Pinn Brothers Construction Co.

Overall my Pinn Brothers experience is a mixed bag. I have a townhome in the St. Elizabeth Park development, purchased 2008. Purchasing: I went with my own mortgage broker and real estate agent. I do not recommend using their broker or going in without your own agent. I have heard too many issues from neighbors about that bought after the housing bubble collapsed. You really want people on your side of the deal. It will cost you more, but that is not money you want to save on. Construction: The quality can be hit and miss, depending on how finished your unit was when the housing bubble collapsed - this really applies to ALL builders. In some areas they have modern touches in others the design falls flat, in particular the lack of dual zone HVAC. To be fair most homes in the bay area do not have this, but this is a requirement for certain energy saver status. Personally my PGE bills have been reasonable, winter ~$70 summer ~$150. Don't look at the fancy touches but pay attention to the floor plan and things like W/D location and HVAC, that are cost probative to change later. Customer Service: I have had some issues with my unit that have required warranty service. No new home is without flaws, period. Getting this resolved can be hit and miss, items that their staff handymen can deal with usually get resolved quickly, other stuff depends. The best advice here is to really stay on top of the customer service and keep pressure on to get the issues resolve, but stay polite, cool headed, and patient. Also REALLY go over your home carefully looking for issues right before and after you move in, there is a temptation to rush through the final inspection, it is your job to be picky before close of escrow. Pay special attention to, caulk in kitchen and showers, hot and cold water runs, both heat and AC turn on, electrical switches actually exists in all places they should, AC vents exists where they should. (you would be surprised the number of things that the drywall sub forgets to cut out). St. Elizabeth Park: Love the location, the general design of the units is to my liking. With a park and daycare literally next door, plus ok school district make this a good family location (don't have a family myself). Walking distance to starbucks Generally speaking this is a quiet neighbor hood. I do not hear my neighbors TV or music etc. through the walls, except during the one or two parties they have a year. It could probably be a tiny bit better, but there are limits to what can be done in wood frame townhomes, some sound does carry through framing. If sound is a big issue for you townhomes / condos are not for you. Pros: location - St. Elizabeth Park Cons: customer service sometimes slow to respond more

I attempted to buy a condo in phase I and am happy it did not work out. For one- they could not keep their word to save their lives. Almost every commitment they made they failed on and there was a constant flow of misinformation from the salespeople. After three months of waiting for the agreement- thankfully we pulled out and got our deposit back. After seeing that these have not sold (and probably won't) and that the construction is not nearly complete- I feel sorry for those who did. I hear Pinn is in debt and would watch for them walking from the project. Nothing like sinking over $500K into a house that is surrounded by incomplete construction. Pros: location Cons: liars, inexperienced sales staff, over-priced, undervalued more

I have been waiting to close escrow for over a month now. The purchase agreement stated that the close of escrow shall be on or before 1/15/2009. On 1/16 we were informed that the Mortgage broker was awaiting a letter to approve an FHA loan. In front of the new construction condo sales office there is a huge, orange banner ""FHA loans accepted, 3% down"". Our purchase agreement has Phase I printed on it, yet we are purchasing in Phase II.\r \r \r We are so upset, do not want to give any more money to these crooks and want to cancel the purchase agreement. This was suppose to be a goodn experience it has turned into a nightmare. I have an appointment with an attorney to see what we can do. We paid a $10k deposit and $7800 in upgrades, we want that money back.\r \r \r Also, Pinn has all kinds of Mechanic liens filed on the property for not paying for work completed.\r \r Stay away from new construction, builders and definitely stay away from Pinn Bros. The company Alta who negociates on Pinns behalf is horrible too, poor people skills, lots of mistakes. Cons: Liars, thiefs, dishonest, poor customer service more

I have pruchased home in ORchard heights in San Jose Evergreen area. Home has fundamental design, Quality of material and basic installation issues. When contacting Pinns bros, they take no ownership other than sun-contractor making very poor excuses and than flat out say the flaws are business as usual. Pinn Bros. management team has built a wall between themself and providing single point contact. There is alot of promises and lip service than action. Within first six months, we had over 50 issues with the homes. Sub-contractors they hire will tell you that problem is due to Pinn bros cutting cost and selecting poor installation. I would never recommend anybody buying Pinn Bros. They do not stand behind their product. more

We bought a Pinn Bros home a little over 2 years ago. Simply put:\r The quality is extremely poor, customer service has been horrible and we have discovered numerous and blatant code violations throughout our home. We have made numerous complaints about windy drafts in our home over the last 2+ years and Pinn customer service has done nothing but attempt to deflect our issue. We recently decided to open the wall and have discovered some walls in our home were never insulated. PInn has demonstrated that they have no integrity . We do not recommend purchasing a Pinn home. more

I am a new ""new home"" owner. Liked the model homes. But after moving in and living in there for about 1 year, I started to see problems that were overlooked or unexpected. The design is poor and not very user-friendly. It is lack of standard features that most new homes now have, such as dual-zone heating/cooling. It doesnot take energy saving into consideration. Pinn Brothers is probably one of the few home builders that has not been certified as energy-star home builders. What's more, they don't have customer service. They seem to have only one employee to deal with customer requests/complaints and that person is very slow, lazy, rude, dishonest and unprofessional. Their new home price has dropped almost 20% last year and it's still going down. Yeah, they even laughed at people who bought their homes from Pinn Brothers at higher prices. So, if you don't want to buy a home and be teased later, stay away from Pinn Brothers. more