Calypso Roofing

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.I will be happy to accept this if and when everything gets fixed. This was to be taken care of by now and we have been placed on the back burner. There is no reason that ALL of the items are not fixed yet. We have not even been notified to start the work. The company was here for a few days that was back in early september. We were told then that they would be back. We are still waiting. This needs to be done so we can enjoy our home. 
Regards,
[redacted]

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I...

have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint I[redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

I am a potential customer, not a customer because the Sales Dept. does not follow up on emails, drawings, etc. As a potential customer with great credit, paid for land, and I can't get squat from them. They are in day long sales meetings and will call when they get off the phone. It's been 3 days, I hope they have eaten by now.

Really, I have been looking at their homes for months. Been to Charlotte, NC twice, and I might add their Customer Service is great based on my experience with Bob MacCormick and Columbia, SC. If Mr. MacCormick was in the Sptbg/Greenville area, I would probably build with Schumacher. But with the current staff I just think it will be one headache after another, so I'm getting my house drawn up by an architect and going to custom build. To say I am put out with them is an understatement.

I would never recommend Schumacher Homes. They have poorly detailed plans and rely on inexperienced subcontractors, with almost no Shumacher supervision. Shumacher supervision was less than 15 hours total on a $250K home I built with them. They lie about what they are going o complete and tell you to wait until the end and they will fix everything, after you close and they have your money. Then they do not come back and they never finish. They do not build to their stated standards, Their electrical subcontractor cheats you out of money. Their allowances are lies, stating very low values if you want a part of the house done by professionals yourself. Do not select this contractor.

I Totally agree regarding Schumacher Homes. We had to deal with an Ohio office. NOT a Company that anyone would want to build their home, esp after seeing the same complaints from even other states that this company is located in. Their work is HORRIBLE, to say the least! As the last complaint that I just read said, I agree, Monkeys would have done a MUCH MUCH better job building a home. The pre-construction meeting means nothing. The person that types up the contract makes changes to what the consumer was told they would have with their new home. So the papers that you sign are useless. Because they won’t say what was there, after they are retyped. The office that we had to deal with in Ohio. For instance, I told them that the fireplace is to be a Propane Fireplace. Expressed that concern several times during the meeting. But, they put a WOOD BURNING FIREPLACE in our brand New Home!! When I called and told the manager and builder about it, I got no where.They completely REFUSED to change it. The home is suppose to have 2 basement windows. I got one. The manager said “It must of got overlooked. Ya think? The heat pump didn’t work for 1 year because they didn’t connect it. (overlooked?) The wires in the garage for the garage door opener were dummy wires. Not connected to anything. same with the phone jacks. Hooked to no where. Cracks in cement EVERYWHERE. The floors, walls... The first rain, we had not just water in the basement, but MUD running down the cracks across the floor. We paid WAY too much for the house that’s falling apart. We had to crawl into the house because they don’t put steps to the porch, nor ask if you want steps! Really!! We hired a Concrete Company to put steps in, so we could get into the house! After the fact, we had so many people ask us , Why in the world did you have Schumachers, of all builders, build your home? When we had companies come to the house to hook up communication devices example (internet,phone,cable,etc) they expressed what they already knew about being in other Schumacher Homes. They all said it was all common issues in all Schumacher Homes. I wish we had researched this company more. Overcharged for cheap products and cheap labor. The sub contractors couldn’t communicate with us because they didn’t speak English. I hope that this helps others that are considering building a home.

The original  dryer vent was installed per code and passed by the building inspector. After complaining to both us and the building department, the homeowner had the inspector question the code. The inspector then made several recommendations to us regarding options to satisfy the homeowner. Some were possible based on the design, some were not. In an effort to satisfy the homeowner, Schumacher Homes changed out the original and code accepted dryer vent and paid $819.00 to a vendor to meet the homeowner's perceived code regulations. This work was completed as shown on email below.
From: Mark [redacted] [[redacted]] Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2016 8:35 AMTo: Michael [redacted]Subject: Re: [redacted]
Mike 
We finally were able to get this Mr [redacted] resolved & completed .We ended up installing a Dryer Booster Fan with a Lint Scree for him. I will need a VPO for $819.00 for the labor & material. This is the one that passed inspection but Mr [redacted] filed a complaint at the Revdex.com of [redacted] Co . If you want me to fill out a service request send it over & I will get it right back to you . 
Thanks 
Mark

We began building our home with Schumacher Homes in [redacted] in November 2013. The house was not "finished" until July 18, 2014. I use the term finished very loosely as there were a lot of loose ends not done when we moved in. They of course had their 21 day list, which is still not completed and it is now September 13, 2014. The whole process was terrible. They are very difficult to communicate with and you are lucky to get a response within a week. They do not anticipate their customers needs. I do not think they communicate with the subcontractors. There were numerous items such as the showers that had to be done numerous times because they didn't do it right the first time. When we moved in, there were still cabinet doors missing and to this day there are still handles missing on the cabinets. The cabinets are very poor quality, however with the appliances and furniture they don't look as bad now. I feel like everything in my house was just pieced together. They left wood in our garage for over a month and our driveway that we paid extra for is still stained from the dumpster that was there forever. They also left the black barrier fence in place which we removed because no one else cared. Our wood floors snap and pop pretty much everywhere in our home where they placed. The carpet where it meets the door is fraying because it wasn't placed properly. Currently there is a hole in our garage ceiling under our shower as there may be a water leak or even just because the pipes are pushing on the ceiling. It is/was like pulling teeth to get anything completed with our home. The paint and brick work was great, but other than that the quality of work is poor. They had to replace tile and wood flooring (after our 21 days) because the holes around our vents were cut too large. They were 4 months over their expected completion date and we were given a whopping $1000.00 for this delay that disrupted our entire lives. By the time the house was near completion, I was ready to sell it and wash my hands of this terrible experience. I have tried multiple times to contact anyone outside of the [redacted] location without any success. It does not seem that this company cares about the how their customers feel about their homes. At this point, I feel that I am just stuck with an expensive house that I am just "OK" with. This was supposed to be our dream home and I can't wait to get out of it.
However, I do love my neighborhood. If you plan on using Schumacher to build your home do not expect high quality, completion on time, or good communication. Just walking through my house you can see the poor quality at every turn, but you are locked into a contract as well as a loan. There is no getting out of it, you just have to live with your very expensive mistake.
If you are looking to build a home, I would highly recommend that you do extensive research and pay the extra money for a private contractor with better values.

