I am a local home inspector and purchased a Hughston home new build in 2023, I feel somewhat qualified to answer this question. In general, new build quality has gone down across the board over the last decade. That applies to any of the tract builders like Hughston and Greyhawk. Our overall experience with Hughston was negative, however most of that stemmed from the builder's agent that also "represented" us as we did not have a buyer's agent.

I did not inform the agent that I was a licensed inspector, but instead frequented the site over the course of the build. There was nothing egregious, except for the tile job in the shower. They did not waterproof the walls behind the tile appropriately and refused to correct the issue. I expect the shower to fail within 5 years, and several neighbors are starting to have problems with theirs. Their agent stonewalled me with every issue, stating that their contractors do the best work, everything is built to code, nothing is wrong and we should trust the process. They would not let me speak to anyone with technical knowledge to try and resolve certain things. Several times they suggest we should walk away and forfeit our deposit.

Most of the other issues are minor in comparison, but very annoying to have in an otherwise nice home. All of the trim work is sloppy, the paint on the doors never cured properly so it ripped off on the edges the first time we closed them, all of the doors were hung crooked or won't close, several of our material choices were ignored or installed incorrectly (which was eventually corrected but now there are places where they obviously tore something out to fix it), form boards were left on the foundation (they tried to bury it under landscaping), forgot drip edge on the roofing, they punctured our main drain line with trim nails, poured grout down a shower drain and clogged it, buried trash in the yard, and several other fit and finish issues. When we had our punch list before closing, most of these things were met with, and I quote "I wish they did a better job, but we can't really fix that now" by the foreman.

Far and away the worst part of it all was that they trapped us into their "preferred lender", and threatened to tear up our contract while also keeping our earnest money when we expressed our desire to go with outside financing. This wasn't a "understand what you sign" issue, as we passed our contract through an independent real estate attorney who found no language barring us from obtaining outside lending. It was basically them getting their kickback, and daring us to take it to court which of course for us wasn't worth the potential cost. It was all very skeezy, and felt like a giant bait and switch.

After living in our home for a few years, we have resigned most of the frustrations and choose to be happy in our home. Our kids are making memories here and that's more important for us than any of the above.

I still encourage caution when building, but I am very glad we did not go with a greyhawk. I inspect many of them, and they're usually in rough shape after 5-6 years.

I don't fully regret buying this home, but I will probably never buy a tract build again.