Mattamy Home Buying Experience
In TechnoMagician’s Weblog I just found an old thread talking about the Mattamy homebuying experience… So I figured I’d post my comments in my own blog….
We moved into our Mattamy townhouse in Upper Glen Abbey West in Oakville back in May this year.
I have to say that, even though most of the Mattamy folks are trying hard, the attention you get immediately drops off after closing. If you don’t stay on top of all the small issues that need fixing, nothing will ever happen. The reason is however most likely not that the people don’t want to help, it’s simply because they are overworked.
Once most of the closings were done, Mattamy moved most of the employess to another site, so hardly anyone is left to fix the remaining issue. And there are plenty, if you consider how rushed the closings are. In our example there were two people repsonsible for the building of about 300 homes at a time.
It all wouldn’t be half as bad, if there weren’t that many empty promises in the marketing material (home owner hand book etc) that they hand out.
I could write much more on this, but following up with Mattamy on the issues is almost like having another full time job, of which I already have five or so 
In any case, I was considering setting up some type of home-builder review site, so stay tuned, but be patient – I won’t be tomorrow.
PS: If anyone lives in a Wildberry Corner or Wildberry End in Upper Glen Abbey West and has an issue with the kitchen design, or has corrected the design flaws and was forced to pay for it, please contact me – I am trying to push this issue a bit more.
Comments
Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 6, 2004, 4:58 am
Andre, thank you for the comments – in case you ever come back, this is the area I am in as well 
Maybe you want to dicuss this in person.
I don’t think that Mattamy really is that a bad company. Like I said most of the employees I have dealt with have tried their best to help us. However the limited resources and (at least according to my experience) lack of quality in the work of their contractors needs to be addressed.
I am a picky person to some extend, but I really think that they should try to live up more to their marketing terms. A new home should require little work or fixes. Unfortunately a lot of people just put up with some of the problems, because they might just sell the house again a few years later.
That being said, I am not quite sure if buying resale is a good alternative either. Well, at least then you know that if a problem occurs, it’s most likely up to you to fix it.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: April 9, 2004, 4:38 pm
Frank, how did you find your experience at the Mattamy Design Centre?? Good? Competitive prices? Quality?
I’m looking at buying a new Mattamy house in Milton, Hawthorne Village and am doing some research and I also have a weblog (not as nice as yours though!) on my experiences. It’s at http://rick.dilorenzo.com (Mattamy Weblog)
I found yours, and Tim’s website (technomagician) the best for comments/info from other Mattamy owners!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: April 23, 2004, 3:54 pm
Rick,
Thank you for your comments, which I just read now after I got back from vacation. First of all I want to wish you good luck with your homebuying experience. I definately learned a lot while buying our first home
As for the Mattamy sales people in the sales office for our Upper Glen Abbey West site, they were pretty much ok. You cannot expect sales people to be too informed and too honest, so just take everything with a grain of salt, check the important stuff twice and you should be ok.
Often the sales reps in their sales centres seem to be real estate agents that are under contract from Mattamy (who hence will not allow you to work with a buyer agent, as we would have liked to do).
We did find the pricing competitive, after looking at other builders as well. However Mattamy is one of the bigger builders, hence the amount of people/contractors involved in the work is rather large and more prone to mistakes. Some other ‘premium’ builders actually build less homes at a time, so you will probably be able to influence more about how your home turns out etc.
All the best,
/Frank
Comment from Anonymous
Time: June 10, 2006, 10:26 pm
I just bought a Wildberry Corner in Upper Glen Abbey West. I would highly appreciate if anyone can tell me the story with the kitchen design issue. Thanks.
Adrian
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 19, 2004, 4:40 pm
Congratulations on this website… I’m glad I found it, now that I bought a Mattamy townhome in Oakville (UGA West).
I’ve heard horror stories and happy ones too… kind of freaking out now, not being sure how my experience will be.
GOD be with us.