Home Building with Schumacher – A Comprehensive Review – NOTE: Not being web-savvy, I have posted this to several sites since I do not know which is the one that will be used by others.
First, the caveats:
1. We worked with the Columbus OH office. Any other office may be better/worse but my wife and I cannot personally attest to their abilities.
2. Our salesman was [redacted]. Any reference to how Schumacher sales agents operate is definitely true for him, very likely true for all agents at the office but we can’t say with any sense of certainty beyond that. Related, our builder was [redacted] and although other builders with Schumacher may be similar, we can’t say with certainty.
3. Our budget was between 190,000 – 230,000 (total including land) when we began the process. To this end, our satisfaction (or lack thereof) is based on a house at this price-point. While I do think there are similarities with houses at all price-points, I fully recognize that there are differences as well. We were not (by far) the most profitable sale Schumacher made that month (or likely that week or day).
Overall, my wife and I were VERY satisfied with the house, the process, and the price. This does not mean there were no problems from our perspective or that everything went perfectly. Some of the things that annoyed us would likely not bother others and some things we noticed but were not bothered by might be a big deal to someone else. We decided to keep an ongoing log/diary of our experience and post it online when the house was finished primarily because the posts we found online were less than helpful. This does not mean that other reviews of Schumacher are “wrong” in some fashion. Rather, for us, the reviews we were able to find were lacking in detail and in some cases nuance. For something as complex as a house, it is (to us) fully understandable that some things will go less than perfectly. Relatedly, problems rarely mean that there was NO merit to the company. By giving more detail, we hope to provide a more nuanced review that others may find helpful to supplement other sources of information. To that end, we have tried to put together a posting that captures all aspects of our experience. (We ended up taking possession of our house in late October 2014. This log has been largely done since that time but we waited to post it so we could make edits as needed.)
As a rule, my wife and I do not post reviews of things we buy. We are grateful that others do so we can make wiser consumer choices than we could without the information. We don’t usually post reviews since it they are time-consuming to create and it often seems that many purchases that we personally make have lots of information available on the product and yet another review seems to be of a limited added value.
In this case, our frustration with the lack of the type of information that would have reduced stress when we bought has caused us to take the time to write this and post it. Relatedly, it is a good way for us to work through our thinking on what led to our decision to build, to choose Schumacher, to choose the model we did, to choose the features we did, to be happy (or at times not) with the process, etc.
WHY WE BUILT INSTEAD OF BOUGHT SOMETHING CONSTRUCTED
This is the first house my wife and I had built. Honestly, we were/are reluctant builders. We wanted to live in a specific small town within walking distance of a university where I teach and our daughter attends school. Our desire to be within one square mile of the university overrode all other considerations and we looked at homes big and small, old and new. The schools are great and the Village is charming. Everyone seems to know this though and it is nearly impossible (or at least it was for us) to find anything for sale within our desired radius at a reasonable price.
We did finally locate a lot that had never had a house put on it. Turns out, the owner put a Victory Garden on it during WWII and planned to build on it later but never did. His son (now 84) agreed to sell it to us and we reluctantly embarked on building (or at least the prospect of it). Even after we bought the lot, we were still looking for existing homes to buy but we could find nothing that met our needs. We eventually determined that we were unlikely to find anything already built within the radius we wanted to live in so we decided to figure out how to build a house.
As you might imagine, building for us was something we approached with wariness and a sense of foreboding. We had read about cost overruns, delays, unscrupulous builders, buyer’s remorse when people saw what it actually looked like, and all the other horror stories. The idea of building was NOT something we looked forward to and was NOT something we originally would have imagined us doing. We point all this out so you might be able to understand that our approach to building was a bit different than some other people might be. We were worried about problems with building and as such we entered the process with caution and trepidation.
Not knowing how to build or whom to build with, we started an Internet search. We researched the sites of multiple companies and looked at smaller contractors. We decided to go with Schumacher (or at least look at their design center) after extensive searching. We were impressed with a number of things about them but at first were a bit scared of building with Schumacher Homes after reading a lot of negative reviews. If you search for Schumacher reviews online (likely if you are reading this), you have likely noticed a plethora of reviews. Many of the reviews are (at least at the time we built) quite negative and this did give us pause. However, being academics, we did a fairly extensive search of the reviews, both for Schumacher Homes and for another prominent builder who is popular in this area and found that for our money, the reviews of Schumacher Homes (with a FEW notable exceptions) could be largely discounted for a number of reasons (at least in our opinion).
OUR EXPERIENCE WITH OTHER REVIEWS FOR HOME-BUILDERS
NOTE: The following analysis is purely the opinion of my wife and I and does not represent anything beyond that. It is entirely possible we have misread or misinterpreted the reviews of others and would strongly urge each person to conduct their own investigation of the reviews of Schumacher or any other builder being considered. The following is offered for the sole purpose of explaining how my wife and I ultimately decided to evaluate the reviews we were able to find online.
OUR ANALYSIS OF THE REVIEWS
When we began looking at reviews for Schumacher Homes (and for other builders), it seemed that virtually no one was happy. Reviews tended to be horror stories that made us want to run away. However, it was hard to square this with the fact these companies (Schumacher and the other one we looked at) had been in business for years and had experienced a lot of growth. Clearly someone had to be happy. Not wanting to just discount the negative reviews, we looked at them and discovered that they tended to fall into one of four types. The first three were not a problem as far as my wife and I were concerned. It was the fourth type we paid the most attention to. Regarding reviews, we also tended to discount those that were older and from design centers further away from Columbus Ohio (the Design Center assigned to us). If there was a review from 2008 in another state, it tended to get less attention from us than a review from 2014 in Ohio. However, regardless of age of the post or location, we tended to find reviews falling generally into one of four basic types:
1. Quite a few of the negative reviews were from people who were angry but had no basis for their opinion. With Schumacher, these tended to be the “bait and switch” reviews. Typically, the reviewer saw an advertisement that said Schumacher Homes would/could build a home of some square footage for a price that seemed great. When the reviewer went to Schumacher, they were shocked and angered that the granite countertops, hardwood floors, brick exteriors and the like brought the cost up by a huge amount. They left the design center feeling angry and cheated and posted a negative review.
The reason we choose to ignore these reviews is twofold. First, since they never actually bought a house, we can’t rely on them to offer opinion on anything meaningful (such as construction quality, time to completion, sales promises and whether they were honored, etc.). Second, we don’t see this as a bait and switch. Now, if they promised to build a house and counted electricity as an “extra” you might have something. However, granite countertops are not a standard feature. Moreover, we must admit that our concern is the structural elements more than the things we can see that can be replaced easily in 4 – 5 years. Ignoring these reviews cuts the number of negative reviews by at least 40%. Relatedly, our experience with Schumacher’s design center was that they were able and willing to give us instant quotes on how much any and all upgrades might cost. Potential buyers would however be VERY wise to budget two – three hours (at an absolute minimum) once they have found a floor plan they like in order to go through all possible upgrades. Some things like hardwood floors are obvious upgrades. Others, like certain colors for the siding would seem less likely to be considered an upgrade. The thing to keep in mind is that the base house is a fantastic value for the money and for some of the upgrades, there is a significant profit for Schumacher Homes. Their need to make money is understandable (from our perspective) and so long as buyers take the time to educate themselves on which upgrades are good buys for the money (from their perspective) and which aren’t we don’t see a problem with this. As an example, the standard faucets (of the model we ended up buying) were brushed nickel but the shower handles came as chrome for the standard finish. My wife and I do not like the look of chrome and wanted brushed nickel for everything. This was considered an upgrade (one for each bathroom) and came in at around $60 per shower handle at the time we bought the house). Is it worth upgrading? Depends on how much you like/dislike chrome, how much they want to change it out, and how much/easy it is to do it later. Is it a decision you need to make? Yes. Is it bait and switch? No.
