STICKEL PROPERTIES

Over the past 20 years, my family and I have bought and sold 5 new homes due to numerous transfers by my employer. All of our experiences with new home builders have been very positive and the quality of our new homes were all very good, EXPECT for the new home we purchased from Stickel Properites. I was transferred by my employer to New Jersey in 2011 and we purchased our current home from Stickel Properties in August 2011. At the time of purchase, this was a newly constructed spec home that had been sitting on the market unsold for about a year. This home is over 7,500 square feet and the purchase price was over $1.3 million. Given the size and cost of this home, my family and I were expecting a very well built home, which is consistent with our experience from other homes we purchased in the past that were comparable in size and price. Unfortunately, our experience with this home has been quite the opposite and it is anything but a well built home. The unseen "quality" of this home is more reminiscent of the quality one would see in a starter home. At the time of purchase, our punch list of repairs exceeded 20 items and it took more than a year (yes, a year!) to fully resolve the open items with the builder's representative. Moreover, during that first year, the builder's representative showed little interest in being responsive to our requests or to stand behind the quality of the home's construction (or lack there of). Since that first year, here is a list of the problems we have experienced with the home. These problems do not qualify for repair by the builder: Leaky roof, Kitchen and bathroom cabinets do not open/close properly anymore, HVAC system has been repaired several times. The system is too small to effectively heat/cool the size of this home, Electrical fuses blow out because the capacity of the electrical unit is too small for the size of this home, Poor insulation in the walls and no insulation in the floors. In fact, some rooms are too cold to occupy in the winter or too warm to occupy in the summer. In addition, people walking on the 2nd floor can be heard in the basement!, Water pressure and temperature is negatively effected when more than two people shower at the same time. The water pump and heater are too small for the size of this home. And what is our latest problem you ask? Substantially all of the exterior wood trim on the front side and garage side of the house, including the soffits and fascia boards, are rotted and have to be repaired and painted. A relatively new home requires a complete redo of the front and side exterior trim! We called the builder representative for advice and he showed ZERO remorse and offered nothing to assist in repair. The estimate for repair and painting is $29,000. I repeat - this is a relatively new home that requires $29,000 in exterior trim repair! Overall, I would never recommend this builder to anyone. It's clear to me Stickel Properties does not value feedback from this current homeowner nor did they build this home with quality materials. Buyer beware!