Hmmm... I see your CAUCASIAN construction cartoon dude and raise you a HISPANIC construction dude: Spoiler
The answer to your question is "yes" and "no". The same homebuilder that's considered good in one city may be thought of as horrible in another. What may be more important is the real "builder" - the guy that ads as the foreman insure and makes sure things are being done correctly. When it comes to the actual homebuilders, they hire people from everywhere, so the guy that put up a part of a home for KB Homes may be the same guy who'll do it for a higher end David Weekly or Toll Brothers home. It's up to you to make sure they're on top of things as the house is being built, too. This isn't like buying a toaster or even a car.
I can attest personally that there are such things as good, honest home builders. It is most often single home builders that do custom work over long periods of time. They tend to be more expensive (mostly because they build more expensive homes, not that they charge particularly more for any one item), but often times, they are worth the money. The biggest problem is that as recently as 10-12 years ago, you could purchase an affordable custom home in a great neighborhood. The issue now is that the tract home builders have gotten into the "luxury tract" or "custom tract" business and pushed the best builders up several price ranges. Now, its very, very difficult to find a nice, new truly custom home for less upper 400s, with most of them being pushed into the 600s and up ranges. Its very hard for a custom builder to compete with a tract builder that charges 50-100K less, but slaps granite, stainless steel, and stone/wood flooring in and its the same size of even bigger. There are still places in some burbs that you can get a quality, affordable (relatively) custom home in a good neighborhood. Pockets in the Klein/Champions area, in parts of Katy, and Sugar Land. You have to know where to look and what to look for, but they do exist.
I have one too although I can't remember the builder. My mom's ex-husband (the home inspector) told me about a home he inspected for some friends. They were complaining of an awful smell (like sewage) and asked him to come check it out before they called the builder and/or a plumber. After combing through the house and not finding anything he decides to check the attic out. Check this out, the workers who were building and/or insulating the attic didn't feel the need to use the porta-potty outside of the house. Nope, when they needed to go (both number 1 and number 2) they just let it go in the attic and covered it with insulation. Obviously, the couple who bought the house called the builder but nothing was ever taken care of and they ended up having the attic re-insulated. Last I heard they were in litigation with the builder.
I'm trying to sell it right now, as with 2 kids and 2 dogs the house is shrinking on me. But as far how the house is holding up, I would say pretty good. We do have quite a few nail pops, but like mentioned before, its not a huge deal to fix. The something with the A/C had to be fixed, but other than that, no real complaints. Make sure you upgrade where you can, because you'll regret not doing it down the road.
Being in the industry (I'm a structural engineer that many of the major builders in the Houston area know), I can definitely ensure that there are ARE good home builders. The major problem that most builders face is the fact that the superintendents that are in charge of building these houses are under such intense pressure from their bosses (usually purchasing managers who have NO experience in the field, and NO understanding of architectural or structural elements) to finish as many projects as possible, that they cannot possibly give the attention that each and every single house being built deserves. There is definitely a list of builders that I would use over others though......I'm not going to post that here just in case employees of my clients are members of this board, but if anybody wants to get my personal opinion, I'd be happy to answer through email.
