Morrison Homes

We went to visit a spec home that was still in framing stage. We were told our house was full of upgrades and the kitchen was the gourmet style with the wall oven and microwave. When we went to the house to see the development the cabinets showed that it wasn't a wall mount oven. When we asked the area manager he said that was never included which was wrong as on the walk through plus discussion at the show home was explained to us in detail the kitchen we would be getting. Now they are saying to pay for it as an upgrade but it's unfair to us and we will not pay anything extra for something that should have been already there.

We purchased our "dream home" with Morrison Homes in Edmonton McConachie. We spent a significant amount of money to only have problems after the documents were finalized & the money was owed. The year after our possession we ran into more problems with no insulation under the bonus room/above our garage or in our child's exterior wall. We could hold a lighter to the plug-in's during the winter to only have the flame go out because of no insulation. A warranty tech for the company told us to close many of our air vents to push warmer air to the bonus room *(Randy)! Rather than wanting to fix the problem. The stairs creak after a few months & the ceiling upstairs & in the bathroom has cracked. The outside hose bib broke. Resulting in water damage in our basement. Our house is just over a year old & the issues continue. There is 1 individual at Morrison Homes that has 'saved' our sanity (thanks Brett) but the people who take your money, the people above Brett & the contractors who are paid for the work are not worth it. Spend your money elsewhere.

Our experience with Morrison has been overall very positive. The sales team at Nolan Hill was exceptional, and very knowledgeable. Brad has a lot of experience and he was able to answer any questions we had about the home, and often provided very good suggestions catered to our situation.

Krista and Michelle were very helpful in assisting us with any issues which we identified throughout the building process. While the building process was not perfect, any issues we identified were resolved in a timely manner. Being able to access the house at any time to check the progress was very helpful for us to feel comfortable.

The interior design process was a bit more frustrating. While our designer was enthusiastic, and offered us a lot of interior design ideas (especially the kitchen!). However, she was a bit unorganized with the paperwork and change orders.

Our experience so far with the after possession team has been positive. The after sales warranty team gave us a very thorough tour of the home and was very upfront with any small problems with the home. All minor imperfections were identified and scheduled to be fixed.

We hope the rest of the warranty period will continue to be pleasant - we had a great experience with the Morrison team and are very happy with our new home!

BUYER BEWARE

General info
We contacted Morrison Homes upon our return to Calgary (after 10years away) to build a house for our family of 5, based on the 11 time builder of the year.

The initial experience was great, until we signed on the dotted line. We purchased an estate level house for build in Mahogany.

The build process was similar from what we have heard from our friends and family that have built similar calibre homes. However, it seemed that Morrison was banking on that 11 time builder of the year accolade and the prices reflected it as (but I guess you pay for quality and re-assurance). We budgeted for $1 million home, and this put us into the estate level standards and floor plans. They are busy and so they have separated their process into stages...which is geared to helping the build complete in an optimal period, however, as you get through each stage you are continuously upgrading as you realize the standard levels are very basic (or priced at a bear minimum/sq foot) which leaves the upgrades being quite costly. Just when you think you are done.....it is not.

Ie) Estate basic standard----plugs/switches were the old style round plugs---common since the 70's, 80's 90's. You would upgrade to the DECORA SWITCH which is the square plug (you see in all showhomes)...its an upgrade!!! And we didnt find out until we asked a stupid question!!!! We told another couple after they already signed off, and they were told $5.00 per outlet to upgrade and $10.00 per switch. (kind of nominal considering this is an ESTATE LEVEL HOME)!!!

Also, we had questioned the pricing. The people you deal with are great. They will show you the products they have in store in their show room, however, for the pricing...we found that much of it was done by another person internally in their costing department (someone who is NOT emotionally connected to the customer; kind of like the dentist who will fix your teeth...but sends you to the business manager to show you the price.) They know that you have already signed..so you are committed to building...and you are trapped. We knew we wanted upgrades and understood we had to pay for it....but towards the end it got so bad we started shopping the costs and found that pricing was very pricey through Morrison (ie...tiling on backsplash $3000.00 through Morrison whereas we found $1400.00 through tiling company using exact same tiles). And certain items they had not prepared for correctly (ie) they charge to put in a Barn door in our den, but neglected to put in a case to finish it off from the inside (there was a gap, this should have been known and accounted for)..When we brought it to their attention...they indicated they could fix but for additional cost.

