When we began considering using Homes by JICI as our builder, we were unable to find much in the…read moreway of reviews. Therefore, we thought we should document our experience for anyone considering using them as the builder of their new home.
We expected to immediately be offered to view a home that exhibited the quality of home built by them, but that never happened. We were provided the addresses of homes they had built in our area to drive by, but there is much more to a home than the exterior. To us, their initial interest seemed to be getting our name on the dotted line of the Design Agreement, thus assuring them of their money. However, we did ultimately sign a Design Agreement with them and went through the design process. Their Design Consultant was knowledgeable, and we appreciated her expertise. However, the Building Designer they provided us for architectural services announced his retirement soon after we began the process of designing our new custom home, and problems ensued as a result. Communication and response times were slow, unnecessarily delaying the process. We realize many of the problems that we experienced as a result were out of the control of the builder, but they certainly negatively affected the entire design process. We were also disappointed with the response of JICI in regards to issues with elevation, and their refusal to provide us with the details in order to resolve these issues. Though they stated they had final drawings available and would email them to us, this did not happen. They later stated they were part of the Construction contract. We felt it was part of the Design Agreement, and expected to have available to us all details necessary to complete our custom home, no matter what builder we chose. As a result, we now feel it may be necessary to pay for the services of another architect to provide us with these missing details for building our custom home!
We were informed by others that Homes by JICI was more expensive than most in the area, but were initially reassured by their reputation for quality and stated attention to detail. During the design process, you will find that they add 10% OH&P (overhead and profit) to the bill of any service you have done by an outside contractor they schedule for you. For us, this included the survey and soil boring test we chose to have conducted, as well the architectural services. Throughout the design process, we found ourselves eliminating details we wished to include in our new home to keep cost overruns down. When it came time to sign the contract for the actual building of the home, the percent for OH&P quoted was over 12% of the actual cost for building the home. We began to question the fair market value of the home that we would build with JICI. In addition, there were expenses added that we felt were part of doing business. We found the terms of the contract "client unfriendly", and ultimately decided not to continue our association
Luckily, we found another reputable builder, who immediately showed us one of his completed homes. We were able to walk through the entire house, discussing likes and dislikes, viewing the quality he quoted to us, and making some changes in our plans as a result of this experience, as well. The fact that this homeowner was willing to allow us to traipse through their home exhibited the positive work relationship they had with this builder! Communication thus far has been good. We know there will be issues as we progress with the building of our new home, but we feel these will be resolved more easily with this builder. Ultimately, we will have the beautiful, quality home we wanted for over 20% less! And we added back many of the details that we were unable to afford when building with JICI!
Though JICI has a good reputation within the community, it became apparent that their main focus is on the commercial, rather than residential, aspect of construction. As a result of our experience, we wished we had more fully considered our options when selecting a Designer/Builder for our custom home.
