Any experience with Sabal Homes?

[HiTempguy1]

I must have missed this thread back in October, but I'll add my two cents here:

A lot of what you are running into is the trades. Work can't happen on your house if people don't show up to do the work. If other people are waiting for the 1st group of people to finish their job, well, they ain't gettin' paid until the job is done (if they are lucky, they actually are on 90 day billing periods!) which really screws the trades around.

But in the end, the builder can only do so much. One thing you have to realize is that you can't simply pick up the phone and call a framer to frame a house right now... THERE ARE NONE. There is a huge labour shortage in Alberta, and it's only going to get worse. And once a company has the business of doing the trade work for a certain house, they are pretty loosey goosey on the schedule if they can make more money elsewhere, they are going to that job first. Or again, if they are held up at your job, back of the que your house goes and they move on where construction can be moving forward.

[cochrane-ite]

HiTemp, you're absolutely correct there is a labor shortage. Where I question you're post is how other builders in the same community are putting up the same style of home in a fraction of the time compared to my builder. Furthermore, there's no way you can tell me the scheduling department can’t inform the sales team during their weekly meetings they’re running into labor shortages and they better get that message out to the customers. Life is always easier when you bring up bad news first, rather than waiting for customers to ask the questions instead.

As I mentioned earlier, when I put my money down I was told they were operating at a 9 month process from money down to possession (and that was on the high side) when in reality it's over 12 months. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to watch other owners move into their homes because their builder can follow timelines, especially when they started this process MONTHS after I did.

I'm just happy this whole process is almost wrapped up, and like I said, I hope Sabal can keep the momentum going and finish strong!

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by cochrane-ite
Where I question you're post is how other builders in the same community are putting up the same style of home in a fraction of the time compared to my builder.

Either they have tradesmen that work directly for them, OR, they have foreman that work for them and their accounting department is ruthless with money.

I never said it couldn't be done, I'm just saying this is probably why you are experiencing this.

[Canucks3322]

Originally posted by Robnaldo


Building a house with Jayman was incredibly easy and enjoyable. Our saleslady (Ashley) was great and helped us from start to finish.

Building with Jayman Innovations in Evansridge...they have told me 6 months...just curious how long yours took??

[superflychief]

Don't hold your breath cochrane-ite. That last month is where the ball was really dropped. There was something like 1 mth till posession and for a week and a half, not a foot entered the house. There was no flooring, no lighting, no plumbing fixtures, no baseboards. They slapped it together in time but the quality definitely suffered and there were people working in my house for 2.5 days after possession and then there were 2 more trade days shortly after we moved in. Untill then everything went smoothly. When it comes to crunch time, hopefully your site super was better then the douchebag who ran my house.

[Ca_Silvia13]

Bump for an update. How did Sabal do for everyone in the end?

[cochrane-ite]

Well, I'll fill you in on my experience...

I've been meaning to post an update, but decided against it as I still have an inspection coming at my 1 year possession any don't want to risk any potential issues... but what the heck.

Outside of everything above, I'll add the following:

- sabal had an agreement with shaw that gave us free service for 6 months. Turns out this deal only applies to a few communities they build in, mine not being one of them. We were given paperwork that outlined this service and the number to call... only to have Shaw inform me I wasn't lucky enough to live in the proper community.
- on 2 separate occasions I came home to siding missing from my house. This was eventually fixed, but it took several calls and emails.
- shingles blew off my roof, aprox a 4 foot section worth. Again fixed, but took several calls / emails.
- changed services to telus, unfortunately the conduit was plugged and had to get a vac truck in. Turns out the framers/roofers dropped a 3' square section of wall crushing the power/services lines from the main grid, but didn't fix/notify anyone so they covered it when they back filled against the basement walls. Telus spent 3 days out here digging a hole roughly 14' deep to clean it up... they promptly issued a bill to Sabal for $5K according to the manager that 'popped by' to see what his crews were talking about. Fast forward a couple days the summer floods and I had a hole wash out large enough I could park a mini van in. It pulled in some of my neighbours yard and went under the parking pad. Big picture, it was totally manageable and nothing compared to what most folks had to live with in southern AB.
- siding was done very poorly... the trim was all jagged like when you cut construction paper as a kid and the corners were a mess. Imagine the vertical piece sticking out past the horizontal by an inch or so. Hard to explain, but hopefully that helps.
- faucets seized up needed replaced, little marks and bangs all over the needed to be looked at. Neighbours (I live in a side-by-side) had sparks fly out of a socket when plugging in an appliance on the island... had to get the kitchen re-wired.
- the back yard was left a mess. Siding, nails, wood etc... it was a clear example of the workmanship of their trades. I finally got them to come and clean it up... my other option was to do it myself and mail it to them at their head office. (I got this gem of an idea from a neighbour who also built with sabal. She took the chunk of dry-wall that fell on her while taking a shower direct to their head office. It was fixed quickly)