2. Some negative reviews were from people who had a complaint that was unresolved at the time they posted their original review. These would either be the ones at the Revdex.com where they experienced a problem but later posted it was resolved or they complained about some aspect of construction as the house was being built but never updated it later. A typical one would be someone complaining that the drywall had just been hung and it there were large gaps but never provided evidence that Schumacher Homes refused to eventually fix it. Those that did update (of the ones we found) always acknowledged that it was in fact fixed.
The problem with this type of review for us was that it did not represent a finished state. If the house was delivered with gaps in the drywall and they were never fixed, THAT is a problem worth noting. However, for us, problems during construction (or after) that are fixed to the customer’s satisfaction aren’t really problems. Schumacher Homes (and the other builder we examined in depth) both use well over 30 sub-contractors to build a house. Aside from standing behind the work and fixing problems as they come up (and monitoring sub-contractors and not working in the future with ones that repeatedly have complaints), there isn’t much that can be reasonably expected. This represented about another 40% of the negative reviews we could find. Please understand that we do not think this is not a problem. Ideally, there will be no problems with the house at any point during (or after) construction. However, so long as problems are resolved in a reasonable fashion, we viewed these as unfortunate incidents and legitimate negative reviews but nothing that would deter us from building with Schumacher Homes. Relatedly, during OUR house building process, we did also find a few moments during construction were there were problems or mistakes made by a sub-contractor. In all cases though, issues were resolved to our complete satisfaction, generally before we even brought them up. Once we moved in, we did find a few (small) issues but in each case, Schumacher sent someone to our house to fix it immediately. This was impressive to us since we are about 75 miles from them and they never saw coming out to fix a TINY thing as an inconvenience. I can’t yet speak to the 10 year warranty (we haven’t been there long enough) but I can say that the 1 year full coverage (of virtually ANYTHING for any reason) is amazing! Schumacher built a quality house for us and has stood by the construction of it.
3. The third type of negative review was the person who either had the worst experience in the world or could never be made happy. Your choice as to whether to believe them. Your mileage may vary. These complaints ranged from trash at the job site (likely someone who is never happy) to someone who wrote pages about a problem such as uneven or squeaky floors.
The problem for us in evaluating these complaints is that Schumacher Homes has specific and detailed specs for deficiencies. Cracks that meet the following characteristics will be fixed and the like. The defects covered in the warranty (yes we read all 90 pages of it) seemed reasonable to us. However, we would urge each person to decide for him or herself beforehand and ask questions as they see fit. There are exacting standards that are used to determine whether it is a defect. This seems reasonable to us and preferable to a vague statement about quality. After being given documents that clearly outlined what would and not count as a defect and under what conditions Schumacher would fix things, my wife and I concluded that those complaining were (1) ignorant of the documents they signed, (2) holding standards that far exceeded what was promised, (3) in a position where they had failed to read/understand the terms of the contract, or (4) Schumacher Homes failed to fulfill its contract. While #4 is always possible, my wife and I tended to think it was more likely that it fell into one of the first three scenarios, especially since none of the complaints in this category (that were able to locate) seemed to back it up with a claim that warranty was not fulfilled. These reviews made up about 15% of the total.
4. The final group of negative reviews were the ones that gave us pause. These were written by people who had the house built and had experienced a problem. In all cases they admitted the problem was eventually solved. However, they tended to be disappointed that a house that cost so much had such a problem in the first place and questioned whether their belief in the high quality of construction was warranted at all. In these cases, the issue, while resolved eventually was only done so after a great deal of intervention on the part of the homeowner. In most cases, these reviews were detailed and backed up by evidence in the form of pictures and documents.
The good news (from our perspective) was that these represented a very small fraction of the negative reviews and we were unable to locate any from our design center or in the past 24 months at any design center. These did however strike us as sincere. There were some people who did experience problems after the house was finished. While problems were fixed, these reviews suggest that problems must be anticipated and not all sub-contractors are perfect. This can be worrying since it is likely a problem with the general contractor and/or the subcontractors. If there had been a lot of these types of reviews, that would have been a problem but they seemed to represent a small fraction of the total and were small in total number as well. Moreover, they tended to cluster in anther state and were all from a time-period several years ago. It seems that there was a problem with one design center (outside of Ohio) about 3- 4 years ago but that it has been solved as of now.
WHY WE ENDED UP VISITING SCHUMACHER HOMES
After looking at the reviews, we liked both builders overall but Schumacher had a definite and significant edge. Looking at building quality, both seem similar insofar the homes appear well built overall although we did have preference for Schumacher for a number of standard features they include and the suppliers they have as standard. Additionally, we really liked the house plans they had and their web site was easy to navigate. We also were able to find at least five individuals we knew who had either built with Schumacher Homes or had a family member who did so. In all cases, they were very satisfied. We also talked with some people who worked for a lumber yard that supplied multiple builders. They told us that Schumacher Homes was the worst purchaser from their perspective since they rejected lumber on a regular basis if it was not perfectly straight and true. (As a potential homebuyer, this seemed great from our perspective.) Finally, I (prior to marrying my beautiful wife) had been able to tour houses (albeit about 8 years ago) from the other builder we were considering that had been built and were for sale by owner and was underwhelmed with the quality of construction.
It is reasonable to point out that much of our data might be biased. It is possible for example that a different lumberyard employee might have a different view or that the houses I toured years ago were not representative of what the other builder we were considering typically built. However, this was all the information we were able to gather in a timely fashion (about 6 weeks) and we decided to venture forth and give Schumacher Homes a call.
CALLING SCHUMACHER / SETTING UP AN APPOINTMENT/PURCHASING LAND – IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE IT
If you decide to call Schumacher Homes to set up an appointment, there are a few things you should know that were unclear to us beforehand. They are not bad things per-se but they are less than clear. If Schumacher Homes asked how to improve their website, we would suggest (at a minimum) they make the following information available on a FAQ page (or if it is already on a FAQ page to make said page easy to find). (Assuming a Schumacher employee reads this review at a future date, you may find this FAQ page up and running. However at the time we contacted them, the following information was not entirely clear.)
First, you will be required to go to a specific design center based on where you are building. Each design center has a territory where they have builders/sub-contractors set up. For us, the Athens Ohio Design Center was about 10 miles closer than the Columbus Design Center but we were told that we needed to go to Columbus. We did not mind and would rather work with a design center that has a lot of knowledge of the area and the building codes for the county they are building in, but it is possible you may be required to go to a design center different than the one you think is closer to you. There should be a feature on the site where you enter your zip code and learn which design center you need to go to. Relatedly, they should explain why you need to go there and not to another one. It makes sense to have you go to the Design Center where the employees are most familiar with county building codes and where the contractors will know who the best subcontractors are, but it was not something we were aware of beforehand.
We would STRONGLY recommend calling before showing up. The salespeople have appointments and if you don’t have an appointment, it can be hard to get help. If you live 10 minutes from a Design Center this is not a big deal but if (like us) it is a 75 mile trip there, you will want to make sure someone is there to work with you for a few hours as you look around. This is really nice when you have an appointment since you can get someone’s uninterrupted assistance. However, if you don’t have an appointment, it can really be a pain. We would also recommend showing up about 30 – 45 minutes (at least) before your appointment. This will give you time to take a quick look though the model homes. You may love them or at least find elements you love and/or hate. For example, we loved the placement of windows in one bedroom (a corner of windows), which we incorporated into the house we ended up building. (Our daughter has fallen in love with the design of the windows and claimed it as hers long before the home was finished.)
