Main Street Homes

We’re just finishing the design phase of our new home. The process so far has been wonderful. Lisa Spinelli was our first contact at Main Street Homes. She has gone above and beyond to be helpful. We needed some unusual accommodations to the floor plans and she got us the information we needed in a timely manner. Even after we signed she’s been following up with pictures and walk-throughs to help us make design choices. Our designer, Kelly West is also great! She listened to what we wanted and made suggestions that we hadn’t considered but loved. She has perfect combination of talent, experience and warmth. Lisa and Kelly both couldn’t have been any nicer. Can’t wait to see the house built! I’ll follow up in the late Spring on 2024.

If you are considering building with Main Street Homes, I highly recommend looking elsewhere for the construction of your home. In the past Main Street Homes was a professional builder, but their reputation has drastically diminished into a self-serving company with substandard architectural integrity and poor customer service. Attached are pictures of our roof that was improperly installed by Main Street Homes causing severe leaking into our master bedroom, resulting in substantial damages to our ceiling and carpet. We immediately notified Main Street Homes on October 2, 2022 with the professional report and photos indicating 150 feet of our roof was improperly installed and the resulting damages to the interior of our master bedroom. My wife and I also expressed our concerns of black mold formation in our home posing health risks to my pregnant wife. At that time, a roofer was sent out to correct the improperly installed roofing and I was promised a report of all the roofing work conducted for my records. After completing the roof work, I contacted Main Street Homes for months to fulfill their obligation to resolve the remaining interior damages resulting from the faulty roofing. I reiterated our concerns of black mold formation in our home posing health risks to my pregnant wife. I was then told by a representative that Main Street Homes does not repair damages after one year. It has been over six months of numerous calls, emails, office visits, and voicemails from the independent roofer, all to no avail. My wife and I were reassured by a second representative that we would receive an invoice of the work performed to our roof for our records; however, we have yet to receive any documentation or tracking numbers for our records. I would not wish this horrible encounter on my worst enemy. I sincerely hope this review saves others from the horrible experience my wife and I had to endure.

The sales process was low pressure, transparent, and detailed. Our rep Kristina was open with her time and made sure to get us the most accurate answers to our questions that she could provide while we were on-premise during an out-of-state house hunting trip and with relevant communication and follow up afterward. This was a differentiator for our decision to purchase just as important to us as the price, house/configuration, lot and community. Expectations of us as a prospective buyer were also made clear (which we appreciated) as there is much to do and be accomplished by all parties involved; builder/seller, plan reviewer/approvers, contractors-vendors and us as buyers alike. MSH helped us obtain the home we aspired for in a timeframe, budget and with flexibility that make the experience so far, a true collaboration and partnership which is especially satisfying being located very far from the future place we'll call home.

We signed a build contract with MSH using VA in Nov.2022. We placed the required 3% deposit with an estimated 10-12 month completion time. As we had a contingency of selling our current home, MSH would not start the process of the new build until a contract was in force on our current home. Although, there is an option to waive the deposit to begin the build process, we chose to wait until there was a contract on our current home. I mention the above as neither negative or positive relating to MSH, but as information for potential buyers. To date, our experience with Stephanie, the new home consultant has been excellent! She has been prompt to return calls and texts (even on vacation), give us detailed information on the process and answer many of our “what if” questions.

My family and I are currently building our first home now and while the contractor Bart and Kelly the designer have been completely professional and forth coming , the rest of Main Street homes have been a disappointment . I have never dealt with such unprofessional and uncaring individuals. For example we have had several issues come up that we have had concerns over during our build. We apparently ask and send to many email to them. I was told the sales department contractually will only answer your questions once a week during your build; even though they state they will handle all correspondence and questions for you. There also has been a high turnover rate which leads to lack of communication or who even is still employed there. When they asked me to leave an interval review on my experience so far, I mentioned my experience and concerns . Because I didn’t leave a five star review for them, the people from the home office called me and was combative on the phone immediately. I could not even get a word in edgewise to express my concerns or experience. You think one would take the time to ask why I felt the way and how they could make it a better experience. When building a home for your family, your home, the experience should not be tarnished by poor customer service and being talked down to as direct representatives for the company have done with us. When sent an internal review and taking our time to respond, our concerns were not heard; rather, the representative who should’ve been addressing my concerns took the time to downplay my concerns and disrespect me and my family. She told me to stop speaking to my fiancé! He was asking me what was going on because he could see I was agitated and clearly upset during the phone call. What prompted me to leave this review today is the poor treatment that I received from the company’s representative in regards to my internal evaluation. Rather than trying to resolve my concerns or even listen to what I had to say the representative took that time to berate me. She was argumentative from the start and did not even want to let me get a word in the conversation. Am I the customer? Unacceptable.

