Is schellbrothers.com Legit?

We bought a home in Richmond, VA. Generally, the experience was positive. Schell has great floor plans with great curb appeal. Definitely not cookie-cutter. Their sales and decorating teams do a great job. Our construction manager was great to work with. And we were able to customize quite a bit, which is not what you normally see in production builders like Schell. However, the warranty service manager in Richmond was less than helpful. He frequently marked warranty items as “completed” when they weren’t and he explained that they were duplicate when they were not. His logic was that the same contractor would be addressing multiple items so he marked the “duplicate” items as completed when they were not. The problem is their system for reporting and tracking warranty items requires you to categorize warranty items and there is no way to group items by contractor. So, when they would mark items completed when they weren’t, you lost track of what was really done and what was not. They would also take FOREVER to address warranty items and they would show up at random times. So we eventually got frustrated and fixed many of the items ourselves. They ran drain tile from the foundation to the middle of the yard and just stopped it right in the dirt. As a result, we had very marshy conditions and spent well over $10k to mitigate. Lastly, they used engineered wood I-beam joists on our main level and they “over-spanned” them. We have a large open floor plan and several rooms are larger than the 15’ span for which wood I-beams are typically used. As a result, we have considerable bounce in our floors. Dishes rattle and lamps shake when someone walks by. I brought this up to the Richmond division president and she apologized but basically said “that’s our product.” To fix this, we are going to spend more than $23k to add additional steel beams to support the floor. This is not at all what I expected when I paid $755k for my house 4 years ago. To be fair, I had two different structural engineers look at the floor bounce problem and they both said this was a well-constructed house. But they said Schell built to the code requirement, which is the bare minimum. Would I buy from Schell again? Maybe, but I would do things a lot differently and would not have assumed their commitment to happiness meant I was going to get exceptional value in my house.

Dealing with the warranty department is awful. They ghost you or just ignore the issue hoping you go away. They gaslight defects and issues saying it's out of warranty. If you fix the issues yourself and ask for restitution they refuse to do so even when it's a faulty builder issue. When they do fix an issue its a.bad bandaid to make you go away.

I've built two homes with Schell Brothers and both experiences were by far more superior to the other production builders. I have bought a Ryan home in the past so I have personal experience from two different builders. Schell gave me weekly updates on the build (which doesn't happen with other builders) and had a very seamless step by step process from beginning to end. There were definitely things wrong when I moved into the home but anyone familiar with construction knows that no home is built perfectly, no matter how good the builder is. The main thing is that they come back to correct it. And Schell 100% stood by this and made every correction. I have neighbors that have complained about warranty but usually it stems from not being able to talk with someone on the phone or the timeliness of getting it fixed. They have a customer portal called heartbeat where you just submit a warranty claim and then you can watch it go through the process. You have a dedicated specialist and you can chat with them through a messenger but can't contact them via phone. Personally I prefer this because with the messenger it gives them time to research the answer and respond verses having multiple phone calls. Regarding timeliness, somethings take a little longer to get finished but it's not urgent issues. We had a leak in the first house and they were out immediately. It seems like major issues are addressed asap and minor stuff takes a bit longer. If I buy another home and Schell is an option I will choice them a third time.

Schell Brothers controls the HOA Board at Walden. They refuse to provide details on the 2024 Budget and Assessments. No Transparency. Buyer beware!

Schell Brothers lousy builders!We have had many problems with our 6 year old Schell house. ,Screens in windows do not fit, problems with grouting and a major problem with our rainspouts being undersized and overflowing in a heavy rain. We went to contact Schell about our rainspouts and found out the warranty for gutters is only one year. Schell Brothers are AWFUL builders.

We built a Schell home at Magnolia Green in the Richmond Va. area. The sales and design team were outstanding during the entire building process. Schell builds higher quality homes than competitors. Their brochures and design sites online & at the studio were very helpful in choosing the right home & features. The construction process had minor hiccups due to turnover in site management personnel. After closing the main concerns were sheetrock quality and weak closet racks. Schell needs to improve its quality assurance process behind sub-contractors so punch lists items can be shortened. Overall, we are very pleased with our home.

I’ve owned this home since 2012. My wife died in 2013 never got to enjoy the home. Had nothing but issues with the roof leaking Insurance adjuster said they cannot ensure the roof was not installed properly/dormers bowing inn/Windows leaking/basement door leaking/sidewalk main entrance sunk 2 inches funneling water towards the foundation/blacktop garage door entrance sinking.I would not buy a home from these people because once they get their money They don’t care about you.

