Home Builders in the Des Moines Metro

BryceC

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Mar 23, 2006
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If I could do it again I'd build with Tyler homes.

That said I also would never build another house.
 
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CycloneDaddy

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Sep 24, 2006
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Johnston
I've been following Dreamscape Homebuilders on social media and they build some awesome looking homes. I have no firsthand experience with them, though. I'd be curious to hear from anyone here that has used them. I assume their prices will most likely be outside of our comfort zone.
Dreamscape has been around for almost 9 years now. They won the homeshow in our hood when they first started out. They do build some fancy homes now (Echo Valley) but might be worth a call to them just to see. Disclaimer - we used one of the owners as our Realtor years ago.
 
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CyCrazy

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Dec 17, 2008
26,142
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Ames
Most builders pull from the same relatively small pool of subs in each trade. A crew can frame a $200,000 starter home one month and a $600,000 home the next. That’s the problem and you need a home builder who will work with you and not get pissy when you identify problems. A builder who doesn’t just disappear after the warranty is up.

Did some sub burn you on new siding on your doublewide?
 

Hawkmi

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Oct 9, 2013
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We have a Stephen Grubb house (its on the tyvek) and I would agree on the B/B+.
Grubb’s are a great family. Good friends with Ricky. My wife and I are in the beginning stages of moving back to the metro area, and am very much looking forward to to using Grubb as our general.
 

Wx4Cy

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May 22, 2007
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West Des Moines
I've been following Dreamscape Homebuilders on social media and they build some awesome looking homes. I have no firsthand experience with them, though. I'd be curious to hear from anyone here that has used them. I assume their prices will most likely be outside of our comfort zone.

That's who built our new place.
 

Yaz

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Jun 29, 2018
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Stay away from Tyler and k&k homes from personal experience. Consider Dreamscape homes and Affinity Homes. Seen and heard great things about the last two.
 

CoachHines3

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Oct 29, 2019
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of these home builders mentioned does anyone know how far out of the metro area they will build?
 

JY07

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Aug 20, 2009
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DSM
I've heard horror stories from people who bought Jerry's homes, but that was 10+ years ago so they may have improved since then.

As far as Ankeny goes, Kimberley seems to win a lot of awards, but I don't know if I've heard good things from anyone who's lived in one of their houses. We had a short interaction with them as well and that wasn't exactly a positive experience either.

To mirror the comments about people not wanting to build again, I think regardless of your builder you need to stay on top of the process: there's a lot of moving parts and it seems like most builders are not super organized; some of the details will fall through the cracks. As long as your builder isn't someone who's difficult to get a hold of (and they have positive reviews somewhere), you should be fine.
 

RMB4Cy

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Dec 20, 2013
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I would stay as far away as you can from Hubbell Homes. They are just a large production builder that only cares about getting money, not the customer.
I would recommend Happe Homes, they are Ankeny based and did a great job with our custom build.