Mitch Harris Building

If you are looking for a home builder in Livingston County, KEEP LOOKING! Please Please Please heed this warning. After going through the entire home building process with them, I struggle to find a single good thing to say. I have worked in residential and commercial property management for over 20 years. The quality of their work, the professionalism and customer service they provide, and the backwards way they cut corners should be criminal.

There are a number of code violations in the finished product they provided, but after building in this county for so long, I'm guessing they have some "friends" they've made in the building department in order to pass inspections. I regret choosing them as a builder and am happy to discuss this with anyone who wants more information. I have tons of pictures and correspondence I would be willing to share.

And if you are SERIOUSLY considering going with this builder, I'd be happy to show you through my home to see what Mitch Harris decided was OK enough to push through as a final product. Again, you will want to avoid this builder. I promise you will regret choosing them. Also, if you are going with them, GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING! Many of the emails that come from their office are not clear.

You will get calls out of the blue asking for split second decisions with quotes over the phone, then they will try to bill you differently. From the top down at this company, it's shady, unprofessional, and open to cut the most ridiculous corners that somehow get right by the Livingston County Building Department.

My wife & I are very pleased to highly recommend Mitch Harris Builders (MHB). This was our first experience building a home and we entered this process with a great deal of uneasiness. We figured, however, that Mitch Harris has been building homes for more than 40 years and you don't get to do that unless you're a great builder who knows what he's doing.

So we dove in. Our experience started with a weekend visit to a model home in the new High Hills Arbor subdivision. That's where we had the very good fortune to meet Theresa from MHB. She became our main contact throughout the entire build process. Theresa guided us through all the complexities of building our home and became a trusted advocate for us from day one through our move in date.

She is extremely knowledgable, remarkably available, incredibly friendly and very easy to work with. There is no doubt in our minds that Theresa had our best interest at heart throughout the entire build process. To say we couldn't have done this without Theresa is a significant understatement. In short, she is terrific! The build coordinator/supervisor for our home was Ray.

What an extraordinary man! It's a mystery how one man can know as much about building a home as Ray does. We honestly believe that Ray approached our build as tho he was building his own home and you can't ask for more than that. As unbelievably busy as Ray was (and is) he ALWAYS made time to address our concerns. It's hard to imagine a more experienced/knowledgeable person than Ray.

Our many trips to the MHB office were always made more pleasant by Tracy, the administrative assistant. It's hard to overstate the importance of Tracy's ability to welcome guests in a relaxed, friendly manner. She's got a great sense of humor and more snacks and coffee pods than anyone could reasonably expect! Was everything perfect? Of course not.

We were building a house for goodness sake. Of course there were issues/concerns. The more relevant & important question is, "How did MHB respond to the concerns we raised?" Our answer is directly, fairly & in a timely manner. Again, you can't really ask for more than that. Bottom line. You are not going to find a better builder than Mitch Harris.

Mitch Harris built our home in High Hills Arbor in 2019 and we moved in just before Christmas. To be honest, we fell in love with this community when we set our sight on it and more so today having lived here for a year. As with the building process and after, we are very happy from design to finish. Mitch and our sales consultant Theresa were professional with a personal touch.

They were accommodating with many of our change order requests yet not delaying the project. I think it is very smart for Mitch to create decent size lots with many back into the woods. Ours is and it is just beautiful. Kris who is responsible for after sale warranty service has been very responsive and quick to follow up. As we all know, anything built by human may not be perfect but as long as the Company and owner would take the responsibility to own the issues and resolve them, that is all what a reasonable customers/homeowner would expect. Mitch and his team did just that.

As the home warranties vary with what are installed, we continue to rely on Mitch Building Co to provide service and advice. I am confident that they will continue to treat us as their valued customer. Thank you Mitch, Theresa, Ray and Kris. Jon and Carol

MHB started bribing my neighbors(even the ones he's hosed) that had not reviewed. Do not be fooled by these recent glowing reviews. Ask around and you will hear the truth. I'd like to share two negative experiences in this review and you can judge for yourself. First, we paid a $15,000 lot premium for a daylight lot. When we selected the lot (which was on a hill) we were told by the salesperson that the driveway would be on the left (the less steep side of the hill). However, we discovered when we drove by one day that it was staked for a right-side driveway - up the highest point of the hill.

We had a conversation with the builder about flipping the house. (This conversation was inadvertently caught on video by my wife who was filming some things in the model home).Mitch said that he could flip the house, but it would effect the grade. He then said that the daylight windows would have a small well under them. When I asked him if he meant that the daylight windows would become egress, he said no.

He stated the wells would be below the window. However, after the foundation was dug, we drove by one day to discover that our daylight windows were in fact now egress. No one called us to discuss this. We had to stumble across it. When I talked with Mitch Harris directly about this, he initially said it was our fault. Then I told him I had a recording of our conversation and reminded him of what we had discussed and agreed upon.