Love our home, schell brothers have been excellent since the start of the project , to their awesome warranty service . A few minor issues and they managed to fix it in a the best time possible. All of their sales rep, builders, and contractors have been top notch and helped solve our problems and concerns in a timely fashion. Would recommend this company. Loved their website and their state of the art online system .

Only interested in selling lots and homes-not interested in ensuring what was sold was what was communicated to the buyer. They put sod on sand-so sod does not grow, they engineer an HVAC system that is not equipped for a home, they have major drainage issues on sites that are on or near the water, they don't respond on a timely matter to follow punch list items...I could go on and on

I fell in love with the kitchen the minute we walked into the Whimbrel model at Independence. After that everything just fell into place. We are very happy with our neighbors, who are now like family, the clubhouse, and the many activities which are offered. One small complaint is that the sod in our yard really never took and has been a problem. Other than that, we are loving our Schell Brothers house and life in Delaware.

Schell has been the hardest company to communicate with. We moved in months after completion date and had a massive list of items to complete and fix. They have said everything would be fixed ASAP and we are still waiting for big items to be fixed since so much was rushed and completed incorrectly. We are still waiting for new cabinet molding and it’s been over a year.

I am lucky enough to live in a Kingfisher at Marsh Island. All of the team at Schell Brothers was fantastic, from my first point of contact to Warranty. This was indeed a unique experience, and I can tell that their happiness mission is real. It shows in everything they do. My Construction Supervisor, Mike, was communicative, and thorough and I felt as though he cared as if he was building a home for his own family.

We have been extremely happy with our new home since purchasing it two years ago. The overall process to purchase it was well managed and thorough. It was a complete pleasure to work with the Schell Brothers staff at each stage in the purchase of our home. Everyone we encountered were friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive to our questions, concerns, and our issues. The few times we called about a warranty issue, or had questions, their response was prompt and very helpful. The result was a beautiful house. Both our guests and outside contractors have been impressed greatly with the style, appearance and quality of our home. Schell Brothers took great pride in their entire process and we are the proud owners of a Schell Brothers house.

We love our Schell home . Their detail to everything made this the best experience we ever had buying a new home. Our community is beautiful. My best part? My construction manager Brian Triscuit! He answered every question timely and made this a wonderful experience!

Schell's Warranty Service is the BEST! Covid-19 has affected the Supply Chain for Homebuilders in so many different ways. My wife and I were impacted because Schell couldn't get some of the items that needed to be replace/repaired under their builder's warranty. Schell worked with us to find alternative solutions that were satisfactory to my wife and I. We'd like to give a special shoutout to Jason in Warranty. He help us finally get all the items crossed off our list and did it with a smile every time he stopped by. We love our Schell home.

We love our home in Marsh Island. This is a second home for us at the "beach" and it is like a vacation every time we come here. We looked at several builders before choosing Schell Brothers and we have been very happy with our choice. The home buying experience was so pleasant. The design center gave us the chance to customize our home to fit our needs. Our construction manager provided weekly updates, with pictures, of the progress of construction, and was always responsive to any concerns we raised. We have been in our house for almost eight months and still love coming here as often as we can. A spacious, well-designed home in a great community.

We were first time homeowners and chose Schell because of the quality of design, customization options, and attention to details. But beyond the craftsmanship, we were pleased by the level of customer service we received throughout the building process. We have been living in our home for almost two years now, and are still sure we made the right decision to build with Schell!

We are so grateful to have built a home with Schell Brothers. From the initial meeting with Schell’s sales person to settlement the process couldn't have been better. Selecting all the finishes for our home was our favorite part but we recommend doing your homework and coming to your selections appointment prepared otherwise the design day could be a little stressful. We’re so happy with the way our home turned out! Throughout the building process our construction manager kept us up to date through Heartbeat. We loved getting photo updates every week. The warranty team kept in touch after the settlement. We appreciated their timeliness in resolving a few small outstanding issues and answering any questions we had. We are very happy with our home and our builder and would recommend Schell to anyone looking to build a new home.

I first heard about Schell Brothers after they did an Extreme Home Makeover close to my hometown. I built a home in 2020 in Saddle Ridge and couldn't have been happier with the end result. We built during COVID, so being a part of the build could have been a little difficult but between their construction app 'Heartbeat' and the weekly phone calls from the Construction Manager, we never missed a milestone in our home. This was a first build for us, so we were thankful Schell Brothers walked us through every step and had a transparent process that allowed us to be involved in every phase of our build. We love our home and can't thank the team at Schell Bros enough!

Since I left a very bad review, Schell brothers said they would deal with my issue. However as soon as I changed my review they stopped helping. I’m waiting for them to do as they promised. Water coming out of the ceiling. They certainly aren’t in a rush. Incredible.