Northern Virginia builders in 500-600k construction range

[Anonymous]

We're thinking about tearing down our house and are looking for input on builders. We've been to a few open houses of area builders in the 1.2-1.5 price range but would love to hear from people who own houses from any of these builders (or other builders in this price range that you were happy with). We are interested in focal point, sekas, spring street and possibly Madison homes and Stanley Martin. Thanks for any input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're thinking about tearing down our house and are looking for input on builders. We've been to a few open houses of area builders in the 1.2-1.5 price range but would love to hear from people who own houses from any of these builders (or other builders in this price range that you were happy with). We are interested in focal point, sekas, spring street and possibly Madison homes and Stanley Martin. Thanks for any input.

Does your price range include site costs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're thinking about tearing down our house and are looking for input on builders. We've been to a few open houses of area builders in the 1.2-1.5 price range but would love to hear from people who own houses from any of these builders (or other builders in this price range that you were happy with). We are interested in focal point, sekas, spring street and possibly Madison homes and Stanley Martin. Thanks for any input.

Does your price range include site costs?

No. I've heard that's potentially an additional 50-100k?

[Anonymous]

As a real estate agent who primarily works for builders, all of the builders you named have good reputations. I would think they would fit your budget and you would end up with a good product. If possible, I would stay away from other lower-end builders.

[Anonymous]

Stay away from Focal Point. All others are good Dave Springberg will only build in Arlington and Sekas prefers Vienna. May depend on where you are building.

[Anonymous]

Just curious, is your house paid off?

Can you tear down your house if you still owe money on the loan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from Focal Point. All others are good Dave Springberg will only build in Arlington and Sekas prefers Vienna. May depend on where you are building.

Spring Street built some houses in Falls Church FFC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from Focal Point. All others are good Dave Springberg will only build in Arlington and Sekas prefers Vienna. May depend on where you are building.

Why Focal Point you are not recommending? Any more details you would provide? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

500-600K for the above builders may be tight, when you consider site dev costs. Look at NDI, classic,etc who are more basic, vanilla, pre-fab type however offer better pricing to capture specific market segment.

[Anonymous]

Sekas is very good quality but quite pricey and you would have issues recouping costs for a few years.

NDI, Focal Point have their prices online. NDI is the most cost effective. I haven't heard bad things about focalpoint.

Also look at ANV at this price range.

[Anonymous]

I feel Focal Point building quality is better than NDI or ANV, am I wrong?

[Anonymous]

I don't like houses built by Focal Point. Their houses all look like a dungeon with low ceilings and small windows. It's also cheaply built.
BTW, one way to tell whether the builders are cutting the corners or not is to look at if their houses have gable roofs.

[Anonymous]

We've built with Stanley Martin (custom homes branch... division .. whatever) and can vouch for them. No personal experience with any others, but while shopping around after contacting pretty much all NoVA builders in "not crazy expensive/are you f...g nuts?" range, I got an impression that Classic, Reel and Quacker are the ones to avoid.

FWIW, we have Focal house (houses? - a few that look very similar in design/floorplan) in our hood and it/they look fine at least on outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't like houses built by Focal Point. Their houses all look like a dungeon with low ceilings and small windows. It's also cheaply built.
BTW, one way to tell whether the builders are cutting the corners or not is to look at if their houses have gable roofs.

Not sure what you mean by gable roof? Are you implying that if the homes has a gable roof vs. hip roof, it is lower quality? I know that hip roof costs more to construct.

[Anonymous]

You get what you paid for....