Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the best home builder of them all?
October 17, 2004 -
In San Diego County, the answer to that question is Greystone Homes among large production builders, according to an annual survey of home-buyer satisfaction conducted by J.D. Power and Associates.
But Greystone won't be able to bank on the survey results for long. The builder's parent company, Florida-based Lennar Corp., is phasing out the Greystone name.
"Sometime next year, the Greystone name will cease to exist," said Mike Levesque, president of Greystone and of Lennar's San Diego division based in Carlsbad.
After that, the builder's projects will be marketed under the Lennar name. Greystone hopes to close approximately 700 sales this year in the San Diego area at projects along the Route 78 corridor in North County and in eastern Chula Vista.
This year, for the first time, Power separated the San Diego market from the rest of Southern California in determining the builder rankings, which were based on sales closed in 2003. The survey first was conducted in 1997.
Second and third after Greystone in the results were Standard Pacific Homes and Pulte Homes, which ranked first nationally by placing first in 14 of the 25 markets surveyed. Oakwood Development was last among the 14 area builders ranked.
For home buyers, the survey also showed that when it comes to satisfied customers, the overall rank of the region's big builders was well below 20 of the 25 major markets in the United States surveyed by Power. Satisfaction was highest in the booming Las Vegas area.
The Power "satisfaction index," based on nine weighted factors, placed the national average at 112. Las Vegas had a score of 123, while San Diego rated 106, ahead of Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Fla.
The nine criteria used in the survey were customer service, home readiness, builders' sales staff, quality of materials and workmanship, price and value, design elements, the design center, recreational facilities and location.
The San Diego County rankings were determined from 1,222 responses sent by recent home buyers directly to Power.
To be included, builders must have closed 150 or more sales in San Diego County in 2003. Sales in southern Riverside County, a growing bedroom community for many San Diego County workers because of more affordable housing prices, were not included in the results.
J.D. Power, based in Westlake Village, said Greystone's top ranking was due mainly to "strong performances in the areas of customer service, home readiness, sales staff, quality of workmanship/materials, price/value and design center."
Levesque, who is also president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego County, credited the company's customer service program for achieving the results.
"We've gone from a reactive customer service department to a proactive department," he said. "Maintenance is done at regularly scheduled intervals instead of waiting for the homeowner to tell us it needs to be done."
"We've established times at 30, 90, 180 and 360 days (after closing) to go in and provide warranty service, maintenance and reinforce home maintenance issues with buyers," he said.
Power is best known for its satisfaction rankings of new-car buyers, but it conducts research in other major consumer categories, including home building, fast food restaurants and wireless telephone service providers.
The importance of the Power survey among home buyers is growing, said Paul Cardis, chief executive of NRS Corp. in Madison, Wis., which issues a similar customer satisfaction survey for the building industry that is presented by Professional Builder magazine.
The NRS survey, which does not break down results for individual markets, found that Pulte Homes' Phoenix division was first in customer satisfaction among builders with 500 or more closings in 2003.
The results of such surveys are used prominently by builders in their advertising. Pulte, for example, showcases its results in the Power rankings prominently on its Web site.
Still, some say the Power survey is flawed because it only rates the biggest home builders, and leaves out smaller, quality builders.
"I think it's fair to rate them. Ultimately, the consumer wants higher quality," said Cardis. "The companies that survive will be those delivering a superior experience for the buyer."
In a separate study released last month, NRS found that customer satisfaction rankings were deemed important by 72 percent of homeowners surveyed who thought them useful in their buying decisions.
"As consolidation in the building industry intensifies, there's a fierce fight among larger builders to have referral sales," said Cardis. "The best builders can drive that up to 50 percent."
Attorney Thomas E. Miller, who has developed a practice specializing in construction defect cases, said he has seen many builders improve their after-sale performance for buyers, perhaps as a result of increased litigation over poor construction.
He said he still had problems with the annual Power rankings and the fact that Power markets its survey directly to builders, as well as releasing it to the public. He described some of the Power questions as "softball."
"Power is a reputable firm," responded Levesque. "The bottom line is they send out a survey without builder input. I can't influence it in any way, shape or form."
Carl Larsen: (619) 293-2075
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