Another Real Estate Question???

[Speed_RaSiR]

When building a new home to you have any room to negotiate a price. My buddy works for a builder and he said he can't modify the price. He said he could throw in the paint color free that's it. I am new to this real estate game, just wondering if anyone has negotiated a lower price on building a new home????

[yankeefan]

theres ways too save money. by doing alot of the finishing work yourself. its costs alot to run electrical wires. alot to put up sheetrock and alot to tape and paint. if you have friends or relatives with the knowledge to run wireing and put up sheetrock then get there help and you can save yourself a good chunk of money. if your takeing out a loan for the home.. the work you will have done will be called sweat equity. so rather then waiting 15 years to have equity in the home. you'll have it right away which is nice if you have kids and wanna put an addition on or if you want to move and sell.

but should at least if nothing else be able to paint the whole inside of the house and save yourself a good amount. more you can do yourself the better though.

[G]

Originally posted by yankeefan
theres ways too save money. by doing alot of the finishing work yourself. its costs alot to run electrical wires. alot to put up sheetrock and alot to tape and paint. if you have friends or relatives with the knowledge to run wireing and put up sheetrock then get there help and you can save yourself a good chunk of money. if your takeing out a loan for the home.. the work you will have done will be called sweat equity. so rather then waiting 15 years to have equity in the home. you'll have it right away which is nice if you have kids and wanna put an addition on or if you want to move and sell.

but should at least if nothing else be able to paint the whole inside of the house and save yourself a good amount. more you can do yourself the better though.

Problem with doing your own work is that the builder won't warranty the house if anything goes wrong. It's hard to get a discount when it is a seller's market. The builder knows if you don't want to pay full price someone else will. You have to look for promotions. A while back Jagar Homes was giving out full window covering packages and Ice/Filtered water fridges if you buy with them. The window coverings in my house cost $5000 and a fridge like that cost around $2000. So that is a pretty good incentive.

[rage2]

When I was house shopping, I was going to build a house in Arbour Lake with a 3 car garage, big lot, it was awesome. My dad did the negotiations, and he tried to get them to discount like $2000. After a few heated debates, they refused to sell us the house. So I don't think there's any discounts to be found.

In the end, I didn't save money, in fact, it cost me more, cuz I needed a house (getting married), and ended up buying a more expensive but smaller showhome.

[ZorroAMG]

The only thing I can say is it doesn't hurt to try. Do not be a low-baller with a disrespectful price because you will be ignored HARD. Come in low and see what they say, the worst they will say is no, and maybe then you will tap into their deal resources where they have promo deals, like G said above. Also, maybe that particular sales person hasn't had a sale in afew weeks and will deal a bit...give it a shot, but no guarantees.

Oh, and do not attempt to finish things on your own as suggested above, they will not deal with you if they are a big builder.

[yankeefan]

Originally posted by G


Problem with doing your own work is that the builder won't warranty the house if anything goes wrong. It's hard to get a discount when it is a seller's market. The builder knows if you don't want to pay full price someone else will. You have to look for promotions. A while back Jagar Homes was giving out full window covering packages and Ice/Filtered water fridges if you buy with them. The window coverings in my house cost $5000 and a fridge like that cost around $2000. So that is a pretty good incentive.

I gave the guy ways he or anyone can save money and have equity in their home . you told him to pay full price and like it. you a contractor or something? No offense but the work has tobe inspected regardless. so if the builders contracted companys do the work or he does the work its no different. hes wouldnt be doing structural work on the home hed be putting up sheetrock and painting. builders contract out that work alot of the time anyways.

[G]

Originally posted by yankeefan


I gave the guy ways he or anyone can save money and have equity in their home . you told him to pay full price and like it. you a contractor or something? No offense but the work has tobe inspected regardless. so if the builders contracted companys do the work or he does the work its no different. hes wouldnt be doing structural work on the home hed be putting up sheetrock and painting. builders contract out that work alot of the time anyways.

If the builder contracts out the work they can go after the contractor if anything goes wrong. If the home owner does it then they will not warranty it. I know this from experience. I wanted to network my whole house myself but they made me sign something saying that they will not warranty any of it. If you don't believe me about little or not discount go buy a house now and find out yourself. I am not a contractor or a builder I just make minimum wage pumping out code.

[G]

Originally posted by yankeefan


I gave the guy ways he or anyone can save money and have equity in their home . you told him to pay full price and like it. you a contractor or something? No offense but the work has tobe inspected regardless. so if the builders contracted companys do the work or he does the work its no different. hes wouldnt be doing structural work on the home hed be putting up sheetrock and painting. builders contract out that work alot of the time anyways.

So you are telling me if he drywalled and taped his house and a few months later you see nail pops and the tape bubbleling the builder will fix it? Yeah when hell freezes over. Or your house burns to the ground because of faulty wiring he did himself you think your builder will be liable? There are short cuts you can take in life to save some money but building a house shouldn't be one of them. It's the largest purchase people make in their lifetime so why not do it right? Plus in the long run (25 years) a extra few thousand isn't going to make much difference.

[yankeefan]

I apologize I should realise its not the same everywhere.. my advice is good advice here in new york but up there in calgary it may not be. we have enough competition and contractors needing work that there is alot more room too play. and ways to get a better deal if researched.

so from what the others are saying is your stuck paying full price. which I dont agree with but for sakes of argueing ill say ok. there is still ways to save yourself money after you have your mortgage.

say said house is 70,000. if you pay 55dollars extra a month..which equals out tobe an extra mortgage payment a year you can knock off 7 years off the life of the loan. or you can double up mortage payments and be out of said home in 7 years..rather then the 30years paying 1 payment a month. either way you save yourself alot of money in the long term.

