Realty Builders Inc

Ongoing 2 year nightmare that was supposed to be done in 70 days. We signed a contract to remodel 2 bathrooms (already gutted to the studs) for $90,000. The work has been substandard and unsupervised from the beginning and in every area. Unsecured sections of drywall because there studs were missing to attach it to, and other randomly placed screws. Refusal to use purple/mildew resistant drywall in the bathrooms. A shower volume control that does not work because it was attached to the wrong pipes. Missing insulation. Unsecured cement backer board for the shower tile with bowing, holes and gaps. No inspection of tile (“we don’t inspect tile”) resulting in installation of two different tile lots and a demand that I cover the cost of demolition and replacement. Large chips and cracks in the marble tile damaged during installation, I was told that it was delivered like that (it wasn’t). Sections of tile were missing grout. Floor tile laid so unevenly and with such extreme lippage that the door had to be cut to pass over it. They would not admit the problems with the tile installation until I hired a private inspector. The inspector said this was one of the worst installations he had seen in his career and advised total demolition and re-installation. They had to demolish and re-install three times. To their credit, they did as the inspector instructed and at their expense. Walls were missing studs, not leveled (over an inch out of plumb), and not straight. The counter fabricator couldn’t install the counter until the wall was made straight. Brass fixtures heavily scratched during installation. Custom vanity drawers that had to be refinished because they were not protected during work. A bathtub that drained into the ceiling below on first use. They dropped my washing machine down the basement stairs. Dents and ridges in the walls. I finally hired someone to re-mud and re-sand and re-paint the walls. He said that to make the ceiling flat, he would need to remove the drywall and start over. They would disappear for days and weeks without explanation. They never provided evidence that the permits were extended after the first year. They did not contain the worksite. I bought plastic doors and contained the worksite myself after 5 months of requesting it. I vacuumed and picked up their trash. They worked in the master closet without covering anything and destroyed a rack of work and formal clothes. The contractor, Victor Haim, yelled at me abusively on three occasions, my adult son had to enter the room to make him stop yelling at me. My neighbors are furious about the two years of unpredictable construction. I have spent countless hours finding and arguing about all these problems which they did not see or admit. When we negotiated the contract, Victor Haim added 5 items as incentives, including re-framing of the master deck door and installing a heat pump water heater (they replaced a gas water tank when mine broke and are claiming that that is equivalent.) The bathrooms are almost finished (although I am afraid of what is behind the walls.) I have now asked that they give me credits for the unfinished contract incentive items, reimburse me for what I paid for their tiling errors, and get the inspections done. There is a $19k contract balance. They want me to pay $10k for the recently completed tile work. I am confident that the credits and reimbursements exceed this amount and do not want to overpay. I asked to reconcile the balance.Their response: they stopped work. There’s more, but in summary, they used cheap materials, mostly unskilled workers, didn’t supervise, denied mistakes, had long and unexplained delays, let permits expire, didn’t contain the work site or clean up, and yelled at me. They are claiming delays due to the contractor's illness, but the illness occurred when the project was already a year past deadline, and now it is almost two years past deadline. They have now stopped work on a project more than 20 months delayed until I pay out the contract without reconciliation of credits and reimbursements.

I had contacted several companies about possibly replacing at least one of the posts and piers for an extension on our house and ultimately went with our contractor who did our kitchen remodel 2 years ago -- Realty Builders -- and they did an amazing job just like with the kitchen. We ended up having to replace all three posts and piers since there were issues with all of them. At least I don't have to worry if this extension will collapse because they made sure to brace everything properly and correctly. The before, during and after pictures. They did a fantastic job, cleaned up everyday or made sure to not leave things around for our dog to get into since this extension overhung part of our back yard. I would definitely recommend Victor, Jose, and the crew from Realty Builders. Thanks to the whole team!

We're very happy with our new roof. Their crew did a good job and cleaned up each day. Yani came by each day to ask me how it was going and make sure I was happy. I would recommend them if your looking for home improvement help

Our project was a gut remodel of our two level San Francisco Sunset tract home, including the creation of living space out of the unfinished lower level/garage. Before we started working with Realty Builders we had almost given up on being able to remodel our home. We had wasted money working with a design and build firm to get an unworkable design far outside of our budget. We decided to take our project to general contractors and see if anyone thought our plan could be executed, at least in part, for a better price. Some contractors didn’t even show up. Some looked at our plans, gave us wildly different quotes, positive and negative, but it just seemed like another job to them. The moment that Victor walked into our home and talked with us about our project, I knew he was interested in more than just a job. He walked through every room and all around the exterior, we talked about the design we had paid for, we talked about how we lived and what we wanted from our remodel. Even at the first meeting he was riffing on our design, walking through ideas, talking about potential issues and how to solve them. A week later, Victor said something that sealed the deal for me. He said, “Your design is not good. I can build it for you, but you will end up with a house of depressing little boxes. I want to make a house that you will love.” He showed us that he had completely thrown out the original design options and created something new, himself. After many months of engineering, demolition, permitting, construction, material shopping, designs, etc. I am writing this from the home that Victor designed and his crew built. He was 100% right. We love our home. It is bright, airy, built for both entertaining and private spaces, organically connecting both the main floor and our garage level now converted to wonderful living space. Realty worked hard to stick to the contracted price, and for all known items, they did exactly that. Because we were remodeling an old San Francisco home, of course there were surprises and extra options. Each time a surprise came, or an optional change came up, Realty let us know about the change and gave us multiple options with various prices for those options. So while we went somewhat into extra budget, we had a lot of choices in how to meet surprises and how to pay for them. I know nothing about construction, but friends and family who do would often come by the house during construction and comment on the high quality of the work being done. When I was present for inspections, I often heard the inspector make off hand positive comments about the quality of the work. Generally we breezed through inspections for this reason. When there were issues, Realty fixed them. When there were problems, Realty would address them. When some of our subcontractors failed, Realty stepped up and dealt with the failures. We are very satisfied and will work with Realty again.

Amazing company, very professional and and quick responses from the whole team. Lesley, and Ron the project managers I spoke with were very knowledgeable about home improvements and making sure I had all the information necessary to make an informed decision on my next project. They were able to break down the whole process from start to finish and provided me with an estimate that could not compare to other companies I have looked at in the past. Not to mention, Alexis was phenomenal in making sure I was connected to the right people in a timely manner. I felt like I was a top priority with them from the first phone call, all the way to the end of the project. Thank you truly for all of your help.