This is my first new home purchase and let me tell you about my experience with this builder. Let's start with how long it took to for them to get me into the my new home, 13 months when the sales consultant said 6-9 months. This was also written on paper. The home wasn't even fully completed because there were things missing and issues that needed to be addressed. Meadowbrook just wants to close fast and take your money. The issues that needed to be addressed and fixed are in a 6 month repair list. I'm 2 month away from my 1 year living in this home and Meadowbrook Builders still hasn't completed them. My one year list is much longer and I'm afraid that if it doesn't get fixed within the warranty, then I may be forced to pay out of pocket. Professional builders know how to fix their mistakes, but with MeadowBrook Builders, it's one excuse after another. They're management skills is below average. The contractors who come out to try to fix the issues are the same contractors who caused the issue. My list: - Creaky subfloor/uneven subfloor - Sensitive smoke detector (can't even fry a simple egg). - Hard to open windows - Furnace doesn't always work - Very piss poor interior paint job - Very piss poor drywall job - Kitchen cabinets still have finishing nail exposed (Dangerous) - electrical wired incorrectly - new carpet lifting around edges - hard carpet padding/insulation - No insulation in attic The list goes on.... Here's my tip if you really want to buy a new home from Meadowbrook Builders, DON'T!!!! The is America and you are entitled to you liberties and freedom. So, Hire an inspector to walk through the home with you because the contract builders who work for MeadowBrook will take full advantage of that fact you know nothing about building a home. It's their words against your concerns. To them it's all about hurry up and close. Meadowbrook homes claim to be semi custom, but there really not. The exterior esthetics is was what caught my eye. I should've never judge a book by its cover. Use my list and check your home and make sure Meadowbrook doesn't leave you hanging. I'm just one of many other dissatisfied home owners of Meadowbrook builders. Do your research! Read more reviews. If it's a good review, it's a lie! It's probably someone from management or Melissa H, remember that name! read more

This business needs to be shut down. My experience with the company ended up costing me 200k. After the company decided to break our contract because they knew they weren't able to complete the build in the contractual time. Melissa has zero integrity. And I am not at all surprised by the other negative reviews. I really regret doing any kind of business these people. read more

Utterly incompetent and shady business. I closed on my house in 2015, and was recently reviewing county records and discovered that I had a mechanic's lien placed on my house shortly thereafter because Meadowbrook had failed to pay a sub-contractor. It appears that it was resolved, but now I have to go and check for myself. While I'm on the topic, I'll share some of my other experiences. Building process was full of unexpected upcharges. They demanded 5% in earnest money, then afterwards had you go to "color sessions" where you would really find out the price of the house. Expect to add at least $100K to the base price of your house, if you would like to have amenities such as air conditioning. Shortly prior to closing, I received a phone call from Melissa stating that if my bank did not approve my mortgage paperwork that day, Meadowbrook would charge me approximately $500 per day for every day that I didn't close. I ended up having to work with Meadowbrook's "preferred lender", and was unable to get a mortgage with my bank. Also the house was delayed 5 months for arbitrary reasons Melissa kept coming up with. Stay away. read more

My husband and I built a home through Meadowbrook Builders. During the build, there were several things that went wrong. One of which left me quite angry. We had paid extra to have a 5 foot walk in shower with granite bench and 2 niches put into our master bathroom. Upon the completion of the tiling, we noticed the niches were not there. When I had inquired about this, they tried to convince me to close without them. Nope. Then they tried to offer me a $600 credit. Haha, you think I'd be able to hire a 3rd party to come out and remove tile on a wall and install 2 niches for $600? I don't think so. That was a fight in itself. Other smaller requests I had were also a fight with them. Some of which I won (like wanting a few cabinet drawers vs doors in my kitchen) and others I lost (like wanting cabinet hardware installed on cabinets - apparently it's too time consuming for them, I was told). Upon moving in, within a few months, we had 2 leaks in our basement. One from the sewer pipe and one from our basement window. We also noticed our siding on 3 of the 4 sides of the house looks god awful. It's wavy and bubbled in several spots. Our home inspector had said the installers installed the siding too tight not leaving enough room for the siding to expand. Our carpet is a joke. We knew this going in though. We were planning on replacing it in a few years with something we loved. However, after living in our home now for a year and a half, the carpet is already on its last leg. It's shredding on the edges, completely hard and matted to the ground. That's polyester carpeting for you. Cement is softer than their pad and carpet. Lastly and most importantly... Meadowbrook's "wood flooring" that they love advertising about - is GOD AWFUL. From week one, I knew the quality of this flooring was deplorable. Due to the very thin veneer top coat, it scratches and dents so easily it's incredible. Aside from that, I have boards that are buckling, warping, areas where the color is literally rubbing off in high traffic areas, color is peeling up from the sides of the boards as well as gouges straight down to the plywood. These floors look like they are a million years old and are very embarrassing in what's supposed to be "a new home". I have contacted Meadowbrook consistently over the last year and a half requesting a replacement. (They only installed this type of flooring in a handful of homes due to homeowner complaints). I was told by them this is "normal wear and tear". That is laughable. I requested to speak with Aladdin several times and was advised that I would never get in contact with him because he doesn't speak with homeowners. WHAT???!!?? Eventually, I got his email address and emailed him. Did he ever respond? Nope. Meadowbrook made it quite clear they will not be replacing these god awful floors. This shows me that not only does MB install poor materials/quality in homes... but they do not back their products, either. I would absolutely not recommend this builder. read more

