Shea Homes Reviews

Maybe I had higher hopes, but the quality of the workmanship and materials wasn't quite what I had expected. Stains on the carpet, misaligned/unaligned wall openings, and a broken appliance that was supposed to be fixed over a month ago. I still trust that all my issues will be resolved since the customer service rep is very responsive. But the wait is way more than I had expected from a builder like Shea.

There is a lack of attention to details, such as drywall, trim and paint application. The build process is rushed and can show in the finished product. Also the windows that are used are of a poor quality.

All in all, Shea was great. The only negative aspect is the White Gloves Service was very poor in that they did not take enough time to explain all the smart home apps and how, to use them. Very Poor.

Design center and landscaping were truly both lacking!

I would recommend Shea Homes to others based on the construction and the construction manager Randy. I would warn them about Shea Homes sales team, people like Rachelle and her manager as they gave me one of the worst experiences of my life. Also I would warn them of some of the sub contractors like Home Pro who where anything but pro.

Water leak was found after close. Bathroom light was unable to turnoff and some other minor issues. Quality control seems to be substandard before closing.

We were super excited to be building a brand new home. After choosing many options and getting the grand total of almost $700,000, we thought that things would be perfect. They were far from being perfect. We have crooked walls, crooked tiles, uneven flooring, and many other things that we were told that there is not enough workers and trained people to do quality work. Now that we are moved in, we just heard that they are slowing down the process and focusing more on quality. That would be great if they could refund us about $100,000.

Home plans are fantastic. Amenity center is top notch. Quality workmanship in homes is sorely lacking in finishing details. Restaurant atmosphere is lovely but the menu needs work. It should reflect not only the local area but also speak to the diversity of the community. The dirty paper menus were a bit of a turnoff. Shows a lack of pride in presentation.

We had a 13 month wait for our new home. And now we wait to have some minor repairs that we are waiting to have fixed. After the one month walk Thur we are waiting for over a month or two to have things fixed that need to be done. But the wait is worth it, we love the community. It would just be nice if Shea would fix things in a timely manner.

We came across the Dunes several times and it was a decision between The Dunes and Sea Haven. Between The Dunes and Sea Haven, Sea Haven offered more details in their constructions and the price was comparatively the same. We finally decided on The Dunes due to several things: 1) Closeness to the ocean, 2) Lower HOA cost, 3) What you see is what you get (on the model homes as we were told) so we did not have to worry to much on the final cost of the house, 4) We were given the impression that we could customize our house as it was being built (not true!!!). Unfortunately the only thing that was true was the closeness to the ocean. The HOA turned out to be more expensive, no customization was allowed (looks like we missed the part of AS-IS). We could not even get an extra outlet installed during framing (completely doable). We were even willing to pay for it, but no. Overall, I would greatly reconsider if I had to redo it again. ... More

It took too long to receive the unit, if shea home had told us estimated waiting period we would’ve made better decision

Too many unrealistic reasons to explain an 18 month build cycle. However, management responded well when faced with a rate lock expiration deadline to complete the build on a specific date.

The build took quite awhile, shortages, labor etc. Overall my project manager kept me up to date with pictures and progress reports weekly. From design to move was about 15 months. I am very satisfied with the build. I think Shea uses quality products and good workmanship.

The house quality was good. Also, the builder's representative whose name was Randy was very responsible. He was great! But we were not happy for the delay to build the house. It delayed almost half year for completion to lead to our mortgage loan rate to be higher, which means that we need to pay more money for the mortgage loan.

Make sure customers don’t order the washer and dryer set. It’s a joke doesn’t work wrong product

