Schell Brothers

We purchased a Schell Brothers house in Richmond in 2020. Generally a good experience. They have great floor plans and curb appeal. They build nice neighborhoods in Delaware. They have a good customer focus on the sale-side of the transaction. They tout “happiness” in their culture and you genuinely get the feeling they want the best for you. However, the post-sale warranty service side of the transaction left a lot to be desired, in our experience. They have a good on-line warranty service request system but the warranty manager in Richmond would mark items completed that were not. His rationale was that the same contractor was going to address several items in different categories so the other items were duplicate. The problem is the system requires you to categorize items and you really can’t group items in different categories together. As a customer, you have no idea which contractor is going to do the work so you diligently report items in the proper category, then the warranty service manger un-does all your work. They took FOREVER to address warranty service requests and they showed up at random times, often when we were not home. So we eventually got frustrated and fixed many items ourselves. They ran drain tile around our foundation and extend it out to the yard, which would have been ok if this soil drained adequately, but it does not. They also did not put gutters in all areas that needed them and they did not install drain tile on all gutter down spouts. They also undersized gutters and downspouts. As a result, we had extensive drainage issues that we ultimately spent over $10k to mitigate. They used engineered wood I-beam joists on our main level over the crawl. They “over-spanned” them in many areas extending 18’ plus without midspan beam support. As a result, we have very bouncy floors, especially around our large kitchen island. The hardwood near the island has separated in one area and Schell’s flooring contractor blamed it on the subfloor shifting due to the weight of the island. I mentioned this to Schell’s Richmond division president and, while sympathetic, she basically said that’s their product and didn’t offer to correct the problem. So, as a result, we’re now going to spend $23k plus to add a mid-beam support to the main living area so we don’t have to listen to dishes rattle and watch lamps shake as we walk by. I expected better when I spent $755k on my house back in 2020. To be fair, we had two different structural engineers look at our subfloor supports and they both said this was a well-built house. And I think Schell does a better job than other production builders in the area. They have lots of options and allowed us to customize many things beyond those options. Would I buy another house from Schell? Maybe. But I would do a lot of things differently.

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 versus 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.

Better to spend just a little more and go with a custom home builder. There were too many errors in production, some of them substantial and I wouldn't go this route again.

Be very careful if you choose to do business with Schell Brothers, we contracted to buy one of the first 10 houses built by them in Richmond Va and it was a nightmare. The sales process went as well as you could expect, they even had us up to Rehoboth DL to do our selections. Sales folks are nice and gave us a good experience. Once we got into the construction process with them the experience started getting bad. There was delay after delay, many changes in the constuction managers, some better than others. When we finally did close on our house, problems began almost immediatly. The day we closed the first issue we ran into was we could not lock the front door because the lock had been swapped out incorrectly. After we found problem after problem in the house, some of the below where the worst. - AC/Heat electronic dampers wired to the wrong zone, or not wired at all - AC compressor didn't have electricity wired to it - Heating and cooling balance issues, some rooms very hot or cold depending on the season - Bowed walls - Poor tile work in master bath - Bad smells coming from the crawl space - Holes drilled in the conditioned crawspace for low voltage irrigation controls under the dirt line, which allowed water to flow into the crawspace - Incorrectly flashed deck - Nosiy floors - Very loud sump pump Many other issues, it took almost 2 years to have everything corrected, most corrections involved fighting with managment to get a resolution. It was like living in a house that needed renovations even though it was a new build. The worst part was that corporate in Delaware didn't get engaged in fixing the situation from our perspective as a customer. We wrongly expected that since they promised so much at the time of sale they would have focused on delivering a quality product, we where wrong.

Alway willing to share on how wonderful and just beautiful our new Schell Brothers home is! Joe and Carole set us up on a journey furor retirement home , making sure we got everything we ever wanted. Then our construction manager Mark made sure everything was just right and was just as excited for us as we were. He was genuine which you do not find these days. Always has a smile! Our home has an open floor plan, lots of room, beautiful layout and of course we had gotten the most gorgeous patio to add that special appeal we were looking for in our final retirement home. We would do it all over again! Thanks Schell Brothers

We moved into our dream home built by Schell brothers two months ago and we are so happy that we chose this builder! Our home was well built with the most up to date technology to enhance clean air and prevent energy loss. Our entire team from our sales representative, who still checks in on us, construction manager, as well as the warranty department has made our home buying process a stellar experience. We have recommended Schell brothers to all our friends and family!

Hello.. just wanted to say we are now 3 years into our new Delaware life, in our beautiful Schell home! It has been an absolutely wonderful experience.. from day one and still 3 years later..So many people to thank.. cannot name all the amazing people at Schell.., Great Team..Great House! Cheers!

We have built 4 new homes by far Schell was our best built home . Very customer oriented , reliable and our house was finished when it was promised. We love our Schell Brothers home and our community. Kathy & Drew Anderson

We recently had, and incident with a roof leak. This issue contributed to dry wall damage in our guest room. We reached out to Schell Bros. Warranty Team for assistance in this matter. The response was first rate. Drew was the Team Lead. and he was, and is on top of his game. Within 24 hours repairs were underway. The project consists of three phases, roof repair, interior dry wall replacement, and painting. Drew's. first, and second teams were pro's of the best caliber. Drew made frequent inspections as the work progressed. I can not state enough the outstanding quality of response, professionalism, and timely action the Schell Brosm organization spent with us. They are the "Best",

My wife and I have lived in five homes built by five different builders. Schell Brothers is the best — BY FAR! Before we visited Lewes for our first (and only) house hunting tour, our realtor sent us links to several new home builders in the area. Even on paper, we knew we wanted a Schell Brothers home and instructed our realtor to only show us Schell homes. The Schell Brothers team made our home buying experience a pleasurable one. The Sales Manager was great and always available to answer any question that we had. As we got closer to the start of construction, the Design Team at Schell and Decor Direct helped us choose the perfect finishes for our new home. Once the construction of our home began, the Construction Manager was terrific and kept us updated on the progress of our home at least once a week. After we moved in, the Warranty Department responded in a timely manner to those things that needed fixing. Now that we have lived in our Schell home for over a year, my wife and I are so happy that we built a Schell Brothers home and that we are part of the Schell family!

They seem like a a great company will know more at a later date just trying to get the needed number of words here to close the review.

Please save yourself the time we have WASTED on building this very very sloppy house. I think building a house by myself would’ve turned better results and much shorter time frame. Please save yourself your time and stress. All of the nonsense lies and many things they have yet to fix , WITH us still living in it with a newborn baby I might add. There was actually still tape on the outside of one of the vents, which they admitted themselves could have made the house burn down. No one seems to care about the work they put out and everything is very sloppy. Worst communication I’ve ever seen throughout a company, they just have more excuses to cover up their mistakes and lies. Truly the biggest idiots I have ever met in my life. Feel free to message me and I can elaborate