Best & Worst New Home Builders In The DC Metro Area

[Russell Brazil]

I thought I might try to crowd source this information. What companies do you think are the best and worst new home builders in the DC area.  Ive been partial to Winchester Homes and Miller & Smith. Ryan & Ryland (Both recently acquired by someone else) seem like perfectly ok mid tier builders.  Ive not been very impressed with KB homes.   

What are your thoughts?

[Elizabeth Nourse]

I've worked a TON with builders over the years and was a market research analyst for Stanley Martin homes from 2005-2009.  In that role, I had a lot of interesting experiences walking hundreds of homes and did a lot of analysis of various builders.  The information might be dated, but here are my general thoughts:

Stanley Martin- Generally a step up from a production builder, but some of the exterior design elements were not as good as other builders.  I think the elevations for some designs were a bit weak. Good customer service.

Ryan Homes/ K. Hovnanian/ NV Homes/ Lennar/ Centex- Classic production builders.  Quality was fine, but they are focused on doing volume, so there options for finishes might be a bit limited in some cases. Don't expect to get any "custom" work done. Not going to happen.  They are all pretty much the same, from my perspective.  Some might do more of one type of home than another, or specialize in a certain price point or age group, but they generally will have similar quality materials and designs. 

KB- They are primarily southern state builders and this is reflected in their plans. When they first came to our market, they didn't design well for our climate at all. It was really, really bad. Stucco all over the place. They came in at the exact wrong time and gave up on our market for a few years. Once it strengthened, they came back. I haven't walked one in years, so I don't know if they still have their former design issues or not...

Merrick- Rules the roost in Southern MD. Generally good quality, very standard/ classic floor plans. Their designs were always less modern than that of builders closer to DC. 

Miller & Smith/ Winchester Homes- Great designs, very innovative. Quality of construction might be a bit weaker (Miller & Smith more than Winchester), but they do interesting designs and very nice elevations.

Pulte- VERY focused on customer satisfaction. Production builder but they do a very good job w/ JD Power surveys and they stress that a lot with their clients. Designs are similar to other production builders, but they generally avoid some of the more stupid design flaws that other builders might have in a plan. 

Toll Brothers- Pricing/ negotiation for them is harder to get competitive, since they are in Planned Unit Developments and generally they won't advertise incentives/ discounts as much as the other builders. It's hard to get a sense of a good deal w/ them. During the downturn, they didn't lower prices, unlike every other builder around. Toll Brothers plans tend to be traditional and they are not super innovative. I have a few folks that live in their PUDs and the HOA rules are really difficult.... read that carefully if you consider a PUD.

Smaller local builders- These generally were all pretty similar. You'll pay a price premium, because they can't get the same prices from suppliers as the big guys... however, they frequently will offer more interesting plans/ elevations than a production builder.  They are much more likely to be doing small lot, in-fill jobs.  The larger builders won't bother with sites below a certain size.