The home itself is good. The 1-3-5-11 check-in plan is a good idea and has been helpful. Tami who helps with the move-in process and the periodic check-up is fantastic as is Eddie (maybe Freddie, sorry) who seems to be one of the lead contractors. They are both amazingly responsive and seem to truly care. Kveta from the design studio was very helpful and kind as well. We never felt rushed. She listened to our wants and needs and helped us to come up with a design that looked great and functionally has been fantastic as well. She allowed us to maximize our upgrade budget and we are very happy. She communicated with us throughout the process. We even had a question after moving in that she helped to answer for us. What was not good was the community representative, Kathy, and unfortunately, she is the one that we had the most contact with. I would not recommend her and wish there had been another representative we could have switched to (if this had been an opportunity, I would have switched after the first or second interaction). She walked us through the community on our initial visit. As someone who is trying to sell me on something and trying to represent a large brand and a community, I would’ve expected her to be somewhat upbeat and pleasant (not over the top, just a little bit, even a smile). She was not. There was no enthusiasm or excitement. If the market wasn’t as crazy as it was at the time, she would not have had a sale through us. I hope that Shea does not rest on the same laurels, that they can do and act however they want because the housing market is competitive. Lack of excitement is not enough of a reason for me to write a negative review about a person or company and as you will read, this was the least negative thing about the experience. She was very unresponsive regardless of the request, but if she sent something to us, expected a return e-mail within the day. For example, I had to e-mail her multiple times the month prior to moving in. I wanted to get the information for the utilities I would need to setup, I wanted to know when I should start doing all of that as well. I never got a response even after multiple e-mails. She eventually e-mailed my wife separately and mentioned that we would get that information closer to the move-in date and not to set anything up for the time being. She could have sent that simple e-mail to me after the first time. Instead, I now have the impression that she either doesn’t care, doesn’t know, or doesn’t care enough to find out the answer for me. When the roles were reversed and she would e-mail us with requests we always attempted to respond ASAP and send her whatever she requested. I truly believe that in nearly every case we responded to her with what she needed within the same business day. If we didn’t have what she needed, we explained how and when we would get it for her. The one time we did not respond to her within 24 hours regarding a question that was actually directed at our financial institution, she sent a follow-up e-mail with our loan officer attached saying that the failure to respond had meant that we were in default or about to be placed immediately into default. This was less than 48 hours after the first e-mail. While I understand there was information she needed to get from us, and mind you this was one or two months prior to move-in not our initial loan info/pre-approval or anything like that, threatening us with default after not immediately responding to one e-mail is absolutely inappropriate and unprofessional. We had made all of our payments/deposits on the first day it was available to do so. A little bit of good faith would’ve been appreciated before jumping the gun and going to such drastic measures. One of my largest concerns was when there was actually a potentially emergent situation at the home prior to move-in. We had a small leak in our house literally the week before moving in. The leak was noted on a Wednesday or Thursday, we were not notified until Saturday (mind you our move-in date was the following Friday). Why we were not notified immediately is still beyond me and I still never received a satisfactory answer. When we were contacted by Kathy she was exceptionally brief on the phone. She gave little to no details and told us to meet her at the house the following day. We were left with the impression that our entire home was flooded and we'd have a delayed move in date. We were told we should contact our apartment complex ASAP to try and revoke our written move out date and to try to extend our lease. Fortunately, when we did arrive to the home, the leak was relatively small and had nearly been resolved at that point. There was a good plan in place from the construction crew in terms of identifying the leak, checking adjacent piping, drying drywall, and checking additional moisture levels. The crew had been actively working on the problem since its onset. Had Kathy, spoken with any of them, I feel that she could have communicated that information over the phone and at least taken some of our worry away. Instead, she left us confused, scared, and unsure of what to do. After talking with fellow neighbors, we understand that at least two other homes in our motorcourt also suffered leaks prior to move-in. The way Kathy interacted with them was, from what I am told, was exactly the same and some of them had significantly worse leaks. Honestly, if there were only very limited interactions with Kathy, I would not have written this review. However, as she is the community representative and main point of contact throughout the whole process I felt this information to be pertinent. I like my home and community thus far, it’s just too bad that Kathy put such a damper on the whole process. As of now, I would buy from Shea again. But, if Kathy were the only community representative where I was looking, that would cause me to pass solely because of her involvement. ... More

Recently I took delivery of a new home build by Shea. The design fit my needs and the home is nicely laid out. After some annoying delays with the city power, I tool delivery in the fall of 2022. On the whole the home turned out well, but there were areas of quality control that got missed or were ignored. I encountered some poor stain work and finishing on the cabinets, damage to appliances, interior and exterior paint and finishing issues and some electrical issues. The repair service is coming along and some items, I feel, will be pushed to the side. The sales and construction staff have been friendly and fantastic, but the care in the workmanship is less than stellar. ... More

Three items: 1. Our experience to date with SheaConnect has not been pleasant. The WiFi shut down, taking the applications, plus our printer and the WiFi functions on my cell phone with it. 2. We can not add a security front door to our home because there is a beam on the ceiling that prevents a door from opening outward. I consider this a design flaw. 3. There is no electrical outlet on or in the area of the front porch. The steps are shaded and we need electric pads to melt snow and ice on the steps. Another flaw not obvious until winter arrives.