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I was quite apprehensive to move forward with Meadowbrook, based on the reviews I had read. However, I really wanted to be in Shorewood Towne Center and was not impressed by the D.R. Horton homes so I didn't have much of a choice. I knew that the build was going to be a slow one, I had mentally prepared myself for that. Luckily, I was living with family in the area so I took an optimistic approach and was thankful to be saving so much money month to month. In fact, the slow build worked in my favor as my interest rate actually went down over a full percentage point, saving me over $130 a month on my mortgage. In total, it was 7 full months from when I signed the contract to when the dig occurred and an additional 5.5 months till I closed. My first official walk through occurred once all the framing was complete. I was quite unhappy with how the master shower was turning out, nothing that Meadowbrook did wrong but I just wasn't pleased with the standard shower pan they used. After some back and forth with Melissa, she agreed to have this changed to tile. She worked with me to pick out matching floor tiles and even questioned some of my grout choices. I was so thankful for this because the options I picked out were quite questionable. She explained what she thought would look better and I'm so happy with the changes we made. She even let me change the mosaic color in the shower without question or requiring a change fee. I did opt to have an outside home inspection performed at this time as I wanted to ensure the house was in good shape to move forward. There was nothing noted on the mid-build inspection. The house moved full steam ahead and I worked with Chris Daniel a few times. I found him to be kind and very responsive to my questions and needs. He even offered to install my appliances for me but unfortunately, the delivery of those didn't occur by the time I closed. During my final walk through, I had the inspector come back out (Norman Home Inspections-highly recommend!) and ensure that the house was in great shape. Once the inspection was complete he came to us and said, "This is a beautiful, well built home. Chris and the Meadowbrook team did a great job". There was only one issue on the inspection that had to do with hail damage on the roof. After getting a private inspector on the roof, he confirmed that there wasn't any hail damage and it was fine. Overall, I would work with Meadowbrook again. I think they have really proven that they take reviews seriously and strive to be better. I was actually quite surprised at how well this build went, especially since I can be difficult to handle. Working with Melissa was easy and we even found ourselves talking about things that had nothing to do with the house. I could tell she really cared about me as a person, I wasn't just another client to her. I have an absolutely beautiful home, in a wonderful neighborhood, and I couldn't be happier! read more

My husband and I had been searching to buy a home for quite some time, but we just couldn't find anything we really liked (that was for sale) for the most part. I saw a Meadowbrook home I really liked. Then I called one day and spoke with a lady, that was so nice and made an appointment. And now about six months later, I'm in my dream home! Any concerns I had along the way they listened and have addressed my concerns. Meadowbrook has been so kind to my husband and I !!!!!!!! read more

