Construction & Closing
Construction
From the start, it appeared that Kolter was well-organized. Once the contract was signed, Kolter created a schedule of milestone events - such as a date to select structural changes/options (such as adding a screened porch, extending the garage, etc.); one entire day to select options in the Design Center (flooring, cabinetry, etc.); a pre-dry wall walkthrough, etc. Sounded good to us! But as construction began, dates were unilaterally
changed by Kolter with little or no advance warning to us and were presented to us as dictates. Being out-of-state, it was a real effort for us to alter our schedules, arrange hotels, and drive down to Charlotte to attend meetings. Kolter showed no respect for our time, calling a day before they wanted to meet us at the site, with no regard to our own schedules and the fact that we were 5.5 hrs away. Was this a harbinger of things to come? We started to wonder.
The basic construction of the house seemed to be very good. Walls, joists, etc., are constructed off-site and then set in place on the slab. The lumber used was very good quality, and the construction of the various building components was solid. We were a bit disturbed to see that the concrete slab had already developed surface cracks, but Kolter assured us that these were minor and would present no problems in the future. Update: This is not true. Those slab cracks have resulted in cracked flooring tiles. As explained to us by Jamie during our 11-month punch-list review, Kolter does not use "gator mat" over the spacings between cement floor slabs, and this causes tile to crack along those cement seams.
The basic construction of the house seemed to be very good. Walls, joists, etc., are constructed off-site and then set in place on the slab. The lumber used was very good quality, and the construction of the various building components was solid. We were a bit disturbed to see that the concrete slab had already developed surface cracks, but Kolter assured us that these were minor and would present no problems in the future. Update: This is not true. Those slab cracks have resulted in cracked flooring tiles. As explained to us by Jamie during our 11-month punch-list review, Kolter does not use "gator mat" over the spacings between cement floor slabs, and this causes tile to crack along those cement seams.
Closing
Being from out-of-state, we did not have the luxury of visiting our home every day to watch the construction, as many of our neighbors did since they were local to Charlotte NC. We did come down for an “open wall” walk-through to check on the placements of doors, windows, electrical outlets, plumbing, etc. That initial construction looked very good.
As it turned out, the home was not ready in late November/early December. We got a phone call from Kolter HQ in Florida stating that our closing was being scheduled for December 26th. When I explained to Kolter that we were planning on being with our family in another state even further away from Charlotte the week between Christmas and New Years, we were met with severe resistance. When I refused to alter our family plans, Kolter then tried to get us to close on December 23rd. As we had been planning on driving to our relatives on December 23rd, we were reluctant but finally agreed to the 23rd.
When we came down for the pre-closing walk-through, we found out that there was no way they were going to have the house ready to close on December 23rd. Closing was then scheduled for January 5th, 2018. In hindsight, we should have recognized what the pressure from Kolter to close before the end of the year was: Kolter management were desperate to achieve their performance sales goals to receive their annual bonuses.
When we came down for the closing on January 5th, we were given less than an hour before closing to inspect the house. The temperature was below freezing and the house was in the process of being cleaned and a variety of subs were scurrying around the house. What was particularly odd was that Alan, our home's construction manager, showed up at the house, introduced a new person, Jim, said that Jim would be doing our walk-through, and he left. Hmmm....
With the below-freezing weather, the windows could not be washed but we were told that, as soon as the weather permitted, the window washers would come back to do the job. We were rushed through our new home and sent over to the Sales Office to do the actual closing. We had a fairly lengthy list of items to be addressed from our cursory walk-through and were guaranteed that those items would be taken care of “ASAP”.
Our first mistake – we should never have closed that day. The second, we should have hired a professional home inspector to go through the house tooth-&-nail, but being new construction, we never thought that was necessary. Those two mistakes wound up being very costly to us.
Our suggestion to all prospective buyers in Kolter Cresswind Charlotte is to
hire a professional home inspector to inspect the home before you close!