Schumacher homes

CasterTroy

CasterTroy

Faster'N You
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Wallburg
Anyone had any dealings with them?

My wife is good friends with a lady dead set on using them to build a home. Shes asked me to find out what I can to help her NOT make a mistake.

All I know is, I'm not a fan of cookie cutter developers, and have only seen their houses along 40 in Greensboro so I dont want to give bad advice. Or put them in a box with Shugart (or worse)
 
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As a subcontractor that has been on more home sites than I could possibly count over the past 20 years I think that track builders are among the worst. They use the lowest grade of materials and the cheapest of cheap subcontractors. I don't know how to go about telling anyone to find a good contractor out of my area, but I have a list of about 3 contractors that I would have allowed to touch my own house. I would imagine that the track bulders do a good job for the person that doesn't know anything about houses.
 
Also, track builders are a lot faster at putting up a house. But sometimes faster isn't better. I like to say it like this.

Your three choices are this: cheap, fast, good.

Now pick 2.
 
The ones I have worked in in the Asheville area look like good designs and are eye catching until you start looking at what matters. They charge a premium price for a poorly build product. From the wiring down to the framing and the finish of walls and trim out are not what I would accept at at that price point. Think of putting lipstick on a pig.
 
That's the thing, she's a Doctor that's been sold a good pitch. I can hand her the name of 5 excellent builders but shes hardheaded and a little dense when it comes to common sense. Hoping some bad experiences may help

Thought maybe some of you had some dealings with them in particular
 
CasterTroy said:
That's the thing, she's a Doctor that's been sold a good pitch. I can hand her the name of 5 excellent builders but shes hardheaded and a little dense when it comes to common sense. Hoping some bad experiences may help

Thought maybe some of you had some dealings with them in particular
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Some people take getting hit over their hard head to learn a lesson.
 
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We built a house for a lady last year. They had a contract with them to build her sons house then hers. She fired them after her sons was finished because they were so un-happy


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obullfish said:
The ones I have worked in in the Asheville area look like good designs and are eye catching until you start looking at what matters. They charge a premium price for a poorly build product. From the wiring down to the framing and the finish of walls and trim out are not what I would accept at at that price point. Think of putting lipstick on a pig.
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This.

It would be like paying for a Mercedes and getting a 87 Civic with a hood emblem.
 
We sold trusses to Them years back at one plant I worked at. The only thing they were concerned with was price. Lowest bidder got their jobs. You get a lot (of cheap) house for the money. I'd never own one. It'd be different if they were cheap 1st time home buyer homes, but they try to look high end and are not.
 
broncosbybart said:
It'd be different if they were cheap 1st time home buyer homes, but they try to look high end and are not.
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That's what's so shocking. I mean, this chick lives in a custom built 3500 square ft home on a golf course and is now considering a ezbake home

I'd not even looked them up before today. I assumed they were a local builder. She really made it sound to my wife, that it was something better than the known cookie cutter homes. The website really sells it as "custom home" o_O

Just didnt know if @Jody Treadway or @77GreenMachine had sold material to them or had some good dirt like Logan and bart
 
BrianGreen said:
Here is my .02. Go to the local building supply place. Nor slowes or hd. Ask which contractors are the most anal. Those are the ones you want.
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You're not wrong by any means.
And I'm in the biz.
Not sure how to say this without sounding like some know it all, but I know "who to use" but for some reason my experience and advice isn't appreciated.
Like I said, I can point her to 3 builders right now I could stand behind.
I dunno. Never met anyone like her. She's smart on a level I cant understand (doctor level) and I'm experienced on a level she cant grasp
 
She sounds like my buddy. He priced having a house built by two companies the built “semi custom” and two local contractors and they were all with in a few cents of each other. I told him to pick one of the local guys. He picked the cheapest “semi custom” because they said they would have them in the fastest. He was suppose to be moved in before thanksgiving and still isn’t in, and still doesn’t have a septic put in. And he has found a lot of stuff they didn’t do, did wrong, or half assed.