****STAY FAR AWAY!!!!!***** First off, if you read this review and you still build with Meadowbrook, you deserve whatever you get. Also, any review that mentions having a great experience with the owner (Aladdin) is obviously a review posted by an employee or relative. No customer has ever had any dealings with him, because we were told we couldn't, by Melissa (his "Manager"). The first words that come to my head when thinking about Meadowbrook, are LIARS and NIGHTMARE. *****Melissa actually told my wife they would fix our sunken sidewalk if my wife took down her Negative review**** Signed the contract in January 2018, broke ground in June, closed in February 2019. 13 months of lie, after lie, after lie. Over $400,000 for excruciating mental anguish, and this garbage pile they call a "semi-custom home". We refinanced 6 months after we closed and the house appraised for $47,000 less than we paid for it (our fault). Nothing about these homes are custom. EVERY fixture in the house was bought at Home Depot down the street. Because the house was open for so long without windows, all the subflooring had standing water puddles, causing them to warp. So now you can feel all the flooring screws popping up as you walk on the carpet (which was replaced after 6 months because it started to fray and tear). Every floor creaks as you walk on them. The hardwood flooring is absolute GARBAGE. After a year it looks like its 20 years old. The basement has leaked since the day we closed (see pictures). Melissa told us they improperly prepped the exterior for the stone (real professional) which is why it was leaking. They came back 8 MONTHS later to try and fix it. It's been 6 months since, it's still leaking! They left a complete mud pit for us the day we closed, and still had workers at the house during our final walk through. That shows they only cared about getting us to close, so they could get our money. Look at the picture of the driveway (That was their version of a Final Walk through). We waited for over 4 months for them to grade the yard and put down the sod. They came on July 5th to lay the sod. It was 92 degrees! The landscaper drove by at 6am the following morning, and saw I hadn't tuned the sprinkler on yet, and told Melissa. So now they say it's our fault that the sod died because we didn't water it. I'll show you my $450 water bill that proves otherwise. Look the picture of the front yard. It was full of boulders, chunks of concrete, pieces of siding and lumber. That's what the sod is sitting on, that's why it died. The "Warranty" they provide you is a joke, because MEADOWBROOK DOES THE WARRANTY WORK. They send the same Under Skilled workers to do the warranty work that did the work poorly in the first place. REALLY? They (Chris) came out to do the 1 year walk though to look at all the drywall cracks, and nail pops. He actually asked me if I wanted them to come fix all of them. REALLY? Am I suppose to pay someone to fix all of that? That's what the warranty is for. If you're reading this, do you see what I'm getting at here? We were without a home for 4 months because of them. We had to pay for 5 storage units and rent a place to live for 4 months. My wife works from home, so she couldn't work for 4 months. The communication is garbage. The craftsmanship is garbage. The professionalism is garbage. I WOULD GIVE ANYTHING TO GO BACK TO JANUARY 2018, AND JUST KEEP DRIVING PAST THEIR OFFICE. WE ENTRUSTED MEADOWBROOK TO BUILD US OUR DREAM HOME. ALL THEY'VE DONE, HAVE GIVEN US NIGHTMARES!! read more

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Great service and the best people to work with before closing. But Good luck getting warranty repairs done after you close. No response, delays, excuse after excuse. Almost a year after closing and still not done. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. read more

This builder must make so much money they don't even need to return phone calls or emails. I was going to have a home built by them called twice left messages then sent 3 emails out to them . 2 directly and one through a agent no response back in 3 weeks then I found yelp and everyone that has had to deal with this builder has nothing good to say I will take money else where. read more

My goal with this review is to "WARN" and possibly convince people to use another builder. If you decided to build with Meadowbrook Builders regardless then you MUST have an attorney. Other advice I would give is to talk to people in the community. We were deceived into thinking that Meadowbrook in the summer of 2015 owned all the lots in Ravine Woods subdivision. We understand due to the false information we experienced they no longer boast about owning all these lots. They also made it clear that the land behind our home would stay woods becoming part of Arroyo Trails. We paid a premium for our lot and began doing research on Arroyo trails which lead us to find out a hedge fund owned the land behind us and that homes could someday be built back behind our home. We wanted a wood lot and could have built on the other side of the street had we not been falsely advised. After Meadowbrook agreed mistakes were made they offered us only $2,000 off our lot. We used that money to put a trey ceiling in the Master bedroom. Contracts were signed and drawn up by Meadowbrook's attorney and our attorney returned them promptly. Our color session was a hassle trying to schedule. Melissa did the color session who is also the manager with Meadowbrook. She worked M-F, 9-5 well most people buying a home in the range of $300,000-$400,000 work M-F, 9-5. When we had scheduling conflict wanting to come in later she was NOT accommodating so my husband came to our color session and hour late. At builders meeting in October we were told our lot would be dug the following week. Our home was not dug till December and foundation poured December 17th, 2015 the coldest day of the year to that point with temps dropping to 22 degrees that night with NO blankets put over our foundation or additives put in our foundation. Not only where we disappointed but The Village of Channahon was mad the foundation was poured this way requesting that core samples be taken to ensure that our foundation cured properly. I can say that the foundation did pass and samples were taken. We had several errors on walk through including missing trey ceiling in master and master bath and closet were not laid out as drawn up in builder meeting. Everything was able to be corrected EXCEPT the Master bedroom ceiling, Master bathroom and closet. Upon entering the office since the super intendant Brad advised going to see Gary I walked into see Gary who immediately apologized and Melissa who as always showed unprofessionalism and blamed us and my attorney for not submitting the addendum. When I said I had emails proving that our attorney sent contract to hers MONTHS ago Melissa was quick to say of well I can give you your Island in the kitchen free instead of your trey ceiling. We wanted the trey ceiling and were ok with paying for our island??? At this point with our issues we felt Meadowbrook needed to give us additional upgrades or incentive for their lack of unprofessionalism and making mistakes that could not be fixed. At this point everything became major legal issue fighting back and forth. We at that point asked to speak to the owner Aladdin. Melissa's exact words where I can assure you that won't happen he does not speak to the clients that is my job. I was appalled knowing that there was so much conflict between us and the act of unprofessionalism and disrespect. I told her that I wanted to speak with Aladdin and that I felt our experience with Meadowbrook was extremely unethical. Final contract had a gag order. WE REFUSED TO SIGN THE PAPER WORK. This was two weeks before closing in May 2016. At this point we wanted to walk away from the home and demanded our earnest money back. Feeling defeated we continued with closing but refusing to sign their "GAG ORDER". We were extremely disappointed at how everything was handled and how we were treated. In August 2016 I had lunch in Plainfield, IL and saw Aladdin with Melissa at this time I approached him and Introduced myself saying that I was extremely disappointed with how I was treated and how Melissa assured me I would never speak to you so I need to take a moment and come up to you. Melissa immediately said that is not what happened. Really!?! Aladdin said he would be in touch with us to discuss further our frustration and experience it has been 3 weeks Aladdin is radio silent! Additionally, we still do have unresolved issues. This is how Meadowbrook operates. I'm confident that these issues will unfortunately happen to another customer of Meadowbrook. I'm also confident that a future customer will have a larger voice then we have and be able to show the Minooka and Channahon community that this is not the way to treat the residents of this great community. More of the full review will be posted to other websites. read more