We are in the process of building a home with Main Street Homes. With everyone from our sales representative, Erik Markowitz, to our design consultant, Allison Stephenson, we have been very happy with the process. They’ve given insight, consultation and acted with professionalism throughout. We are very excited to follow the progression of seeing our new home being built, and can’t wait to move in. Angela Nelson

We are a client of Main Street and we have been in the process almost 6 months and finally they broke ground. Customer service is awful and everyone seems to be on vacations and have excuses why things are delayed . We have had a horrible experience so far and lord only knows how the building process will go. I regret not getting out when we were able to.

The sales process was low pressure, transparent, and detailed. Our rep Kristina was so open with her time and made sure to get us the most accurate answers to our questions that she could provide. We were able to get an appointment to go to the design studio before signing our contract, to get an idea of what extra costs we might incur and what colors and finishes we might want, which made estimating our final cost much easier, instead of being nickel and dimed later.

We are really surprised by some of the experiences expressed about MSH in the reviews. We have had an extremely positive experience since the first time we set foot in a MSH model home. After considering a couple of floor plans and communities, we settled on the Augusta plan in the Glen Royal Community inside Harpers Mill. Sean Teirney is our sales consultant who has done a tremendous job of guiding us and communicating with us along through our whole experience thus far. Sean is an excellent sales consultant, particularly his follow-up communication. Once we settled on our model selection, Sean provided an outline of the plans and process moving forward. Once we entered this phase, a host of other MSH personnel were communicating with us regarding next steps. We reached the final stage of the selection process where we met with a design consultant, Chloe Starnes, at MSH Design Studio. Chole is a real joy to work with; very professional, upbeat, and a good listener. She helped us through all the color and accessory selections which is a daunting task.......our session lasted 5 1/2 hours. She was very patient with us during the process. She followed up by EOW with the first draft of our selections for our review. Since we still had a host of questions, she was quick to accommodate us with a follow up Zoom call. Until we complete and finalize the selection process, MSH will not start building the house. Though we are far from taking ownership of the house, we feel completely satisfied that MSH will deliver a quality product in a timely fashion. They have a brand reputation to live up to given all the accolades and awards they have received since their inception. No company is perfect, but we are confident they will honor their commitments and warranty coverages should we run into a situation at close and the final punchout walk through. We pray you will have a good experience with MSH as we have thus far.

Kelly, outstanding job!. Thank you for a great and productive Design Center experience. You made a complex process easy and enjoyable. Your patience, professionalism, and excellent advise, allowed us to navigate through the countless design options Main Street Homes provides to the customers. You are the best!

My initial interaction with Main Street Homes in early January 2021 was not an ideal experience; however, I accepted the fact that the housing market was booming and placed our trust in the integrity of Main Street Homes employees when the base price of the Trey Burn III suddenly increased (literally during active ongoing discussions with the Main Street Home Listing Agent) by $20K. Not once during our interactions with the listing agent was there a mention of potential price increases coming. Despite our efforts to negotiate with Main Street Homes, there was absolutely no propensity for Main Street Homes to have a discussion with us. The conversation ended with the Main Street Homes listing agent. Although we were put off by the lack of customer forward experience, we signed a contract with Main Street Homes on 1/13/2021. This left us with an unpleasant feeling, but we moved forward while looking for the good in the process. Price increases were taking place on the fly while I was in the design studio; yes, that’s right ‘real-time’ price increases were happening right before our eyes! Again, we accepted the price jumps as we progressed through our six-hour design session because we understood the supply and demand situation that we were dealing with. On a positive note, the Design Consultant that worked with us during the design sessions was exceptional. Fast forward to 5/18/2021, our outside broker called to inform us that we would be receiving an email from Main Street Homes sales manager informing us that Main Street Homes will be raising the price of our home once more. We received the email from the sales manager a few hours later. The tone of the email was, at best, insensitive. It was strictly focused on the business’ long-term viability. We immediately lost interest in moving forward with Main Street Homes due to their lack of trust and admiration for their customer’s (the people who, in the end, keep this company afloat) as well as their lack of appreciation for the time we invested in them while planning our new home. Main Street Homes requested another $40+ K from us in order to move forward to build our dream home. Or remove the $18, 500 K screened porch and assume the “second” base house cost increase of $35, 565 K (while subtracting the value of the screened porch). The path forward was easy! Rather than waiting on another disappointment from Main Street Homes, we plan to take our business elsewhere where we will be appreciated and respected for doing business with them. Kelly West (Main Street Homes Design Expert) THANK YOU for making our experience a little better by showing your gratitude and kindness to us during this unfortunate and disheartening journey. We invested a lot of time in Main Street Homes, and you were the only person who displayed gratitude and appreciation to us during this nearly five-month quest. We do appreciate you and the kindness that you shared with us!

