Has anyone had any experience with Shea Homes?
My parents are looking at a development in SoCa which is being built by Shea. My internet reserch hasn’t turned up much in the way of complaints, at least nothing like I have found about Pulte, KB, Centex, etc.
I toured a couple of properties today and while I was less then impressed with fit and finish it was far better then most of the houses I’ve looked at in this area with my folks. The answers the salesman gave me seemed ok in terms of construction practices, but they are a national builder which brings some questions in my mind.
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Sorry - don't know Shea Homes. Consider this a bump...
Until you get some good feedback, you said: >> My internet reserch hasn't turned up much in the way of complaints, at least nothing like I have found about Pulte, KB, Centex, etc. <<
The thing is that I know that Pulte and Centex (not sure about KB) pride themselves for their customer satisfaction scores. It's a big thing with them. I think they go by poles conducted by JD Powers and Assoc, or someone similar.... So, this stuff is all very confusing... How can these national builders keep people that happy when we all (here) know what they produce? My guess is that they are building what 90% of the home buying public is willing to accept. Further, I guess if you build 10,000 houses the law of averages is that you are going to have 100 (give or take) extremely unhappy customers. That's only 1%... Hence the probably livid complaints you found.... Some people you can't please no matter what - probably even if you let them trade their house in on another... Building that many houses, things happen - maybe one was built on a crack in the earth's surface when there are no other know in that part of the state... :-) Maybe it unexpectedly poured rain the day 9 driveways were poured... so yes, there is always gonna be that 1%. I know for a fact that some of these superintendents have 50 houses under construction at one time - so how close of attention can they be paying??? One told me that he doesn't have time to get out of his truck... So, who is watching the store? Probably no one. But you can bet someone is watching the cash register :-) And, I think that for the average house they produce, as you say, the "fit an finish" isn't so good, but I know they have an army of punch guys who fix this stuff all day every day so maybe that makes people happy? These punch guys are not only hired for their building (repairing) skills but for their personality - customer satisfaction skills. Me? I have to mostly punch my own stuff so my strategy is make it as close to perfect as is reasonably possible in the first place and then I have almost no HO initiated punch work to do. I guess I'm not a cog in a national home building machine - oh well...
So, what's my point? Not sure... :-) Except to say that when someone buys a home from a national home building machine, it's important they understand that that is exactly what they are getting; a mass produced product that doesn't have one extra 2x4 in it, was built by the cheapest labor available, managed by a guy who was spread very thin, the house is specifically designed to save money on construction and fulfill the warranty period requirements and give the 90% of the un-knowing home buying public what they think they want - and that's it.
I hear what you're saying and agree. These houses were not tributes to craftsmanship in any sense, but they were "decent"...
managed by a guy who was spread very thin, the house is specifically designed to save money on construction and fulfill the warranty period requirements and give the 90% of the un-knowing home buying public what they think they want - and that's it.
And in a nutshell.
The Super & PM are paid bonuses for being on time and under cost (labor, materials, everything). So, if a person hears that the crew hired to flash entire blocks of houses came in cheap because they didn't know they were supposed to use more flashing . . . well, surprise is not high on the list. Why so few people complain about leaky houses? Dunno, other than probably too many "got used to it" living in leaky apartments hardly built any better than tract houses.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
The name rang a bell...I read an article in Custom Builder Magazine on them. I did a search on the Custom Builder website and got these hits for previous articles written in their archives. Here are just the first five listed out of 85. Hope this helps.
go to: http://www.housingzone.com/custombuilder/archive-pbl
enter "Shea Homes" in the search bar and press enter
Good luck,
Paul
Magazine Articles - search results (found 85)
You searched for "Shea Homes"
Del Webb Corp., the nation s largest builder of active adult communities last month rejected a takeover bid by J.F. Shea & Co. and minimized chances for two Shea executives to win board seats when the company s shareholders convene on Nov. 2.
Shea Homes ranks number four on the list of top performing builders in the Phoenix market. Shea builds homes in a variety of price points, ranging from $200,000 entry-level homes to $1 million luxury houses.
Shea's eight divisions spread across several states. While product design varies from state to state and community to community, the merging of art with sound building science remains a constant.
Shea Homes ranks number four on the list of top performing builders in the Phoenix market. Shea builds homes in a variety of price points, ranging from $200,000 entry-level homes to $1 million luxury houses.
Professional Builder has chosen Shea Homes as the Builder of the Year for 2007. Once you walk through Shea's doors, you feel like you're home with friends. A large, private company, Shea builds more than 6,000 homes a year in eight divisions across the Western United States, along with one self-contained division in North Carolinawith one self-contained division in North Carolina.
Edited 5/17/2007 7:06 pm ET by Parch