We would also recommend having some idea as to the houses that are in a price range you might be able to afford as well as what you might like/want in a house when choosing land. To this end, we found the following to be reasonable numbers for us. (Your numbers may vary a great deal though based on any number of factors. Still, I figure some number is better than no number.) We paid about 20K for our lot. We put another 7K into it to clear a bunch of large trees. The lot preparation (grading, gravel, construction drive, topsoil, etc.) was about 18K. We were lucky and have access to city water, city sewer, gas, and electric. If you need a well, a septic tank, propane, or something else, your costs can go up for that. Now, for us, the fact that we had to remove trees and that the lot had a slope (about 12 feet from the street to about 60 feet back) added a lot to our costs. We really had no choice since this was the only lot for sale that met our criteria (walking distance to the university).
If you have never built, this is something you will want to keep in mind. The price Schumacher will give you is for the house itself but does not include lot preparation, tap fees, building permits, gravel, topsoil, etc.. These costs do add up. For us, we had a VERY specific location we needed to be in and no real choices as to the lot available to us. If you do have some choices, choose wisely since the difference in lot preparation can be daunting. If you know nothing about building beforehand (this was us) and you have choices as to the lot that you can build on (not us) try to educate yourself or better yet, bring along someone who can help estimate costs. If you are building in the middle of nowhere and need to put in a 200 foot driveway and a septic system, this will drive your costs up. Building in the city is not free either though. For us, lot preparation included an extra $1,000 for pump trucks for concrete since the lot is so small (1/3 acre) on a narrow street (a bit more than one care wide) with houses 6 feet from the lot line).
One thing we were a bit disappointed in was the lot walk. We would have ideally wanted one before we picked out a house since our lot was small and sloped and we had no real idea what we were doing. Having said this, my wife and I think this was something that we did not realize was a big problem until later. We didn’t demand one before we decided on a house and given the distance from our house building site to the design center (about 75 miles) we can understand why they would not be the ones to urge it on us. Having said this, we would strongly recommend bringing pictures of the lot and having some idea of the footprint of the house you are wanting if you have any reason to be concerned with this. It sounds rather obvious now but at the time we didn’t really have any idea the challenges of building on a lot with less than 85’ of frontage. 85’ sounded like a lot to us at first but it was an issue for us given the slope (which seemed gradual to the naked eye but not the laser level. ?) In short, if you can, choose your lot wisely. Keep in mind that the costs of building will be VERY different depending on the type of house you want to put on the type of lot you end up with.
If our lot had been level and treeless, we would have spent about 20- 25K less than we did on our house. Given the slope, we needed a frost wall around the back and side of the house, 2,400 tons of fill dirt, a retaining wall built by a subcontractor at a cost of about 2K, tree removal of what seemed a small forest on a 1/3 acre lot, and several other site condition issues that I didn’t even realize at the time we bought the lot. The lot you will build on will make a huge difference in your cost to build. This seems obvious but was not something that we thought about beforehand. Your lot will matter and will help determine the budget available for your house. If we had been able to find a lot that was similar in price but more buildable, our budget for our house would have been much different.
MEETING WITH SCHUMACHER / GOOD AND BAD – THINGS TO WATCH FOR / BE AWARE OF
Let me begin by saying that we were very satisfied overall with our experience and would recommend our salesman ([redacted]) 100% with NO reservation to anyone else even contemplating building. He was knowledgeable, attentive, responsive to our needs and desires, listened and incorporated what we wanted, did not to sell us above our budget, listened, and gave some incredible advice. If you are thinking of building with Schumacher Homes and will be using the Columbus Design Center, my wife and I cannot begin to recommend him highly enough.
We think our working relationship was enhanced by the fact we knew certain things. For us, the issue we began our discussion with [redacted] was that we wanted a house that was within our budget. That was the #1 concern for us and foremost in our mind. We had heard horror stories of how much people went over budget and we decided that couldn’t be us. We made it clear we had a budget and couldn’t/wouldn’t be happy going over that. He was 100% on board with this and kept suggestions in line with this. He NEVER suggested we go over our budget and was completely respectful of our limits. This was great and we felt that [redacted] understood our concern on this point. Our concern with keeping to a budget was another reason we ended up choosing Schumacher over a smaller contractor. With Schumacher, we knew to the penny how much the house would cost. The only way there would be a cost overrun on the house itself would be if we changed our mind and added stuff in.
(Having said that, potential buyers should be aware that lot preparation includes allowances for estimated costs. Some things cannot be known to the penny beforehand (such as the cost of tree removal or how many tons of dirt you will need brought in/hauled away). If you are budget concerned, we would advise requesting they give you estimates on the high end. For us, we ended up getting over $12,000 back when we took possession of the house but that was because we purposely estimated really high to ensure we would not go over budget.) While we were pleased to get so much back, we do not suggest that our experience is common.
We also knew that for us, we were attracted to the price Schumacher had for the square foot and the very high (by our estimate) construction quality for the structural elements. Poured basement walls, 2 x 6 construction, five-eighth inch thick drywall, etc. all helped push us toward them as builders. We were also very happy that they build to the highest code for the state. The Village we were building in has virtually no code and we wanted a house that was built well and not just to the minimum / non-existent standards our community had. The fact they insisted on building it a certain way was a plus, not a negative from our way of thinking.
If you live in a community with very strict building codes, this may not be an issue for you but if you live where building codes and inspections are not as high as you might hope, this might be a factor. This can go either way for someone. If you want/need a drain in your garage (something we requested) it can be disappointing to be told no. The reason given was that some municipalities banned it for fear of oil being dumped in them. We have zero desire to do this and it was a bit annoying to be told “no”. However, we respected the fact that the home that would be built would meet the highest standard in the state. Our desire for the highest quality of construction possible made being told “no” tolerable.
For us, we made it clear we knew that the house advertised was structurally very nice but had limited options (at the base price) for finishes. We decided to apply our upgrades strategically to the structural issues that would be really hard to do later. Given we had a budget, this was a compromise we had to make. For some people with more resources, compromises may not be necessary. However, if you need to compromise, we would (for whatever it is worth) advise going for structural elements before better carpet or the like. Carpet is easy to change. Making 8 foot ceilings 9 foot ceilings is hard to change after the house is completed.
To that end, we spent our upgrade budget on things like steel beam construction (great to make the basement more usable and to increase quality of overall construction and cheap as all get out), 9 foot ceilings on the first floor (also amazingly cheap by our reckoning at less than $1,500 total), extra windows, a walkout basement, plumbing an extra bathroom in the basement, vent for gas for the stove, etc. etc. We did do a few of the upgrades for the interior spaces but only after the structural issues were done and then we were very picky. Our salesman was great in this regard. He steered us away from a few upgrades that were overpriced by any reckoning and toward ones that were more reasonable.
There were some upgrades the salesperson felt were good and we were not on board with, but he quickly moved away from them when we expressed our lack of interest. We did however appreciate his ideas and made it clear we wanted his input. While we didn’t always agree with him, [redacted] was able to offer some really good ideas that we had never thought of (including a bunch of potential downsides to canister lights in the ceiling of a ranch house, reasons why a laundry sink is great, etc.). We didn’t always agree but we did always want his input since we viewed it as another set of eyes on the plans and felt that additional voices were good. I am not sure if this is the norm for them, occurred because of our needs/desires, or was unique to our salesperson. It was however great for us and made for a good experience.
