Tilson Homes
Tilson Homes is a build-on-your-lot custom builder, not a subdivision builder — like United Built Homes, a different model than most builders we profile. This research also corrects a fabricated quick-move-in figure that was on this page before this rebuild. Built from Tilson's own site, BBB records, and buyer forum reports — not a field visit yet. See exactly what we've verified below.
| Detail | What we found | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | Build-on-your-lot (BOYL) custom builder — like United Built Homes, Tilson builds on land the customer already owns, not in planned subdivisions. No named communities or quick-move-in inventory to compare. | (V) 🟢 |
| Corporate structure | Roots trace to 1908 (Tilson family building oil derricks in Texas); founded as Tilson Construction Company in 1932 by brothers Horace and Jack Tilson, renamed Tilson Home Corporation in 1994 (current legal name). Family-owned; we found no evidence of a private-equity or corporate parent, but could not fully rule one out. HQ is ambiguous — active offices in Bee Cave/West Austin, San Marcos, Bryan, and Houston, with no single stated headquarters. | (BC) 🟡 |
| Central Texas presence | Design center with model homes at 2396 N Interstate 35 Frontage Rd, San Marcos, TX. Service area grouped by county; Central Texas region explicitly lists Travis, Hays, and Williamson counties. An active plan page exists specifically for Travis County. | (V) 🟢 |
| Priority-corridor status | Hays County (which contains Kyle and Buda) is listed as served, but Kyle and Buda are not named specifically anywhere on Tilson's site. Unlike United Built Homes, we found no direct self-contradiction on Tilson's site about this — treat coverage as a reasonable inference from the county list, not a confirmed fact. | (V) 🟡 |
| BBB record | A+ rating across regional profiles (Austin, San Marcos, Bryan), not accredited. We could not extract exact complaint counts from BBB's page during this pass — flagged as unconfirmed rather than guessed. | (V) 🟡 |
| Buyer forum pattern | Recurring themes across TexAgs forum posts: generally acceptable build quality, but repeated complaints about slow pre-construction turnaround, long build timelines (one buyer reported 15+ months), and inconsistent communication/responsiveness. Anecdotal, not a statistically representative sample — treated as a pattern to watch, not established fact. | (O) 🟠 |
| Litigation | One civil case, Texas Superior Construction LLC v. Tilson Home Corporation, appears in court-record indexes. Details weren't retrieved during this pass; it reads as a routine subcontractor/payment dispute rather than a consumer-harm case, but we can't confirm that without the filing. Noted as found but unverified. | (BC) 🟠 |
| Financing (EasyBuy) | In-house/captive construction financing: Tilson states it funds construction itself. No origination fees, no closing costs, no accruing interest, and no monthly payments during construction, with no down payment required for qualified buyers. Standing program, not a dated promo — confirmed live on two independent pages of Tilson's own site. Qualification criteria (credit score, DTI, etc.) are not publicly disclosed; the builder's own page notes "certain restrictions apply." | (V) 🟢 |
| Warranty | Standard 1-2-10 structure: 1-year workmanship/materials, 2-year plumbing/electrical/HVAC, 10-year structural. Tilson Home Corporation itself is the legal Warrantor; StrucSure Home Warranty administers claims but does not insure or back Tilson's obligations — a real distinction from a fully third-party-backed warranty. Relationship with StrucSure dates to at least 2015. | (V) 🟢 |
Like United Built Homes, Tilson builds custom homes on land the customer already owns rather than developing subdivisions. There's no list of named communities or quick-move-in inventory to publish here — and the "41 quick move-in homes" figure previously on this page was never real to begin with (see the correction above). Tilson's service area is organized by county rather than by community: its Central Texas region covers Travis, Hays, and Williamson counties, with a design center and model homes in San Marcos. If you're comparing Tilson against a subdivision builder, you're comparing a land-plus-custom-build product against a finished lot in a planned community, not two versions of the same thing.
The San Marcos design center address and Central Texas county service area (Travis, Hays, Williamson), cross-checked against Tilson's own site and BBB. The BBB A+ rating. The EasyBuy financing terms (no origination fees, no closing costs, no interest or payments during construction, in-house funded), confirmed on two independent pages of Tilson's own site. The 1-2-10 warranty structure and the StrucSure-administered, Tilson-is-Warrantor relationship, confirmed against an actual warranty coverage document. That the "41 quick move-in homes" figure previously on this page was fabricated — the same figure and date appeared verbatim on a different builder's stub page, both tracing to dead links.
The exact founding/ownership history and whether any private-equity or corporate parent exists (we found no evidence of one, but absence of evidence isn't confirmation). "Over 30,000 homes built in 85+ years" is an unverifiable builder claim. EasyBuy qualification criteria aren't publicly disclosed.
Construction quality and jobsite practices firsthand — no field visit yet. Exact BBB complaint counts. The substance of the Texas Superior Construction LLC litigation. Whether Kyle or Buda specifically are served (only the containing county, Hays, is confirmed).
Tilson's tracked incentive appears in the live widget below, pulled directly from the same Incentive Tracker data behind the Hot Sheet. For how this figure compares against other Austin-area builders, use the tools below.
| Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | No New Home Dispatch field visit yet. This section will populate once a visit to the San Marcos design center is completed. |
Tilson's stated Central Texas service area includes Hays County, part of New Home Dispatch's South Austin/Kyle/Buda/San Marcos priority corridor, plus Travis and Williamson counties. Unlike United Built Homes, we found no self-contradicting claims about this coverage on Tilson's own site — but Kyle and Buda aren't named specifically either, so treat corridor coverage as likely rather than confirmed for those two cities.
Advantage: a genuinely long operating history (roots to 1908, incorporated 1932), an A+ BBB rating, and real in-house EasyBuy financing with no construction-period interest or payments — a distinguishing feature among build-on-your-lot builders. A San Marcos design center puts Tilson within the priority corridor's county footprint.
Limitation: like United Built Homes, there's no community or pricing table to compare against subdivision builders. A recurring buyer-forum complaint pattern around build timelines and communication exists, HQ and ownership structure are less clearly documented than most builders we've profiled, and a piece of pending litigation remains unverified. This page also previously carried a fabricated quick-move-in count, now corrected.
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