He then said he could make it right. However, he had to wait until the roof was on in order to correct the grade. His team regraded the lot and we assumed it was fixed. We then drove by again only to find that the windows were still egress. We involved a lawyer when it became apparent that we were going to be left with egress windows (a substitution of goods that we did not approve).Mitch then offered us a full refund a couple weeks before the house was finished. However, we had nowhere else to go and a significant amount of money invested in lights and appliances.

We were never given an apology for MHB's mistakes or lack of communication or a dime of the $15,000 in concessions. The second example I would like to share is that we just had a water line leak in our front yard. When the township came out to repair it, they told us that the line had been cross threaded by the builder(and they had pictures to show this).When we asked the Mitch to help cover the cost of the yard repair(a large portion of the yard was dug up)they told us that they would hand rake the space and put down dry seed and straw.

Our landscaper assured us that this would never work. It was the side of the hill on a clay lot. It needed proper grading, top soil, and at a minimum hydroseed(All of which we had already done before the damage).When my wife and I talked to Mitch about this, he said that if we didn't like it, we could sell our house and move out of the neighborhood.

While the neighborhood is beautiful, the builder is incredibly difficult to work with, they do not stand behind their work, there were numerous times we were told one thing and given another, changes happened that were not approved, and the communication was terrible. We are not the only ones with this experience, but it's difficult to comment online with an 11 month MHB warranty.

Response to MHB reply: As you stated "the wells would be beneath the windows". See pictures. The wells cover the daylight windows and there is a full egress well. This is not what we discussed, agreed to, or paid for. MHB redefining daylight as underground. As far as the water connection, It was cross threaded 8 feet underground. MHB implying the landscaper dug down and cross threaded MHB's fitting is laughable.

We sent Mitch and Kris two quotes. One for Hydro seed and one for Sod. MHB refused to do either. Sad but not unexpected. The work was completed and MHB refused to pay anything. Mitch is morally bankrupt, cuts corners, is cheap, and hopefully retires so someone with integrity can takeover.

When building our first home we knew wanted to work with a builder who was custom and local, and who we could really build a relationship with. That's exactly what we got when we chose Mitch Harris Homes. From the first meeting with Theresa and subsequent meetings with Mitch we worked on changes, custom details and adjustments to the design of our home.

We received everything we were looking for and absolutely LOVE our home. We made many changes and with this comes time, patience and grace - things we knew we would need during the home building process. Nothing is ever perfect, especially when factoring in so many variables but we were always communicated with about what could and couldn't be done and we made sure to stay on top of everything.

They outline a very detailed process, timeline and what to expect, and although there were some setbacks, we knew these things were out of anyone's control. Any issues we had after we moved in were quickly taken care of and the list of things we would have done differently is minimal. We're thrilled with our home and would absolutely recommend Mitch Harris Building Co. to anyone who is considering building.

We hired Mitch Harris after reviewing dozens of new construction neighborhoods and meeting with builders. We had a private lot, and were looking to build our dream home. We were very impressed by MHB neighborhoods and his reputation as a builder. His team is top notch. From the very beginning and through the planning stages, they listened and were very responsive.

We were informed up front the challenges we might face with our lot. Theresa is a very knowledgeable sales consultant. When we had difficulty finding a floor plan with the specific details we wanted, she pointed us the right direction. She met with us frequently even before we decided to build with MHB. The whole team assisted us on choices for our home.

They gave honest opinions about our choices. For instance, we thought about increasing the size of our pantry. They would have been happy to do so, but recommended not making the change due to kitchen flow. Now that we are in our home we realize how that change would have been a disaster for our floor plan. We truly appreciated their input. The build went well and any concerns we had were immediately addressed. Pete did a fantastic job of overseeing the trades and keeping us updated.

He is very detailed oriented. The office staff was also very helpful, MHB has a family feel and we enjoyed working with all of them. We love our beautiful home and would recommend Mitch Harris Building to anyone!

The efficiency and kindness of Michelle Moore and every staff member at the Mitch Harris Building Company made our transition to condo life a personal and positive experience. We have never missed the wonderful years in our 4 bedroom colonial because the moment we moved in to the condo, it felt like home.

Our building experience was everything we had hoped for from the beginning to the end. This was our first time building a new home so we had no idea what to expect. Theresa helped us every step of the way. She was very patient as we took the time to choose every detail that went into our home. Theresa and Pete our project manager was always quick and willing to answer any questions we had. Pete had great suggestions that helped us when making decisions on the placement of lights along with many other things.

He made sure that we were happy with the build as it progressed. We had a tight time frame until we had to be out of our previous residence, Pete made sure to hit that deadline. We would absolutely recommend Mitch Harris building Company if you are considering building a new home.