What to know when building a house, new construction, etc?

[ktgrok]

I've never bought a new construction house or built one and neither have my parents or other family. This is new territory! We are looking at models from two builders, we prefer one of them, but may no be able to find a lot in the area we want, and the only community they are building hasn't broken ground yet and isn't selling yet, so no sure if we want to wait. I've contacted them via the website to try to get more info - like if the floor plan we like will even be offered in that community, what base prices will look like so I can compare, when they will be breaking ground, etc. Plus we need to see what lots they have in the other area (says scattered lots...not sure what is available), etc. 

The other builder has multiple communities that may work. 

I read somewhere that letting them know you are looking at other places, even with the same builder, is a good idea. 

Then, there is the issue of financing with the builder, for credits etc, vs not. 

Any tips? This is no an upscale, custom thing, we just need a plan that isn't available to buy without building from what I can tell. (space for 6 people, including a home office set away from the schooling area)

[mommyoffive]

We built for our first home with a builder that we are still in.  Thank goodness it went amazing because we were clueless.   There wasn't a bump in the road at all. 

But now knowing more dh looks at what included sheets a lot more in the builders we are looking at now and knows lots about what is included and what is not.  I am more focused on the floor plans and location of the lot for peace of mind.  Dh knows a lot of what to look for in lots for technical issues such as flooding and grading and that. 

[Ottakee]

When pricing, add a large amount for upgrades as most base prices are for bare bones finishings floor coverings, etc.

[cjzimmer1]

Overall I LOVED the process of building a house but a couple of things I wish I knew beforehand.

Definitely know what they are planning for "finishing" items (flooring, light fixtures especially).  We could "choose" our flooring except what they had contracted for included a choice of 3 colors of tan/beige all of which were unacceptable to me.  So we needed to pay extra.  While I'm not terribly picking about lights, I did want something more than incandescent bulb light fixture in work areas like the kitchen (granted when we built led lights were not a thing).  

Also measure you garage space and make sure it has enough.  We moved from an apartment and had no clue about the size.  The building measured our vehicles and said yeah they'll fit, you have plenty of space.  Except once you put the vehicles in, there wasn't much room for anything else.  Things like a lawnmower, snowblower, shovels, gardening supplies etc, that you really aren't going to store in the house and the neighborhood covenant doesn't allow additional storage buildings so if something doesn't fit in your garage well you just don't have anywhere to store it.

[BusyMom5]

Keep a large extra budget!  You want to pick your own floors, cabinets, tile, door knobs, light fixtures- not be tied to a few builder-grade options.

[ktgrok]

20 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Overall I LOVED the process of building a house but a couple of things I wish I knew beforehand.

Definitely know what they are planning for "finishing" items (flooring, light fixtures especially).  We could "choose" our flooring except what they had contracted for included a choice of 3 colors of tan/beige all of which were unacceptable to me.  So we needed to pay extra.  While I'm not terribly picking about lights, I did want something more than incandescent bulb light fixture in work areas like the kitchen (granted when we built led lights were not a thing).  

Also measure you garage space and make sure it has enough.  We moved from an apartment and had no clue about the size.  The building measured our vehicles and said yeah they'll fit, you have plenty of space.  Except once you put the vehicles in, there wasn't much room for anything else.  Things like a lawnmower, snowblower, shovels, gardening supplies etc, that you really aren't going to store in the house and the neighborhood covenant doesn't allow additional storage buildings so if something doesn't fit in your garage well you just don't have anywhere to store it.

LOL about the garage! Our cars are not in ours because once you put in bikes for 6 people, scooters for 3 people, other ride on toys, lawn mower, air compressor, tools, sports equipment, camping equipment, gardening supplies, car maintenance stuff, etc there is no room for cars! It's a longshot on if we can afford it, but he'd love to upgrade to a 3 car garage for that reason, in hopes of actually being able to fit cars in. 

I definitely want to see price sheets for upgrades, and what options are standard, up front. I've heard horror stories of people not realizing what things will cost, what is and isn't included, until after signing a contract to buy. 

