"We bought a house in the Hampton Heights development from Brentwood Builders. While they deal mainly with custom homes, we bought a house that was already built for someone else (their contract fell through). We have been in the house for over a year now and we're very happy with how things went. The process was very easy, but we used our own Realtor. You will likely work with Michelle Gardner if you go the custom route. If so, she is very professional and was very helpful whenever we had any questions. Also, the builder showed up at closing and was very friendly and even gave us a few gifts for the new home which was thoughtful. The home itself is well built and after a year of use we have no complaints. Everything works exactly as it did the day we bought the house.
If you're considering buying into the Hampton Heights development, here's a few things you may want to know:
-The development is very quiet, even during weekends/holidays. There are no surprises when it comes to noise. At most, you might hear the firehouse alarm but they only use it when something serious goes down and even then, it's barely audible. I haven't heard it in over a month.
-The closest city that has everything you could want is Hanover and is ~15-20min away. Westminster is ~45min and York is ~30min.
-The closest grocery store is Shurefine in East Berlin and it's ~5min away. It has an Exxon gas station which offers rewards and, surprisingly, is often the cheapest gas around.
-The development is situated next to several farms. Expect the usual farm smells from time to time when they spray manure. Our family didn't find this to be a serious issue, but it may put off some people who are sensitive to the smell of manure. This is just a fact of rural life, though. You can get away from it if you buy closer to Hanover or York but you'll also spend significantly more on the house and in property taxes.
-Internet is not a problem. It's via Comcast but it's fast and reliable. It has never gone down and I always get my rated speeds (180/12Mbps).
-We've had only one power outage and it was during a major storm. It lasted only 10min." - Steve