The sales representative Kayla at the Windswept location was extremely unprofessional and discriminatory from the time we showed interest in buying a home in Lewes, Delaware. My husband and I only wanted to buy a home under $500,000 and she frankly said, “you are not going to get a house in Lewes, Delaware under $550,000 and refused to help any further. This was not a true statement. There were plenty of homes in the $400,000 dollar range that could be bought. After reporting this to the manager, the manager said, it may have been a miscommunication (which it wasn’t) and of course an excuse to justify her to continue to be unprofessional.
The mortgage person Jessica was even worse, she called and I told her the area we wanted to look in and the approval price range we were looking for and she states, well you know the price is different in this area …I proceeded to say yes I am aware of the prices we did our research, I said we just had a bad experience with someone continuing to mention price as an issue as if they did not want us in the area and she says, I don’t want to hear that… I am not here for that. I am a black woman whose salary is well over $250,000 a year and I just feel if I was white I would not be told false information or treated the way I was. We decided not to buy from Ryan Homes at all. We will be going to a different builder, who was extremely professional and kind.
I am a Realtor…I’ve read a lot of the reviews, because I represent a buyer who asked me about Ryan Homes, so I’m doing the research for them. I agree with the very first review, to absolutely ALWAYS ’employ’ a Buyer’s Agent (Realtor) when entering the home-buying process. She said it doesn’t cost you anything. It doesn’t, USUALLY! But in this case (Ryan Homes purchase) it would.
In PA, we use a Buyer’s Agency Contract, which explains our (Realtor/Broker) obligation to you, and yours to us. Always enter into this contract with a Realtor you trust to truly represent your best interests. In PA , it is customary for the seller to pay the commission, so in 99% of my buyer’s transactions they (the buyers) do not pay the 3% commission to their Realtor’s Broker. This contract is Bi-lateral, and is what binds the Realtor and client by way of loyalty and commitment, since there is no monetary pre-paid to the Realtor (we work first, and don’t get paid until we settle on your home). In this contract the buyer understands that if they choose to buy a house for which the Seller does not agree to pay a commission, then it is the buyer’s responsibility to pay their Realtor for all their hard work (and believe me, it is hard work).
However, I never want to ask my buyers to cover a commission that in 99% of home sales in our state, the seller pays. WELL, Ryan Homes does NOT pay a commission. Why not? It seems to indicate that they do not want you, the buyer, to have the benefit of having your own realtor to advocate for you as the buyer. THIS IS A RED FLAG from the get-go! Consequently, there is no incentive for ANY Realtor to WANT to work with this builder, leaving desperate, unrepresented buyers to ‘go it alone’ and deal with a company that lures buyers into transactions with their OWN terms in mind, NOT necessarily in the best interest of the Buyer, though they will try to tell you differently.
Please fully research ANY builder who offers ‘Pre-Launch Incentives’ and be very wary of the promises being made, especially if there is no built model to look at IN PERSON. Virtual sales are hooks. If you sign up during the launch, you are put in ‘Queue’, and the day after the launch is over, and you have your first in-person meeting, you are expected to sign and pay that day, or walk away. The rep I spoke to literally told me buyers cannot think about it overnight. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. As always in the Real Estate Business, ‘Caveat Emptor’ or ‘Let the Buyer Beware!’
My husband and I live in Colorado and are building our new Ryan Home at the Retreat in Parrish Florida. We are beyond lucky to have such competent, caring and knowledgeable staff working with us throughout the process. Carol Hayward is our Sales Representative and is in constant contact with us sharing information as well as answering our many questions. She is amazing at her job and we are lucky to have a great rapport with her. Doing this build out of state was something we were a little concerned about but this team keeps us in the loop. Every Friday, Will Kelly, Project Manager at the Retreat, sends us either pictures or a video of the progression for the week. At first we weren’t sure it was going to be enough, but it is amazing to see things change each time we receive a new update. We will also be doing some FaceTime meetings during different stages. Thank you Ryan Homes for your quality staff, it makes difference!
