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My husband and I are looking into Veridian Homes - they seem like nice, affordable houses for first time home buyers. Our ideal range is $200 to $250, so many houses in West Madison are unaffordable. We like the neighborhoods, and I've come to terms with not having as large of a yard as the house I grew up in Alabama. Upon looking for reviews about Veridian Homes and resale value, I have not found many later than 2008. Does anyone have comments or reviews on homes now (after 2008)? I'd like to know thoughts, if you bought one and things you would have asked or liked to know about previous to buying a Veridian Home.
I don't own a Veridian home, but people I know who have purchased them have generally described them as being about worth what you pay for them. They're affordable because they make them that way. That's not to say you shouldn't buy one; our first home (in a different state) was built by a builder very much like Veridian, and we probably wouldn't ever have been able to afford to buy a home had we not started with that one. Just don't expect custom construction, state-of-the-art technology and top-quality materials when the price is that affordable.
For resale values, your very best bet is to do some research on the City of Madison Assessor's website, here: City Assessor - Property Lookup - City of Madison, Wisconsin. It shouldn't be hard to identify a Veridian-built neighborhood, and once you do, just look up some of the address ranges on the assessor's website. If they have been sold since the original purchasers bought, you can see the sale dates and prices there.
There are a couple of other regular posters here who have direct experience with Veridian, and hopefully at least one of them will stop by to comment as well, but hopefully that'll give you a start. Good luck!
Sigh. I post this every time someone asks about Veridian Homes (aka Don Simon Homes & Midland Builders). MWBW summed it up well. You get what you pay for. Their homes/neighborhoods look all shiny and great when they are new, but they don't age well and the resale value, well, sucks.
Also, they cut corners. Just one example (I could go on and on, but won't) I installed their "standard" windows and 10 years later had to replace every single one of them to the tune of $22,000. Turns out the windows weren't the whole problem by themselves. The darn things weren't even installed well. My neighbor watched my remodeling company install my new windows and asked them a lot of questions. They pointed out all of the things they were doing to prep the area and make sure that things were done right. Don Simon (now Veridian) just plunked the things in there.
Better to get an older home that was built right in the first place. Perhaps you can't afford to live on the Westside right now. I can't and a part of me would like to, but there are a lot of things I've come to appreciate about the Eastside. I'd like to live in a home with more character and "good bones" regardless of where it is located in the city. It is hard not liking where you live and feeling like you are in substandard housing.
We are building now and didn't even consider Veridian Homes due to quality concerns. We ended up selecting a custom builder instead. We initially wanted to keep our budget in a similar price range as your upper ($250-275k), but ended up upping it further and feel we are getting a much, much nicer home than Veridian could ever deliver.
If you are set on building, you may wish to consider Pine Hill Farm on the West Side, off M and Valley View. It connects to Veridian's Linden Park neighborhood, right down the street from Olson Elementary. It's about 75 home sites with custom unique homes. No two are alike. There are still a few lots left with reasonable asking prices and you can bring your own builder. You may be able to do something nice for ~$250k if you keep the square footage closer to ~1,500 and are willing to compromise on lot shape/size. Keep in mind that a custom design can create a myriad of opportunities to make a smaller square footage work for your family's needs, and you'll get a WI basement for future expansion too!
Otherwise, if you need to be closer to $200k, I would recommend looking at established homes in the Meadowood Neighborhood on Madison's Southwest side. There are a few dodgy streets scattered in there, but overall it's a pretty nice area full of starter homes from the 60's and 70's. We live there now and will be moving to Pine Hill Farm when our new home is finished.
Keep in mind that building a home can add unforeseen expenses, so if your absolute max is $250k, you may want to try to budget ~5-10% below that if possible. If you can actually creep up your max to $275k, then sticking to ~$250k will feel much more comfortable for you. Make sure to set your budget and do your best to stick with it. Doing so WILL involve compromises. If we had an unlimited budget, we would not be building in WI.
Also, your bank will typically require 20% down for a construction loan. Veridian offers their own financing programs through their preferred lenders (often at above market average interest rates too) to attract folks who cannot go the traditional construction loan route. If you do not have 20% down, your options for building a new home will be very limited, and Veridian may be your only option.
We're only part way through the building process, so we cannot offer a full review, but so far it has been pretty interesting. There are a lot of decisions to make. We cannot wait until our move this Summer! Feel free to PM me if you want a builder reference. Ours has been great to work with.
We are building now and didn't even consider Veridian Homes due to quality concerns. We ended up selecting a custom builder instead.
Was it something you heard about the quality? I wanted to get more specifics on what exactly were the quality concerns if you don't mind.
Unfortunately, we do not have the 20% down and Veridian does offer nice financing. Given that I hadn't seen any reviews past 2009, I was wondering if the quality had gone up. Are people still having issues with their concrete flaking/sinking? What about the mold one person reported in the master bathroom? I believe someone mentioned needing a more powerful fan than the one Veridian installs.
Any additional information would be wonderful. We thought that Veridian offered nice starter homes and fell in love with one of the layouts. However, I want to make sure that we won't regret buying one 2-3 years down the line.