If you want to save some money, I would urge you to consider adding all the features you might want (that are at least technically within budget) and then going home to research them a bit. You might be surprised that some such as an island in the kitchen, a sliding glass door, or upgraded cabinets are a steal and others can be done later for much less. If time is an issue or money isn’t, ignore all of this and get whatever you want. I will say they do a great job of offering you lots of options.
Keep in mind that Schumacher Homes (like all businesses) needs to make money to survive. To that end, there are some upgrades that will be priced more than others. Some upgrades will likely seem inexpensive and others quite dear. Choosing carefully is key. One nice thing was they gave us a price quote after the first meeting that broke down all of the upgrades. For us, we said yes to everything we wanted (realistically wanted and thought we might be able to afford) and ended up about $10,000 above where we wanted to be. We spent a day and then talked about which to cut out and which to keep. This was a really useful process for us since we were able to think about what was most important for us.
Even after you agree to everything and say that this is the house you want and the features you love, you have two additional meetings to finalize everything. For us, this is where we ran into a problem. Originally, we wanted a ranch and had picked out the house we liked in our budget. All was set and they came out to walk the lot and place the house. Turns out, given the constraints of our lot, it was going to cost about $57,000 for the lot preparation (compared to the $20 – 25K we originally thought it might cost based on what the salesperson figured.) It wasn’t his fault. The lot was more sloped than we thought and there were issues we hadn’t thought of. So . . .
We went back and told them we couldn’t build that house. We were worried there would be a hassle since we had paid a $500 deposit at this point but we were prepared to walk away and lose the money if needed. Turns out, they were completely understanding and the manager made it clear that we could have our money back with no problem if we wanted. This was not something they had to do given the way we were reading the contract. My wife and I were even more impressed with Schumacher Homes at this point.
We wanted to build with them if possible though so they spent the next SIX hours going though plans for ALL houses in our budget. We priced out all options we wanted with each house (not colors but things like windows, upgrades based on the type of house and the like) and then were able to compare plans side by side. This was the way we wanted to do it at this point since we were living in a 600 SQ Foot apartment with our daughter and the Design Center was 75 miles from where we lived. We wanted to do things that day if possible. Several people gave up their lunch to help us which was amazing from our perspective since there was no guarantee we could find something that would work.
After pricing every option within our budget that would fit on the lot, we ended up choosing the house we thought we wanted on the drive down to the design center. It was however great to have them spend so much time with us to make sure we got the exact house we wanted. The amount of work they did for us was amazing to me given that our sale was not so huge. The process gave my wife and I a lot of confidence that we were getting the absolute best house for our needs and the best value for our money. I think we would have bought with them anyway since we were reasonably confident that the one we thought we liked was “the one” but their willingness to go the extra mile(s) on our behalf speaks volumes to the staff at the Columbus Design Center.
The colors meeting and the final meeting were also quite good. They went over EVERYTHING, which was what my wife and I wanted. We liked the idea of choosing it all up front instead of piecemeal but were worried about making so many decisions at once. Turns out that for us, it was not much of a problem since we spent hours between each meeting going over each item and discussing it and the other options.
There are some advantages of the process and some drawbacks. For us, it was great but for a different type of person, it might be terrible. You CAN customize everything and we did in fact move a wall two feet over in the house we choose. HOWEVER, you do pay for each change. This is understandable but it can add up quickly. Adding a window for $350 or so is no big deal until you add 10 of them. Changing the countertops is fine but after awhile, it adds up. If you really like most elements of one of their plans, it is great! If you don’t, I would check them out and visit Schumacher Homes before ruling them out, but cannot speak to how your experience (price-wise) will be. If however you like the basic design of a house, a modest number of changes to the layout (we did about 25 – 30 changes) are amazingly reasonable price wise (from our perspective).
One thing we loved was the instant pricing. When you sit down with a salesperson, you leave 3-4 hours later with a full quote for the house, down to the penny. That is nice. The amount some of the upgrades cost seemed a bit high but if you factor in the base price (which is INSANELY low from my view for what they include), it evens out if you get a reasonable number of upgrades and you can do very, very well if you are diligent about which upgrades you choose.
One additional way to save money is to make a few phone calls. Schumacher Homes understandably needs to make money to stay in business. Busy people tend to pay extra which is totally fine since they are willing and able to pay extra for someone to do the work for them. If you have some extra time (hours, not weeks) you can cut some of the costs by looking at the allowances. Allowances are for things like gravel, port-a-johns, and construction driveways that are needed but no one knows exactly how much will cost until they get there. For some of them, Schumacher insists on doing them. These tend to be things like the frost wall or a natural drain where they are going to be on the hook for the warranty if it is messed up. For other things like tree removal, construction driveways, and the like, you can either let them do it, or you can hire your own subcontractor (assuming they are cleared by Schumacher which is automatic if they are bonded, insured, etc.). Schumacher uses subcontractors and can often get a really good price. However, they add 18% to this price as a service charge. As such, you are best off financially if you can take the time and get their price and an independent price (yours and theirs) or minimally seeing if you can get it a good percentage under the allowance. The allowances not spent are returned to you. Getting the better price doing it yourself does require a bit of time and a bit of money since you will have to pay for it yourself and wait for the allowances to be drawn from escrow (several months from when you do it). For those with the resources though, you can save money this way.
For us, we ended up using a subcontractor who had really good prices for a few things. [redacted] (our builder) found out how reasonably priced he was and ended up using him to help out some of his other clients to save them money. This impressed us a great deal. Our builder cared deeply about saving money for his clients and was sensitive to our needs. This was one more example of why we ended up so satisfied overall.
WHO SHOULD CONSIDDER USING SCHUMACHER – IN OUR VIEW
Schumacher is great if you can make up your mind and not change it. You are charged an extra $500 for each change you make after your final meeting since they send the plans off and begin ordering materials and the like. If you are the type of person who will change the location of windows, add in features afterwards and the like, Schumacher Homes can become a bit pricy. For us, we did discover that we wished we put a window in an upstairs bathroom for some natural light but didn’t realize this until the house was being framed. While we would have been happy to pay $300 or so for said window, we decided against it given we were going to have to pay an extra $500 plus the cost of the window. We weren’t upset about this since Schumacher was VERY clear about this policy and gave us multiple opportunities to decide what we wanted. It is understandable that they need compensation if the plans are changed partway through. However, if you think you might change your mind, the costs can go up.
Schumacher is a UNBELIEVABLE price (from our perspective) if you don’t need too many upgrades. Structurally, the house uses very good materials from very reputable suppliers and the price per square foot is great. Some of the upgrades are crazy cheap and steals compared to what you would pay to have it done later. Others are good values. A few are to be avoided unless you don’t care about the money that much (some are expensive relatively but not in absolute dollars)/value your time that highly (there is something to be said for having the house perfect when you move in). It is essential that you keep in mind that the house you see on their website is priced as the base model. Each upgrade will increase the cost. I know that for us, with a modest number of upgrades (about 30 or so total), they were a great value. I cannot however begin to speak to how much less expensive they would be compared to other companies if you had a lot more upgrades.
BUILDING THE HOUSE
They were scheduled to break ground on July 22nd. They were a day late (annoying) but they did call the day before to apologize and explain another job ran late. The builder stayed in contact with us and although we didn’t call him for the first several weeks (no need) he did answer the phone right away when we did call.
After excavating the foundation, putting in the natural drain and pipes for the sump pump, they put in footers and then poured the walls. Then they backfilled the walls with gravel. All this was completed by August 6th. Sub-contactors were used (obviously) but all of them were nice and professional. They were from firms we knew of and each person we met was able and willing to answer questions and was very nice. In fairness, we tried to be aware of their time and only took up about 3 – 5 minutes for each person but were impressed with each during this phase.