At build we mentioned windows being unlevel and they denied it and said they would look and take care of it and didn’t. The window finally cracked, and we came in with levels to confirm that the windows had been fixed. At walkthrough someone misplaced a ladder and it fell on me causing a laceration on my back. My babies were with me and we could have been killed. Then we move in and we have a huge punch list, which when addressed the issues are made worse due to lack of workmanship and incompetent workers It is a year later and warranty is done, and they have not fixed the items. They have caused tremendous stress and chaos in my home and do not take ownership. The last thing we found is a foundation issue. Our walls are exposed you can see light at the bottom where the floor meets the wall. Water, air, bugs all kinds of things can come through the hole. It’s affecting my electrical bill. They’ve unknowingly recorded us in our home. The last subcontractor slammed our home door because he was upset that he had installed damaged items after the second time it was being replaced and we asked him to remove it. The list is completely overwhelming to say the least. As of 4/8/21 we noticed the shingles on our roof loose.
We also have the following issues:
Crackling floors upstairs
Unstable middle banister upstairs
Carpet coming apart
Sliding door broken
Windows unleveled
Shingles & ventilation cones on our roof loose, Doors ghosting
No padding on the second floor carpet where carpet meets the wall
Wrong door brackets and bent brackets
Inconsistent paint color
Mailbox installed without concrete
Showers cracked
Kitchen cabinets with water
damage and unleveled
Baseboards cracks
Doors sticking
Walls exposed to the exterior
Unfinished walls
Garage door broken 2 panels replaced, Granite chipped, Nails coming out from the walls, foundation issues.
We’ve reached out S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation 110 Centerview Drive, Columbia, S.C. 29210 They are currently under investigation by the state and Attorney General.
I bought a home with Ryan Homes in December 2019 and they made two mistakes that were informed latter during the home construction. The first one was offering me 4 cable spots with no cost then reaching me out to say I had only 3. Fortunately, they realized their mistake and gave me the 4th one with no additional cost. The worst mistake was selling me an expensive frameless shower door that were not possible to be delivered with the fiberglass option I chose to the master bathroom.
They offered me to replace it with a top frame glass door with about the same price as the frameless door. I was only able to see it installed during the walk-through visit when I had a huge disappointment. Because it seems very similar to the standard one offered with no additional cost at all… I didn’t want to go to the closing meeting before this issue was solved but unfortunately Ryan Home’s contract doesn’t allow to postpone the closing date if the home has all the living permits approved which was the case.
What happens after closing is that Ryan Homes seem to not care about it and they don’t want to reimburse me for their lack of professionalism handling their own mistakes.
When building a new home, you have so much to think about. One tiny little thing can be out of place and there is this fear that it won’t ever be right.
I am providing a detailed review of our Ryan Homes new construction home that was built in the winter of 2016. after 2 full years of living in the home, I plan to break down our experience into a few sections and rate each one.
I also have tips and recommendations for not only those that are just entering into the buying process but also those that may have already closed on their home and might be coming up on their 30-day warranty or their 1-year warranty.
In short, for those of you that are impatient, I would never purchase a home from Ryan Homes again. Like ever..
Here’s why..
Sales Process
The sales process was pretty much what you would expect. Nothing too pushy but they did have incentives that “were ending” that weekend. What we learned after moving in and meeting our neighbors was that there was always some incentive, they just changed frequently.
My advice here is to work with a real estate agent, period.
Why?
You need someone in your court. We realized quickly that everything sounded good, you start signing papers and get caught up in the dream of owning your new home but what you will miss are the fine details. Someone who is looking out for you and has the knowledge to do so.
A lot of our neighbors or other home buyers (new construction) will not engage an agent and then when they move in they are fighting battles that shouldn’t even be an issue. There is NO ADDITIONAL COST to you as the buyer.
Overall Build Quality
Roof Work
This is where things go downhill…fast. Ryan Homes is cranking out homes so fast every year and trying to keep costs low. They aren’t the ones doing the construction on your home. What I mean by this is, you don’t have trained Ryan Homes employees working on your new house. You have whatever cheap labor they can find in your area working on your home. The project manager is the only one employed by Ryan Homes.
Here is a taste of what we dealt with…
Our roof failed the roof inspection several times. By the way, get a separate roof inspection, most normal home inspectors will not walk the roof. After it failed, Ryan homes came out and “made the repairs”. What we did next is something most will not do.
We had the roof reinspected again. Do not take anyone’s word for it when they say they fixed the problem.