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CasterTroy said:
You're not wrong by any means.
And I'm in the biz.
Not sure how to say this without sounding like some know it all, but I know "who to use" but for some reason my experience and advice isn't appreciated.
Like I said, I can point her to 3 builders right now I could stand behind.
I dunno. Never met anyone like her. She's smart on a level I cant understand (doctor level) and I'm experienced on a level she cant grasp
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Sounds more like easily won over by the pitch......what is she a doctor of?? Ask her if her patients want medical advice from the snake oils sales man or a board certified professional. Prove to her the web designer or salesman can't qualify as a licensed builder but can sell pretty floor plans and pictures. Your best bet is get her in a model home and with a qualified third party. Pick it apart.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Sounds more like easily won over by the pitch......what is she a doctor of?? Ask her if her patients want medical advice from the snake oils sales man or a board certified professional. Prove to her the web designer or salesman can't qualify as a licensed builder but can sell pretty floor plans and pictures. Your best bet is get her in a model home and with a qualified third party. Pick it apart.
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Model homes are notoriously not representative. You think they really pick a "typical" house and then turn it into a model?
 
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The ting with advise from here is that every area is different. The best builder in my area won’t travel to your area.

When I was in the construction industry, the builder I hated working for the most, built the best houses. He was always on our ass, but in a good way. If I was to build a house today, I would use him 100%.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
what is she a doctor of??
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Dr death is what we call her

Shes a palliative care expert. I.E. Hospice

I've got hours of campfire stories

Thing is, shes sold on the ability to work with them on floor plan changes...etc. yet lives across the street from someone that could produce an entire set of permit drawings if shed ask :rolleyes:
 
CasterTroy said:
That's what's so shocking. I mean, this chick lives in a custom built 3500 square ft home on a golf course and is now considering a ezbake home

I'd not even looked them up before today. I assumed they were a local builder. She really made it sound to my wife, that it was something better than the known cookie cutter homes. The website really sells it as "custom home" o_O

Just didnt know if @Jody Treadway or @77GreenMachine had sold material to them or had some good dirt like Logan and bart
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We're commercial only. So I can give you plenty of dirt on big GCs and other suppliers we wholesale to.
But I'm not a dumb ass
 
RatLabGuy said:
Model homes are notoriously not representative. You think they really pick a "typical" house and then turn it into a model?
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Well, never thought about that angle...guess it's not like certain vendors showing out crap tastic welding on their products.
 
Step one: Get an attorney to look over the proposed Schumacher contract. They are well known to be very one-sided, and not to the benefit of the client. They are also well known to not want to deviate from any of the options, as their pricing structure is built on a very rigid cookbook of plans and options.
Step two: Find out the quality of the local Schumacher crew, which is probably the most important part.

We lived next door to a Schumacher development in Charleston, and I can't say the build quality was any better or worse than any other tract home builder who prices by the square foot (of the other national tract home builders I've been able to look at). I wouldn't own one, but I also wouldn't have a house built by any builder of that type. They don't build the type of house I'm looking for, both for style and for quality. I don't really trust a home builder that is promising such a massively lower price than the other guys though, because those savings have to come from somewhere. Some savings are from volume, etc., but when you're massively undercutting the other higher volume guys...
I would love to know who built the house we rented in Charleston, because it was a steaming pile of shit. That entire neighborhood was shitty quality, and only a few years old.

I think Ryan and Schumacher are the ones I hear the most bad stuff about, and I'm not even in the building industry...
 
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I only deal in commercial. No home builders.

I do know thru the industry they are basically a cookie cutter home builder. Nothing special.

I would personally recccomend John Rosenbaum. That’s he will build our house if we decide to build.
https://rosenbaumconstruction.com/
 
Mobile homes are built better than their crap.
Before we bought our house 14 years ago we looked at new homes built by them, Shugart, and several others.
At one open house event where there was a sales rep and a demo home ....... we looked around for about 10 minutes, didn't even bother going upstairs or downstairs.
When the sales rep asked why we didn't look at the rest of the house I told him I didn't think it was safe and thought mobile homes were built better than the house we were in.

In natural disasters and such you will see aerial footage of widespread areas ...... whole developments gone while individual houses still stand.
Those developments are built by companies like Shumacher.
 
Fabrik8 said:
those savings have to come from somewhere.
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What savings? She found out on this morning's walk that they are looking at $179 a sqft for just the middle of the road package o_O

Lizooki said:
Those developments are built by companies like Shumacher.
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See this is where we're running into issues. "They aren't like the others"
:rolleyes:

That's why I was HOPING for some first hand horror.
 
I put countless HVAC systems in their homes and the only one that was worse to deal with was Mungo.
 
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