STANLEY MARTIN COMPANIES, LLC

Just closed less than 3 months ago, the worst experience ever. SM planted a dead tree in our front yard before closing, we have been asked by the HOA to replace it. we reached out to SM and they replaced the dead tree with another dead tree. They are now refusing to plant a live tree. SM does not care about veterans, much less disabled veterans.

I would give 0 stars if possible. I am a home owner next door to a set of three homes they built over the last year. During their strip clearing of the property next door and I mean strip. They took out beautiful trees that were in no way going to interfere with the build process. Or in this case assemble process as all three houses were brought in on flat bed trucks. They never cut a 2x4 that I saw. In this clearing process they caused over three thousand dollars worth of damage to my property. They destroyed a garden taking out trees, shrubs, flowers, everything. For over a year they have told me they were going to fix it but they never did. Now they will not even return my calls. STAY AWAY GET A REAL HOUSE BUILT AND HAVE A NEIGHBOR WHO IS GLAD YOU ARE THERE!

Pretty bad! Quality of work is of very low standard, from drywall, to paint to flooring, to HVAC, to siding, to roof, to plumbing, to landscape, pretty much everything that would be expected from a high cost single family home construction project fell to meet minimum expectations. Responses to raised and communicated issues are also very slow and often, repair/service requested are ignored.

Where do I start? Let me start by saying that although my wife and I love our new home, after the experience we had during the purchase phase and due to problems we continue to have with Stanley Martin Homes, we would never purchase a new home from Stanley Martin Homes again. With that comment, I want to be as honest as I can regarding my experience and what you take from this review. We purchased a home in Selma Estates, Leesburg, VA. Some of our experiences reflect on the Sales representative in the Selma Estates community while other comments relate to our experience with Stanley Martin Home's at large (i.e. dealing with Warranty Department, repair representatives, etc.).

- DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU HEAR FROM THE REPRESENTATIVE IN SELMA ESTATES SALES OFFICE. He is one of the most disingenuous people I have ever met. Not only will the sales rep lie to you, be careful of what he doesn't tell you. The best warning I can offer you is that if he tells you something, do not believe it unless you get it in writing and make sure every detail of what he says is in writing.
Some examples:
1 - When I first visited the community and looked at the homes, I loved the homes and community but I was quickly turned off because I went to Selma Estates not realizing that the homes were heated with Propane. I told the sales rep that I was completely against any home heated by Propane because I have heard all the horror stories about how you are stuck with certain propane providers who essentially have a monopoly in the community and will gouge you financially with overpriced propane. The sales rep assured me that this was not an issue in Selma Estates because the homeowners own their tanks and can obtain their propane from whatever provider they want. This gives the buyer full control over their propane and gives owners the freedom to shop for their propane. In addition, the sales rep told me that when we closed on the home, we will get the tank filled and that I would not have to worry about propane until the tank needed filling again. Although what he told me was true, what he didn’t tell me (and we had numerous conversations about the propane tank, cost of propane, etc.) was that Stanley Martin will not provide you an and quot;Owner's Certificateand quot; or anything else that proves you own the tank. He also never told me that there would be an additional charge of approximately $1700 at closing for the tank and the first fill. He will also never tell you that when you go to closing, they will drop a propane contract in your lap, make it appear like a mandatory part of the closing process, and attempt to stick you under a one year contract with one Propane Provider. The only reason I didn’t get stuck with the contract is because I stood up and threatened to leave the closing.
2 – The house we purchased was a Quick sale that had just been framed the first time I saw the home. As we reviewed what was going into the home (material, colors, etc.), the sales rep regularly claimed that he had designed what was going into the home. All the same information was provided in the contract and we accepted it. A few weeks later after signing the contract, when the flooring, cabinets, etc. were installed my wife, realtor, and I went to the home with the Sales rep to review what was in the house. To our surprise, the cabinets in the Master Bedroom were not what we expected. My wife and I immediately addressed the wrong cabinets with the Sales rep who promised to have all the cabinets changed out for the correct ones we were supped to get. A week later, the sales rep informed us that Stanley Martin refused to change the cabinets out and explained that the designers had changed the original plan but that they forgot to provide him the changes at the time we signed the contract. I thought he said he designed the home and personally selected the material and colors for all the flooring, counters, cabinets, etc.? Nonetheless, we tried to insist that the cabinets be changed because it was in our contract, and then the next shock. Even though we were being held to the terms of the contract and had provided $21,500 earnest money, Stanley Martin had no intention of abiding by the terms of the contract because they had yet to ratify it. Really? 2 weeks later. The sales rep then explained that this was normal practice. Because of my job relocation and the timing of our move, Stanley Martin had us by the shorts. To add insult to injury, the sales rep calls to tell me that he is willing to add $500 seller credit so that my wife and I can replace the cabinets after we close. Really, $500? We finally negotiated a higher credit because we were left with 2 choices 1) terminate the contract or 2) Negotiate a higher seller credit to try to offset what it will really cost us to replace the cabinets after we own the home.
3 – While we waited for Stanley Martin to ratify the contract, which I believe they intentionally held off ratifying so that they would not be bound by the original terms, interest rates began to climb. I repeatedly asked the Sale rep about the contract because it was preventing me from locking in my loan and interest rate before it got any higher. By the time he locked it in rates had increased .25% and lender credits dropped from nearly $4000 to $700.
4 – Land and landscaping. When we first looked at the house, the sales rep provided us a copy of the developer plan that show how much property we were getting (approx. and frac12; acre). Nowhere on the contract, developer plan, or in any other documentation, did the sales rep explain or disclose anything about the landscaping. Our fault because we should have specifically asked. However, this was our forth new home purchase and it was not something we thought we had to ask about because I have never purchased a home where the land was not properly graded, or covered with grass, a patio, or a deck. To our surprise, when we did our initial home orientation, we discovered that Stanley Martin only provided grass 25 feet on each side of the house. To make matters worse, there is no topsoil so the grass is siting on clay and rocks. How long do they think that will last? For the rest of the property, they threw down seed and straw. Again, on top of poorly graded, clay and rocks. That area is now full of weeds and poison ivy. What’s really ridiculous is that they even do the same in the front and side of the home. Half my front yard is sod and half is hay. For a brand-new home, the curb appearance of the home looks like a trailer park.
5 – Warranty Department and Follow on Services. Each time we had to call the warranty department for issues after closing, the lady who takes the reported issue is very pleasant and professional but it stops there. Once the issue goes out to Stanly Martin to fix the problem, they will take their time getting back to you, if at all. Even when they do come right out to see the problem, they will tell you they will get back to you and then they will take their sweet time doing so if at all. For example, the first time it rained, because of poor grading, we had sitting water the full length of our back year, the water also ran from the back of the yard and washed our seed and straw. It took several calls and then a final demand that they come out and resolve the matter before they respond. There were two issues 1) grading and 2) weeds and poison ivy growing throughout my back yard. They did the bare minimum to resolve the grading issue, but have not, in now 2 months even responded regarding the weeds and poison ivy.
Bottom line: If you buy a home from Stanley Martin, don’t be surprised if you don’t get your monies worth. We paid over $700,000 for our home but they treated us like we were buying a cheap home. This is from what was supposedly a reputable builder.
The Stanley Martin Website Claims:
“Stanley Martin demonstrates four core values throughout its business:
Honesty and Integrity. Do the right thing.
Customer

