Pacesetter Homes

The buying process was a great experience. There were lots of floor plans to choose from, and they let us do whatever customization that we wanted. We dealt with David and Victoria, they were amazing! We contacted them a lot throughout the build, they responded quickly and were happy to help. They would let us in to see updates of our house frequently with short notice which we really appreciated.

The design center had many choices but we felt like we had to upgrade everything as the standard choices were not good. For a lot of the upgrades it is very expensive. I felt like they were nickel and diming us over every little choice. We had a girl who it was her first solo appointment, she was wonderful and everyone has to learn but it was a 9 hour appointment and some of the pricing got very mixed up at the end. But overall the design appointment went very well.

Our home was supposed to be completed by September 2018. We did not move until mid January 2019. So quite a delay. It was annoying but at least we were living with family in the mean time. We tried to have the possession date moved up by 1 week because it would have worked much better with our jobs and families who were helping us move (they had delayed it 4 months already and couldn't move it 1 week, we felt like we weren't asking for a lot). Also pretty much none of the seasonal items were done ( they had all summer to do that, considering the house was supposed to be ready for September). The parging on foundation, trim paint, painting the front door window portion are some of the items, the driveway was done but I had to push very hard to get it done before it got cold.

Our site supervisor was Steve. He was easy to contact when we had questions or concerns and replied quickly. There were quite a few things at our pre possession walk through that needed to be corrected. Some things were wrong from the blueprint which needed to be changed. One thing was that our walk in closet was supposed to have two rows of shelving but they had only hung one. Steve was quite difficult to deal with about fixing it, he said that since it is not on the addendum then it is not correct. When it clearly stated that on the blueprint there should be two shelves.They said that the person who made the blueprint made a mistake adding the shelf and that it should not have been there, so he had to contact someone higher up to approve this. It took days to sort out but they ended up fixing it a few days before move in. Multiple other things with the walk through I would bring up and would get the response "well its supposed to be like that". For example we had double doors to a closet in the basement and there was a huge gap in between the doors, you could see into the closet. He stated that they are french doors and they are supposed to be like that. But our double doors upstairs were perfectly fine. So long story short most of my complaints were fixed but it felt like an annoyance to bring up. Before walk in we asked them to clean up the yard multiple times as there were lots of wood with nails, sharp metal pieces and empty paint cans. We have two dogs who would be using that space to go to the bathroom so it was very important for it to be safe for them. They never did clean it up so we had to clean it up once we moved in.
For the quality of the build everything so far seems pretty good. We have only been in the home for 2 months. The cabinets and counter tops are beautiful and very good quality. The flooring was the best upgrade by far, we got vinyl plank. The dry walling for our house is horrendous, so many imperfections. They do not cover fixing paint afterwards which is unfortunate because now we have found so many problems. When they painted they got a lot of paint on the vinyl plank and tile (we are still finding spots to clean off a couple months later). We also paid a lot of money to have black iron railing installed which at the walk through was covered in paint. They were able to clean most of it off but there is still some left which we will address at our first warranty walk through.

We had Connie for our possession day walk through. She was wonderful, super friendly. She was great at explaining everything and helped us pick out the little things that we were missing. Our pocket door to our half bath was very short so you could see the back of the door, and the wall had a large gap and was very bowed. She advocated for me when Steve said that it was supposed to be that way. So I appreciated that she was there!

Overall it was a good experience and I would probably recommend them with a couple warnings.

Had a custom home built terrible job not even a year past and drive way is covered in cracks and sinking same with garage and basement. Drywall you can see tape and mud through paint and paint is lacking through out house same with base boards and there discoloring due to lack of paint. Carpet has tacks sticking out. Gas line not to code could be washed out over time causing leaks. There warranty department is a joke good luck getting anything fixed it’s a fight to the bitter end and they fixed 10% of what was wrong then pushed the rest to the end of warranty and didn’t fix the rest. I would have been happy if they had just fixed the concrete. Now I fear of the cost of fixing the gaping cracks in my basement that are now starting to sink. This is what they give you for a 500k + price tag a cheap poorly built home. Thanks for the headache pacesetter.

First of all, I didn't pay for the repair and it was not done yet.

