We waited to post our review of Matthies Builders for 19 months because we have been waiting for them to not only complete our punch list (per the contract was supposed to be completed within 60 days) and our one year warranty work, but being patient has proven not to be the best strategy. We are generally satisfied with the design portion of our house and the majority of the craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the process of getting to a finished house has been a struggle marked with frustration and annoyance.
Matthies’ initial “sales pitch” truly was a bait and switch technique. At our initial meeting, Dave detailed how focused he was on his client centered relationships. I clearly remember Dave stating to us in his dining room, the last thing he ever wanted was to be at the grocery store and have one of us walk down a different aisle because we saw each other. We chose Matthies Builders believing they had out best interests at heart, but now believe that we made the wrong decision in selecting Matthies Builders to build our home.
Dave and Joanna told us they only work on three houses at a time: one that is just starting, one that is in full swing and one they are just completing. We later found out that they had multiple projects going on during our build, which we believed was the cause for much of the delays and confusion regarding our project. Throughout the construction process, Dave made promises that he didn’t deliver on, routinely “forgot” past conversations and was horrible at communicating, i.e. not responding to emails, phone calls and text messages for days, if not weeks. The project manager appointed to our build was intended to help with the communication flow but often did not have the necessary information or wasn’t able to act without approval from Dave. When we would complain and voice our concerns, Dave would tell me that I don’t know how to run a small business and I should stop telling him how to run his. My wife understands the client service relationship better than anyone, and Matthies Builders truly failed when it comes to this.
Dave and Joanna will tell you that we were too picky or looking for perfection. I would admit to that to some extent, but when building a custom home, I believe it should be as close to perfection as possible. We do realize when engaged in a construction project, things are bound to go wrong. However, Matthies Builders generally failed to accept accountability for any mistakes. A prime example of this is that Matthies Builders selected the handrails for all of the stairs in the house without consulting us and installed them. The style of the handrails didn’t go with the rest of our house and we wanted it changed. When we asked if there were options, we were told there are, but they use this style in the majority of the houses they build. Rather than accept responsibility and make a correction, we received a lot of pushback and were pressured to live with the already installed handrails (which we didn’t select or like) because it would be costly for Matthies Builders to replace them. We found that unless the costs of fixing a mistake could be passed on to us or subcontractors, it was very difficult to get Matthies to take responsibility for problems during our project. We ended up dealing with some vendors and subcontractors directly ourselves, because Dave was unwilling to pursue fixes on our behalf. Dave would tell us that the items I raised with him were “warranty” items and would be dealt with at the one-year walk-thru(more on that below) or directly with vendors, even though it wasn’t right from the day the items were installed. Dave and Joanna seemed more motivated to maintain their existing relationships with those vendors than to advocate for us, their clients.
Because of these types of issues, our professional relationship with the Matthies’ deteriorated and on several occasions Dave acted inappropriately. Multiple times I ended up having Dave yell at me on the phone or in person. I also witnessed him do the same with a contractor working at the house. The final time this happened was in December 2017 at my home. We still had, at the time, approximately 20-25 things on our punch list that needed to be completed. We advised we didn’t feel comfortable making our final payment because we still had so many outstanding items. Dave began yelling at me, calling me names and using vulgar language. After he stormed out of the house, Joanna asked me if I truly believed Matthies Builders wouldn’t finish everything they were supposed to do and hold up their end of the contract. This past month, that question was answered when Dave emailed saying the majority of the work they still owe is not going to be completed because it was now outside the one year warranty period despite the fact that most of the delays were due to Dave’s own actions —its impossible to complete a walk-thru when they refused to respond to us and show up at the house for weeks at a time. We emailed him back asking why he was going back on his word to complete many of the outlined items and finish the work per our contract and Dave simply has chosen not to respond.
Buyer beware - I would welcome anyone who would like to sit down with me and discuss how truly disappointing our experience was and to provide the numerous emails detailing our issues to support this review.
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