M/I Homes Brookside Meadows - Marengo, Illinois

Mateusz P.

Warning: Avoid MI Homes at All Costs

I strongly advise against buying a home from MI Homes. Despite their friendly demeanor, their incompetence and lack of responsibility are infuriating.

Major Issues:

1. Elevation Disaster: MI Homes botched the elevation on our lot, leaving us with standing water for months. Despite being in constant contact for 4 months, they haven’t resolved the issue, and my daughter’s 2nd birthday is just around the corner. The sump pump runs non-stop, and our neighbor’s yard, which should be a foot lower, remains neglected. This is a clear display of their carelessness.
2. Terrible Communication: Their communication is beyond abysmal. You have to hound them daily or every other day to get any response. Now they’re blaming me for the standing water because I put up a fence on my property line. Only after relentless pressure did they finally agree to send an area manager to look at the problem.
3. Disrespectful Contractors: The contractors completely ignore speed limit signs, which is another reason we’ve been pushing to get this sorted out so we can secure our yard for our child’s safety. Additionally, as we’ve been preparing to move in, we’ve had multiple walkthroughs where the house was dirty, including finding someone’s chicken wing on the floor. Completely unprofessional.
4. Countertop Issues: Our countertop is detaching from the wall, which might be expected with a settling house, but the contractors made it worse by attaching cabinets to the walls, causing them to rip off as the house settles.
5. Leaky Shower: Our shower has been leaking and caused the wall to bulge due to moisture. MI Homes’ solution? Just slap on more silicone. Ridiculous. We are getting someone to come out and take a look, hopefully they don’t just slap more silicone on it again. But they probably won’t fix the wall that bulged out from it.
6. Unstable Roof: Part of our roof is bouncy, indicating it wasn’t properly attached. How does that even happen?

We’re in contact with customer care to get these things fixed, but I feel compelled to warn potential buyers about the nightmare they’re in for.

Recommendations:

• Talk to Homeowners: Walk around and talk to the other homeowners in the area. Everyone is super friendly and more than willing to share their horror stories with MI Homes. There are a lot of us with the same complaints.

We’re so frustrated that we’re considering hiring someone else to fix these problems and banning MI Homes from our property altogether, like some of our neighbors have.

I will keep this review updated as we near our end of warranty and things move forward with fixes and care.

6/26 Update: Customer Service sent a project manager out to fix the shower leak not a professional their fix once again is to put more silicone on it. Closet door still looks extremely poor. I’ll add the photo of the closet before and after the fix.

Area Manager was out and said that everything is to plan and they are not able to do anything was advised to contact customer care to see what they can do. Sent email out on 6/22 with no response still.

Discovered a new issue with the driveway - customer service responded and scheduled someone to take a look at it on 6/25 but haven’t heard any updates.

Haven’t heard anything from customer service since June 26th…sent yet another follow up.

Discovered a new house feature with our gutters not being leveled correctly and water spilling over the gutter.

Update Nov 15-
Defective Driveway- I asked for a Ticket Load information on the concrete that was poured- it’s been radio silent.

Had an island installed after contractor hasn’t initially.

Was missing a light in the shower which has been installed

The standing water has not been fixed for a year now.

Gracie H.

I humbled to say I am grateful for having Dominic Scharlach as our sales consultant! He is absolutely phenomenal, he advised us and assisted throughout our home buying process. He made our buying experience easy and quick! I am glad that we got the opportunity to work with him and his team! Also, shout to our project manager Jose Martinez thanks for your help! Keep up the great work guys!
We love our new home!

Michael B.

Had a great experience with M/I Homes. The sales team and management was very personable and answered all the questions I had, walked me through layouts, and made sure I was confident in my decision making process.

I feel like builders sometimes get a bad rap because of a few bad experiences out of thousands of good ones… I would definitely recommend checking them out to form your own opinion and hopefully have an experience as great as mine!

Daniel F.

Beautiful community. The sales person Dominic is great. He is very focused on what works best for us and helping us make the best decision for our family. If you’re thinking about stopping by you should definitely look him up.

Amy W.

Purchasing a home in this community has be a dream. The salesman, Dominic has been very knowledgeable and made the process smooth and effortless; he was great answering all of my many questions. Love the community and Marengo is a wonderful town. Stop by if you're in the market for a new home, you won't be disappointed.

D C.

I was impressed with the salesman's (Dominic) knowledge of M/I homes and the Marengo area. We like all of the options for new construction and pricing is competitive (we have been looking all over the suburbs). Beautiful community.

Kelley

When out to check out homes in this area and was helped by Dominic. He was very helpful and patient as i asked many questions. The community is beautiful and I found where I'm going to buy my home.

Emily B.

Do yourself a solid & thoroughly research this company before you sign a contract with them.

When the remaining lots in our neighborhood were sold to MI Homes I did a quick search on them & was quickly disappointed that this was who was coming to build on the remaining lots. Not Brackmann or Silverthorne or JS Construction - all custom builders who built the existing homes back here. MI & their proposed plans did not fit in with the existing homes & I knew immediately that there were going to be issues.

And so it began. They were able to sneak in 5 homes that didn’t meet the code ordinance for the single family homes in our towns R1Residential Single Family District . Which btw THEY - MI HOMES- had changed from R5 Multi Family to R1 Single Family…meaning they requested that the land be changed from Multi Family R5 to Single Family R1. So they knew what the requirements were & they didn’t care, they just figured they’d ask for forgiveness later. They pretended like they didn’t know that R1 was a required 1000 ground level sq foot & also minimum lot size 14,000 sq ft. Anyways on a variance was approved for FIVE HOMES ONLY that they claimed were under contract and I’m certain only 2 were, the other 3 were move in ready spec homes.

They did a mass excavation to make it look like ppl were buying back here when really it’s been slooow, they are selling more move in ready than contracted homes. A hole was excavated between us & our elderly neighbor on MAY 9 2023. In 5 days we will have had a huge hazardous hole for SEVEN MONTHS next to our property. SEVEN MONTHS. All spring summer fall & now coming into winter. It is an eyesore. There are noxious weeds which aggravated my allergies & tall grass on the dirt pile next to the hole. And what really set me off is that there was an identical hole on a lot next to one of *their* newly sold homes down the street. Before closing they made it all nice & pretty for the new owners - they cut all the weeds & grass, filled the hole in & laid a seed blanket to grow so that their new owners didn’t have to look at an unsightly hazardous hole. And they did this ON A LOT THEY ARE GOING TO BUILD A HOUSE ON. When? Who knows.

Mi is telling us they are building a home on this lot next to us. WHEN?!? You’ve had 7 months to build a house there, where is it?! Where is the coming soon sign? Is the house going to meet the R1 requirements?! Fill the hole in, lay a seed blanket & make it pretty for the existing residents on our street UNTIL YOU BUILD A HOUSE THERE.

Their subs are also terrible, drove a bobcat through the middle of our yard. Instead of the easement. They just do not care.

That is basically the conclusion I’ve come to, MI Homes does not care about you at ALL if you’re an existing neighbor resident in one of their new developments. And from reading reviews online they also do not care about you after you close on a house they build for you. Be careful. Be really careful.