Is it really worth to buy house from heartland homes/Ryan homes

adlinaandrew

Hello everyone,
We are going to move to pittsburgh by this fall. I
have question about heartland/Ryan homes. We were considering to buy
house from heartland /Rayn/NVR  homes but after reading all negative
feedback,we just cancelled our contract. I want to know from any one had
horrible  experience recently. we are in big dilemma. After spending
more than half million $, i don't want to regret my decision. Any
feedback good/bad is appreciated. Please help 

bride2003

I would not build through Ryan but would not rule out buying after someone has lived in it for a number of years.  That way they can deal with all the crap of contracts & construction issues.  I too have heard of many complaints about Ryan, shoddy worksmanship, foundation issues etc... but they build ALOT of homes so you are never going to avoid hearing complaints.  I just wouldn't want to build new construction with them.

lala5507

We built a Ryan home about 3 years ago.  As with any builder, you have to check in during construction and make sure everything is going to your liking.  We are really happy with our house (although we did not spend near what you are spending) We have not had any major issues with our house.  And the very minor issues we did have were fixed right away. 

I will say though, we had an awesome project manager to work with and I know not every neighborhood gets the same project manager. 

kris356

My brother and SIL just built a Ryan last year in the North Hills/Wexford, they had a few issues but things went smoothly for the most part. They have had no issues since moving in in October.

Personally, I would not but DH will never live in a neighborhood and we are old house people. I also think in you are spending $500,000+, I would probably look into a custom home or a house in an established neighborhood and then renovate to my taste. 

There is a new plan by our house that is custom houses and start at $470,000, so I would probably go that route. It is the same developer that did Nevillewood.

gwennythepooh

I don't know much about the builders you've mentioned, but a coworker used Maronda and has had a lot of issues. There have been things that weren't done correctly and it takes practically threatening a lawsuit to get it fixed:/ I'd personally avoid them.

kris356

I do agree that I would not build from out-of-state where I couldn't check regularly on the progress. My parents built a custom home and my mom was there literally every day. It is a lot easier to fix things when you catch them early rather than when everything is done and your getting ready to close.

lala5507

kris356 said:

I do agree that I would not build from out-of-state where I couldn't check regularly on the progress. My parents built a custom home and my mom was there literally every day. It is a lot easier to fix things when you catch them early rather than when everything is done and your getting ready to close.

I totally agree.  Dh stopped at least once a day while construction was happening.

MrsAmers

Your other option is to hire an architect. For $500,000 it seems reasonable to apply some of that to paying a professional to help you. Not only can they help make the design fit your life, but they can represent you and your interests on the construction site to avoid problems. Aiapgh.org has a list of architects and the work they do.

MAYBE?

I have a bunch of friends buy/built with them in different area and have heard much more bad than good. There are a lot of hidden fees along the way for all of them. One had to pay $250 to not put the cheap closet racks in because she was having a closet designer come, crazy. I have a family member that works for them and the sneaky crap they do is horrible and for that alone I wouldn't use them. I have heard bad about other big named builders too but not nearly as much as Ryan. Good luck whatever you do.

amyjoy18

I agree with others, if I was spending $500,000, I would look into a custom builder.  We build 2 years ago with K. Hovnanian which is the same type of builder  as Ryan and there are definitely places where corners were cut, and the prices for upgrades on cosmetic things were astronomical, so we went basic on most things and only upgraded on things we couldn't change later (9 ft ceilings, wood burning fireplace, extra 2 ft. in width).  We also had a similar experience with silly fees.  Like a fee to only paint 1 side of our door.  If they painted both sides it was free, but because I only wanted the exterior part of the door black, they charged us. 

But for our price range, we got a good amount of house and the cosmetic upgrades we can do ourselves at a later date. 

Before building we did look into a custom builder, but for what we wanted they were just a bit out of our price range--but it would be completely worth it to get exactly what you wanted.