Funeral = one day max for an excuse. If they're this unresponsive when they're trying to get your business in a bad building economy, what will they be like when you have a problem, once the contract is signed. the house is under construction/built, and they have your money?

If you are looking for square feet per dollar you can't beat them. If you are looking for quality nearly anyone can beat them. In order to build houses as cheap as they do costs have to be cut somewhere. I was the contractor on my home. I subbed out about half of the work and did the rest myself. This saved me 50k over the best quote I recieved from a custom builder. This also cost me about 25k more than Wayne Homes builds there most comparable house for. I have been through many Wayne Homes. Believe me, they cut corners. The subs they use are typically not the best. The subs don't bid the jobs they are offered the job for a set amount, take it or leave it. I have a friend who is an excavator. He dug one basement for Wayne. He said they calculated how many cubic feet of dirt should be required and that's how you are paid. While digging the footers to their specified depth he noticed that he was not hitting firm soil. He then called them to tell them it needed to be deeper for a proper footing. They told him to dig it to the print depth regardless. That was the last job he did for them.

You can buy existing for less than you will spend to build a Wayne home and have higher quality. Or, you can spend at least 50% more than they charge to get something decent at about 90% of the size and finish level that you can buy existing.

Cheap "kustom" tract homes are exactly that. Cheap. You're not getting a "bargain". You're buying volume created production with low quality materials and labor. If that's what you want, that's one thing. But anyone who aspires to build their own home rarely aspires to waste more money for the priviledge of purchasing less space and quality than if they just went to a realtor to search for them.

We're building in NE Ohio. Wayne builds here (Akron/Canton), and though we briefly considered them, we went with a small local custom builder (Charis Homes) because we just fell in love with their work, their focus on energy efficiency and green building and the fact that every home owner we talked to raved about how much they loved their home. So far, everything has been smooth sailing, and I can't imagine building with anyone else. I haven't heard anything bad about Wayne, but no glowing review either.

That said, to echo what GreenDesigns said, you can buy an existing home for less than it costs to build. So consider WHY you want to build rather than take advantage of all the desperate home sellers (like us!). For us, we wanted a full ICF house with universal design elements to help me live a fuller life with my brain injury. We'd never find that in an existing house.

Good luck with your choice!

Here is a link that might be useful: de Jong Dream House

If you want a very basic house with very few upgrades they are at a good price point, but if you want upgrades then they price gouge the consumer. I've heard with these types of homes it depends on the crew you get assigned to your house. Some are good and some are bad. I know two people who have built Wayne homes in NW Ohio and one is happy and other one had to sue Wayne homes and won settlement due to huge mold problem that made the house unlivable. I decided that I'm going to build only one house in my lifetime and I didn't want to roll the dice and went with a custom builder.

Who in the world would want through all of the irritation and stress of building only to end up with a poorly constructed builder's grade cookie cutter home? If you want something other than builder's grade, you will end up paying a LOT more to get those upgrades, and that may mean that you won't make your appraisal. You'll never be able to sell it for close what you spent to build it (unless you live in it for 20 years). It's a poor risk, with a poor builder.

Just look on the MLS and see what your money can buy.

Here is the short version of my Wayne Homes story: We built our home in 2004. To date we've had the following problems: cracking in the foundation (both in block and in floors), wavy drywall, many failed window seals, a roof that our insurance has deemed subpar and will need replaced soon,garage floor is heaved up in the middle, crack in bathtub that was here since we moved in, water seepage in basement. Also, a recent home inspection discovered that we have electrical issues that present a safety hazard, due to Wayne Homes putting too many outlets on the bedroom circuit. They are quite possibly the worst home builder I can imagine. They take no responsibilty for these issues and have washed their hands of us. When we were in the early stages of picking out and throughout the building process they were as nice as can be, but once we moved in and started finding the problems the helpfulness ended. I WISH WE HAD NEVER BUILT WITH WAYNE HOMES!!

After living in a manufactured home for the 1st 4 years of my married life AND living in a Jim Walter home, I am NEVER going with a "chain" builder. Several people I went to high school with have become contractors. (We had a very small school and pretty much knew each other quite well.) I've been in several of their homes and they are built a heck of a LOT better than my home.

We bought our current house in foreclosure(The house was only 2 years old at the time), so we didn't go through the building process with Jim Walter. We did, however, visit their showplace to get some information where we found the people there like car salesman on the car lot, waiting for their next "sell."

I tell EVERYONE that they cut so many corners on our house that our house is round. Our front porch columns were painted with indoor eggshell paint. The railings that we had to pull off because they were rotting had a groove in the bottom that was supposed to be flat so water stayed and caused the rot. There wasn't any plastic sheeting put under the slab so it sweats. There is NO house wrap. There is no underlayment under our shingles. They put MDF painted molding around my Jacuzzi bathtub as well as painted MDF for the tub deck. The kitchen cabinet doors were not sanded right and they are hard to clean and rough as tree bark. There is only ONE outlet on the outside of the house. There is NO water faucet near the garage. We have to drive to the side of the house to clean our vehicle. The staircase railing is there for looks and not for assistance. The spindles are coming undone because they were attached to the side of the staircase with finishing nails. They put tack strips down on each stair step on the side and to the back of it AND every door threshold! We have to watch where we step because tacks get our feet. We replaced the carpet in the living room and are wanting to the staircase.

I just don't know how to fix what they messed up. They forgot the molding on the bottom of the 2nd floor bathroom; the vinyl floor is curling. There is a LARGE 120" x 60" window in my dining room. I love the BIG window BUT it faces the East AND is not insulated. Every time it rains there is a flood in our garage because the floor is THAT uneven. They "forgot" to add a pipe to the drain for the HVAC system which our HVAC technician "tried" to fix but told us that we needed a plumber. We fixed it but not before having a pretty little stain on the ceiling exactly where 2 pieces of drywall fit together. The staircase turns just before the bottom of the 2nd floor so sharply that you have to hug the wall to get upstairs. The other side of the steps are flat and you drop 2 feet if you don't pay attention. We don't think the Master Bedroom WIC is insulated because the temperature is the same as the outdoors and makes the bathroom either really HOT or really COLD.

There is SO much more wrong with this house like no housing for the electricals under the lights and ceiling fans. My hubby thankfully knew how to do that when we changed out the ceiling fan in the living room and the florescent light in the kitchen. I may not have built with these people but I don't want to have the same mistakes in our dream home. I am not willing to shell out that money for what I DON'T want.

ICF-love the design of your kitchen. Very well thought out.

I will never look at a spoon in quite the same way. Thanks for posting.

Why is this popping up?

Red lover, thank you! I just saw this. Now that we are in our home, I'm not back here as often.

This weekend will be one years since we moved into our house (built by Charis Homes). We could not be happier.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our dream home