Schumacher Homes of Ravenna

You get what you pay for, using Shumacher homes was the worst consumer experiences of my life! There was no joy in an experience we had waited years to afford. From the very beginning there were constant issues, starting months late, contractors didn't show for weeks or months at a time leaving work unfinished for the next phase, work is hurried and error prone due to the over burdening of the limited crews. I could go on and on, take a look at their reviews on the BBB not their purchased accreditation, 77% of reviews are negative and pretty closely reflect my own experience.

We are ten months into a nightmare retirement home build with Schumacher homes of Ravenna, Ohio. This is a small house with a small amount of upgrades. The house by contract should have been done in 120 days. All work has now stopped because of structural issues. We have problems from the foundation to the roof and of course everything in between. A stop work order from our local county building department was issued for building code violations. Schumacher has not made any effort to remedy the problems and continues to blame us. They changed the elevation of our home by a foot and said it was for our own benefit ?.We have hired an engineer / architect that has found the house to be unsafe to finish and live in without major structural repairs. He has stated in his report that it would be easier and cost less to tear the house down and start over !!! We have also hired an attorney to help resolve this with Schumacher. The short of it is that if you want horrible, lousy, low quality, shabby work from a bunch of liars, then by all means hire Schumacher. Also don't count on Paul Schumacher to return any phone calls or e-mails about customer service, he has been unresponsive about the issues with his company. The hook with Schumacher is the low cost per square foot. You can keep that cost low by not getting a lot of upgrades. Again, the Schumacher experience has been HORRIBLE and may not ever be over.

They were very accommodating to how we wanted to build the house.

They were not very good. They did not charge for the consultation. I knew some people that had used them and did not have a problem. But, for us, I do not know if it was the location or what. They kept adding charges. They just do a standard house and then they get you on the upgrades and things like that. They over charge, if you just want oak cabinets that is part of it, if you want to upgrade to maple, they charge another $5,000. They do a bait and switch, if you want better quality products they charge for that. We found a house we liked, but to get it to where we wanted it, it was going to be way too much. She said that she was going to call me back, and I never heard back from her. The quality would have been good in the regular home was good, it was over priced. They never called me back. I told her that I was going to be paying cash for the house; she took a sale that would have been a slam-dunk and threw it away.

I did a lot of searching for a builder and found that, although somewhat higher priced than the competition, it was justified because of the high quality building materials and full service that they provide (such as design customization). Although communications were a bit difficult at first with the sale person, once I was turned over to my "personal buider" it went extremely well. The house was built on time and within budget. The house was built in Mentor, Ohio, which is extremely difficult due to the various rules, regulations, and "interpretations." I found many builders refuse to build in Mentor due to the difficulties of working with the building department. This builder worked with the inspector and tried to get everything resolved the first time around. Plus, I had a problem with vandalism because of the lot location and again, he worked closely with me to minimize the vandalism. The house was done on time and even slightly lower than budget and is all 5 star! House was started in August and it was completed in December. The builder himself communicated regularly. In addition, all the various subcontractors he hired were all wonderful. I would not hesitate to hire any of them again! The only caution I would have for someone considering building is to allow a contingency in their funding for the project. It is construction, and you never know what they will run into when excavating, connecting utilities, etc. I allowed for such contingency and it made the project much less stressful on the customer side.