Schnell Farms sits in the NE 18th Street corridor in East Vancouver, WA, near the Camas border — close enough to Lacamas Lake and the Camas town center to feel like you're getting Camas proximity without the Camas price tag, and close enough to I-205 and the commercial corridor along SE 192nd Avenue that daily errands don't require a trip across town. Pacific Lifestyle Homes is the builder, and they're actively selling homesites — some already in the Design Studio phase, others available as to-be-built.
If you've driven past the signs or walked through the model home, this page is the guide you should read before your next visit.
Community overview
Builder: Pacific Lifestyle Homes Location: East Vancouver, WA — NE 18th Street area, near the Vancouver-Camas border Status: Now selling. Some homesites are Design Studio Ready; others are to-be-built. Price range: Starting in the high $600s. With lot premiums and Design Studio selections, finished prices climb well into the $800s, $900s, and beyond $1M for the larger plans on premium lots. Homesites: 5,000–9,000 sq ft Home sizes: Approximately 1,900–4,100+ sq ft, 2–7 bedrooms School district: Evergreen Public Schools — Harmony Elementary, Pacific Middle School, Union High School
(Pricing reflects information available as of March 2026. Contact The Tartan Team for current availability and pricing.)
What makes Schnell Farms worth considering
The location is the first thing that stands out. You're within a few minutes of Lacamas Lake Park and its trail system, which is one of the better outdoor amenities in the metro area — not a token neighborhood path, but hundreds of acres of actual forest, waterfalls, and lake access. Daily life is equally convenient: Costco, Target, Lowe's, and a full range of retail and dining are all close along the 192nd Avenue corridor. You're not living in the middle of nowhere and driving 20 minutes for groceries.
The schools — Harmony Elementary, Pacific Middle, and Union High — are part of the Evergreen Public Schools district. For families weighing school quality as part of the decision, it's worth checking current ratings and boundary maps directly, since the Vancouver-Camas border runs close to this area and assumptions about which district you're in can be wrong.
Commute access is reasonable. I-205 is nearby, and you can get to Portland or the Portland airport without routing through downtown Vancouver. SR-14 provides east-west access along the Columbia River Gorge corridor. It's not a five-minute commute to downtown Portland, but for East Vancouver, the highway access is solid.
This is one of the better-located new construction communities in East Vancouver right now, and the price-to-location ratio reflects that — you're getting genuine proximity to Camas amenities and outdoor access at a price point that Camas proper can't touch.
Floor plans and pricing overview
Pacific Lifestyle Homes offers an unusually deep selection at Schnell Farms — over two dozen floor plans ranging from around 1,900 to more than 4,100 sq ft, with configurations from 2 to 7 bedrooms. That's not a typo. Where most production builders bring three to six plans to a community and call it a day, Pacific Lifestyle brings a library. Plans include the Deschutes, Mollala, Timberline, Holly, Wallowa, Jefferson, Rogue, St. Helens, Sage, Chinook, Evergreen, Sierra, Madison, Bridger, Fremont, Cascade, Alpine, El Dorado, and several others — including XL and multi-generational variants of their more popular designs.
Pacific Lifestyle's approach at Schnell Farms also lets buyers choose the home plan they want on their selected lot, as long as the plan fits. That gives you more flexibility than most production builders offer. You're not locked into whichever plan the builder pre-assigned to a particular homesite.
A few plans worth knowing about:
The Laurelwood — 3 bedrooms, 2–3 bathrooms, 2,258 sq ft, 3-car garage. A single-level design with standard 11-foot-plus ceilings in the great room that make the space feel substantially larger than the square footage suggests. The kitchen flows into a spacious great room with direct outdoor access. What makes the Laurelwood stand out is the optional multi-generational suite — a self-contained space with its own private entrance, sitting room, kitchenette, full bathroom, and dedicated bedroom. For buyers with aging parents, adult children, or frequent long-term guests, that's a feature worth the conversation. Optional powder room and den configurations add further flexibility.
The Shasta — 3–4 bedrooms, 2.5–3 bathrooms, 2,909 sq ft, 3-car garage. Main-level living with an emphasis on flow and natural light. The great room features 12-foot ceilings, extensive windows, and transom details that fill the space with light throughout the day. A coffered ceiling adds architectural weight without closing the room in. The kitchen includes generous counter and cabinet space, an eat-in island, and a nook area. A butler's pantry connects to the dining room — a practical touch for entertaining that also adds storage. The primary suite is on the main level with a spa-style bathroom. An optional den-to-bedroom conversion and powder room-to-full-bath upgrade give the plan room to adapt. Pacific Lifestyle also offers XL and XXL variants of the Shasta for buyers who want the same design language with more space — the XXL pushes close to 3,900 sq ft.
The Rainier — 4–5 bedrooms, 2.5–3.5 bathrooms, 3,213 sq ft, 3-car garage. A two-story plan with the primary suite on the main level — a layout that's increasingly in demand and surprisingly hard to find in new construction at this price point. The great room is open to the second floor ceiling, creating a tall, bright space that gives the home a sense of scale you won't get from the floor plan alone. Upstairs includes three additional bedrooms, a full bathroom with a Jack-and-Jill option, and a large laundry room. Multiple exterior elevations and structural options — including a living room/den with double doors or a solid wall to the dining room — let buyers shape the home without going custom.
