Ryan Homes - what's going on? (Cincinnati, Dayton: new home, neighborhoods, purchaser)

[YoMikey617]

If there's only 4 lots left I wouldn't worry too much. Ryan might be pulling out but I would bet that other builders will just take over the job. That area is always booming and the booming areas of Cincinnati usually fare well during housing downturns. If the lot prices are higher now maybe you'll benefit from a higher caliber of homes filling in the rest of the development which strengthens the value of your home.

I always thought it would be cool to buy those giant cans of "native grass seeds" and spread them around the vacant dirt lots and then you have a groovy nature preserve next door.

[MJBOYS]

We are building with Ashford Homes in Springboro (Silver Lakes Estates). I love the design of the home and the lots are beautiful. They are a local builder and so far they have been great to work with and have been very responsive to any changes. While I am concerned Ryan pulled out of the subdivision I feel comfortable knowing Ahsford is in there with a staffed beautiful model home.

[mac3of4]

Just an update on our situation in Farms of Heatherwoode. We hired an independent inspector to go over the home with a fine tooth comb. We contacted our project manager so he could meet with us and the inspector. This was Monday and he never returned our calls. Last night my husband contacted the useless sales lady and she informed us that he was fired on Monday. Gee, thanks for the call. She reassured us that the new guy is fantastic ( same thing she said about the last yahoo.) and he would be great to work with. Well, he contacted my husband today and seems to be really nice. He said he is having the framers return because when he inspected the home he found that the stairs were not square and they had to be reordered. Also, he found a damaged pipe under the concrete in the basement. They had to rip out a large section of the concrete and repair the pipe. These are things that our other project manager overlooked and was going to sweep under the rug. I guess this is a blessing in disguise. I think they are on their toes now because they know we have a good inspector and we are going to hold them accountable. We will see. They also reassured us that they are not leaving Ohio and that they may even re-enter Farms of Heatherwoode and Silver Lake Estates when the market turns around.

[Briolat21]

Too funny!! My project manager quit sometime this last week!! Ryan employees = dropping like flies!!

We close (knock on wood) this Wednesday!! Keep us in you thoughts!

[mczabe]

I am not in Ohio, but found this thread while doing a search on Ryan Homes pulling out of developments.

Ryan Homes pulled out of our development in Easton, PA two weeks ago. Yes, the precursor was the model homes being emptied for "redecorating" and the model only being open by appointment. Then one day, our development was just gone from their website. It was very odd because literally the DAY prior to the pull out, the entire nearby area was plastered with brand new Ryan signs leading to our development. We thought they were gearing up for the spring selling season, then they were all gone the next morning.

Fortunately for us, it seems the property management company is stepping up to make the half-built community presentable. They've covered the empty lots with grass seed, planted rows of trees to make the built lots look more finished, and they are going ahead with the construction of the final building (townhomes) on our street. Now if we can only get the roads top-coated...

I am concerned about the warranty situation. Anxious to hear what anyone learns on that.

[franke01]

Originally Posted by mczabe

I am not in Ohio, but found this thread while doing a search on Ryan Homes pulling out of developments.

Ryan Homes pulled out of our development in Easton, PA two weeks ago. Yes, the precursor was the model homes being emptied for "redecorating" and the model only being open by appointment. Then one day, our development was just gone from their website. It was very odd because literally the DAY prior to the pull out, the entire nearby area was plastered with brand new Ryan signs leading to our development. We thought they were gearing up for the spring selling season, then they were all gone the next morning.

Fortunately for us, it seems the property management company is stepping up to make the half-built community presentable. They've covered the empty lots with grass seed, planted rows of trees to make the built lots look more finished, and they are going ahead with the construction of the final building (townhomes) on our street. Now if we can only get the roads top-coated...

I am concerned about the warranty situation. Anxious to hear what anyone learns on that.

Good luck if you are buying or have recently purchased a home in a development by Ryan or some other builders such as SMI.

The new construction market is such that the "Upper end" (200K+) homes are not moving.

The worst case scenario is that you have purchased an upper end home and your builder pulls out and sells the remaining lots to someone like Maple Street Homes who will build very cheap homes around you.

[Briolat21]

Well - to some degree we are protected from that as there are covenants in our community which restrict the size of the homes, also the amount of brick on new homes (full brick facade), and other things.. So, I doubt that we will have 900 sq foot condos on the remaining home sites.

Apparently when Ryan pulled out of Ohio the first time (a decade or more ago) - they still maintained a service group for warranty calls. It seems likely that they would do the same thing this time.

Now - if they were going to file bankruptcy -that's an entirely different scenario - then all bets as to warranty would be off.

But I don't think they're in bad fiscal shape, I just think there's no profit in building right now (relatively speaking) and so they are probably strategically withdrawing until market conditions are good again.

I'm still hoping they'll sell a few more home sites in my community. Another 5 - 10 would make me very happy indeed.

[mac3of4]

Ryan homes pulled out of a community in Lebanon across from Shaker Run and Maple Street homes moved in to take thier place. They are awful looking homes. I can't believe anyone would build with them. Maple Street homes is a division of Drees/Zaring. I hope they don't move into our subdivision. We have covenants also but our attorney said they really don't mean anything. The city can let a developer out of the covenants in order to finish developing the land. A Ryan community down the street from us had so-called covenants and rewrote them. Initially, they required brick fronts and fireplaces. Now they are all siding with or without fireplaces and some are on slabs. I know alot of people who are really upset right now.

[franke01]

Originally Posted by mac3of4

Ryan homes pulled out of a community in Lebanon across from Shaker Run and Maple Street homes moved in to take thier place. They are awful looking homes. I can't believe anyone would build with them. Maple Street homes is a division of Drees/Zaring. I hope they don't move into our subdivision. We have covenants also but our attorney said they really don't mean anything. The city can let a developer out of the covenants in order to finish developing the land. A Ryan community down the street from us had so-called covenants and rewrote them. Initially, they required brick fronts and fireplaces. Now they are all siding with or without fireplaces and some are on slabs. I know alot of people who are really upset right now.

The problem is that the covenants generally just specify a minimum square footage.

Maple Street builds some large homes but, in my opinion, they are very cheap looking.

They did this in Sycamore Creek in Kenton County.

[Igor1977]

Originally Posted by mac3of4

Ryan homes pulled out of a community in Lebanon across from Shaker Run and Maple Street homes moved in to take thier place. They are awful looking homes. I can't believe anyone would build with them. Maple Street homes is a division of Drees/Zaring. I hope they don't move into our subdivision. We have covenants also but our attorney said they really don't mean anything. The city can let a developer out of the covenants in order to finish developing the land. A Ryan community down the street from us had so-called covenants and rewrote them. Initially, they required brick fronts and fireplaces. Now they are all siding with or without fireplaces and some are on slabs. I know alot of people who are really upset right now.

Maple Street is with Fischer. Drees/Zaring low entry line is called Marquis.