Perry Homes is one of the many builders in the Edmonton area, and they have really beautiful show homes. Last year my husband and I decided to explore the option of building a home, and wanted to go with a custom builder, as we had fairly clear ideas of the floor plan we wanted, and family in the trades we wanted to complete some of the work. We approached a number of builders in the area we wanted, with square footage in mind, a budget and floor plan. The Perry show home was my favorite, and they worked out a cost per square foot that was comfortably within our budget, with their max cost per square foot (which they claimed included upgrades and extra finishing details) still within what we could afford.
Over a period of approximately six months we worked with a Perry associate to try to come to an agreement on a floor plan. Perry claims they are a custom builder, but their draft design team seemed totally unable to take our sketches and put them into a floor plan. We were using a plan they already had, but our floor plans kept coming back with things we had explicitly specified we didn't want. Some examples: I wanted a separate master closet that didn't enter through the bathroom, and we kept getting emails saying they couldn't do that (what?), or enlarging a den and shrinking the kitchen when we asked for the opposite, putting the laundry room on the wrong floor, etc. It took forever between revisions, and we had to renew our lot on hold twice. Every time we would get a floor plan back, we would go that day to the show home and try and revise it (again with the same list and drawings we gave them initially), and it would be 10-14 days before we would hear back.
After many months of this, we had a floor plan that was close enough to what we wanted (but still lacking in some key details) to proceed with getting a contract and pricing. The estimate from the builder came back more than $100 000 over the very top of our budget, with zero upgrades and none of the work we asked to be included (like a short roof overhang for a BBQ in the backyard). The cost per square foot was well above the initial quoted "max per foot" we were given when we started the process. We were told that was because so much time had passed, and the market had sped up but I don't feel like this was our fault, as we were at the Perry office or show home 2-3 times a week trying to hurry them along so we could break ground on a house.
We had to walk away from the whole thing, and after six months and so many hours spent, it was a little heartbreaking. The sales associate we worked with was a great guy and we enjoyed him a lot, but the whole experience was pretty poor. I wish I could write a review about the building experience, but we just weren't able to get there. read more
