What is the boards opinion on Stylcraft homes? Resale value? Quality?

Good house for the price.

Affectionately known as Stylecrap for a reason. They fill a price point and that's about all you can say about them.

[This message has been edited by AgResearch (edited 6/30/2013 7:32p).]

Do you mean crap style or crap quality?

Quality is what you pay for. I lived in one of their houses because it was all I could afford at the time (120-130's - second owner of the home <4 years old at purchase). Cookie cutter neighborhood with narrow streets & lots and no sidewalks.

Here's a few things I found during my ownership:
No boxes behind electrial outlets, ceiling fans, smoke detectors, etc.
Extra runs of wire hot in the bath room walls. (Wire for two light fixtures but only one installed)
Poor insulation.
Very crappy A/C that was undersized as well.
Areas of shingles without tar paper behind them leading to roof leaking. Thankfully insurance covered this since I had a significant wind event to blame it on rather than shoddy work. (Drive one of their neighboorhoods during roofing. Don't worry about that tar paper thats been hanging off for days after a slight wind they'll just cut it off and lay shingles on the OSB instead. Obvserved this in my neighborhood when they didn't install shingles for a week or more after laying the tar paper.)
Metal ridge vents that pull off in wind rather than full shingle-over ridge vents.
Slab had very large aggregates in spots that led to cracking beyond "normal".

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Frankly, they fill a price point that many other builders don't. If you have a price at the top of Sytlecraft's range with other builders to choose from I'd go with a different builder. Thankfully, our house sold but that was because I had a guaranteed corporate buyout and gave someone the firesale price with "inside information" (told agents what corporate would take as a minimum).

Thanks for the insight.

New stylecraft... a match box with thin granite on a concrete slab.. poor investment. Go buy a slightly older well built house that you can make money on in a few years, not one that will fall apart in 3. I admire their business plan and market niche, but I would like to think I'm a little smarter than the average first time home buyer..

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No boxes behind electrial outlets

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Wow! So what were the outlets mounted to? Did they hang them from low voltage mounting brackets?

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So what were the outlets mounted to?

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Nothing. I found they just cut small holes (size of the outlet) in the drywall so they were tight and then screwed the plate on the front.

Back plate of the smoke detectors were just screwed into a 2x4 in the ceiling. Again no box for the wires.

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Watching them build a house that they'll sell after completion will give great insight into their normal construction practices.

My old house is now 9 years old and there's no way I'd want to be the 3rd owner of it.