Buying A Home
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Ryan Homes in the Pittsburgh area

My husband and i recently moved to PIttsburgh. We're living in an apartment for now, but we're planning on buying a house within the next 9 months - a year. We had a meeting with a Ryan Homes rep, and we like the possibility of building a home with them, but we know that they get mixed reviews. Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) with them in the Pittsburgh area? Thanks in advance!

Re: Ryan Homes in the Pittsburgh area

  • I have not personally used them, but know people that have and their building experiences itself was fine. That being said, I would not build a Ryan home. They have a bad reputation, bad enough that it will impact your resale value. They are known to use materials that are cutting corners which is what allows them to offer a home at a lower price point. In my opinion, you get what you pay for and when it comes to my house, I would prefer to pay more and have piece of mind and a good investment. Good luck!
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  • Thanks for your post! I guess if it seems too good to be true, it usually is, and we definitely don't want a house that's going to have a lot of problems down the road. 
  • My wife and I are building a new home in Canonsburg PA with Maronda homes.  I noticed that it does not matter which builder you chose you will always have good and bad reviews from everyone.  I will tell you that one of my friends bought a Ryan home and they love it.  Also my Aunt and Uncle built a Ryan home in Baltimore Maryland in the 1980’s and it tripled in value when they sold it in the 2000’s.   We were looking for a home for over 2 years and it seems like any 1990 or newer home in the Pittsburgh area would sell off quickly for around the same price as to have a new home built.

  • lorenw14, thank you for your post. Our preference is really to build our own home, and there's a Ryan homes development in the exact spot that we want to be in (close to my job, our son's daycare, etc.). It's good to hear a positive review. 
  • My FI and I recently looked at a Ryan new construction home. We fell in love with it but when we dug a little deeper we realized the materials and appliances they were using were cheap. It would not be worth the money to replace and repair things 5 years down the road.
    However, if you are building a home you have more autonomy to build to your specifications. I'm just not sure about Ryan...
  • We built a Ryan in 2011 in Mars, PA. We sold it this past September for multiple reasons. We were basically the only house left on our cul de sac (about 15 total houses) that did not have water issues/flooding in the basement. When we had our own private inspection done at our 10 month follow-up, our inspector told us that we were one of the best built Ryan Homes he had even seen. But... we were the exception to the rule. Our furnace didn't work the first time we turned it on (we closed in June so it wasn't until late October of that year). After 18 months with intermittent problems and the furnace just suddenly not working, it was discovered that the wrong flue pipe was installed (which explains why our carbon monoxide detector would occasionally beep). Our rough-in for the bathroom in the basement was installed incorrectly and had to be fixed. We had some other minor things that were annoying but liveable - like the tack strip for the carpeting poked our feet all the time, floors creaked, hardware on the kitchen cabinets were falling off, etc.

    We also experienced a lot of unprofessional behavior with the subcontracters - personal garbage in the house while being built, a half eaten hamburger stuffed in the drain of the master bath, and someone spray painted "Matt is GAY" on the cinder blocks inside our garage. Matt just happened to be my husband's name, but he wasn't on the contract so we don't think it was directed towards him.

    Maybe it was just our sales rep, but she was awful - didn't give us any guidance, did not even explain all the different options, etc. And she ended up building a house in our neighborhood then selling it within the year. Things she told us we couldn't do to our house were done to hers.

    Even though our house turned out basically fine and had minor issues compared to our neighbors, we would not build a Ryan home again. They left a bad taste in our mouth and although all builders have problems, we are now looking more towards local, smaller/family owned custom builders.

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  • Thanks for all of the comments! I think we're getting more and more turned off by the idea of building a Ryan home...
  • I'm in Western NY - and I don't have personal experience but a good friends brother (so I heard everything second hand) built with Ryan.

    The short version is that initially he LOVED the house - it was beautiful, and exactly what they wanted. But within 2-3 yrs things started to go very wrong and not things that should have been issues with a brand new house. I don't remember the specifics, but there was something about the foundation (I mean - really? The FOUNDATION?!) that was done incorrectly, there were seams that were starting to be visible in areas of the house that shouldn't have been visible. Something in the kitchen broke and when the owner tried to replace it himself trough Lowes or Home Depot - the pice didn't come in a size they carried and had to special ordered through Ryan Home developers or wherever. I guess so Ryan continues to get business/money from you. . . .  They also had issues with the walls of the house being thin - they could hear EVERYTHING in the neighborhood - cars going by, back yard BBQs, kids playing in pools - everything. And this was in the middle of summer with the central AC on and all windows were shut ect. . . . . 

    Essentially - it wasn't a good experience for them at all and they have made that well known. They ended up moving and are now much happier.


    Sorry it wasn't a good experience to share with you! Hope you find someone reputable to help you out though!
  • Thanks for sharing your story!
  • Oh and one more thing to mention... Another reason their prices are lower than their competitors is because you cannot customize. You get only a few options when it comes to cosmetic things like rug color, paint, countertops, cabinets etc. this allows them to buy in bulk and save on cost.. And, their floor plans are not customizable at all. I personally like to have more choices. As far as pp saying they know of a Ryan home that tripled in value from the 80s to 2000, ya, so did most homes. It was the housing boom. The economy is so different today you simply can't go by those figures. Best of luck! Building a house can be awesome! I have built 3 and not sure I would ever buy an existing home again!
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  • Hi. We built a Ryan home in 2008 in the Cincinnati Ohio area. Would we build with them again or recommend Ryan to friends or loved ones, NO!

    Ryan homes are cheaply made, poorly constructed and not built to last. We had crooked walls, poor finishings on railings and just poor workmanship. Also, they forgot to put some flashing on our roof and if the home inspector hadn't caught that we would have been really up a creek. BTW, even on new builds YOU NEED TO GET A PROFESSIONAL INSPECTION!!!

    I know that any builder can have poor reviews, however, I have consistently heard more negative things than positive things about this company. You should GOOGLE Ryan Homes for reviews and see what comes up.

     

     

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