Van Metre Homes - Ashburn, Virginia

Lori W.

We built a single family home in Birchwood 55 plus community. The construction manager was the worst to work with. He promised any issues we had in the house would be addressed after completion. The bigger things were supposed to be addressed at the 2 month mark and then tying up any loose ends at the 11 month inspection. That has not been the case! We had so many things wrong with the house we are still waiting to get things taken care of 15 months later. We have gaps in the miters of what was supposed to be upgraded aristocraft cabinets. They still seem to be having problems finding doors that fit together properly. They had to come in and re-spackle the ceilings and walls because you could see the mud lines or patch work. They painted over particles of dust from sanding which left the walls with rough surfaces. It took 4 days of sanding and painting. It was really a renovation! We had cracked tiles in the bathroom that needed replacing. And the biggest thing is we had a very bad smell in the basement. From the beginning the foundation had 2 cracks that needed to be addressed. They had to fix one twice. They eventually added some vents but it didn’t fix the problem. Then the white mold started growing on the wood, furnace and hot water heater. They sent someone to run air scrubber and clean mold and to test what type of mold. We were supposed to get results in 7-10 days that was 3 months ago we were just told in email that it was a common mold ( like on cheese) as though it’s no big deal. Everything moves very slowly with them and I mean slowly! As though you have nothing else to handle in your life. On top of that the workmanship was subpar. Painting, woodworking, caulking very sloppy. Communication is the most frustrating thing. Our kitchen faucet has broken 3 times and they keep replacing it with the same one. I was just told they would replace with a different one if we paid the difference, What! We paid almost 900,000.00 for a house and they can’t replace a faucet that keeps breaking from the beginning. Every riser on our steps needed respackled and repainted. They don’t always let you know if something is scheduled people just show up to fix something and we are totally unaware they were coming. They also had to dig up the side of the house and address a drainage issue. It a never ending battle. They say they will stick with you and they have but a a very slow pace. And somethings aren’t going to be resolved as they should be. Customer Care is unreliable and sometimes unresponsive. The experience with Van Metre has been long and stressful. We have not been able to enjoy our new home like we should. I wouldn’t do it again! At all!

Bryan

I purchased a property from Van Metre in February 2023, and my experience with them has been nothing short of excellent. The service provided by Van Metre has been outstanding, and the product they delivered is of high quality. From the initial purchase process to post-sales support, they have demonstrated professionalism and responsiveness. I am extremely satisfied with my decision to buy from Van Metre, and I highly recommend them for their great service and top-notch product.

Nick R.

My fiance and I purchased a Van Metre home in Winchester and we love it. The house itself is well designed and well constructed. The buying process was smooth and as easy as it could be. The customer care team is very helpful. (Shirley is a so nice!)

We have had a few issues that were resolved.
-When we first moved in our smart home package was not setup, but they quickly had the subcontractor come out to get that fixed.
-One of our showers was not getting hot water, they had a plumber come out to fix it.
-Finally, there was a large tree that had died right behind the property before we took ownership, they had some guys come to take it down for us.

I would absolutely recommend buying a Van Metre home since in my experience you are a valued customer before and after the sale.

James S.

Buyer beware! I am in the process of building my home and the shady person I have to deal with has had me lose all trust in this company. There are documents they submit to the county that they don’t show you that are different from what they give you. Then they blame you for it and say you could have seen the docs if I requested them from the county government. It’s bad. Our home isn’t even done yet and I have regrets. I asked for 1 thing and I was lied to about it!!!

Anna S.

I wanted to express how disappointed we are with Van Metre builder. They advertise luxury condos but quality is just bad. They use cheap materials; wall finishes, trims, doors, window frames, door frames are all poorly finished. Of course, during the building process sales team is nice but that doesn’t help less than satisfactory end product that we are now stuck with. During pre-settlement walkthrough we pointed out issues that were still not finished on our settlement day final walkthrough. People were sent in a month after we moved in, which is major inconvenience. It’s just frustrating as we signed the paperwork just because we knew that we will never get our deposit back. And this is our first home, we went with new construction as we didn’t want to deal with pre-owned home issues.

The worst part, is that construction team accepts that some things are not good quality, they own it. Construction director told us not to look at the walls at certain angles as we will see even more imperfections, so not to open the blinds, not to look at walls when it snows.
We talked to neighbors in our building and no one is happy. Van Metre also tried to hide the structural damage from some of them.
So please, if you do decide to go with this builder - go to your home every weekend during building process as you can catch issues and point them out early on.

Erik N.

Horrible builder. I am an owner of one of their Village Loft condos, and they will not take any responsibility over their shoddy construction of their floors and walls. Their choice of cutting corners and poor consruction allows noise to travel everywhere; it is the only reason why neighbors stress each other out and fight. If you are considering buying from this builder make sure you put their feet to the fire for sound proofing the floors so that you do not disturb families beneath you when you walk. If you have a family with little ones, forget about it! You will be walking on eggshells when your little ones hit age 2-8.
Since their customer service is terrible, I can only recommend that you do not buy from this company.

Hifza S.

I have so much to say about this poor quality, unprofessional "home builder". I will just go ahead and leave the email I sent the company here.

We spoke yesterday about the third leak in our brand new home. I just can't believe this is happening to us again. Is this common for a Van Metre or any other new home builder to have multiple leaks? My sister's home in Arlington, VA was built by Clayton Homes and she has not yet once has any of these issues and her home is a year older than ours. So please don't tell me it is common for new homes to have these issues because this is not the standard for a new home in 2018. I was very excited when we first purchased our home with Van Metre and now I feel I would tell people to beware of this builder as we have had nothing but issues. Although you, Toun, have been very accommodating with the several issues we have run into since we closed on our home it still does not excuse the quality of the actual home we purchased. I will be going further with this dissatisfaction as I cannot believe we spent so much on a new home only to question why we chose Van Metre in the first place. I will do my best to make sure everyone who has asked us about our experience knows how truly awful our experience is (bar some great sales people, you and Marcell). The issue isn't the people that work for Van Metre its your actual end product. How can Van Metre stand by the home we live in and be proud of the actual outcome?

Furthermore, the contractor that Van Metre has chosen to collect our HOA dues are completely incompetent and I honestly do not understand what we pay $200+ a month for? Our pool is open 3 days a week. Additionally, something they did not disclose to us before closing or after, the HOA is due quarterly not once a month as was explained to us by sales reps. Again there are many different factors that make me regret purchasing a Van Metre home.

Not mentioned in this email that Van Metre has fixed is carpeting on our forth floor not being secured down so every time you walked it would just pool up, a vent missing under the previously mentioned carpeting was missing so when we had family come look at the home our cousin stepped into the missing vent and tripped, thank god nothing was broken. A ledge on the landing on the third floor was loose and bent. Not being able to use the garage because the sensor tripped. But honestly none of that compares to the amount of leaks we've had and instead of looking for the root of the problem they just add more drywall after placing loud electricity draining dehumidifiers into our home. I went and checked with all the members of our townhouse units and not one of them has had a leak.

The worst part about all this is that they say its common and they are just treating symptoms instead of getting to the root of the problem. If Van Metre is completely fine with this poor workmanship and quality of work then please take that into account if you are going to be spending well over half a million dollars in one of their poorly constructed homes.

Isabel M.

Van Metre Homes are amazingly done to perfection. I have seen many of their models and have not one bad thing to say about any of them. The attention to detail is tremendous and not to mention customer satisfactory. Very easy to work with and great end results.