RACHEL MATTHEW HOMES

In Dec 2014 we bought a 10 year old home built by Rachel Matthew Homes. In my opinion, you are best off talking to a home owner after the home is 10 years old, rather than someone who just moved in. The house shows poor workmanship, cheap choice of materials and finishes, no attention to detail and outright mistakes in building and installation. As a result, we, the new owners, have inherited considerable, very considerable expense to make things right. I will give examples. The foyer windows are heavy, large size units. At the bottom of each "stack" (complex of stationary windows) is an operating awning window. These awning windows are no longer functional. One of them is actually screwed shut. What happened is the builder did not account for the weight and did not take steps to support the heavy weight stationary windows adequately. The window manufacturer Weather Shield (in my opinion a very low end provider) takes no responsibility. They document that this is what the builder ordered. The consequence is that we need to remove and replace all these windows, a 5 figure expense. Other windows are too tight and too difficult to operate, caused (in the opinion of our window provider) by installations that was simply too tight to the openings. Eventually we think all the windows may have to go. We noticed water damage in various ceiling areas. Our roof repair person showed us where the roof was never properly sealed along the roof HVAC units and this had caused the leaking. There was water damage to several of the outside doors due to poor grading. Water apparently flowed into the house. A swimming pool was installed into the courtyard. Interestingly, the excavated dirt was apparently spread into a weird mound in the back yard in a haphazard way. I had a septic expert with equipment come and smooth out the back yard so that it would be more usable and give the septic lines more ability to "breathe". This was a high end house that likely cost in the $700,000 range new. Yet we have replaced all the interior doors and baseboard moldings. We are in the process of putting new paint everywhere. I would say that the doors and moldings would be the cheapest possible choices. The paint would be same category. I realize that some of these finish choices belong with the buyer, but if you are building a high end home can you ever possibly use these types of finishes? We have completely remodeled the middle bathroom. Cheapest possible combination of tub and tile. We contacted Rachel Matthew Homes to ask for plans for the house. We have none and the original buyers never had plans. All we wanted the plans for was to see dimensions, directions of the ceiling joists, etc. They said that they do not give out home plans because the plans are proprietary and they don't want anyone stealing their ideas. I asked them for an accommodation and offered to sign any document guaranteeing no theft or commercial use of the plans. They promised to review and reply. They never replied. After some time i called them back and asked for a decision. They refused to take my call or reply. In my opinion, knowing this home intimately, Rachel Matthew Homes is a very inferior builder, arrogant and cheap. I hope that this review helps even one buyer to avoid the very unfortunate experience of doing business with this company.

It started off well, thanks to one employee who tried to make things work between us and the people who make the decisions. However, they were very unprofessional once we informed them the custom design was not to our satisfaction. They failed to remedy the situation but instead perpetuated it by being very defensive and gloating about how they were the best. Ironically, during our "design stage" we were assured over and over how we can freely change what we wanted without them getting offended. That was the biggest lie ever. As customers, we felt that our needs were not met but ignored. The owner himself wanted to terminate the contract with us. I guess he makes enough money from his little tract homes. So, we reluctantly paid for the unfinished design plan which took them four months to do and trashed the plans along with our money and time. Rachel Matthews may be an Ok tract home builder if that, but in no sense are they custom home builders. We got a new custom home builder and we are very, very happy with our new 4000 sqft home, just the way we wanted it.

They build both homes with the same high level of skill. With all homes there were unexpected bumps along the way- when these bumps came up Rachel Matthews stepped up and resolved the issue swiftly and professionally. This has continued after I moved in.