[mommyoffive]

15 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

LOL about the garage! Our cars are not in ours because once you put in bikes for 6 people, scooters for 3 people, other ride on toys, lawn mower, air compressor, tools, sports equipment, camping equipment, gardening supplies, car maintenance stuff, etc there is no room for cars! It's a longshot on if we can afford it, but he'd love to upgrade to a 3 car garage for that reason, in hopes of actually being able to fit cars in. 

I definitely want to see price sheets for upgrades, and what options are standard, up front. I've heard horror stories of people not realizing what things will cost, what is and isn't included, until after signing a contract to buy. 

We didn't do any upgrades except plumbing an extra bathroom in our basement.  Which we never have used.  We thought we would finish our basement and never have.  Honestly instead of upgrades we went with more square footage.  We could of gone with a smaller house and put in all the upgrades.  So glad we choose the extra space vs upgrades.  You can always up grade somethings later.  THat is the advice our builder told us.  Obviously it is harder to do that for some things.   Even now I would choose space.

[Ottakee]

23 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

LOL about the garage! Our cars are not in ours because once you put in bikes for 6 people, scooters for 3 people, other ride on toys, lawn mower, air compressor, tools, sports equipment, camping equipment, gardening supplies, car maintenance stuff, etc there is no room for cars!  

Just make sure you check the covenants and HOA before you sign....some require all cars to be in the garage at night.  No parking outside.

[cjzimmer1]

23 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

We didn't do any upgrades except plumbing an extra bathroom in our basement.  Which we never have used.  We thought we would finish our basement and never have.  Honestly instead of upgrades we went with more square footage.  We could of gone with a smaller house and put in all the upgrades.  So glad we choose the extra space vs upgrades.  You can always up grade somethings later.  THat is the advice our builder told us.  Obviously it is harder to do that for some things.   Even now I would choose space.

That is so true!  

We have a split level house which gave us lots of square footage but we couldn't afford a finished house of that size.  We only had them finish the upstairs which was the minimum we needed for the occupancy permit.  Then we saved up and finished the basement a few years later.  But it worked since we were still growing our family at the time.  Once you've already got the kids, you don't have the same luxury of waiting to finish the space.

 

[ktgrok]

31 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

We didn't do any upgrades except plumbing an extra bathroom in our basement.  Which we never have used.  We thought we would finish our basement and never have.  Honestly instead of upgrades we went with more square footage.  We could of gone with a smaller house and put in all the upgrades.  So glad we choose the extra space vs upgrades.  You can always up grade somethings later.  THat is the advice our builder told us.  Obviously it is harder to do that for some things.   Even now I would choose space.

yeah, upgrades I mean are more making the loft area into an enclosed room, making the flex area into an enclosed room (both are options you can do according to interactive floor plans on their website), and maybe 3 car garage. Other than that, I WOULD like to have granite or quartz in the kitchen and not laminate counters - I've had granite for years now and not sure I can retrain myself not to put hot pots on the counter! Afraid I'd ruin them without thinking. And standard seems to be carpeting in most rooms...we cannot do carpet for allergy reasons and because 4 kids and 5 pets will make it a biohazard in minutes, lol. I'd like LVP instead, ideally. I don't THINK that should be a major upgrade, I don't need hardwood floors or fancy, just not carpet. 

Oh, and having a slab poured for a patio. It's florida, we want to hang out outside some, and I like to grill (or I will when we move and I don't have a huge canopy of oak trees over my patio that harbor tree rats that then take their acorns and hang out inside my grill! I can't use it as it always has rat droppings in it - even if I clean it thoroughly they just like to hang out in it and bring their own food!!!)

If where we build doesn't have a community pool, and we have the budget, we may look at adding a pool as well....but that's a big maybe. 

[kristin0713]

Definitely read the HOA bylaws. We almost went with a builder until we read the bylaws. There were things like, children can only play in designated areas, no skateboarding, not basketball or other playing in the street, only white curtains facing the outside, no signs or banners of any sort for any reason, can only decorate for holidays 10 days before except Christmas which you can decorate after Thanksgiving, no laundry on the deck or in the yard (line or laundry rack or anything hanging from your deck) .... super crazy!!!  