You probably will not regret buying 2-3 years down the line. However, I've had a couple of friends purchase a 9-year old Veridian home and they had to replace things like windows (all of them), exterior doors, exterior trim, porch railing and columns, etc. i.e. things that shouldn't need replacing at only 9 years. What seemed like a bargain purchase price quickly turned into a much greater expense. Maybe Veridian is doing things differently now, and the materials and workmanship are getting better? I cannot say. Clearly a lot of people are still building through Veridian, so Veridian must be meeting a need in the marketplace.
I've also heard that Veridian can be more like a factory, churning out a faster end product with limited variations. Know what you want and be prepared to make your final selections all at once with limited options. Our builder prefers to take more time and give every detail the attention it requires, which I appreciate. It takes scheduling more meetings with vendors and more time, but such a process greatly helps inexperienced folks like ourselves put the pieces together. We've already changed our wood type/colors and cabinet design three times to get the look and price we want. At some point soon it will need to be finalized, but we are very thankful our first visit was not our final one! Same with our plumbing fixtures, tile design, etc.
I will say that the houses in Veridian's Linden Park near Pine Hill Farm look much nicer than my friend's neighborhood off S. High Point Road - more variety in styles, materials, colors, etc. than a typical Veridian neighborhood, but I cannot say regarding their quality. Seeing how Pine Hill Farm ages compared to Linden Park will be an interesting experiment indeed. Hopefully I'm on the positive side of the equation!
OP, one suggestion i'd add is not to worry about finishing the lower level during construction if that helps the budget. As you're from the south (and as we discovered when we moved down here to SC in 09), basements/lower levels are not that common down here. No frost means no deep footings, and it saves coin. But in WI, nearly every home will be on a basement, and if built correctly (use full size windows to allow for future bedroom use, not those little sliders) then at some point you can add a decent amount of new living space later.
When we built our home in Deforest in '01, our initial budget meant leaving the lower level empty, though we did at least have it all roughed in (studs in place, and hvac/wiring as well, that cost was minimal). That kept our price down, and the following year we were able to finish another nearly 1000 sq ft which made a big difference in usable space as well as raising the home's value.
As Ragnar has noted, watch the budget as well; something will come up that will add $$, and unless you handle your allowances (flooring, cabinets, lighting, etc) and monitor what was planned on and what's being spent for each, you could get a surprise before closing. Building a home can be an fun and relatively easy procedure if you do your homework, have at least a fair understanding of the processes, and arent afraid to ask questions. Go into it with blinders on, and trouble can rear it's ugly head.
I have lived in a Veridian home for several years and would never recommend them to anyone. The quality is very poor and it seems that things are already starting to need replacing (concrete porch - molding windows - bad siding). I went with Veridian because of their financing options and I did not know they've had quality issues. As soon as I can afford to fix everything I will be getting rid of this house.
I agree with most of the comments here. I have lived in a Veridian home and would not recommend them to anyone either. My windows were poorly installed, my drywall has had issues, my siding buckled, and the list goes on and on. It is a hit or miss with them. Their "project managers" or construction managers differ dramatically in skill set and in quality control. The subcontractors they hire are a crap shoot and they know it. They don't do basic things like sealing concrete driveways or making sure the jobsite is cleaned up. Getting into a home cheaply has consequences. Save more money and find a builder who will take care of you.
I have lived in a veridian home for over 7 years. Absolutely love it. I have noticed a big difference between neighborhoods. The neighborhoods that have landscaping installed as part of the house package seem nicer than the ones that leave it to the homeowners. you cannot compare the pre-veridian Simon and midland to the veridian stuff. One was a custom builder, the other a budget builder, when they combined, the goal was to combine the custom quality with the high throuput scheduling.
During the economy down turn, they built many with basic finishes to keep the price point low (vinyl floors, slab doors, no fireplaces, no masonry on the exterior) but the quality has always seemed high. Look at a few houses, open the cabinet drawers, are they all wood with dovetails? Mine are, and every veridian I have seen is. After watching them build every house in the neighborhood, the basic process has been the same, and contrary to a previous comment, the building sites are always kept clean, neat and tidy. The contractors get in, do their job and are out.
They do have it down to a production cycle, but that also means that the base quality is always high. There are rules for the neighborhood, like you cannot have the same house with the same exterior style within a certain number of houses, which keeps the streets looking diverse. Now once you start adding finishes over base, the price can shoot up fast... But that is just the way it is. if you are handy, you can do the upgrades yourself, wood floors and such.
A house is not a condo or an apartment. You have to take care of it. Go to menards and buy a nice stain/ sealer for your deck. Same for the concrete. You have to let it go a season to cure before putting the sealer on. If you don't want to do it yourself, hire a kid in the neighborhood to do it. Mow the lawn, plant a tree. If the bathroom fan dies, go to Home Depot and buy a drop in replacement.
Not only would I recommend one, I would buy another one.
Last edited by LPOwner; 02-21-2015 at 07:26 AM..
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