All and all, the build process wasn't overly great...at the end of it we felt that Morrison's build process was designed to maximize upsells/upgrades.

POST POSESSION \\ BUYER BEWARE

At our possession walk through we were able to identify deficiencies which is a part of the warranty work. We had come various items which were to be expected. Small caulking, paint...etc. However, when it came to the flooring we had noticed throughout the Hardwood flooring...there were paint drips all over the floor. In one area...you could see that they tried to clean up the mess, but made it worse. It was bad enough that after inspecting just the great room and dining room---the walk through representative said---its obviously around the whole main floor. As this was a common area where our guests would spend much time... we upgraded our flooring to the 2nd highest level Morrison offered with a SIGNIFICANT surcharge, A white oak 7" board hand scrapped wood. We have identified areas to Morrison showing paint marks within boards (Morrison keeps saying this is normal due to drywall dust etc)...and white residue patches where the painter attempted to clean the paint. It has been 6 months, 2 treatments later, 3rd one pending (now a replacement of quite a few boards) we have been last advised by Morrison Management that they have attempted to do what they can...but,
"In reviewing your concern about the discoloration in the wood grains on your flooring against the Alberta New Home Warranty standards, we feel those standards would not consider the discoloration to be a defect."

Basically, they screwed up our floor (not a manufactures defect or natural staining)...and I will have to live with Paint drips on my expensive floor. The Painter attempted to clean up the original paint drops and left a light white residue patch(not visible during with sunlight; only visible at night). I fail to understand why they don't seem to think they need to fix it completely to the original state. I am pretty sure the Alberta new home warranty and the standards created are against manufacturers defects......not for Contractor issues. But Morrison management does not consider discoloration due to this paint to be a defect worthy of being fixed.

I paid the price based on Morrison's reputation. And this is how they would treat me a new home build for their screw up. I am planning to move again in the next 5 years (hopefully to a bigger and better place), but having received this last comment shows the companies true colors. HOW CAN I TRUST them irrespective of whether I was building a $500K home or a $2million home. Would you??

They are working at fixing most of the other deficiencies but this is to be expected of any builder warranty.

At the end of the day comparing notes with our Group of friends Millenium Plus Homes (build all around the city) and Cooke Custom Homes (in Watermark) all build Estate level homes but scored better on Pricing/value and service (very quick to resolve issuing including major ones; we are the only ones with a major unresolved issue longer than 3 months).

We have since spoken with neighbours who built with Morrison and comparing notes and It is surprising to hear the similar comments from the others, each one of us thinking it was a unique situation limited to our builds). This is a big investment for many----go walk around the new build communities and ask the homeowners for their thoughts on the builder. I wish I had instead of relying on an accolade of Builder of the year.

Great sales team, horrible customer service after everything is signed off.

We had an issue with our paint colour in our estate home. During the selection process we had asked the interior designers, who were assigned to work with us, for a light colour interior (light coloured walls) and they recommended a specific colour (which we only saw in a 3 inch x 2 inch colour sample). Since this colour was suggested by the interior designers as a light colour choice we took their professional advice for it and selected this colour for our home. Design services from accredited designers have the responsibility to obtain the vision the future homeowners desire otherwise what is their purpose if it is only to record choices made solely by the purchaser(s). As with anything else in life, when there has been some advice given in error, professionals will assist in rectifying. This was not the case with Morrison Homes.

As an added note, we had to go through 3 designers during this process as the previous designers left to move on to a different company and left us with the added task of having to repeat ourselves over and over to the next designer would take on our account and make sure that we explain to them our requirement of a light colour interior (light coloured walls). This is the reason we chose to build our house as opposed to purchase one. This builder also asked us to fit 9 hours of meetings in approximately 5 days as we were pending to leave on an extended holiday out of country and they really wanted to have selections made and sent to their head office so THEY can keep on schedule. We sacrificed out heavy work schedules to accommodate them and when we wanted upgrade prices at the times of this meeting their designers were not equipped with that information. The meetings were stressful and long and if we took time to deliberate on anything we found some negative feeling attitude towards us. It is very important to know dollars upfront when deciding on where to spend money on upgrades. With the designers arms crossed and waiting for a response on paint color we went with her recommendation.