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, kristin0713 said:

Definitely read the HOA bylaws. We almost went with a builder until we read the bylaws. There were things like, children can only play in designated areas, no skateboarding, not basketball or other playing in the street, only white curtains facing the outside, no signs or banners of any sort for any reason, can only decorate for holidays 10 days before except Christmas which you can decorate after Thanksgiving, no laundry on the deck or in the yard (line or laundry rack or anything hanging from your deck) .... super crazy!!!  

Whoa! Crazy pants. 

[Scarlett]

Find other people who have used that builder. And not one he refers you to for a reference.  

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, kristin0713 said:

Definitely read the HOA bylaws. We almost went with a builder until we read the bylaws. There were things like, children can only play in designated areas, no skateboarding, not basketball or other playing in the street, only white curtains facing the outside, no signs or banners of any sort for any reason, can only decorate for holidays 10 days before except Christmas which you can decorate after Thanksgiving, no laundry on the deck or in the yard (line or laundry rack or anything hanging from your deck) .... super crazy!!!  

VERY good point to remember! From what I can tell these are not that kind of community, but you don't know if you don't check. 

[ktgrok]

@Dreamergal, we think alike, lol. I laughed about the blinds on those high windows because I have blinds on SKY LIGHTS!!!! I cannot reach them, I'm sure they are disgusting, and the button to supposedly open and close them doesn't work anyway, so they don't even funciton as skylights as the blinds are permanently closed. 

And dear lord yes, about doors! Most of our upgrades are enclosing/adding doors! I want to be able to close people in or out!

[Carrie12345]

I just met with my potential (probable?) builder today.  FOUR hours and still so much detail to get into at a later date! And I knew just about everything I wanted to go over.

So much will vary by builder. Mine has great windows as standard, but whole house LVP would run me an extra $12k. So we’ll carpet the bedrooms. They’re happily shifting walls at no extra cost. What’s irking me is their staircase upgrade for several thousand dollars! Meanwhile, their cabinet upgrade was surprisingly reasonable to me.

To really compare apples to apples, I do recommend sitting down with each of them for a LONG time. Some builders were happy to discuss a few of the major factors on the phone ahead of time. One simply emailed asking for my annual income and credit score. Not even a “Hello!” or “Look forward to meeting with you.” (I crossed them off the list.)

[ktgrok]

So, the more I thought about those skylight blinds the more upset I got, but DH reminded me they are INSIDE the double layers of window, so not dusty, lol. 

[Lecka]

My husband’s aunt turned down some things that she would never use, but then she looked at selling for a little while and felt like she should have had some things for resell.  
 

So if there are things that would be fairly standard to have, that is something to think about.

But it was more about things she personally didn’t want than not getting certain upgrades.  
 

I think one was something about wiring that she knew she wouldn’t use, and then it seemed like most people would want it available.  
 

She also got a retreat room (I think off the master bath and master bedroom?) and it ended up being more popular to have had an extra bedroom instead.

 

I don’t know if it was really a problem since she still lives there and is happy and loves the retreat — but she was worried about not being in as good of a situation for resell when she was thinking about selling.  
 

 

[Lecka]

Interestingly — we lived in a home with no HOA.

Someone on the next street over built a gazebo.  There was a sign up and we got a letter saying we were zoned to only be able to have a certain percent of the backyard covered and only to a certain height.  
 

The gazebo was going to be bigger and they had to be an item on a city zoning law meeting, and we could have protested (anyone could have according to the sign and letter).  
 

They built the gazebo and we could see it from our backyard, it seemed fine.

 

But that was just from our neighborhood’s zoning and I hadn’t known we had anything like that.  

[Lecka]

In that town also, new construction had a special tax assessment for the first 20 years and it stays with the house if it is sold.

I believe it was $200 and up (into $300 and up), and a builder waived that (paid it) for the first year, and some people felt like they didn’t know that fee was going to come later — though other people said they should have known.  A realtor would know about things like that.  

[Lecka]

I hadn’t know about it — we didn’t look at any newer houses!  My friend wanted a house that had 5 years left of paying the special assessment, that they could afford after the 5 years were up.  But they ended up getting a different house and that was a main reason.