Granite Building and Development

I very much regret becoming involved with Mike Holland of Granite Building. He over-​promised and under-​delivered. I have very little to show for my time and money but frustration.

I was very disappointed not to be able to build with Granite Builders. Having toured one project and heard Mike’s enthusiastic explanations of the design and engineering feats that he had accomplished, my partner and I were excited to work with him. We asked if our project, a larger home with high end features and finishes, was feasible, and he quoted us a figure that we found reasonable. He helped us find a lot and the planning stage began. At this point, it became increasingly difficult to communicate with Mike. He did not respond to emails and only belatedly to instant messages. Since he preferred not to write down anything that we discussed with him, the next months were filled with delays, frustration, doubt and miscommunication. From meeting to meeting, we had to reintroduce issues and remind him of design decisions that had long since been settled. We repeatedly asked him about the bottom line and he said that it would probably be a little over the figure that he had quoted to us but that he foresaw no large discrepancy. Finally, after 5 months, he sat down and priced it out. The figure was 30% over budget. Even building it on the cheap, using builder-​grade materials would be more than our comfort margin allowed. To bring it in on budget would require redesigning the house with fewer rooms, baths, etc., entailing another long delay.
We were unwilling to settle for a project that would be so very expensive and yet so far removed from our original plan. Consequently we have had to back out of the project. Beside the anger I feel at having wasted so many months (and thousands in unreturned fees) on a fool’s errand, I am sad that the project we invested so much in will not be completed.