Guess what?
The roof failed inspection again! This went on three times until we finally got a clean inspection report. Most home buyers would assume that a brand new roof is, well a brand new roof. These guys had done such a sloppy job with their work it made me cringe.
Concrete
This is another area that had terrible workmanship and is now going to cost us over $10,000 to repair.
When we moved in we noticed discoloring on the back patio, nobody knew what it was but they just ripped it out and replaced it.
Here is what that looked like:
It almost looks wet but this was stained into the concrete and the pattern didn’t change after a couple of days. No issue here being we reported it within the first year. The driveway and patio were laid at the same time but we didnt notice any issues with the driveway at that time.
Now after our 1-year concrete warranty was up just before our 2-year mark, here is what our driveway looks like:
Over 75% of the driveway surface start chipping and cracking after a recent snow we had this winter. We swept all of the concrete from the surface of the driveway and filled up half of a 5-gallon bucket!
We called Ryan Homes and they just stonewalled us saying, your concrete warranty is 1-year and its now year 2.
Yup, that’s right…
It’s like if you bought a car and it had a 3-year warranty on it. Year 4 the car is having a major problem, fixing it isn’t an issue and the car needs to be replaced. Rather than the manufacturer looking into the issue to see how it occurred and how they can prevent it moving forward, they tell you to go fly a kite.
We had several concrete guys come out to the house and they all agree this is a finishing issue. The driveway finish was inadequate from the start and after a cold spell of freeze/thaw the surface cracked.
Ryan Homes refused to even come look at the driveway.
The interesting part is this should be taken up with the initial contractor but they won’t even tell me who that was or how to contact them.
So in the end, I can either fight this with an attorney or pay $10,000 + to repour the driveway. Currently, the driveway continues to chip away day by day and we have only been in the home 2 years.
Last but not least, here is a comical photo that looks hours and hours of battling with our Ryan Homes project manager to fix.
We paid thousands of dollars for our front porch (this is an upgrade). As you can see in the photo below, they poured our concrete front porch at ground level and then wanted to put a rinky-dinky staircase on the porch itself.
Luckily, we had a real estate agent who also thought this was absurd and fought this for us.
After doing our own research we realized this isn’t even to code. You need to have at least a 36″ landing outside of an egress door. Why are we (the homeowners) educating the contractors and our project manager?
It’s like it was the first home they ever built and were just winging it
Needless to say, they quickly fixed this and filled this in with concrete so that the porch comes up to the bottom of the door, then the stairs leading up to that from the sidewalk.
Structure of the home
The actual structure of the home is a concern, the process they use when framing the house is just enough to get by. Walk through the home during the build process and you will see that you can grab a stud and pull slightly, the entire wall moves. This doesn’t change after drywall either, we can push on a wall and there is movement.
When we are downstairs and someone is walking in the bedroom above the living room there is extreme deflection. What this means is the floor pops and creaks due to movement in the subfloor. We reported this at the 30-day and 1-year walkthrough and they will just keep telling you “oh that’s normal”
Warranty
The Ryan homes warranty is just enough to get by in most areas. A lot of things that you didn’t think will be an issue and are expensive to fix (like the concrete driveway) is only covered for 1 year.
As noted above, ours didn’t start cracking and chipping until year 2 but this is still due to inadequate finishing during the installing of the concrete.
Ryan Homes warranty department offers no help beyond the specified warranty dates. I have placed several calls, sent photos, and emails. They keep responding with the same generic response and refuse to even come look at the issue. That’s extremely troubling.
Customer Service
During our short time as homeowners, we have had to deal with Ryan Homes customer service a couple of times. They were typically slow to respond but did fix 2 issues we had during our warranty period. Be prepared for multiple visits and some shotty contractor to come in and do a sloppy job on the repairs.
Where they really failed was issues that fall outside of the warranty. You would think Ryan homes, a company as big as they are would be open to seeing and listening to major problems that occur outside of the warranty window. These things will not only help them pinpoint problems moving forward but it will help them provide a better product.
At the end of the day, the local contractors barely speak English if at all and are usually the cheapest local contractors you can find. Most don’t have their own company name to uphold, no BBB listing or even a website where you can see who it is that is working on your home.
