Everything You Need to Know About Reading Home Builder Reviews
As a savvy buyer, you know that rarely will businesses point out their own flaws, so sometimes you have to dig a bit deeper to find out the truth. Before you choose a home builder, you want to hear what real customers have to say about their experiences. You let online reviews guide your Amazon purchases, so why wouldn’t you let online reviews help you choose a builder for your new home?
Online reviews of home builders can be helpful, but you should definitely know what to look for as you read these reviews. We’ve put together a few things to consider about online reviews to help you separate the good from the bad.
Few People Write Reviews
How many times have you written a review for a product, a service, or a business? You may be one of the rare people who loves writing reviews, but most of us don’t go out of our way to leave a review. Over the years, we’ve sold thousands of homes to happy buyers, but if you look at online review sites, you probably won't see thousands of reviews. Sometimes, companies will incentivize reviews (e.g. give a $25 gift card for those who leave a review), but most of the time, the reviews that you see only represent the opinions of a small percentage of the people who have worked with that company.
Unsatisfied People Are More Likely to Leave Reviews
When you have a good experience, you might not have much of an incentive to leave a review. You got what you wanted, you’re happy, and you have no obligation to help the builder out by leaving positive feedback. That being said, happy customers are much more likely to tell all their friends about their experience in person. So if you hear about a positive experience, it's worth keeping their builder in mind.
If you had a negative experience, though, leaving a bad review can make you feel a bit better. You might even feel as though you had a duty to warn other people.
It’s important to think of this motivation when you read the reviews. Quite often, the whole story isn't being told and only the negative parts are added into the review. Remember to keep a balanced approach when looking at reviews, and that a few less-than-stellar experiences shouldn't be a deal breaker in your decision making process. Every builder will have a few.
On-Site Reviews Might Be Hand-Picked
Most builders post reviews from happy customers on their websites. It might be a quote, a story, or even a video. While it should go without saying, you can safely assume that these types of reviews have been carefully chosen to reflect the builder in a positive light.
On the other hand, if the reviews on a website are pulled from a third-party site with the latest reviews showing up first, you can take that to mean that the builder has confidence in their product or service. They’re not afraid that you’ll see something negative because they don’t believe that there will be overly negative reviews.
You Have to Read Carefully
Reviews can be helpful, but you have to look carefully at what’s being said... and what’s not being said. For instance, you’ll often find that the focus of a negative review is usually about a bad interaction with one person in the company. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have a bad experience as well.
You might also notice that the person leaving the bad review is not someone who actually bought a home with the builder. They had a negative experience in the initial stages, then went somewhere else. Their negative review has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the home you’ll receive when you go with a particular builder.
However, if the reviews you read are typically complaints about the quality of the materials or the craftsmanship, that’s a sign that you should look elsewhere.
Reviews and “Stars” Don’t Always Match Up
When using a review site, reviewers are often asked to leave a star rating in addition to a written response. Sometimes, these can leave you scratching your head. You might see someone leaving a great written review, but they marked it as only one star. Someone who had a lot of complaints might leave four out of five stars. It’s pretty subjective, so you shouldn’t just look at the star rating.
Remember, reviews that include a written response are more beneficial. When you see a string of reviews that are only star ratings, you might ask yourself why that is, whether those selections are high or low star ratings.
Builders Sometimes Respond to Reviews
Bad things can happen to anyone, but you can tell a lot about a company by the way that they respond to negative things. In many cases, builders are allowed to leave a response to the online reviews. If they do, pay attention to what they’re saying. For instance, if a person leaves a review talking about poor quality, the builder might reply with an offer to fix the problem. That could make you feel different about the builder.
Online builder reviews can help you choose a builder, but they shouldn’t be the only deciding factor. Be sure to also check things like offerings, price, and customer service before you make a decision.
