If your home was a new construction, did you have a good experience with the builder? How was your experience overall and did you pay for inspectors to come in?

We just moved from the northeast to the south and we are looking at different home options and hoping that by the end of the year we can decide on which community and builder we want. I see that some builders such as Meritage have really terrible reviews. Just wondering if any of you have any experience with this. This will be our first house.