Senator Homes

Well, i am very happy this site has continued on. Our experience has not been good at all thus far with the purchase of our home in Barrie at the LAKESIDE COVE DEVELOPMENT by SENATOR HOMES. We were very excited with the location and the models being offered and the fact that this was to be an upscale home! Well, how wrong we were. The sales people were very nice when you were an interested potential purchaser. They would show you all of the features and explain the fine appointments that would be included in the purchase of a home from Senator. In fact, they had a sample board with samples of tile, hardwood, granite, carpet etc. So we signed and were excited based on the information they had provided and shown us. As time had passed, more information had become available, we noticed that some of the standard goods shown to us at the sales office are actually upgrades. We were told a certain level of cabinets would be available through-out the entire home, we were shown lovely standard tile at the sales center, we were shown several colors of standard hardwood. Not so!! The cabinetry promissed was only available in the kitchen and the rest of the house was a lower level cabinet, the tile selection at the decor center was absolutely brutal, and there is only one color of hardwood available standard. Now, the cabinetry issue has been rectified (thanks to all of the purchasers who raised a stink and stood up for what they were told/promissed), the standard tile selection has been improved but is still brutal for an upscale home (once again thanks to all of our collective complaints and dissatisfaction). The hardwood will set you back about 5-10k (depending on the size of your home) just to change the color. This is a pre-finished floor (this has not been rectified)!!!If you were told you can makes changes to your home, this is true. However, a minor detail was left out. It will cost you $150 each and every time you make ANY change at all even if its less work/cost/material for Senator. The communication has been non-existant with the builder either. They will return your calls, follow-up with you regulary when you are thinking of buying! However, once you have bought, they disappear. We have to pick up the phone every so often just make sure they are still in business because we have not heard from them. When we have gone to visit the sales office, the sales lady has asked us to leave when other potential buyers are in the office. What kind of gratitude is that for spending well over $550k?? TO ALL PURCHASERS, if you have been promissed something and senator has failed to deliver or is wanting to charge you for it, post it here. It is wrong for Senator to mislead and take advantage of people like us who have given them our hard earned money. POTENTIAL PURCHASERS, please post your questions/concerns here and i am sure a purchaser/s will be happy to answer your questions based on our experience/s. SENATOR HOME OWNERS FROM ANOTHER SITE: please give us your feedback too. There are many, many good builders out there. It is very easy to find out who they are, just google them and read the customer reviews/blogs. The days of people lining up to buy homes is gone. The days when builders could do whatever they wanted like a “take it or leave it” approach is looong gone. Senator has only sold about 30 homes out of 75 in phase 1 since October 2007. NEARLY ALL 30 purchasers are unhappy. What does that tell you? SENATOR needs to re-evaluate the definition of upscale because what we are getting for our money is DEFINITELY not upscale. Like most, all we want is what were told and promissed. We were excited to buy in this development and that has been lost.
SENATOR HOMES, if you are reading this, re-evaluate your standard offerings, give us the “UPSCALE” home you promissed us and turn us unhappy purchaser into ambassadors for you product and home. There is VERY LITTLE cost for you to come good on your promise of an “UPSCALE” home. Offer rounded corners standard, offer smooth ceilings or a knock down ceiling standard, offer level 2 or 3 of tile standard not the junk you have now, offer choice of color for hardwwod flooring without cost, dont charge the rediculous $150 for any little change. These are subtle changes with minimal cost to the builder and will make a huge difference in the morale of purchasers who feel ripepd off. I want to post a positive comment but i just cant with the experince we have had thus far. The ball is in your court SENATOR HOMES!!!!!!!!!