I actually kind of know the answer because I asked it on Reddit prior to purging my Reddit history. To help others, here's me summarizing my question and the hundreds of comments that flooded in so it's not completely lost in the great Reddit migration of 2023.
I asked that... well it's not hard to determine Ryan Home's reputation. A simple Google Search and reading of reviews will help you figure that out. But I wanted to know, how bad are they really, in practice, especially in South Jersey?
No shocker, the situation was a mess in between questionably simple concerns and very concerning concerns. In short, the takeaways I got:
Nobody agrees on what a good house is. For some, an older house with solid building materials but different safety regulations is perfect. For others, they want a very energy efficient house and they're ok with the fact it's quickly built with wood. Understanding the differences between what the pros & cons of different building codes will help you better understand what you want.
Every house is imperfect. Not just for Ryan Homes, it's become evident to me that every house has their share of mistakes. To have an expectation that any house you buy -- pre-owned or new -- will be perfect out of the gate sounds like an unattainable dream.
That said, Ryan Homes did have a concerning track record, but it seems community dependent. Ryan Homes hires contractors, and they hire generally cheaper contractors. I had people both tell me they love their home and they hate it -- the contractors they hire to build your home goes a lot into the final product. Some communities, the concerns are some incorrectly installed molding, that got fixed during the warranty period. For others, we got leaking water heaters, incorrectly poured foundation, and roofs failing after 5 years in. Needless to say, when then are problems, they can get real bad, real fast.
Don't don't don't cheap out on a Home Inspector. It became evident to me that a lot of the complaints about Ryan Homes could have been caught with a professional home inspector, visiting the property whenever you're allowed to visit. They know how to catch improper wall construction, plumbing issues, and roofing issues. Don't buy any house without a home inspector, including a Ryan Home.
The bigger the development and the later you buy your home, the better. A lot of contractors privately DMed me more or less saying that when a development is larger, and when you buy near the end, the quality tends to get better. This is because the same contractors usually built the earlier homes so overtime, they begin to learn what worked and what didn't work. Furthermore, it gives you a chance to ask the earlier neighbors on how they like it and if you should bail out.
As for me, I'm waiting. I'm not rushing, I'm not opposed to it, and I'm not leaping towards it. I'm going to wait and see how this development goes and if it's not a disaster minefield after the first few houses go in, maybe I'll jump in.
I hope this helps you think about things!