This builder, during every step of our planning, building, warranty and post-warranty experience, routinely had staff that mislead us, blamed each other for issues that arose, and provided incorrect information that would later be “clarified” by new staff. Our build was delayed for over 6 months resulting in expensive extension of our rental. We were provided a joke of a gift card for our inconvenience and asked not to share the information. The work provided by inconsistent contractors was lazy at best, things such as walls and trim, that we are still finding today, that were damaged and typically just covered with paint. A chunk had been taken out of our front door frame and patched with putty that within a couple months fell out, for example. This was fixed during warranty but took at least 5 different visits from warranty and contractors who kept blaming each other for having the wrong materials/information. Numerous other things had to be fixed during warranty, regularly with contractors that no call/no showed resulting in far too much wasted PTO. During the build a vent was put on the front of the roof, the building manager, who was later fired for incompetence, had it moved to the back. Thankfully we paid for an independent inspection who found the contractors left the hole in the roof only to be covered by shingles! These are just a couple examples in a much longer list. So many major building flaws were identified as they built new sections of our community, issues they fixed in newer builds but did not provide resolution for previous homes. In the last year, 2 of their homes being built collapsed during a mildly windy day. The constant revolving door of contractors and staff leads to sub-par work and no accountability. I have heard countless issues from throughout our development, including the ridiculous contracts they locked our HOA into, that exceed past the time of MSH contributing to the budget. Our HOA has had to develop a huge list of things to be fixed throughout the development before they are completely done building in the neighborhood, again because of lack of consistency, poor work/craftsmanship, and no accountability. I am certainly not alone in my disappointment. I will never build with them again.

I researched a lot of builders in the area and Main Street Homes was the only one with energy star efficient homes. This has been by far the best process for building a new home. My New Home Consultant, Allison was fantastic throughout. She was able to answer all of my questions and really did a great job of making me feel like I could ask her anything. My Design Consultant, Jasmine was fantastic as well with helping us make the right choices and helping me pick out the right finishes. Jonathan was my project manager and did such a fantastic job of listening to what we were looking for. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better team. I love everything about our home and would recommend Main Street to anyone who is looking to build. It is a lot of money upfront for deposits, but Main Street did a great job working with us until we sold our home. The house was on schedule and really exceeded all my expectations.

I would not recommend Main Street as they find ways to get around issues by claiming its not covered in their warranty. There are many other builders I would recommend in the Midlothian area that have a much better reputation. Everything they do gets contracted out and you can tell by the quality of work that goes into the house. A few months after we moved into a previously built spec home our front walkway started cracking and scaling and was told it is not covered in our warranty. We were told this is due to fertilizers, chemicals, or de-icers, however we never used any and was basically told, well thats too bad, its still falls out of warranty. I emailed the president of main street - Vernon McClure just to let him know directly from a concerned customer about his warranty issue and should have known it was a waste of time as he did not respond back. Stay clear from Main Street and their horrible warranty, there are much better builders in the area.