It should be noted that this issue exists since last year (2018), and we reported to the Pacesetter Warranty team last summer and kept updating more photos (more cracks). The attached photo shows the minor one. The widest crack is already >3mm and 30 cm in length.

At one year trades (Feb 2019), the Pacesetter inspector told us he was going to report the foundation cracks issue AGAIN to the Warranty team to let them do contact “concrete expert” to inspect the foundation before any parge repair. All SIX penetrating vertical cracks found in the garage foundation are 20-30 cm in length, 1-3 mm in width. They are noticeable both inside and outside of the garage (lined up), even the outside parging started cracking since last summer. We got totally ignored by Warranty team since last year.

What their recent response is “The foundation cracks are hairline cracks. The correct repair is to parge over the cracks. The cracks show no evidence of leaking and therefore more intensive inspections or repairs are not required. “ from Shelly Pacesetter Warranty team.
With limited knowledge and impatience, she just tried to cover all the defects of the house. In her email, she attached the photos last summer when the cracks were not that serious that time. Why don't you use the updated photos?

Excuse me, Miss Weinmeyer. How can you confirm no leaking, no serious structural damage? By visual on the computer? A 2 mm wide crack is hairline? Typing in the office is always easy, right?! The inspector at least stood in the chilly -20oC wind outside to check all the reported issues.

It is ridiculous that the inspector didn’t know what the issue was about when arriving at my home every time. Then, I figured it out that Warranty team didn’t send him photos we attached in the report every time. Now, I realized that the Warranty team would NOT read the report from their inspectors either.
The inspector wrote twice on his iPad and sent the message to Warranty team to request more accurate concrete quality inspection.

In a word, the truth is that Pacesetter builder/ contractors use only acceptable materials to build your home! Even the inspector himself is speechless once saw what I showed him in my house. After sales, Warranty team ignore you, and do their best to decline any necessary inspection and repair. If needed, I would be more than happy to share the photos to public to let them know Pacesetter house quality and your business.

I bought Mandeline house from Pacesetter which is post on website is 1831 sq ft but when I paid everything and they built the house and give me the house plan show only 1731 sq feet. Is it wrong advertisement?

I met with pacesetter team in August of 2018, they had many different styles and types of home they offered. The team was very willing to answer any questions I had and helped create a home tailored to my requests. My house will be done in March 2019 and it's already looking perfect. The construction is very well done, with high grade materials. Very pleased and would recommend to anyone looking to buy a new home.

Pacesetter was very helpful to me and my husband when we were on the hunt for a new starter home to buy. With the wonderful help from our rep Cassandra we were able to make everything work out and get everything we wanted and everyone was very friendly and helpful!

Pacesetter sales manager Kelly who is very nice guy help me a lots and his assistant Judy Very patient. From picked lot until diced house colour. Now my house almost perssition everything all satisfied that’s why I give five stars

Subcontractors skills seems to be worse than few years back

The new home warranty program
Crews come extremely slow
Inspector has limited knowledge of residential house
Have to hassle the warranty department to make a date for commission
And dead end most of the time

Referral bonus is a hoax. Referred some friends to Pacesetter and never received a cheque. When our friends followed up with their sales team we learned that they had actually forgotten to fill out the paper work for the referral - Pacesetter is refusing to honor the referral despite this being their mistake.

Countless other issues with Pacesetter as well:
-A month before our possession date we were told that we would need to pay an additional $3000 for an air intake system because of the kitchen fan we had chosen (they neglected to inform us when we had sent them our appliance selections a year and a half prior...)
-The house was a mess on our possession day (sawdust all over, painters in our home for hours after possession as they forgot to paint a large section of the home)
-Poor workmanship (our basement floor was sloping to one side...)
-staff are constantly late for warranty appointments, trades days etc. (most recently, a technician was 4hrs late - apparently their staff member did not show up to work - they did not give us a courtesy call to inform us); Pacesetter is inconsiderate of the fact that people take time off work to accommodate appointments
-Lack of urgency when addressing any issues, we have had outstanding warranty issues that have not been addressed for over a year now - ‘seasonal items’ will be continually pushed back year after year

I could go on and on about the issues we have had with this builder. If you’re looking for a quality home and good customer service, I would look elsewhere.