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we are relocating to the area from out of state and are considering building. has anyone had any good experiences or friends who have really been happy with a builder?
Brian Enders out of Cazenovia. He does it all. Did our siding over the winter. Great craftmanship, great price, nice to deal with. I could not be happier. I have no relation or interest other than that of a satisfied customer. His number is: 662-7843.
On the higher end you have McClurg. Their workmanship and business like approach to a project are exemplary. They don't do spec development stuff like many of the other area builders. Just house by house contract stuff with the best workmanship and materials.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you have guys like Eldan (probably the worst of the worst in terms of the cheapest materials and the poorest quality subs (they sub everything) and Ryan, who are on a (low) quality par with Eldan but use some of their own workers.
You get what you pay for. The higher end guys will build a home which you will be proud of forever; the lower end guys will get you lots of 'gltiz' and the 'latest' for a cheap price...and as long as your window is ten years or so, you'll be happy. After that, caveat emptor.
There are a lot of builders in CNY as found on this list:
The Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Central New York (http://www.hbrcny.com/builders.html - broken link)
Unfortunately I have been wondering the same thing as you so I don't have much input except to say that I hear a lot of bad things regarding Ryan Homes and I have heard a lot of good things regarding Alberici homes. Not sure what price range Alberici homes fall into but they are local guys that have a great reputation for quality.
I think Merle is also in the middle there, along with Alberici. The older (father?) Merle homes are well respected in the area. I think Sciuga is also decent, as is Kathy Kotz, from what i hear.
BTW, i am currently building a home (not in the Syracuse area) and costs have gone through the roof. You can buy existing homes for next to nothing; and yet costs (for shingles (oil), concrete, lumber (Asia, and now especially Japan), flooring (lumber again) and transportation (oil)) have escalated sharply. If you can find an exisitng home which meets your needs and tastes, at the moment you will save a lot of momey versus building. I know that seems counter intuitive because there is no housing demand (in America), but the reality is that building costs right now are quite high.
Not sure if they do full blown new house construction or only remodeling but I suggest avoiding Ron Dimon and Dimon Construction of Fayetteville. They were highly professional on the front end but then subbed out the job, failed to build the porch entry to match the scale drawings they provided beforehand, promised to correct it and then stopped returning my calls. I was forced to take them to small claims court. Mr Dimon showed up with his min-skirt clad "assistant", a $1200 suit and a stack of paperwork. I foolishly accepted the arbitrator instead of insisting on a judge (grave error on my part.) Under pressure he finally admitted that the finished work did no match the scale of the drawing but claimed it was industry standard work and lied about a number of pertinent facts (including the fact that he had promised to correct the problems.) I lost. I will have to tear apart most of it, change the roof angle and extend the eaves so water no longer drips directly onto my front stoop. It will cost me about $3,000 to fix a $6,00o project that was done poorly.
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Not Recommended.
