Hearthstone Homes Inc

We moved from a custom home and so far we are impressed! It was a stressful decision to downsize yet It has been a stress free experience at Hearthstone. I think with any new home builder there will be a few people that have issues, especially with how many homes they build. They do have the best warranty in Omaha...Trust me we did our homework. Honestly we had alot of issues with our custom builder and not 1 from Hearthstone...We really are impressed!

Posted 10/13/09 | Report Abuse

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We bult our home with Hearthstone and have had nothing but problems. It started in the building process. We were told our price wouldn't be fixed until we signed, despite paying for the lot already. Fine. Our upgrade price rose 3 times and about $15,000, which cost us our granite counters in our budget. Now you do get alot of square feet for the price, which is why we did it. I would recommend that any first time buyer purchase a 2+ year old Hearthstone. Why? They have a2 year warranty, but they don't stand behind it. Our dirt was pulling away from our foundation and it took them 3 no-shows to finally get someone out to fix it. It ended up being some guy with a wheelbarrow of dirt who literally just dumped it around our house. We are now going back and forth over our driveway. We have 6 slabs that are cracked almost identically in width and height. They replaced the top 3 and won't touch the bottom. I have pictures with a measuring tape showing they are they same, but as of now, they have gone almost a week without returning my calls and I intend to take them to small claims to make them enforce the warranty. Oh, and while you can upgrade the carpet, for a price, the stock carpet is terrible and the stains we have(in our less than 2 year old home) will require replacement. We should have looked around more.

Posted 09/24/09 | Report Abuse

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Hearthstone homes are good build for under $180,000. If start to spend more then that you should really look for custom builder. Nothing against Hearthstone, but the quality of material they use is just not up to par on a spending over $180,000. Great home for first time home buyers. As for people complaining about the siding and roofs. These homes are built in wide open areas with no natural wind block, just like with high end custom homes. Roof shingles come off of high end homes as well, as for the siding high end homes use hardy plank boards that would make you go broke just looking at the price. When trees start to grow there will be no problem with the siding. I have been in 5 year old $750,000 custom homes and there falling apart worse then Hearthstone in some cases. Hoped this helped and to those who wounder why I have been in all these homes, I am a Realtor. good luck with any home purchase none are perfect.

Posted 07/22/09 | Report Abuse

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The building process was easy and enjoyable. Our customer relations manager was fantastic and helpful. We love everything about our house! We've only had a few minor "problems" (examples - our bedroom door was sticking, we had a leaky hose bib. Nothing big.) Our problems were under warrenty and fixed right away.

I think some previous reviewers may not understand what Hearthstone Homes is. It's a volume builder. These are not "custom" homes that cost upwards of $300,000. Are you going to get the quality of a $300,000 custom home? Of course not. But what you get for the money is great! Especially all the space! We have over 3000 finished square feet at under $200,000 (and yes, that includes numerous upgrades.) I think a lot of people also don't understand that no house is perfect. New homes will always settle. Things will break. That is not unique to Hearthstone. It will happen with any builder...even the super expensive ones. Too many people seem to have unrealistic expectations. Is that the home builders fault? Nope!

If you're going to build a home with Hearthstone or any other builder, educate yourself. Read the fine print (although at Hearthstone, they already explain everything and disclose everything....including the fine print.) Be smart about it.

Oh, and don't use every last penny of your money just on your mortgage payment. With any house, things will need fixed, upgraded, improved upon as the years go buy. Always plan for future expenses. Your house is an investment that needs to be taken care of.

Posted 11/24/08 | Report Abuse

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The siding on the hearthstone plastic homes is cheap and installed poorly. I have witnessed first hand and have seen other homes suffer the same fate. wind gets under it and it pulls right off the side of the home. it is only warranted for 24 months... go figure. Call the contractor who installs it and good luck getting them to come out and repair it...concrete work is sub standard, floors aren't level, rooms are not even close to square, door knobs wear out quickly, sliding patio doors dont seal when its cold and windy out. windows are cheap .white trim package? dont bother, it starts pealing off after 1 year ( mine did) and its not a waranteed item... most homes on my street are always loosing shingles.... junk homes from junk craftsmen NEVER AGAIN!

Posted 10/30/08 | Report Abuse

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EXTREMELY POOR ROOFING!!!Drive through the Meridian Park / Stone Crest community.Look at the regular/standard shingled homes roofs.You will see almost EVERY roofing board seam.Besides being horribly unattractive, these shingles catch wind like kites and begin to curl quickly.Hearthstone homes have an VERY high rate of insurance claims for roofing. It only takes a bit of wind to cause a claim.build into your cost the need to re-roof your brand new home.

Posted 08/18/08 | Report Abuse

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Hearthstone is clear and up front about everything. They have clearly stated base prices and it's very simple to find out what you get and what it costs to upgrade. The best part is that you don't have to put any money down to sign up and visit their state of the art choice studio where you can see every option as well as all the included features. There are also several staffers available to answer all of your questions and can even show you building plans for each home if you so desire.
I can understand where some people may get confused about what is and what isn't included since reading is not everybody's strong suit. For those of you who are easily confused here's a pointer when visiting the choice studio. If it has a green label it's included. If it has a white label it's an upgrade. I know it's difficult. You may want to have a member of their staff point to the green labels for you. Just sayin'.
Great home buying process. Everything is in writing. You get time with all of their contracts before you're expected to sign or pay a dime. It's a blast.

Posted 10/17/07 | Report Abuse

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Employees were not accurately clear on certain things such as upgrades, and what is/isn't included in the price. We were told three different things from three different people and it endud up costing us our lot. There were hidden fees they did not tell us about, even when we asked. We had already put our deposit down, but ended up backing out because we didn't trust them, even if we lost our deposit money. Quality is not the best in my opinion and from friends I know that currently live in them.

Posted 11/18/05 | Report Abuse

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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