TopNotch Homes, LLC

One Google reviewer in May 2024 wrote that Shane "hits his deadlines." A year earlier, a one-star reviewer called TopNotch "unprofessional" and said the builder "chooses poor quality materials for projects." Google's average sits at 3.3 across seven ratings, and the written accounts land on both sides of it. TopNotch Homes works out of 290 Broadway in Methuen and builds new single-family houses and adult-community neighbourhoods around New England, and it looks for land to develop as well. The company's site describes it as "Rooted in Salem, N.H." and "Trusted for over 25 years"; BBB's file shows the LLC incorporated on 9/29/2003, with Michael Wakeen as owner, Shane Wakeen as manager and one employee. BBB grades it A+ and states plainly that it is not BBB Accredited. The building itself shows up in permits — 23 on BuildZoom, mostly new single-family construction in Methuen and Tewksbury, with renovation work in Dracut and Tewksbury. Its two BuildZoom reviews point opposite ways. In a 2020 review, someone who says they have lived in three of these homes rated the quality above other builders' work they had seen. A 2019 review about a $592,000 home alleged dishonesty, cut corners, cheap incentives and broken promises, and told readers to "triple check the P&S and details." The newest written account, from September 2025, is about the buying rather than the building: a customer described Stephen taking time over the homes, delivery and financing options without applying pressure. Another May 2024 reviewer said the company showed professionalism and delivered on time. Before signing anything, two things are worth pinning down. BuildZoom lists a Massachusetts general contractor licence number, #CS-028630, under Michael G Wakeen's own name rather than the LLC's, so ask which entity and which licence holder your contract actually runs through. And the 2019 complaint points at where a new build goes wrong: get the materials, the allowances and every incentive written into the purchase-and-sale agreement rather than agreed across a table. For a buyer who wants a new house built in the Methuen–Tewksbury area and who will read the contract line by line, this is a builder in business since 2003 with 23 permits behind it. Go in with the specification nailed down in writing.