I'm not writing this to piss on anyone's leg. I'm simply outlining my experience I had with sabal. I can honestly say I will never be building with sabal again, nor am I promoting them to friends and family. You're free to make your own decisions. I tried to give sabal an honest chance, but I lost all respect for them when the customer service manager came to my house after hearing all of my issues and simply said, "all I can do is apologize"...... she never 'actually' apologize though.

All told, I've got a roof over my head (if it's not blowing too hard outside) and I'm sure I'm in a position to make some money when I sell... at which time I'll be sure to sing sabals praises to encourage a quick sale!!

Hopefully this thread helps educate some ppl. I sure as hell wish I read something like this before I put my money down with these guys.

C.

[J.M.]

^ Damn that's brutal.. I really liked a couple of their layouts.

[mago0]

*I'm really sorry for resurrecting a really old thread, but this came up on google when I was searching for Sabal homes*

I really wish I saw this thread before putting my down payment. So far, we paid our initial down deposit at the end of October to build a home in Cochrane.

In two weeks we went to trail and picked our appliances, and 2 weeks (December) after that, we met with the designer at the design studio. Fortunately, the design studio had everything we wanted and got us our first draft on the first week of January. We only needed one more appointment to sign off other design stuff, but for some reason, we couldn't sign off till Feb till 24th. Apparently, the delay was because we had a similar design to a home that was near us, but we weren't notified till Feb.

Since then..... nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's March 23rd, and we haven't heard from anyone. We were told that a permit takes two weeks. Does it really take this long? We're new home buyers, beyond, so we honestly don't know.

TLDR:
Purchased to build a home in October, and it's now nearing April and they haven't broken ground yet.

After reading this thread, I'm incredibly nervous and I feel that I've made an enormous mistake.

[superflychief]

Originally posted by mago0
*I'm really sorry for resurrecting a really old thread, but this came up on google when I was searching for Sabal homes*

I really wish I saw this thread before putting my down payment. So far, we paid our initial down deposit at the end of October to build a home in Cochrane.

In two weeks we went to trail and picked our appliances, and 2 weeks (December) after that, we met with the designer at the design studio. Fortunately, the design studio had everything we wanted and got us our first draft on the first week of January. We only needed one more appointment to sign off other design stuff, but for some reason, we couldn't sign off till Feb till 24th. Apparently, the delay was because we had a similar design to a home that was near us, but we weren't notified till Feb.

Since then..... nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's March 23rd, and we haven't heard from anyone. We were told that a permit takes two weeks. Does it really take this long? We're new home buyers, beyond, so we honestly don't know.

TLDR:
Purchased to build a home in October, and it's now nearing April and they haven't broken ground yet.

After reading this thread, I'm incredibly nervous and I feel that I've made an enormous mistake.

It does take a while from when you make your choices till when they make ground. They have to build the plans and apply for permits. Don't worry about that. Ours took a while too. Most of the problems I had with them was mistakes in the blueprints/upgrade lists, and shitty workmanship. Hopefully Cochrane will be better for you.

[kwjent]

Bump. Any update on experiences with Sabal? Would appreciate any input from someone who has built with them. Looking in mahogany. Thanks!

[shtock99]

We are currently in the last stages of paper work with them and we are having the same problem as magoo but not nearly as long. Our design studio representative told us 2 weeks she would have the final drawings for us to sign off and we are going on a month. Other then this we haven't had any issues yet.