Framing began in early August. The weather was a bit rainy early in the week but they were able to finish in just 5 days (counting days/time off for rain delays). What impressed us was that on Thursday (the day before they finished) my wife and I went through the house to see what it was looking like. My wife noticed that the landing on the 2nd floor was a bit shorter than ideal. We decided it was likely a tradeoff for having chosen 9-foot ceilings for the first floor which would change the size of the staircase. The next morning, we received a call from [redacted] (the builder). He was at the job site and had noticed the same thing. He was calling to let us know that he was instructing the framers to extend the 2nd floor landing by about 5 inches and rebuild the staircase to have it look better. We came by over the weekend to check it out and were very impressed with the work.
Perhaps another couple would have been wise enough to complain but we just assumed that it was a tradeoff that had to be made. Some of these are inevitable to all building projects. However, our builder saw that it could be made better and did so. What gave us a lot of faith in [redacted] was the fact that he fixed it BEFORE hearing from us. As far as he knew, we had no problem with the staircase but he clearly views his job as one of putting up the highest possible quality house with as few errors as possible. We cannot attest that any other Schumacher builder is this conscientious, but [redacted] certainly was.
A DOWNSIDE to our builder for SOME buyers is that he was very busy overseeing a large number of projects. He was accessible to us when we needed him but tended to prefer to communicate via text message and was clearly in a rush to keep things on schedule. This is understandable but did mean we occasionally had to rearrange things to be at the building site to answer a question / make a decision. Personally, my wife and I loved this since we wanted the house finished quickly and professionally. However, we can easily imagine some taking offense at having to change plans to meet the electrician for example.
You do get to meet with the electrician (which we did about 7 weeks into the build). You will have a chance to add lights, outlets, and the like. This is nice and we were pleased that we did not have to decide where to place outlets until we could see the actual house. This is the one thing you do get to decide after you sign the contract. Keep in mind that this will cost you a bit of money. We added a few lights and outlets (I was surprised with how few we needed to add and how many things were included with the base price) but we still ended up spending around $1,800 or so in additional electrical. We were a bit surprised at this until we talked to my father. When we were building in Ohio, he was in the process of finishing his basement in NH. When we told him what we had done and how much we paid, he laughed for a full minute and told me that we got “the deal of a lifetime”. We are not sure that we got the deal of a lifetime. However, after doing a bit of research on how much electric work actually costs, my wife and I would say we got a very fair price for what we received. Having said this, you will want to put aside around $1,500 – $3,000 for electric upgrades depending on the size of your house. (Our house was 1,944 sq. ft. and we spent $1,800 on electric upgrades (but did want a bunch of things and insisted on overhead lights EVERYWHERE). You will need to write a check to the electrician on the spot when they come. Make sure you have the money available to pay for it since you will be expected to pay the electrician then and there. Schumacher told us this repeatedly and it was not a surprise at all (nor was it that big of a deal for us). However, I put it here since it was the only thing we had to pay after we closed and prior to getting a check from the escrow from them.
Drywall, cabinets, and everything else went quite quickly. They ended up finishing our house in exactly 3 months. Schumacher Homes offers a “guarantee” that they will be done in 5 months. This sounds great but if you read the fine print (which we did), the guarantee is that if they fail to meet this, they give you $1,000. This is great if they miss the 5 month window by a week but terrible if they miss the window by two years. At the time we decided to go with them, we were told their average out of the Columbus office was 4 months. We were a bit skeptical but given their time to finish our home (3 months) my wife and I are believers now.
Throughout the process we were really impressed with the pride subcontractors took in their work. They were all great to interact with. While the house was being built we lived in a small apartment about ½ mile from where the house was being constructed so we drove by almost every day to see the progress. Whenever a subcontractor was there we would stop (if we weren’t in a rush) and exchange a few words. Honestly, we were most interested in educating ourselves since we really knew so little about how a house was constructed or how it was done. Without fail, subcontractors were kind and answered our questions. Moreover, they all seemed to take pride in their craft and when we would tell them how pleased we were with Schumacher Homes, their face often seem to light up a bit. Our experience may have been unique in this regard, but it seemed that the subcontractors felt special to have been chosen to work with Schumacher Homes. Some of this may have been their pleasure to work with our builder. Whatever the reason, it made us feel even better about the process and our experience.
When we closed and did our final walkthrough, all was GREAT except the paint. It is a small thing in some ways. It is cheap to fix but at the same time, it is something you notice. The paint looked unprofessional in areas with paint on the ceilings and the like. We were told that we should go through the house and put tape on areas where there were problems. Schumacher Homes would send a crew the following week. We spent several hours going over everything and putting up tape where we thought there were problems. At the conclusion of doing this, my wife and I got a better understanding of how some of those negative reviews might have gotten written in the first place
Until they came back to fix it, my wife and I were VERY disappointed in the paint job. It was not completely terrible but there were some parts where paint had gotten on the ceiling or the window casings and there were some parts where the paint was not applied evenly. Mind you, the house looked great to a casual observer, but we were purposely being picky and were not 100% happy at this point. We wanted and expected it to look as good (or better) than it did in the model homes we had toured at the start of the process. (Keep in mind that we had a few friends stop by during this time to see the house and they didn’t see the problem with the paint but we did.)
Although Schumacher Homes had told us the paint was imperfect and that they would come back the following week to fix it, it was hard to keep this in mind. We had watched them dig a hole and within a few months we saw a house come into creation. We were so excited to get into the new house that the imperfect paint was all we could see at that moment. We know this may seem a bit nuts but it is honestly how we felt at that moment. If we had posted a review online during the 5 day window where we able to point out problems, we would have likely been negative (at least to some degree) since in our minds the problem was not going to be resolved to our satisfaction. Honestly, we couldn’t imagine it would be made perfect.
We were 100% wrong.
Schumacher Homes wanted us to have a chance to see the imperfections so that we could list our complaints BEFORE they did the final paint job. This makes sense.
In fact, Schumacher Homes sent a paint crew out as promised the following week and it did in fact look perfect when they were done.
As it turned out, we found out later that the regular painter that our builder uses was on vacation when our house was originally painted. He used a subcontractor. When he came back to fix our paint, he was appalled that there were so many problems. We were told that Schumacher Homes insisted that those particular subcontractors not be used in the future. This fit well with our impression of Schumacher Homes. Those who worked on our home seemed by and large to be trade people who had a long established relationship with Schumacher Homes. If there was a problem with a subcontractor, Schumacher took responsibility for the problem and made sure to fix it. This is all we believe can reasonably be asked of a builder. In yet more evidence of how much the subcontractors seem to love working for Schumacher Homes, we asked the painter for a quote for putting on an additional two coats of paint in Eggshell (opposed to Flat). His price was SO far below others we checked it against we were amazed! He told us that he was embarrassed that the original crew had not done a better job and wanted to give us a great deal to “make up” for it. This was not necessary since the finished product looked perfect but it really confirmed for us how much the contractors and subcontractors valued their relationship with Schumacher Homes.
The house is finished and my wife, my daughter, and I love it! Before we started, we could best be described as reluctant builders. While we do not anticipate the need to build another house in the near future, if the need arose, we would definitely approach the endeavor with enthusiasm and confidence assuming we could build with Schumacher Homes.
In short, we would recommend Schumacher Homes without reservation for the reasons listed above. We have tried to provide as much detail as possible both to help ensure that the review we post gives adequate information and to help put our comments in the proper context.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's...

