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Intro + ? about New Construction
Good morning!
My husband and I put our townhouse on the market 3 weeks ago and today we reached an agreement with a seller after a week of negotiating. I'm so thrilled and can't believe it all happened so fast. As of now if we make the assumption that everything goes through on time we have a closing date of March 23rd.
We have looked at a bunch of homes and we think we are going with a house that is new construction. It's already in the foundation phase because it's being built for inventory. It would be ready sometime in May. They said the price is negotiable b/c they only have 4 more lots in the community and they are just ready to sell all of them and get out. I'm a first time buyer but for my husband this will be his 2nd time buying as he bought the townhouse before we met.
Any tips for buying new construction? The home builder is D.R. Horton? Any reviews of them?
Re: Intro + ? about New Construction
Don't expect them to budge on the price much at all. They tend to stay fairly firm on the base price so they can preserve comps for the rest of the neighborhood.
You can and should negotiate for upgrades! We were going through the process and negotiated for a full finished basement, morning room addition, and upgraded kitchen in the baseprice. Ask to have lot premiums waved, structural upgrades included, ect, ect. We'd never accept the offer right on the spot, and within a day or so the sales rep would call us offering what w wanted, plus maybe a little more.
Ask for a list of all the options and how much they all cost so you can get an accurate idea how much you might really spend.
GL!
Check to see if all of the options have been picked out for the home. If it's an inventory home that they already started construction on, they might have everything picked out and ordered. You may not be able to make any changes to colors or upgrades.
However, that could put you in a good place to negotiate on cost. I would just check to make sure that everything they are putting into the house is what you want.
Be sure to get an inspection of the home. Hire your own inspector - someone who will take photos too included in their report. It will be an out of pocket expense to you of around $400-600. Also, get it written in the contract that you are doing one. An insepctor can be found by a general Google search in your area, just be sure they are BBB rated and also are ASHI certified too.
The builder may tell you that they have had the building code people come through and that an inspection is not needed. This is true, but you should still have an inspection done on your own nickle.
We had one done on new construction and our inspector discovered some flashing was missing on our roof. Also, our inspector noted some slow drainage in our backyard where some water was pooling and not draining in the 24 hour time period is was supposed to drain in. Because he noted it, the builder was obligated to come back and regrade our backyard at their own cost.
As of now there is still time to make changes to colors and finishes. I do need to see how much time is left and how fast we need to move though.
That's great advice. Thanks!
Our realtor told the sales manager that the price on the home was out of our budget and he told her the price was negotiable since it was one of the last ones left, so hopefully that stays true. My realtor was surprised that he was so forth coming with that. We'll see what happens. Thanks for the advice!
ETA - for spelling
"The House We Built."
A journey of building the dream.
We are building new contstruction (actually closing/moving next week
! ). We tried to neogiote and unlike all the pp's got nothing.
I agree to make sure to get an inpsection. Also, start looking to determine which fixtures you'd like and have ideas before you go to the design center.
One other thing....is there open land around your development? If there is, go in and talk to the city development rep to see what the land is zoned for so you are aware that there could possibly be a mall, townhouse development, etc there in the future.