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Tips for new construction
DH and I have been looking for a new home for months now and have yet to find anything we Love in the school district we want to be in. (we sold our home in January and are staying with my grandparents until we find something new) We have started to entertain the idea of building new and we are meeting with Fischer Homes tomorrow to price out a home we have seen and think we will love. We are concerned about how quickly the upgrades will add up. We have plans to go into the meeting tomorrow and price out the costs for all of the structural upgrades (sunroom, 9ft ceilings, master bath, additional windows) but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for us before our meeting tomorrow. Any words of wisdom, specific questions you wish you would have asked, or anything that may help us at all we would greatly appreciate!! I'm worried I may fall in love with the new build idea but end up spending more than I plan in the long run.
TIA!
Re: Tips for new construction
DH and I did this...we put in every single upgrade we wanted. Every single one. Then we began subtracting them until we got back down to our budgeted amount. It made us realize what we truly wanted and set our priorities.
If we had to do it again (we wouldn't), we would go up several more levels on the carpeting.
I agree ask them to throw some stuff in. We negotiated in upgraded carpet pad, glass doors for the shower, 6 ft privacy fence in the back yard, upgraded landscaping, cabinets in the laundry room, cabinet hardware throughout, tile backsplash in the kitchen, and a few other things that slip my mind right this second. I wrote about it in my blog (link below).
Make sure you understand what is standard and what isn't. Find out how much choice you will have in finishes.
Maybe take a look at the thread about building a home a few post below this one, lots of good info there.
Get a copy of the home warranty and make sure you understand what that includes.
Ask for a timeline for completion.
Have fun and good luck with your meeting!!
Our house building adventure (UPDATED 8/20/12)
Wedding Planning Bio
Our wedding blogged! (Click Brad & Briana on the right side)
I'd definitely try to get a feeler for what they will throw in. In our current condo that we are in the process of selling, we got everything we asked for thrown in. Hardwood floors throughout, upgraded appliances, glass door for shower, and extra parking space.
At the new build we are buying (provided everything goes through with out sale!) they won't add in anything specifically but gave us a 20K upgrade credit to put towards whatever we wanted. However, literally EVERYTHING is an upgrade. We are doing 50K in upgrades (so 30 extra out of pocket) and that's not even everything we wanted... it can get costly so just make sure you really have a clear grasp of what's included and what isn't.
Ask for everything you want. If they come back with a price that's too much, tell them and ask what they can do.
For example, we wanted to do a wooden staircase and they quoted us $6k for an open tread one. I asked follow up questions about why the cost was so much and found out it was because of finishing the open tread. Well, I didn't care about it being open tread and actually preferred closed. The price for a closed tread wood stair case was only $1500. If we wouldn't have dug draper we would have ended up paying too much or not getting what we wanted.
Everything is negotiable. Everything. Also, do your homework on how much things cost so that you can decide if they are worth it or not. The cabinet pulls I want I can buy for $3/each but they were going to charge $10/each, so we skipped that upgrade and will just drop off our pulls for them to install. We also asked for credits to delete things that were standard that we didn't want in the house. Some werent enough for us to give up the item ($400 credit to delete all the standard lighting) but others were worth it ($500 to delete the huge master bedroom mirror that I can use to buy two gorgeous mirrors).
Pay attention to all the little details. We have all hardwoods on the first floor and wanted to upgrade the carpet and pad or upstairs. The standard price for the upgrade is based on several first floor areas being carpeted, so I asked them to adjust the price of the upgrade given we had significantly less carpeted areas.
Go ask to see anything you aren't sure about , especially exterior paint colors. We had a hard time picking out tile so we went back to the models to view our top choices in bigger areas. Same thing with exterior paint color.
Take the time to really research your decisions. During this time I probably spent 6 hours a day on research and while it sucked away every moment I had we are definitely getting the home we want.