response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  I have received the refund I requested in a timely manner. I do have to say that the letter I received from them stating that I had not fulfilled my part of the contract was incorrect. They stated that I signed the contract in June of 2013 and it was not signed until October of 2013. I did give them my deposit in June.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
Although Schumacher...

Homes, Inc. proposed an adequate resolution to complaint ID [redacted], they have failed to carry out this resolution as promised.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
A company representative come to home on 6/1 as promised, fixed a couple items on the spot, checked the tub, hardwood floor issues and a window in the great room.  He indicated he would go back to office, let management know what needed done, however as of 6/25 there has been no further contact from anyone at the company. I request that the business contacted again.
Regards,
[redacted]

We are behind on this job. I reviewed the job with [redacted] and he assures me that he had scheduled the remaining activities on this job to wrap it up by August 11. We will stay on t\our trades and make this happen.

Building with Schumacher Homes was one of the worst experiences of my life. It started from the second we started the building process. When we were in our preconstruction meeting and all anyone cared about was getting the contact signed and getting started on the build. We have never done this before and had a lot of questions and were not really sure what we wanted, no one was any help they just seemed irritated and ready to move on to the next project. They make changes on a drawling of your home with red pen and you are supposed to know from there if you like it. We went back numerous times because we would miss things that we wanted in the house and each time we just sat there with all eyes on us trying to make decisions that they acted like could have cared less about. It got to the point where we were told we had too many meetings that we have to pay change order fees of $1200 all because we were trying to ensure we built the perfect forever home for our family; of course no one there cared about that we were just taking too much time. However after signing the paperwork they forgot to charge me for almost $900 worth of wood flooring but since that was their fault I of course had to pay that. There was also almost a $1000 charge for a special truck that they needed to use because it rained shortly after they started building, I never got asked about this charge I just got sent the bill in the mail. I debating on withdrawing my contract so many times and I should have gone with my gut instinct and done so.
Every single contractor except for the plumbers had to be called back to the home at least 2-3 times in order to fix things that they either did wrong or just had poor craftsmanship. I have multiple crooked walls in my home. They tried everything in their power to not fix the walls. They tried to hide it with bigger quarter round at the bottom of the trim and then tried to make the baseboard wider by putting extra caulk behind them creating an optical illusion that the wall was straight. The final resolution was to redo the wood flooring because they said that it was crooked in turn making the walls look crooked. The wood floors were in fact crooked and were redone but walls are still crooked as well, it’s just not as obvious as it was before, but still very noticeable in many rooms. Even the guys who laid the wood floors said they did the best they could do because of the walls being so crooked.
My kitchen windows were installed crooked and yet again we had a complete run around in order to get them fixed. The windows were moved 3 times in order to get them straight and in line with the kitchen cabinets. The trim around the windows looks terrible because they never replaced it just moved it with the windows. The trim is all tore up from being removed and placed back on the wall numerous times. It has been painted over multiple times to hide all the imperfections with a paint brush rather than sprayed on like the rest of the trim in the house, therefore making it look very different and obvious that something is wrong. Same with the trim around the door in the mud room half was replaced with hand painted trim and the other half is still the sprayed trim, looking every obvious to anyone that something was changed. The drywall around the windows also looks terrible from moving them because I was told it was a good as they could do without replacing the trim which is what I want done but again is too much work for them to do. They also pulled my kitchen cabinets away from the walls they were originally resting on in order to make the windows look straight and never fixed the walls where the cabinets were originally placed.
The dining room window was placed too high making the top of the window trim go into the ceiling. Which was yet again another run around, we were told there was no way to fix it until we contacted corporate and they sent someone out who told the contractor how to fix it. The window is still not sitting how it should be because there is stone on the outside of the house therefore they did not want to move it to the proper location rather they just adjusted the trim on the inside of the window allowing more room so the outside trim was not in the ceiling but now just a hair away from it. My kitchen windows also have moisture between the double panes. I have 4 small square windows in my master bathroom which are not centered with one another. My living room windows are also not centered, the first two living room windows are over and inch farther apart than the last two. The trim around the upstairs bedroom door is off centered as well because the stair rail that ends on that wall runs into the trim.
I have trim that is cut in half around a closet door because they are not centered like they should be. My master bathroom has trim that is clearly crooked because the corner where it meets is crooked and I was told that it’s really hard to make a corner like that straight so yet again I am told to deal with something that is not right because it’s too hard for a professional custom home builder to do it right the first time. I also have trim that is off centered in my master bathroom, one side of the trim meets up with the wall and the other side is ½ inch away from the wall.
The caulking all over the house especially in the bathrooms is terrible, a lot of which I am planning on redoing myself to make it look better. I had a breeze coming through the morning room on the back of the house and another huge run around to get that taken care of. The carpet is the lowest quality I have ever walked on. There is hardly a pad underneath; as you walk over it you are walking on lumps from the subfloor. We told the contractor this and he said they looked and there was nothing there. Even though when you look at the carpet you can see the lumps. My daughter and I have also stepped on tacks from the carpet that were sticking up and we had to pound back in. The brick on the front had to be redone because it was not done properly. Also the roof had issues with the shingles, again we were told nothing was wrong and had to go through a hung run around to get fixed. What makes it even harder is most of the crew doesn’t speak English so trying to tell them what you want is almost impossible even the head contractor couldn’t even speak to them and you wonder why your work is not getting done correctly, the boss can even explain to the workers what needs to be done and what needs to be fixed. We were also supposed to receive a $100 gift card for allowing Schumacher to use our home as an open house, we have asked about this 3 times and still have yet to receive this card.
When the painters had to touch up spots up it was very obvious where they had done so we asked them to redo the paint. Something as simple as repainting a wall so that you don’t see where they touched up resulted in another call to corporate and the GM having to come out and see what needed to be done. There were so many simple things that just needed fixed like that but were made out to be the biggest issue in the world and as soon as corporate was called they were all of a sudden able to fix them. It should not have taken all of my time to call and talk to corporate to get these issues resolved. My husband and I both work full time and every second we were not at work it was spend arguing over things that were not done correctly or babysitting to make sure things were getting done like they should. I am a manger of a multi-billion dollar corporation and I would never treat my customers like this or I would be out of a job. I even spoke with a lawyer regarding all of our issues and much to our surprise we were not the first Schumacher customers to talk to him about our options.
I would also like to point out that the model homes look amazing compared to my home. My home is the Vinemont A and we drove from Ohio to North Carolina just to see the model and it did not have any of the issues we have with our home. I have even gone online numerous times to see if things like the crooked trim, stair rail running into the trim or half cut trim were in there like it was part of the plan and of course they were not. I have already gotten one couple to withdraw their contract and request their $1000 deposit back because of all the issues they have overheard us have and a cousin of mine that was going to build with them is looking into other contractors because of the issues. Unless you have time to babysit every crew that comes to your house and patience to argue over everything that is wrong I suggest going with another builder. I am not in the least satisfied with my home. I saved for years and have worked very hard for every penny that I have paid for this home and I am insulted that Schumacher never had my best interest in mind only how quickly they could get the home built and get their payday. I paid over $400,000 to build what was supposed to be the perfect forever home and now I want nothing more than to start over but I can’t because I love the location where it is built and took us over 2 years to find. I want to personally thank Schumacher homes for completely ruining my home building experience.