RUN!!! Do not build your "dream home" with this builder as you will not get what you ask for. This is supposed to be a semi-custom home, but they like to build what's easy and convenient for them. There is nothing custom about this builder. We had started our process in January 2018, we were told it takes 4 months for the city of Shorewood to process our plans and permits and then 4 months to build the home. So we were given a 7-9 month building process. Like I said we started picking out the front of our home in January 2018, inside the home was picked out in February 2018. We gave them the down payment in February 2018 and we were told everything will start right away because we gave them the down payment. GET A LAWYER!!! if you decide to build with them. DO NOT give them the down payment unless it is put in escrow. They decided to dig our foundation in June 2018, yes 6 months after we agreed to build with them. In June, we were told this is going to go fast and we will have a completed home in 4 months (October). We were told to sell our home when the roof gets put on the new build. The roof was completed in August 2018, we put our house up for sale a week later. We closed on the sale of our home November 2018. We still do not have a completed home. They had put the wrong front door frame in the home, it took them 2 months to correct that. They built our master bath incorrectly 1 month ago, still has not been corrected. We paid extra money for a walk-out basement. We paid extra for a "water" lot. They put the furnace and hot water heater in the wrong place in the basement and say they do not have to follow our blueprints that was designed for what we wanted in the home. They are refusing to move the furnace and hot water heater that is placed in the middle of my basement, right in front of the doors you walk into from outside. This could not look any more ridiculous. They give us a closing date of January 9, 2019 in December 2018. Now they tell us we cannot close January 9, 2019, yes 1 year later, because they don't have the stone delivered to the home yet for the outside of the home and not sure when it will be delivered. We are asked to just wait until they find out and then we will reschedule the final walk-through and closing. In the meantime we lose our decent interest rate on the home, now we have no idea what interest rates will be by the time they complete this home. I am posting this, so that the next person they try to sweet talk into buying their "custom" home does not make the same mistake we did. If you want to build in Shorewood, I would recommend D.R. Horton, MI Homes or buy a lot and build with an independent contractor. DO NOT USE MEADOWBROOK HOMES!!!!! read more

IF you are buying from this builder, talk to other homeowners that have already bought! I gave one star because their prices are good comparatively, but they will tell you lies along the way to get you to buy. Some people have got nothing fixed that broke since the day they moved in. Once you close they could care less about you. Drive around and talk to the people that have bought. But at your own risk, there's a ton of better builders out there in Minooka and Yorkville for the same prices, don't settle. Ask any homeowner, and the closing date they were promised has come and gone. You will be left homeless with no recourse. If you have a good attorney, I'd get out of your contract, you will not be happy. read more

Everything that was stated above is absolutely true. They claim to treat you like family but that is a lie...I have been waiting over 2 months now to have my hardwood floor repaired since closing and still no confirmed date on when that will happen. Semi custom is a far stretch if it is not in the contract there is no adjusting or changing even if it is as simple as a stain color on the floors. You have to constantly monitor the work also while the home is getting built. I had caught more than a handful of mistakes myself. I would urge you to look at other builders as Meadowbrook is all about volume pumping out as many houses as they can, they do not care about the homeowners happiness at all... read more