HappyCamper

I read back over your comment, Burg, and saw that you asked specially about Ryan Homes mucking up Greenville. I see that I provided an example of a McCar neighborhood and wanted to say that was an oversight on my part. But I thought I'd come back here and provide for you the list of things we had to replace during the eight years we lived in our Ryan Home: The entire HVAC system; Our patio and interior garage doors as they weren't framed level and wouldn't shut properly; The framing surrounding our front door; The dish washer and microwave; The double ovens heating component; The windows in the master bath, a spare bedroom and the foyer; The drain from an upstairs shower and tub as they leaked through the downstairs ceiling. I don't think all that hassle was worth the home's $500,000 price tag.

I'm sure there are many, Burg. Off the top of my head I suggest considering all the Forrester neighborhoods on the Greenville/Maudlin city line. Forrester Woods and Forrester Estates are beautiful neighborhoods. Forrester Heights, which was developed by McCar Builders, was built within the last ten years. Home prices there split the difference between Forrester Woods and Forrester Estates. Even though the homes in Forrester Heights typically come in at a higher price point and are newer than those in Forrester Woods, the homes in Forrester Woods are better built, have more desirable yards, and have stood the test of time. In fact, families are now buying into both Forrester Woods and Forrester Estates and renovating the homes there. Furthermore, Forrester Woods and Forrester Heights are considered desirable neighborhoods and are held in higher regard than is Forrester Heights and the other surrounding nationally-built neighborhoods. Nationally built homes may be attractive from the front, but they typically are very plain and unattractive from the back. They're lined up and jammed in and put together very quickly with inferior materials. I once lived in a 3,500 sq foot, higher-end Ryan Home with a brick front facade and the back wall of that house shook when you closed the front door. Every neighbor in that subdivision had the same problem. In my opinion, the national builders "dress up" the front facades of their homes to sell out a neighborhood quickly, but when the builder's finished and moved on and the neighborhoods have had a few years to mature they age poorly. I know that Verdae wants to offer homes at several different price points, but it would have been nice if they'd found a way to do so that mimicked the development of the well-known and well-respected Greenville neighborhoods (i. e. Silver Leaf, the Sugar Creeks, Botany Woods, the brick ranch neighborhoods surrounding Botany Woods, etc.)

I am unhappy that Ryan Homes will be developing the Belhaven neighborhood in Verdae. I'd hoped that national builders would've been excluded from the Verdea development initiative. I've heard many local realtors express the opinion that nationally built communities have marred the face of the City of Greenville.