Home builders: Moreland or Ryan ? (Lorain, Green: appointed, sales, foreclosures)

[tmkilanowski]

Looking at a new development in North Ridgeville - Meadow Lakes. 2 builders are Moreland or Ryan. Can anyone provide feedback on either one? Thanks.

[BelieveInCleve]

I live in North Ridgeville right now, not by Meadow Lakes by Ive been over there and they have a lot of houses being built, some of them are already done I think, they all look really nice. I dont know much about the home building companies though.

[cleveburg]

Originally Posted by tmkilanowski

Looking at a new development in North Ridgeville - Meadow Lakes. 2 builders are Moreland or Ryan. Can anyone provide feedback on either one? Thanks.

I can give you my humble opinion. I own a Ryan Home (so does my sister), and my brother has a Moreland Home in the Meadow Lakes community.

Hmmm . . . the lesser of the two evils would probably be a Ryan Home. I LOVE my home . . . especially the layout . . . however, the quality of some of the construction has been less than desireable. Chief complaint among everyone in the development has been the windows. Although I will never build with Ryan Homes again (based on a sewer assessment that they never disclosed - - be careful!), I will say that their customer service is pretty good.

My brother built a Moreland Home because it was cheaper . . .. CHEAPER being the main word. Now he regrets this. Terrible layout, chinsy looking interior, and a lot of the walls and kitchen cabinets aren't even flush. Unbelieveable. The interior looks like it was meant for the 1980's construction era. Blah, blah, blah. Seriously . . . it's an ugly house.

Have you looked into an Oster Home? I do have a brother that built one in Ridgeville and he really likes it. (It is really nice in my opinion). Also, I noticed that a lot of my Ryan Home upgrades are *standard* in an Oster Home. Oster does it funny though . . . they price their houses SEPARATE from the land. Ryan Homes and Moreland combine it in one price. So if an Oster sign says "Starting in the 140's" . . . it's just for the HOUSE! They never used to do it this way, but since they were bought-out by National home builder last year (can't remember the name), they now work it this way. Their comeback (when questioned about this) is, "Well, the land, for example, in Avon, is more expensive than the land in North Ridgeville." Well, yeah (dah), but why not just reflect this as a one-in-all package by saying that houses start in the $190's. One of the sales reps I spoke to recently in Avon agreed, but I guess a lot of areas throughout the country do not price like this, and the new headquarters hasn't figured out that NE Ohioans feel misled by this strategy.

Be careful in Meadow Lakes . . . lots of foreclosures, houses are not appreciating at all, and that development will take a LONG TIME to close out because of the size. Therefore, if you plan on moving in the next five years, go to a smaller community. My brother can now build a new Moreland home cheaper than what he built it for 3 years ago. Not good. Actually, that is really bad . . . Yes, some of this is contributed to the economic conditions, but this development had issues before this even happened.

Whenever you go with a mass-builder, you'll always have issues. I guess the key is to find the one with the least issues.

Good luck!!

[Traveler87]

Meadow Lakes is coming along nicely.

[girlofseasons]

Go for Ryan

[htlong]

if i had a choice...neither use the search on the top bar of the forum and write in ryan homes , im sure you will buy a tent first!

[sphynx]

I lived in an Oster home for awhile the model with the double staircase. I dont know how they were built before, but this home was built cheap! When you ran the upstairs bath for example you heard it through the whole house! and any other noise too. I think I got post tramatic stress from living there. The floor plan was awful too..one big giant staircase in a dinky depressing house with gray non washable paint that showed every fingerprint. carpeting is cheap too..

Ryan is much better, but not much..buy a 20 to 30 year old home, they are built much better for the most part and arent so cookie cutter, have mature trees etc..and they are QUIET...

[technut27]

My wife and I bought a Ryan home and moved in last year. Overall with the home we are pleased, there have been some minor issues but Ryan has addressed those at the scheduled maintenance visits. Some of the upgrades were over priced we didn't do many, a competent/handy person can do most of the work them selves and save $1000's. Our utility bills in our 2000 sq/ft house are lower than our previous 800 sq/ft appt that was brand new.

My major complaint is Ryan does not do a final grade on your lot. Their "rough grade" leaves your yard looking like the surface of the moon where Mooreland does a much better job in my opinion. Neither company seeds/plants the lawn you have to do it or hire it out. It took 8 months to have the grade Ryan did on the lot approved by the city. At least there was snow on it for a few months covering the mud. Ryan had to come back 3 times to work it before the city approved it. After talking to my direct neighbors they have the same issues to varying degrees with their lots. One neighbor had his lot backfilled after the concrete work with maybe 20% dirt, 80% gravel and stone. He is still fighting about that because he can't plant part of his yard. It is hard to complain too much about the grading because the staff from beginning to end stressed that they only rough grade it they don't do landscaping, it was in the contract I believe also. I was just disappointed just how rough their rough grade is.

The people I feel bad for are the ones that will be building on the far south end near the sports complex. I love that place and use the driving range all the time but their lights at night are as bright as the sun and will shine in the facing windows of the houses at night. And according to the Lorain County Auditor maps they have a small condo project planned near there off the new s entrance to the development.

Overall I'm happy in Meadow Lakes on my street, I see issues with other parts of the development but not really on my side. Don't get me started on the wacky way the lots are setup on the street Greenview Trail, how the city ever approved that street is beyond me.

I would probably build with Ryan again.

[Pgserge27]

If any of you knew anything about the construction of these houses you might think to buy anything but these new home builders. Especially big home builders. They may have the expertise of how to build houses but mainly they have just gotten down how to make them as cheap as possible. Many of these houses will not last 30 years, due to cheap construction methodologies.

[stlcle]

We are relocationg to CLE next week . We looked at every builder in CLE .Google them for opinions and it will help . One site is ripoffreport.com . Ryan looks really bad on this one , plus they insist on using their bank for the loan . We decided to buy an exisiting home by a custom builder for the same price as most of Ryan's top of line and it was only two years old .