Hilton Homes

My partner and I built with Hilton Homes and we do not recommend to build with them for the following reasons:
1. Hilton Homes did not return the full impact fee, in fact they haven't returned any amount yet after 30 days of waiting. Consider alternative builders, like Ventura, who returned the full impact fee to all of their customers.
2. According to the owner of Hilton Homes walkthroughs are not a “contractual obligation”, so don’t feel you have the right to see the progress of your own house before possession, even though it is stated in the contract.
3. During the COVID-19 pandemic, walkthroughs weren't allowed by Hilton. Hilton had said they would keep purchasers updated with photos of the progress of their home. We can confirm we received a total of ZERO photos.
4. Do not waste your time picking an ideal possession date with the Hilton realtor. There is no obligation for Hilton to complete your home on that possession date. We gave Hilton ample time to complete our home (around 13 months), but it was still delayed three months because of holidays, unforeseeable cold weather (we live in Winnipeg), and various permit issues. Hilton has a lack of project planning capabilities in this regard.
5. There was a major lack of communication in regards to our possession date. We weren't told our possession date was going to be pushed back three months until after we listed and sold our current house. Hilton informed us of the delay at the last minute, which only gave us three weeks to ensure we had somewhere for our family to live.
6. As mentioned above, Hilton does a poor job of communicating the status of your home. It’s pathetic when you have to reach out to Hilton suppliers to get a better idea of the project timeline.
7. The delay in possession of our home resulted in the appliances from The Brick being discontinued. There was a lack of communication between The Brick and Hilton Homes, so we were not aware of this until three weeks before our possession date. Unfortunately, The Brick stated they were unable to get in our re-selected range and fridge on time, so we were left without those appliances on our possession date.
8. Once we finally obtained possession of our home there were still many unfinished items. One big item that wasn't completed was our ensuite shower. It is unfortunate that you have to pay for a full mortgage when Hilton doesn't provide you with the full product.
9. Please keep in mind that Hilton is not obligated to finish the exterior of your house by your possession date. Be cautious if your possession date is in the Fall as you could go all winter and spring without a finished exterior.
10. The plumbing accessories are very basic. You cannot bring your own plumbing. If you want to upgrade any of the plumbing accessories, Hilton will not provide a credit for any faucets or trim and their mark up is around 50%.
11. Do not purchase the air conditioning unit through them. For us, they priced an AC unit at $4,950. NorthWest Ventilation's quotes was $2,000 less than Hilton's.
12. Limit upgrades that are done with Hilton. They charge a massive markup. Do what you can after the build.
13. You will have to be available during business hours throughout the building process. Any design or drawing meetings with Hilton must be done during business hours, so be prepared to take some time off work.
14. Before booking your design appointment, obtain quotes for interior and exterior design choices. Also, do your research on design options as Hilton does a poor job of displaying your options during your design appointment. If you are not prepared with all of your design options, you will have to redo your design appointment at a cost of $250.
15. We do not recommend using the included interior designer named, Carolyn. We had a terrible experience, as she wasn't knowledgeable about all of the exterior options for our home. At one point, she recommended that we paint our stucco, instead of providing us the option of acrylic stucco. Don’t request a price estimate from her as they are far from accurate.
16. The majority of the home model mockups on their brochures and website do not include standard exterior materials, so be prepared to pay a lot more if you want your home to reflect the model.
17. The final walk through is on the day of possession. This isn't standard practice. You should be receiving a walk through before the possession date to determine if you want to fully close with your lawyer. We weren't afforded this opportunity and had to hope our house was fully finished (which it wasn't).
18. Hilton's communication skills were the worst aspect of our home build. Many times we were left months without responses. Timelines kept changing and there seemed to be more excuses than solutions.

We have given Hilton Homes enough time to rectify all of the above issues, but our communications have been ignored.