I would give american west negative scores if I could. The models are supposed to look amazing for a reason. That is where quality ends however.
In april of this year, shortly after losing my father to cancer, I contracted with american west to build a two story 2900+ sq ft home in southwest las vegas. like all builders, when you have a house built from scratch, you must put down an "earnest deposit", a deposit to show your dedication to buying the house they build for you. In this case, it was 5 thousand dollars. Then you pick your upgrades for the house and you have to put down 1/3 to 1/2 of your upgrade costs as a non refundable deposit. American west starts off explaining that you can back out at anytimeup to the start of the build, and that up to the first 7 days you can get your full 5k deposit back full and complete, and after the first 7 days of giving the earnest deposit, they will start to keep a daily percentage for every day til you cancel the contract, or the actual building begins. What they don't tell you is that the daily percentage is so large that by the second week your earnest deposit is theirs and if you cancel after that you lose your e/d. Then the real bs begins.
Being a new home buyer, I knew nothing about getting my own private home inspector, until after they had finished phase 1, the foundation pouring. Luckily a friendtold me I should have an inspector inspect each phase of the build, to make sure it was done right, and that I had to inform the builder I was doing so. Let me be clear before I continue: You are completely within your rights to have your own inspector inspect the property, however the builder may try to bully you into believing you can't, or making you jump through hoops to get permission. If your builder does that, RUN!!! It means they have something to hide 99% of the time
Anyways, I requested to have permission to have my own inspector do a phase inspection. The sales agent said it would take a couple of days to get the permission. It took over a week. By the time I got permission, the house was already into phase 2, framing. Since it was taking so long to get permission, I had a good friend of mine who happens to be an ex inspector come out and take a look. He found a few things wrong but nothing major. I took the few things wrong to the sales manager, who promptly sent me a letter (she would not talk to me on the phone) stating that I could have any inspector I wanted,
however we had to come during certain times, we had to always be accompanied by a sales agent, etc. The letter went on to further state thatNO MATTER WHAT MY INSPECTOR FOUND, NOTHING WOULD BE CHANGED OR FIXED UNLESS A CLARK COUNTY INSPECTOR SAID IT WAS WRONG. Now that's all well and good, except for the fact that clark county inspectors are notorious for being so busy that they can only give the most basic of inspections on safety issues and major problems. Nothing against our county inspectors, they just don't have the time to make thorough quality control checks, they can only give the time for basic safety inspections the majority of the time.
Anyway, my few concerns were forwarded to the foreman, who first tried to conveniently forget about our meeting where I was to show him my concerns. Unfortunately for him, I have my own contacts, and was able to get his cell number and put him on the spot, after which he promised to show up the following day. After I showed him the five issues, he first blew smoke up my ass, then he fixed 2 of the issues and left 3 ignored. Since they were not big issues I let it go.
When the plumbing and outer drywall phase was completed, I had my buddy come back. Since again he was not there in an official paid capacity, he technically was not doing anything wrong. Boy was I glad he came back. The list of problems went from 3 to over 20, with some serious problems mixed in, including the ability to actually see sunlight through the drywall of the walls, an issue that basically means you have no real ability to keep the house heated and cooled, which will raise your energy bills greatly. At this point, I was so fed up that I informed them that I was backing out of the build, and would not be purchasing the house. Since by that time I was well past the first two weeks, none of my earnest deposit and none of my upgrade deposits were refundable. I ended up having to walk away from over 15 thousand dollars total. The moral of this drawn out review: NEVER BUY EVEN A STICK OF GUM FROM AMERICAN WEST HOMES. YOU WILL BE LUCKY IF ALL YOU GET FROM THE CONTRACT IS A HEADACHE
American West Development, Inc. Reviews
I would give american west negative scores if I could. The models are supposed to look amazing for a reason. That is where quality ends however.
In april of this year, shortly after losing my father to cancer, I contracted with american west to build a two story 2900+ sq ft home in southwest las vegas. like all builders, when you have a house built from scratch, you must put down an "earnest deposit", a deposit to show your dedication to buying the house they build for you. In this case, it was 5 thousand dollars. Then you pick your upgrades for the house and you have to put down 1/3 to 1/2 of your upgrade costs as a non refundable deposit. American west starts off explaining that you can back out at anytimeup to the start of the build, and that up to the first 7 days you can get your full 5k deposit back full and complete, and after the first 7 days of giving the earnest deposit, they will start to keep a daily percentage for every day til you cancel the contract, or the actual building begins. What they don't tell you is that the daily percentage is so large that by the second week your earnest deposit is theirs and if you cancel after that you lose your e/d. Then the real bs begins.
Being a new home buyer, I knew nothing about getting my own private home inspector, until after they had finished phase 1, the foundation pouring. Luckily a friendtold me I should have an inspector inspect each phase of the build, to make sure it was done right, and that I had to inform the builder I was doing so. Let me be clear before I continue: You are completely within your rights to have your own inspector inspect the property, however the builder may try to bully you into believing you can't, or making you jump through hoops to get permission. If your builder does that, RUN!!! It means they have something to hide 99% of the time
Anyways, I requested to have permission to have my own inspector do a phase inspection. The sales agent said it would take a couple of days to get the permission. It took over a week. By the time I got permission, the house was already into phase 2, framing. Since it was taking so long to get permission, I had a good friend of mine who happens to be an ex inspector come out and take a look. He found a few things wrong but nothing major. I took the few things wrong to the sales manager, who promptly sent me a letter (she would not talk to me on the phone) stating that I could have any inspector I wanted,
however we had to come during certain times, we had to always be accompanied by a sales agent, etc. The letter went on to further state thatNO MATTER WHAT MY INSPECTOR FOUND, NOTHING WOULD BE CHANGED OR FIXED UNLESS A CLARK COUNTY INSPECTOR SAID IT WAS WRONG. Now that's all well and good, except for the fact that clark county inspectors are notorious for being so busy that they can only give the most basic of inspections on safety issues and major problems. Nothing against our county inspectors, they just don't have the time to make thorough quality control checks, they can only give the time for basic safety inspections the majority of the time.
Anyway, my few concerns were forwarded to the foreman, who first tried to conveniently forget about our meeting where I was to show him my concerns. Unfortunately for him, I have my own contacts, and was able to get his cell number and put him on the spot, after which he promised to show up the following day. After I showed him the five issues, he first blew smoke up my ass, then he fixed 2 of the issues and left 3 ignored. Since they were not big issues I let it go.
When the plumbing and outer drywall phase was completed, I had my buddy come back. Since again he was not there in an official paid capacity, he technically was not doing anything wrong. Boy was I glad he came back. The list of problems went from 3 to over 20, with some serious problems mixed in, including the ability to actually see sunlight through the drywall of the walls, an issue that basically means you have no real ability to keep the house heated and cooled, which will raise your energy bills greatly. At this point, I was so fed up that I informed them that I was backing out of the build, and would not be purchasing the house. Since by that time I was well past the first two weeks, none of my earnest deposit and none of my upgrade deposits were refundable. I ended up having to walk away from over 15 thousand dollars total. The moral of this drawn out review: NEVER BUY EVEN A STICK OF GUM FROM AMERICAN WEST HOMES. YOU WILL BE LUCKY IF ALL YOU GET FROM THE CONTRACT IS A HEADACHE