Purchased our home in Oct. 2017 spent around the mid 300’s. We had a really good deal on our home because we were the first lot to sell. Because we were the first lot we felt out Home was the tester Home and not treated like all others. Our drive way is much smaller than all homes in the neighborhood and we were missing garage handles while EVERY home in the neighborhood has them. Just weird and not fair. We love our home and the features we added but some of the structural issues related to builder responsibility should have been done better. I hate that I feel guilty to mention something that has been a problem since I moved in because I have been told things early on such as that’s your responsibility or we are not going to cover this again while the email is ccd to several others. I have always felt like I was a bother and buying a new home shouldn’t come with many problems. Being that we were the new Home in the neighborhood our house was used a lot and viewed a lot for potential customers and naturally things need to be looked at further I.e. toilet used by customers etc.

My husband and I purchased a MSH in 2012. Although the floor plan is perfect and the square footage was awesome, we were terribly disappointed in the quality of the work and the lack of simple conveniences for the customer. We were told we were hard wired for a security system, when the security people came to do an estimate they informed us that the house was not wired for a security system. Come to find out it was wired for a sound system that they did not provide the layout for. This is the first time I have ever purchased a home without being given a schematic of my new home. If I had to do it again I would go with another builder.

Main Street Homes does have some nice floor plans but the quality of work, attention to detail and service after closing falls well below expectations. We closed on our home in March 2017 and have had numerous mechanical, plumbing, septic, construction, electrical and general quality issues. I would not recommend this builder or sub contractors as no one will take accountability or address the issues unless we as the owners really push hard. It shouldn't be as difficult as it is, for a sub contractor to correct the issues that have been addressed. Additionally, MSH obviously is not looking out for their customer, as simple, low cost conveniences could be added into the price of the home that would save the owner time and money in the long run. Simple items such as correcting soil quality for establishing a lawn, light fixture placement prior to sheet rock, cleaning up construction debris and the list goes on. IF you choose to work with MSH, be prepared for delays, excuses and sinking your time or dollars into correcting simple items that are really cost saving short cuts that increase profitability for MSH.

I'm building a townhome in Winterfield Park with Main Street Homes. I'm impressed with the quality of their construction and selections offered. Everyone at Main Street has been a pleasure to work with and i love how we were able to pick all of our finishes down to the the last detail! I can't wait to see my finished home in November!

Highly disappointed in Main Street Homes and, in particular, I am disgusted with the greed and smugness of the owner, Vernon McClure. I have absolutely no issue with a company making money from their services or products, but there is a point where a company just goes out of their way for money, to the point of appearing greedy. This is one of those companies. Warning to those looking at Main Street to build your home, and a special warning to Veterans and those using a VA loan: Main Street Homes is not very veteran or VA loan friendly. Be prepared to pay a significant amount up front as a down payment to even get a home built. You will pay a minimum of 3% down, before your home is built. And an additional 10% down on any and all "upgrades." This is outside the norm of the industry, and is particularly unfriendly to veterans using their VA loan, as one of the perks of the VA loan is not having to put money down. They do offer a very, very small credit toward upgrades for active duty military, police, fire/ems, but it is FAR below what any other builder offers. I get the distinct impression that there isn't much respect for military service or veterans at this company. Main Street Homes also applies a "lot premium" to virtually every lot. The whole idea of a lot premium is that there are some lots that are more desirable than others, and therefore deserve a "premium" on that lot. But when you put a "lot premium" on every lot in a subdivision, then you are just being greedy and going beyond the point. This company also provides some extremely low quality items (particularly carpet) as the basic, level 1 item, in attempts to "encourage" buyers to upgrade to a reasonable quality product at a much higher price. Not unusual to encourage upgrades, but some of the base items are much lower quality than what the above-average prices of Main Street's homes would suggest and also of lower quality that what other builders offer for basic items. This company and the owner very much have the attitude of "we don't need you, you need us." They will not negotiate in good faith or in a reasonable manner. They will only pay a tiny fraction of the closing costs, and even then, will require the use of their lenders. This isn't unusual in and of itself, but their lenders were more than a quarter point higher on interests rates than almost any other lender. On top of that, their lenders build additional fees into the cost of the loan that your lender (and most other lenders) do not. The homes seem to be of good quality overall from what we saw, but the ethics of this business and its owner are questionable. Be warned, money is the most important thing to this company (and particularly it's owner); not quality, and definitely not the customer. They DO NOT care about you as a customer (this is more due to the attitude of the owner) and feel that they are doing you a favor by giving you the "privilege" of buying from them. You may see a response from the business to this review, but it is only going to be platitudes and a canned response about how much they care about quality and how much their customers matter. DO NOT BE FOOLED. You as a customer do not matter to them, and it shows when you actually work with them past the point of meeting the salesperson. The experience with Main Street Homes was stressful, unpleasant, and I cannot recommend them to anyone.