A few months later when the painters painted the walls with this colour we realized that this paint colour was quite dark and not light and airy as we had requested (as we had also selected a dark espresso brown hardwood colour for our floors along with oil rubbed bronze lighting and fixtures which is also dark in hue.

We went immediately back to Morrison and requested to address this issue as we had clearly requested light colour walls and what we had received were dark walls. Their response was that we should pay an extra $4,200 to rectify this issue created by the recommendation of THEIR interior designers.

After arguing for a few days and receiving some pretty dismissive emails from their design centre we were called by the Morrison COO who just confirmed the message we were receiving from their design centre all along. That Morrison would not accept responsibility of their designers' false advice and we would be charged if we wanted to get the light colour we had originally requested.

This has been a very stressful and disappointing experience, more so because Morrison pride themselves as one of the top builders in Calgary.

From our experience the customer service we received so far is one of the worst we've ever received from any type of company. When building what Morrison calls a semi- estate home and you're spending a lot of money the least you're expecting is a pleasing experience and an excellent customer service to go with it. Instead, we've received dismissive emails and statements that our disappointment on their designers' shortcoming doesn't mean anything to Morrison and if we want the issue created by their designers resolved then we'd have to pay the hefty price to re-paint our house.

This has been a very frustrating experience so far and at this point our house is not even complete yet. I’m really concerned on the type of issues we’ll be facing over the next few months if we had to deal with such terrible customer service for a smaller issues like wall paint.

I would not recommend this builder to anyone.

This was our first build and we were a little nervous going in. We decided to build with Morrison homes via word of mouth , their experienced sales staff and quality of their showhomes. Though Brad may be a bit slow with emails his experience and knowledge by far exceeded anyone else at any of the other showhomes we visited and made us feel very comfortable along the way, never making us feel like they were trying to suck every last dollar from us. Michelle and Krista were also very helpful and pleasant to deal with during the building process with whatever we needed or had questions about.

The selections studio is fantastic with a ton of high quality choices for every budget. Even with a lower budget we were able to walk away with a beautiful home that feels very luxurious and that didn't break the bank. Adele was fantastic to deal with and helped us make amazing selections. She was very prompt in replying to all our emails and change orders. I have to say she must have a ton of patience to be in that position but she does it all with with a smile on her face and the utmost professionalism. Great job! We did run into one issue with one type of tile that we selected but everyone was very accommodating in rectifying the problem and switching it out to much better one without any hassle.

Pre-possession and possession days were amazing. Jeremy and Tom were very informative in touring us through our new home and explaining everything in great detail. They are both awesome guys who really care about the quality of the finished product and it shows, not something you really see anymore. Their attention to detail blew us away come possession day and we were over the moon happy with the finished home. Awesome job!!!

Great customer service isn't about being perfect all the time, its about how problems are dealt with when they arise and Morrison Homes gets this. There is always going to be problems that happen during a build no matter who is building the home but its how those problems are solved and its because of that if we ever build a new home again it will be with Morrison and we won't hesitate recommending them to anyone else looking to build.

Extremly happy customers

Jesse & Liane

I found Morrison Homes to be a well organized, responsible builder who turned out a well built home with good attention to detail. Some flaws were noted during the build but they were addressed without issue.

I build a new home with Morrison and the everything from the beginning stages to the final possession was amazing. Brain Sandberg and his team was amazing to deal with! Brian is very detailed, always provide updates though out the process and is always quick to address my concerns and questions. I'll definitely build with Morrison again for my next home and will not hesitate to recommend them to friends and family.

Morrison homes provided a promise to build my new home. They have made the process one of extreme frustration It was to be a time of Joy having been the first home build for us, but instead became a constant battle to get them to do the job properly from structural issues to improper framing and other errors all of which they fail to acknowledge and repair. I would never build Morrison again nor would I recommend them to anyone else. My advise is to seek out other builders in your area instead.

My Wife and I started an Estate Home build with Morrison Homes. We were requested to make a $34000.00 deposit to start the build, they would not build what we wanted and refuse to give us our deposit back.