I knew with Hearthstone and certainly what I hear about DR Horton. I'd have given Celebrity a B+ had it not been for the roof issues which downgraded it to maybe a C+ and then the issue with my current homes basement taking some water even though I'm not in a high water table area at all, but at least that was minor and mostly fixable.

[nebugeater]

This probably cracks open a window for someone else to grow into, or move into the area as a starter home builder. Anyone with a little honesty and some financial backing can succeed

[OutoftheCanyon]

Here's the facts: The suppliers Celebrity sourced with locally, will disappear as they get supplanted by the out of state providers DRH use.

I have strong feelings, that aren’t positive, about this acquisition but this isn’t true. They have National relationships/rebates with National vendors but still purchase these from local dealers.

The only way this would happen is if one of the other big national players bought out one of our local yards. QXO just bought out Kodiak who bought Christensen Lumber a few years ago. They are supplying a lot of them locally. Now if US LBM or BFS buys someone out we have issues.

[OverlookedFarm]

Here's the facts: The suppliers Celebrity sourced with locally, will disappear as they get supplanted by the out of state providers DRH use.

I have strong feelings, that aren’t positive, about this acquisition but this isn’t true. They have National relationships/rebates with National vendors but still purchase these from local dealers.

The only way this would happen is if one of the other big national players bought out one of our local yards. QXO just bought out Kodiak who bought Christensen Lumber a few years ago. They are supplying a lot of them locally. Now if US LBM or BFS buys someone out we have issues.

Exactly.

The wick is being burned on both ends. Local guys can't compete to be a full service supplier, so they sell out to the national chain. So you have a national chain supplying the national chain. Less and less stays here.

Are there exceptions? Yes. There are always going to be jobbers with a niche supplier/product.

It is inevitable these so called "inefficiencies" go away and the push for vertical integration as any business does.

[bbinks]

Hearthstone and Celebrity used many of the same sub contractors. My hearthstone is 20 years old, and I've not had wind damage to my siding. And my street was the last row on the north side of the development until Celebrity bought the farmland 3 years ago. The guys who did my siding install nailed the slats of siding in every 10 inches. Shingles good too. Workmanship plays a role.