Main Street Home Built and incredible house for my wife and I in the Fox Field neighborhood. Everyone who has come to our home has been extremely impressed. The follow up after being here for a year has been great and we are very happy with the decision we made.

We built a new home in Hallsley with Main Street in summer/fall 2015. The experience has been top notch from the get go. The sales staff excelled. The design and selection process was seamless and superb. Our job superintendent was responsive and attentive and attention to our few minor post closing punch list items has been prompt and resolved quickly. The company President was personally engaged in the process at several points in the process and was of great assistance In helping us design and build our home. This company has my highest recommendation.

The house building experience could not have been better with Main Street Homes. All of the professionals were polite, understanding and knowledgeable. My construction manager continues to keep me informed as to the progress of my house, and the entire process has been most enjoyable. The materials used are high quality and there is progress made weekly without the "lulls" that are common in new construction.

My husband and I purchased a Main Street Home in the Spring of 2014, for nearly $500,000. The first weekend we moved it, it rained and due to the back yard being improperly graded, all of the seed and straw washed away. This launched a months long back and forth with the owner, Vernon, and a woman in his office who I choose not to name. At one point, we looked out of our back window to see the woman from the MSH office in our back yard, taking photographs. My husband went outside to confront her and ask her why she was on our property taking pictures. She answered that she had looked in the front window and saw we were working so she just went around back. He informed her that her coming onto our property, peering into our windows and then wandering our back yard taking photographs was unacceptable behavior. At this point we denied any further contact with her and dealt only with Vernon. We had two separate, reputable lawn care companies come out to get estimates for our back yard, which at this point in the summer was a muddy, disgusting spread of red clay. When we presented Vernon with the estimates, he offered to cover half. We said that we purchased a home with the understanding that it would have a useable back yard, and to offer half was unfair. My husband told him to do what he would want done if he were the customer who was in this situation. A few days later a check for half the cost arrived. Do NOT buy a MSH if you expect them to stand behind their work. I went on quite a bit about the yard because it is so shocking, but that is just the tip of the ice burg of the shoddy workmanship we have discovered. Our mailbox sits in a constant puddle of green slime, due to drainage issues. Looks like that will be next on the never ending "punchlist" of issues with this home. If I could go back in time, I would not have purchased this house. If you choose to purchase from Main Street Homes, I would suggest hiring a professional whole house inspector to come through and inspect the home to be sure you won't be left with a home you cannot resell due to the large number of major issues.

I chose to build with Main Street Homes based on the style I was looking for, the area and the reputation. We were on a strict budget and they have met our needs within that budget. I am excited to see the finishing product.

My husband and I signed a contract with Main Street around October 2012 and closed in June 2013 for over $400,000. My husband and I carefully selected Main Street to build our first home. To us they seemed different from other builders as we were going through the sales process. While they were obviously a business formed to make money, they seemed just as interested in having satisfied customers. The sales representatives were amazing and we really liked the project manager responsible for building our home. However, the President. quickly proved our initial perceptions wrong when there were issues identified with our home (we have issues with our sod as well as our driveway apron cracking). He turned very unresponsive to any e-mails requesting resolution of these matters. I had to work through the Director of Customer Relations to get an answer. When she did respond, Vernon said he would not do anything even though the home was under warranty. We were left with a cracked driveway apron and dead sod to deal with on our own - bother very costly repairs. I hate to hurt the sales representatives in our community because I still really like them, but I feel other homeowners should be warned about the customer service you will receive from the President once you hand over your money. Further, if you do decide to build with Main Street, expect to invest significant $$ into the sod/grass. A landscaping professional told us Main Street uses a sod that is not native to Richmond, VA because it is cheaper. This has caused almost every house on our street to have dead sod (some worse than others).

Built our wonderful new home and I work with them on a daily basis in my profession. Couldn't have asked for a better home and relationship. Thanks MSH!

We are building our dream home with Main Street Homes. Through the process, we have been impressed with their honesty, integrity, and workmanship at all levels, from sales to construction. I highly recommend them.