I am going to begin with the positives. I am very pleased with the results of our home. I was very pleased with the responsiveness of the construction manager, Ryan. Ryan was also dedicated; however I feel the crew’s were spread too thin with over 30 new builds going at the same time. This resulted in multiple details being overlooked. Our punch list at the time of our walkthrough prior to closing was extensive with more than a dozen items. The most serious items were three separate previously undetected gas leaks. The connection to the swimming pool heater was not connected properly. There was leaking gas from the cooktop burners even when they were turned off. There was also later found a gas leak from the fireplace where a flexible pipe was mistakenly used instead of hardline pipe. The flexible pipe eroded where it was bent. This one was discovered 2 days after we moved in and could have been deadly. I give kudos to Ryan for staying with us at the house for six hours while the problem was repaired and the gas company could return to turn the gas back on and retest for further leaks. It has been over 2 months since we had our closing and we still have 4 unrepaired items from the punch list. These include a cracked window, an area of drywall in garage, garbage disposal dysfunction and an area of grouting. This seems excessive in its delay. I am very disappointed with the landscaping bushes. Other older areas of Shea homes in our development have much more extensive and colorful bushes. Lastly, it is my opinion that Shea’s policy of not providing visual documentation of the building process is outrageous. This is the fourth home I have built with different builders and this is the first time I’ve not been allowed to visualize the progress. I adamantly oppose this policy. ... More

The sales team was outstanding, and structurally, we love the house. The floor plan works well for us, and the house itself is well built. But the quality and condition of the appliances is another story. The dishwasher and hot water heater were defective when installed and were not repaired promptly. The kitchen faucet turned on by itself, wasting considerable water. These things shouldn't be happening in an expensive, brand-new house.

Overall we are pleased with the price for the quality. We did not like the lack of communication and taking sometimes 2 weeks to get a response to a question. We also only got updates every 2 weeks by email, no calls, no customer service in that regard. Most emails were along the lines of "hey we got your framing done, next is air conditioning" with no timeline, no response to my question on when the hvac crew would be there. They never confirmed anything related to the schedule until it was already completed. I spoke with their Director of Construction Shawn and he was short, wouldn't offer any information on when they were scheduling tasks to be completed and essentially laughed when I asked for a concession because we were told at contract 7-9 months when it took 12 months and 9 days from contract to closing. At the end, we are paying $700 more a month because they could not complete the home in 9 months or less due to interest rates. I have spent 20 years in the residential construction and home building business and this was not the norm even with the supply chain and labor struggles in the market. The super that finished our home didn't complete 75% of the list we made 8 days before closing. On the final sign off the day before closing we noted most of those items and the painters had shown up as we were leaving. Not the way to do business and we spent most of the 12 months frustrated with Shea Homes and there just wasn't much we could do about it. Here we are 2 months post closing and we still are waiting another week to get the items that were supposed to be done prior to closing completed. ... More

I've waited until now to complete this review, as we've been away since September, after officially closing on July 4th 2022. We began the process in 2020-2021 and experienced many delays, thru the pandemic, lack of supplies, labor, etc... For the most part the process has been adequate, having never built a home before, I don't have a reference. I with the Design Day had included the exterior of our Resort Model, as there were a few structural things that weren't discussed and weren't done when we took possession last June. We're still waiting on those to be complete. We are ready to come back in January, I hope they will be done by then. It's also already time for our 5-6 month Inspection. I feel these things could have easily been accomplished before now. Looking forward to working out a few of these details. ... More

We looked for a couple years before deciding on an Encanterra home- unfortunately our timing gave us a lottery as are only option for a home. We won our pick and were so excited except it took 7 mo longer to build than expected. Our salesman was the best and so patient with the time, questions and our needs along the way. Unfortunately, we have had many issues with our new build that need attention. Our pergola is the wrong size, our oven broke, our garage door opens randomly and the list goes on. I think there was a rush to finish a lot of the new buildings, so quality and dependability suffered. Our building coordinator has had her hands full with all of our issues- and has been great and efficient attending to our needs- but had the house been built properly, she wouldn’t have to back track on so many issues. Thankfully, we have a year warranty- so that gives some piece of mind to what’s been very frustrating and unexpected ... More

The builder used cheep stuff

Very mixed experience while building this house with Shea Homes. Sales people were good, but we had a pretty bad experience with the design studio. We had a great experience with the construction manager but have struggled post close with warranty items. The master planner of this community has also done a horrible job with community area, parks, and pools.