Thanks, Thomas, for your prompt reply. This is in response
particularly to Thomas, since he said he lives in NW Harris Co.
(Anyone else is, of course, welcome to reply, and you can either
reply on the board or E-mail me.) The builder is Pulte, and it's in
Seven Meadows in South Katy. It's in Cinco Ranch, and it seems to be
an in-demand neighborhood.

We were told that we'd receive a limestone elevation (everyone on that
street receives one, as it faces Fry Road). (That elevation has now
been put on the house.) We were told that elevation would be free
(value of $10,000), and that we'd receive an additional $5000 off for
going through Pulte's mortgage company or paying cash (which we intend
to do, if we purchase the home).

We were then led to a model home, and my wife asked the salesman if
they're going to use the same materials that are in the model in the
home we are considering. He said they'd use materials of equal quality.
In the model, they showed us a nice dark granite countertop. We asked
if we'd be getting that. They said that no, the model we'd be getting
(the Thoreau) had a "tan" granite countertop. We were shown nice cherry
cabinets, but alas, they were out of the cherry; we'd be getting
maple. (He said that maple held up better than cherry anyway.) And the
closet shelves they had were wire shelves, just like we have in our
apartment. The salesman tried to hang from them, and show us how
sturdy they are, but they bent under his weight, and he's not a very
big guy at all And last time we went, we saw that they'd already put a
cheap-looking front door on the house, even though he'd said nothing
previously about a door having even been ordered. Also, the carpet in
the model home was nice and thick and plush, but the carpet sample that
he showed us was this rough-feeling thin carpet made of recycled Coke
bottles. It doesn't take an expert to evaluate the quality of the
samples vs the quality in the model home. It's plain common sense;
people can tell from looking at and feeling these materials. We said
that since, if we took the home they're building (since we like the
direction it faces and everything), we'd have to rip some of THEIR
stuff up and put in our own stuff (and the salesman said that it'd be
cheaper to do that anyway), we'd need a discount off the price of the
house. The salesman said ("I think we can take a few thousand dollars
off").

When we got back to the office, he said, "The only way I can take any
off the price of the house is if you use a realtor. Now, do you have a
realtor?" We said. "No". He said, "I know a realtor who would take
the normal 3% of commission, and then return 1% of that to you. He'd
also return the $2000 bonus (from our marketing fund that we use for
realtors only) to you. That should be enough to compensate you for not
getting exactly what you want, and you should be able to make any
changes." However, they'd offer this deal to anyone who doesn't have
a realtor; therefore, this is not really compensation for inferior
materials. There is a huge gap in quality between the materials they
showed us in the model home and the samples they showed us, even though
the materials they're putting in the house we're considering are
supposed to be upgrades, and we feel they're charging us an "upgrade"
rate for standard features.

We wonder if they'll continue to cut corners, even after we've signed
the escrow contract (which we will this Friday)..

Does this sound honest? We chose Pulte because of their reputation;
we've never purchased a house before.