I purchased my first new home recently from Stanley Martin. I had always been afraid of the new home process and purchased resale homes in the past. I had also heard nightmare stories from other people who had purchased brand new homes. What I found troubling was the lack of real reviews on home builders. Most of them are negative and the positives are rare. I wanted to post this to let everyone know that Stanley Martin was fantastic in almost all aspects. They are in fact one of the best companies I have purchased something from. Granted the communication could be a bit better but aside from that the people and the workmanship are top notch. I love my new home and I love Stanley Martin for making all my home wishes come true. Buy with confidence. When they say they will take care of it..... They mean it!

Stanley Martin has a strong reputation for quality construction in our area and we were impressed by the homes that we inspected during our evaluation process. They were professional and punctual when meeting with us and we appreciated their candor about the costs of building a new home in our area.

We found the Stanley Martin custom home sales process pushy and decided not to work with them. If you do not already own property that you wish to build on, they ask for a deposit before working with you to help compensate them for the process of finding suitable land or a tear down. They apply the deposit toward the leg work and analyses they claim to be critical to identifying buildable land and then they apply any balance toward a new home once you find one. They insist that you need soil samples, etc, and they also insist that you work with their realtor. In discussions with many other builders, nobody else indicated that a soil sample analysis was important. They mentioned other and quot;scary storiesand quot; about people buying land that didn't work for some other technical reason, or screwing up their financing. In general, it felt like they were trying to frighten us out of getting property on our own. We found their realtor abrasive and somewhat condesending about the prospects of locating suitable property outside their portfolio. We also found their quotes for site work and land costs to be out of touch with the market.

While I appreciated that the SM team might just be trying to spare people the pain of making a mistake, some of their approach seemed overly self-serving and a bit disingenuine. We in fact did successfully buy a tear-down and build a wonderful house in a superb location in McLean, and we did this without paying any deposits up front. If you already own property, SM has a great reputation and we liked what we saw. If you do not own property, I would recommend working with a different realtor and then interviewing SM once you have land.

Signing the initial contract was very easy, all went well. At closing however, we had to pay extra for the amount of time that the spec house sat on the market.

Everything is going well so far. They have been a great help in getting us through the home building process.