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We just moved from Pasadena MD to Falling Waters. We are in the Brookfield development and like it, the lots are 1/2 to 1 acre. The school district is Hedgesville and I have no complaints with them. I have a daughter at Hedgesville High and a son at Potomack Int.
How weird. My husband and I are from Pasadena, MD/Severna Park, MD. We also had an Apartment in Columbia, MD.
Now we live in Shepherdstown, WV.
We bought out in WV because we are new homeowners and it seemed nearly impossible to buy a nice single family house in MD within our price range.
How weird. My husband and I are from Pasadena, MD/Severna Park, MD. We also had an Apartment in Columbia, MD.
Now we live in Shepherdstown, WV.
We bought out in WV because we are new homeowners and it seemed nearly impossible to buy a nice single family house in MD within our price range.
Yeah, we bought a ranch (which was way out of the question there, we couldn't afford the land let alone the house). We got everything we wanted plus and it was less expensive than what we sold our house for in Pasadena. There we had .11 land and here .50. Besides, I find the people friendlier here and not fake.
I am in the real estate business and I've know just about every homebuilder in this area for two decades. Dan Ryan homes are par for the course for production homes in the area.
Any given home is usually only as good as the superintendant in the field. Their building specs and materials are unifrm and typical for the price range. Certainly their volume of production speaks for itself, since they are one of the most prolific builders in the area.
With as many homes as Dan builds, it is not unusual to find that the builder will have some complaints. Pleasing the public is difficult at best these days--- with everyone expecting soemthing for nothing. Dan Ryan himself is a man of great reputation, generosity and integrity (and no I am not related to him nor do I work for him).
I would not be in least bit afraid to buy a Dan Ryan home. I can name other builders that scare me far worse!
I am in the real estate business and I've know just about every homebuilder in this area for two decades. Dan Ryan homes are par for the course for production homes in the area.
Any given home is usually only as good as the superintendant in the field. Their building specs and materials are unifrm and typical for the price range. Certainly their volume of production speaks for itself, since they are one of the most prolific builders in the area.
With as many homes as Dan builds, it is not unusual to find that the builder will have some complaints. Pleasing the public is difficult at best these days--- with everyone expecting soemthing for nothing. Dan Ryan himself is a man of great reputation, generosity and integrity (and no I am not related to him nor do I work for him).
I would not be in least bit afraid to buy a Dan Ryan home. I can name other builders that scare me far worse!
Helpfulneighbor and Janipoo thank you for your opinions. You really helped us look at things a little differently. Helpful neighbor what are the builders that scare you? We also looked at Wormald and Gemcraft.
BeckMak -
We are relocating to Hedgesville, WV in Berkley County. Just signed the contract with Ryan Homes (not to be confused with Dan Ryan). We spent a couple weeks searching the web and then a weekend visiting the area. The forum proved to be very helpful. We are very excited about moving into the area.
In regard to choosing a builder - if you are set on building, you are right to be concerned w/Dan Ryan. They have a reputation for being the "Walmart" of home builders. Cheap labor and not much craftmanship goes into their product.
While there are always exceptions - you should be safe with one of the bigger builders - like Ryan, Toll or Khov. Ryan just reduced their prices on singles in the Archers Rock community in Hedgesville. We got a wholelatta house for our money. Very happy!
Good luck!
In my opinion, Dan Ryan homes are far from par. His homes are routinely constructed with a general lack of overall craftsmanship and more often than not sub-par mechanicals. I know A LOT of folks that had HVAC systems redesigned because they were improperly sized or otherwise ducted incorrectly. From Townhomes in Germantown MD to my sisters house in Lake Linganore MD to the Eastern Panhandle- it’s the same story everywhere. You would think that by building the same typical floor plans, over and over, that mechanical issues and sloppy craftsmanship would be largely absent...
A friend of mine in Leetown had a relative that was a Dan Ryan 'super' for about a year. He got fed up with the fact that the subs that were being contracted either didn't know what they were doing or simply 'did their own thing' contrary to how he wanted them done.
There was a Dan Ryan community in Charles Town that he was assigned to and he literally had to kick out completed framed walls because they were improperly done and had them start over from scratch. He eventually got fed up with it and went to work for a smaller builder in Martinsburg.
The ONLY positive thing I have to say about Dan Ryan developments is the fact that my buddy and I were able to gain access to the construction dumpsters at that site and scavenge all the lumber from those walls that were kicked out, the steel doors that were dented during install, and the various other 'debris' created by incorrect cuts, orders or other shoddy workmanship. Heck- we even picked up circular saws and other power tools where the idiots hacked off the power cords. $5 worth of cord and we had new tools!!
We were able to build a 60x40 outbuilding for my buddy and the only out of pocket expense was the steel for the outer skin and the roof. Everything else came from those dumpsters, lol!
Now Dan Ryan is in Bridgeport, building in a development named Crystal Ridge. They had to demolish one completed home because the underlying groundwater flows compromised the foundation, causing the home to literally fall apart. The groundwater issue has also undermined a section of US 50 and caused the road to give way- now Rt. 50 is closed outside Bridgeport to all except local traffic.
There is also a DR development in the Eastern panhandle with significant water issues.. It seems they ignored engineering protocol in order to cram another 'custom' home in..
Sorry for the long post, but I've spent years in the EP as a commercial lender, I know a lot (if not most) of the developers and builders and think I've got a pretty good basis of understanding DR Homes.
If you own a DR Home and are pleased-great, but If it was me, I'd stay far, far away from his developments.
I have very limited experience with the various builders ....... I did have a beautiful home built in Summit Point though. S & A Builders out of Martinsburg did the job, and the whole experience was wonderful. Good quality construction and materials, clear and open communications between us and an easy working relationship. I second helpfulneighbor's comment on the field super ...... he was wonderful and it made all of the difference.
Unfortunately for me ..... my eyes weren't quite open to the joys of solitude. Three acres is a LOT of grass to cut !!!!!!! Hours of yard work every weekend ... that stunk !! so i moved a little closer to charles town onto a smaller 1 acre lot. still too much grass to cut, but it's a step in the right direction!!
Our first house was an S&A home (already built). The only thing I didn't like was the fact there was no plywood sheathing between the vinyl siding and the house, other than for reinforcement at the corners and at other key structural locations. It was sheathed with that foil faced fiber board, as was common in the mid- 80's.
It wasn't until I noticed a weird hole in the dryall in our master bedroom closet that I figured out an errant bullet from a hunter/shooters gun penetrated the wall!
Our property backed up to what was then Activ Shotgun Shell Mftg's property, and they let a number of guys hunt the several hundred acre tract behind us.. I suspect someone shot at a deer on the uphill grade and missed not knowing there was a two story house behind the tree line that bordered our properties.
Anyway- That's when I noticed that there was no plywood or anything substantial on the frame. You could've broken into our house with an an exacto knife!!
As strange as this sounds, that's not the sole reason we decided to build our next house ourselves.. It was the fact that i had to mow and maintain 3 acres of manicured yard. That got old after 5 years...
I do 5 acres, using a M-F 18hp diesel tractor and a 5 foot King Kutter. But I'm out in the country, so mowing once every few weeks is perfectly acceptable.
Plus the tall grass makes the cat think he's a lion tracking big game (moles) in Africa.
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Dan Ryan
me far worse!