From: Bill Schumacher [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 2:20 PMTo: 'Diana Hickle'Subject: [redacted] I am following up on the [redacted] complaint. They did close as indicated. The reason for the ground wire not being completed was due to the fact that the final grade was not completed. [redacted] elected to complete the final grade on his own. Upon completion, the ground has been connected and all is working as intended. We have scheduled a plumber for tomorrow to inspect the “gas leak. Our Production Manager [redacted] will also be at their house tomorrow and is coordinating all remaining issues. Please review this information and let me know if you have any further questions.   Bill Schumacher | COO
t:330-754-4929 | f:330-754-4950 [email protected] | schumacherhomes.com

As a follow up to the previous emails. Schumacher Homes did build this home located at [redacted]. In the complaint, an address in [redacted] was listed, thus not the building address.
The original date of the purchase agreement was April 11, 2005. The closing on the home was December 16, 2005. In reviewing the warranty file, we never received any service orders for the roof. Several other warranty items were addressed during 2005-2007. The last warranty item was completed on January 25, 2007.
The warranty period for this home has long been expired. The roof repair is considered homeowner's maintenance since the home is now nearly 9 years old. Our staff from the [redacted] office did inspect the roof and provided Mr. [redacted] with the recommendation of a roofer to make the necessary repairs.
Please review this information and let me know if you have any further questions.

I have sent this request to our accounting department. A check will be issued and mailed in the amount of [redacted] by close of business tomorrow.
I am sorry that this transaction was less than positive.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Regards,
[redacted]
 
How much square feet did they miss?. I informed the
company back on July before they finished construction but they never bothered
to correct. This are my acceptable resolution,
1. $2500 for wrong positioning
of driveway.2. Add turn around pad by 5feet 7 inches.[redacted]  
 
1. Credit is not acceptable, I want them to fix
the driveway as it was designed with the correct square footage.2. It was
supposed to be 4 feet away from the property and they moved it 8 feet
away.Thanks[redacted]

We have searched our database and do not find a customer or address matching Mr. [redacted] with a home built at [redacted]. If our records are incorrect, please let me know.
As far as the request to complete warranty work on this home, we did send a...

warranty representative to this home about a week ago. He inspected the roof and determined that the ice build up was due to the extreme weather we had this year. We have not received any prior warranty requests for this home. In addition if the home was built over seven years ago as indicated in the complaint, then this would no longer be covered by our warranty and would be considered homeowner maintenance. This information was conveyed to both Mr. [redacted] and his father-in-law who was present for the inspection.
Please review this information and let me know if you have any further questions.

[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted] I would like to update you on the progress of the [redacted] complaint:
The shower door was ordered for the third time. Unfortunately the vendor did not order the correct size. It was not until the door arrived that this problem was determined. In an effort to resolve this issue with the homeowner, our General Manager and Mr. [redacted] have agreed to a credit in the amount of $1,325.00. Mr. [redacted] will now order his own shower door.
There was a miscommunication regarding the back splashed in the master bathroom. Our paperwork showed the backsplashes “deleted: in the master bathroom. All other backsplashes throughout the home were installed except these. We have contacted our countertop vendor and issued a purchase order for them to install in the master bathroom as soon as possible.
The temporary steps cannot be installed until the final grading is completed. This work has been scheduled—weather permitting. Upon completion, the steps will be installed. The steps are already constructed and stored in the garage.
The fireplace vendor has been contacted to complete the set up.
The incorrect light was installed. Our General Manager and Mr. [redacted] have agreed to a credit of $210.00.
Paint touch up and mirror installation will be scheduled upon installation of Mr. [redacted]’s shower door. This has been communicated to Mr. [redacted].
Interior doors have been adjusted.
Garage doors have been adjusted.
Attic stairs still need to be installed.
Replacement window parts have been ordered.
  Please review this information and let me know if you have any further questions. We will stay on this until every item is complete.   Bill Schumacher | COO
[redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted]

I have reviewed the
complaint # [redacted] from[redacted] and offer the
following:
1. The...

[redacted] signed a
purchase agreement to build a Schumacher home on December 3, 2013 on a homesite
owned by the [redacted]
2. The purchase
agreement outlines the obligations of both parties. Schumacher Homes provide all
homeowners with a very detailed description of all features included in the
home. The prices stated in the purchase agreement do not change, with the
exception of potential site condition expenses for homeowner’s homesite, unless
the price is unknown at the time of the contract signing. In that case, we use
“allowances”: for such items. With the [redacted] allowances were used for
utilities. This is customary since Schumacher Homes does not establish the
prices; rather the prices are set by the local or county municipalities. As
described in our agreement, these allowances are only estimates and can vary
either up or down from the allowance. Please refer to the attached signed
purchase agreement pages identifying this practice.
3. Schumacher Homes
agreed to provide a building permit amount up to $250. Building permit too can
vary and prices are set by the building departments, not Schumacher Homes.
Please refer to the attached signed purchase agreement pages identifying this
practice.
4. As far as the “local
painters”, Schumacher Homes works with many painting contractors. The company
selected to paint the C[redacted] home is the same company painting one of our
models, but a different crew.
5. The excavation on [redacted] home was started on April 15, 2014. We are nearing completion of their
home and should be ready for the Homeowner Orientation prior to August 15, 2014,
which is well within the guaranteed date.
 
It is unfortunate that
the [redacted] had unexpected additional expenses, Please note that the additional
expenses were not created by Schumacher Homes or the [redacted] rather the costs
required by the governing municipalities.
 
Please review this
information and let me know if you have any further
questions.
 
[redacted] |
COO
[redacted]
[redacted]