[yankeefan]

Originally posted by G


So you are telling me if he drywalled and taped his house and a few months later you see nail pops and the tape bubbleling the builder will fix it? Yeah when hell freezes over. Or your house burns to the ground because of faulty wiring he did himself you think your builder will be liable? There are short cuts you can take in life to save some money but building a house shouldn't be one of them. It's the largest purchase people make in their lifetime so why not do it right? Plus in the long run (25 years) a extra few thousand isn't going to make much difference.

haha I understand people are set in their ways, but dont be silly. saveing 5 thousand(for example) on a 30year home loan. will save you double or triple that depending on your interest rate. and you will have the work inspected so if theres a fire after the fact and your house burns down(which I would never wish on anyone) thats what insurance plans are for. Nowhere did I say do a cobb job on the work. I said get friends or relatives who know what their doing to help.

and your right IT IS the largest purchace people make in their life so why not be smart about it. theres so many ways to save yourself money. and your paying so much in interest that any little bit you can save turns out tobe alot of money in the wrong run. what I was suggesting wouldnt turn out tobe a few thousand. it would be much much more then that

[benyl]

Originally posted by G


It's the largest purchase people make in their lifetime so why not do it right? Plus in the long run (25 years) a extra few thousand isn't going to make much difference.

Don't kid yourself into believing that the builder is going to "do it right."

Once you take posession of a house, it takes forever and a day to get the builder back in to fix the little things. They are too busy trying to finish other houses to make more money. It took nearly a year to get some fixtures and paint touched up after my friend took posession of her house.

By doing some of the things yourself, you not only save a little bit of cash (not much mind you), but at least you know how it was done.

[sputnik]

Homebuilders dont bend on their price.

They know that they can just sell the lot and put a house on it and sell it to someone else. Calgary homebuilders arent that desperate.

I am in the process of building a house in McKenzie Towne. The neighbourhood is growing so fast that there is a waiting list on the proposed lots.

Just make sure you find a good builder and talk to people in the area. Just go door to door... you will find that most people will share their experiences.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by yankeefan
I gave the guy ways he or anyone can save money and have equity in their home . you told him to pay full price and like it. you a contractor or something? No offense but the work has tobe inspected regardless. so if the builders contracted companys do the work or he does the work its no different. hes wouldnt be doing structural work on the home hed be putting up sheetrock and painting. builders contract out that work alot of the time anyways.

Most large builders have contracts with the subcontractor that they cant break.

They will lose the sub contractors if they start letting ever joe schmo build their own house.

Remember... the TRADESPEOPLE are the people in demand. Not the house buyers

[sputnik]

Originally posted by benyl


Don't kid yourself into believing that the builder is going to "do it right."

Once you take posession of a house, it takes forever and a day to get the builder back in to fix the little things. They are too busy trying to finish other houses to make more money. It took nearly a year to get some fixtures and paint touched up after my friend took posession of her house.

By doing some of the things yourself, you not only save a little bit of cash (not much mind you), but at least you know how it was done.

Find a good builder. Not one that builds the prettiest showhomes... but the one that respects its customers and fixes things as they come up.

Remember that you should really being examining your house every other day as it is being built to make sure you catch everything as it happens.

Since most here will be building starter homes... give Heartland Homes a try.

[G]

Originally posted by benyl


Don't kid yourself into believing that the builder is going to "do it right."

Once you take posession of a house, it takes forever and a day to get the builder back in to fix the little things. They are too busy trying to finish other houses to make more money. It took nearly a year to get some fixtures and paint touched up after my friend took posession of her house.

By doing some of the things yourself, you not only save a little bit of cash (not much mind you), but at least you know how it was done.

Maybe I was one of the lucky ones. I had no big issues with my new home. The little things like paint and some light switches weren't straight they came and fixed that within a week. The biggest issue was a cracked window casing downstairs and they came and fixed that right away too.

[cocoabrova]

Alot of builders these days offer 'freebies' now i.e. window coverings, pwr. garage door, front sod, etc... Just depends on which builder you go with. When we bought our house almost 2yrs. ago, we were allotted $10K in upgrades or go with the model that has a bonus room. We took the upgrades and needless to say it was definitely worth it. As for doing work yourself to save some coin, the only thing I would attempt in a new house would be thicker insulation, home theater/networking prewiring. Other than that, like G said, you're on your own if something goes wrong.

[t"raver1"smith]

Originally posted by ZorroAMG

Oh, and do not attempt to finish things on your own as suggested above, they will not deal with you if they are a big builder. [/B]

that's not true. my folks just bought a new home from a major (and expensive) home builder, and because they have both the experience and the love to do it, they did most all of the finishing work themselves. NOT structural, just tiles, painting, countertops, banisters, that sort of thing and saved themselves almost 15g. then took that money and made their maximum payment on the principle wrote it off on their taxes and got a better write off than the max in rrsp's.

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so from what the others are saying is your stuck paying full price. which I dont agree with but for sakes of argueing ill say ok. there is still ways to save yourself money after you have your mortgage.

say said house is 70,000. if you pay 55dollars extra a month..which equals out tobe an extra mortgage payment a year you can knock off 7 years off the life of the loan. or you can double up mortage payments and be out of said home in 7 years..rather then the 30years paying 1 payment a month. either way you save yourself alot of money in the long term. [/B][/QUOTE]
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thats the best advice i've seen so far.