Read my article before buying a Ashton Woods home...
We waited for Ashton Woods to build our home for 10 months before getting out of contract. During the build process we found construction debris under the steps and in walls. From empty soda and water bottles, food particles to urine bottle and beer bottles were found in our walls. We found fish bones, shrimp tails, taco wrappers behind the fireplace to be left in the walls forever. Food was purposely toss in inconspicuous places to be left to rot. This was a long trend and we were assured it would not happen again. Needless to say, it happened frequently. The urine bottle did it for us. Who leaves urine bottle in the WALLS when there are portable toilets and trash dumpster at the garage door. The GC superintendent couldn't seem to keep trades from abusing the home sites as the trash was astonishing. We were tired of having to clean up the building to keep things from being sealed up in the walls. The streets were an indication of how the homes were kept as they looked like a third world country's streets.
We understand that construction is messy and is not bothered by that but nasty. Food should not be toss in places to be left to rot nor should urine bottles be in the darn walls!
Upon bringing these things to AW attention, then you become the villain. Instead of understanding our concerns with our home as well as our neighbor's home. There were pierced second story water lines in our neighbor's home that was left to run for hours. It was discovered by us on two separate occasions. The water ran so long that it surrounded our foundation. We were the only ones discovering these things.
My advice for any buyers who never go to visit the build site, big mistake!!! Make as many visits as possible. Never build without checking the home site. They will do the opposite of what they said they will never do. We were told "We do not leave trash in the walls and we are proud of that and we check the home sites."
We did not make it to finishing the build as I do not trust this builder as they make lying a skill.
We aren't rookies to building as we have built other homes, but this is the first time the home site was abused and this type of filth was present during build.
I've shared some pictures to show that this is real!! This was our painful journey and I hope it prevents others from having to waste their time and money on this builder who doesn't give a darn about the buyer nor their reputation.
Another piece of advice, get a inspection as they do miss things. Our inspection pointed out items that need to be done.

Was under contract to build a house for $263k. During the build, they messed up the foundation in the mud room and there was a gap of about 28x8 inches without concrete. So they filled it in. They didn't get an engineer to inspect, and if they did we were not told. Then they messed up the roof on the rear of the house. It had waves and dips and shingles sticking up everywhere. Our third party inspector said it was due to crooked trusses under that part of the roof. So they said it would be fixed. All they did was take out patches of shingles and decking to replace with new patches of shingles and decking. The trusses were never fixed and the roof looked the same after. Not to mention all other minor issues. Like our counter top having a scratch and a big chip off a brick in the entrance porch. We decided to cancel contract and yes they kept our earnest money. None of this was our error but we still had to pay. Buyers be ware of this company!

I'm putting together some info at www.astonwoodsreview.com of my experience. Check it out.

Imagine buying your dream home for over $600k and being promised and contracted for the finest finishing, level 5 smooth walls, and a beautiful estate home. After almost 2 years of trying to get our home to contact and what was promised to us, Ashton Woods has completely destroyed our property with horrific patchwork, incomplete repairs and possible mold issues from all the water damage. They have claimed that their contract has typos so they basically don't have to honor anything. Now, they are also claiming that they don't have to fix anything because we voided our warranty by adding screws to our walls. So, the approximated $50k of damage that they caused will not be covered!?! Not to mention personal items missing and broken. We have numerous other neighbors with similar issues in Orlando and there are several lawsuits already happening. If you value your money and your free or vacation time, please do not invest in Ashton Woods or you will absolutely live to regret it. We lost all of our vacation time to this builder for 2 years and still had to take more time off while having as many as 30 people in our house in the same time with no where to live or work.

This company is a BIG joke. We gave them in payments $20,000 for escrow to build the home. Almost a year later before closing on this home after they made so many mistakes building this home and fixing their mistakes the loan did not go through because of new guidelines with the loan. The builder did decided to keep our deposit because we fail to provide them with a loan. Now this is in court, no builder or seller should keep a deposit if the loan is not approve. Anything can happen with time. Anyone can be approve today but 6 months later does not mean the same person will be approve. They know who I am and I report them to the BBB and they could not answer between the 20 days that BBB will give them. One of the answer I got from corporate was contradicting the sales person from Ashton Woods. These builder is a thief. But at the end we will know who comes out winning. They will have to pay for even the attorney fees I have already. No one can keep a deposit because the buyer could or did NOT qualify for a loan 6 or 8 months later. The CEO from Ashton in Georgia is another corrupt individual as well as the entire organization.

FYI: The house was also sold to another family for a higher price.

I am in month 11 of building a home with Ashton Woods. I bought a home in Watermark, Mt. Pleasant, SC, it was a model they had built before in a community they know well (they have 21 lots). Despite being told it orally it would take 6-8 months, I am still waiting. I was told in December to expect it in March or April and a walk-through date was set-up. A few weeks before the walk-through I learned that virtually nothing was done and I could now expect the house in March or April. That turned into May, June, July, and now August. I wrote a complaint email to the head of sales and marketing (rather than just another oral complaint on my part). She responded by wanting a meeting (probably so there'd be nothing in writing). Turns out my contract had "to be determined" written instead of a closing date. She denied any of the oral timelines and said that my broker and I should have known it would take a year. She said she was surprised how fast my house was being built and that other people were waiting longer. I feel that this company completely misrepresents their timeline. When I pointed out that my kitchen cabinets were not to the ceiling, something I specifically wanted and was written into my design specs, I was told it "...wasn't proportional." They don't seem to care about customer satisfaction and they hold all the cards.

I think Ashton woods definitely needs to work on their offerings and attitudes from sales to design. Once they are confident they will sell out in a particular community the arrogance & attitude starts surfacing in every single way, to begin w/ frequent price increases, availability of sales or office staff and their approach, seeking a design center preview appointment & making a pre-approval mandatory from their preferred lender only. Here in Chandler the price increased more than 3 times in last 6 months by $5000 each time leading to a net price hike of $30K. On top of that, posting the current advertisement & promotional emails is just a joke, they do not apply to their selling communities. Already they were priced at the higher end anyways and now there's this additional burden plus lot premium and their options pricing is also too high compared to other builders in the area. I am actually scared whether I should go for them for the desired location or find elsewhere. Has anyone recently bought an Ashton woods home in the phoenix area to be specific in Chandler. Plz share your experience so we get some insight. Thanks