That said, Pacific Lifestyle is not a custom builder. Their floor plans offer structural options that allow you to configure the layout for your needs — adding a bedroom, adjusting a flex space, converting a den. But they will not accommodate requests outside their standard offerings. If you're imagining moving walls, enlarging rooms, or making significant changes to cabinetry layouts, this isn't the builder for that. Know that going in so you're evaluating what they actually offer, not what you're hoping they'll agree to.
What the base price includes vs. what it doesn't is one of the most important questions to answer before you get emotionally attached to a number. Base pricing at Schnell Farms gets you in the door, but the Design Studio is where the real spending happens. Buyers should expect to add anywhere from 5% to 10% or more on top of the base price in upgrades and selections. On a home with a base price in the mid-$700s, that's potentially $40,000 to $75,000 or more in Design Studio selections — a significant number that isn't reflected in the starting price on the community's marketing materials.
For current floor plan availability and pricing, reach out to The Tartan Team — we'll walk you through what's available and help you evaluate your options before you visit the sales office.
What to watch out for
This is the section that matters. Everything above, the builder's website can tell you. What follows is what they won't.
Lot premiums can change the math significantly. The base prices you see advertised assume a standard lot. But lot premiums at Schnell Farms vary significantly based on whether you're backing to green space or facing another home — and nobody's going to hand you the premium schedule and explain what you're actually paying for. A corner lot, a lot with a view, a lot that backs to open space — each carries a premium that can add tens of thousands of dollars to your purchase price. The difference between two lots on the same street can be $20,000 or more, and the reasons for that difference aren't always obvious unless someone walks you through the premium schedule with your interests in mind, not the builder's.
The Design Studio experience is engineered to get you to spend. Pacific Lifestyle's Design Studio is where you'll select your finishes, upgrades, and options. It's also where many buyers experience real anxiety, because the costs are not transparent upfront. You walk in with a base price in your head and walk out with a number that's materially higher — and most of that increase happens in a single appointment where decisions feel urgent and comparisons are difficult. The upgrades themselves aren't unreasonable. But the environment is designed to present options without making the cost implications easy to evaluate in real time. Knowing what's worth the upgrade and what's pure margin is worth a conversation before you sit down in that studio.
Timelines are longer than you might expect. Because Pacific Lifestyle lets you select your plan on your lot — rather than pre-assigning plans to homesites — the permitting and build timeline can stretch longer than communities where the builder is repeating the same plan on every lot. That flexibility is a real benefit, but it comes with a time cost. If you're working against a lease expiration or a rate lock window, understand the realistic timeline before you commit, not the optimistic one.
The purchase agreement protects the builder. This is true of every builder, not just Pacific Lifestyle, but it's worth stating plainly: the contract you'll sign was written by the builder's attorneys to serve the builder's interests. Warranty limitations, inspection windows, change order policies, and delay provisions are all structured in the builder's favor. That doesn't make Pacific Lifestyle unusual. It makes them a builder. The question is whether you've had someone review that contract whose job is to protect you.
Why bring your own representation
The sales office at Schnell Farms is staffed by people who work for Pacific Lifestyle Homes. That isn't a criticism — it's the job. But it means the lot premium, the Design Studio numbers, the incentives, and the contract all deserve a second set of eyes whose only obligation is to you. That's what we do, and everything we find goes in writing before you sign — here's how we work.
One strategy call before your next visit to the model home.
We’ll walk through your situation, show you where the leverage is in this community, and put what we find in writing before you sign anything.
Book a Strategy Call →The builder's sales rep works for the builder
Pacific Lifestyle's sales team at Schnell Farms is seasoned and professional. They're knowledgeable, they know the product, and they'll make the process feel smooth. None of that changes who they work for.
The sales rep's job is to sell homes for Pacific Lifestyle at the best possible terms for Pacific Lifestyle. They're not going to volunteer that a different lot would save you $15,000. They're not going to suggest you push back on the builder's preferred closing timeline. They're not going to walk you through the Design Studio and point out which upgrades have a 60% margin and which ones are actually worth the money. That's not a criticism — it's the job description. They represent the builder.
On a new construction purchase, the dynamic is different from resale. There's no listing agent and buyer's agent on opposite sides of a negotiation. There's a builder — with an attorney, a sales team, and a contract written to protect their interests — and there's you. The question isn't whether the sales rep is nice. The question is whether you have someone at the table whose job is to protect your money, not the builder's margin.
Independent representation on new construction isn't about doing paperwork. It's about knowing where the leverage points are — lot premiums, upgrade negotiations, closing cost credits, rate buydowns, contract terms — and having someone whose financial incentive is aligned with yours, not the builder's.
Your options with The Tartan Team
Pacific Lifestyle's sales team at Schnell Farms works for the builder — which is exactly why independent representation matters. The Tartan Team brings written analysis and construction-trained judgment to every new construction purchase: contract review, negotiation strategy, Design Studio guidance, and closing oversight, informed by Dave's background as a master electrician and carpenter. Before you commit to anything, you'll have a written Engagement Proposal — exact scope, exact fee — so the decision is fully informed.
Learn more about our approach to buyer representation or see how we work.
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Last updated: March 2026