Building new home off SW parkway, and price haggling result. (Alma: sales, how much)

[shane79]

I am about to build in Ridge at Lantana with Meritage homes, for 7% off their listing price (on the whole thing, including lot premium and upgrades), average for about 107$/sqfeet(430k total for 3999sqft house, lot premium and $25000 upgrades) on one of the greenbelt lot with hill view.

I offered 7% lower than what the builder asked and they accepted the offer next day, wonder how much I could have gone lower


Just looked at the austin housing market report it shows about 3.5% price drop from list to sold, but I dont know if that applies to new construction.

Can anyone tell me if this is a good deal? I might still be able to haggle a bit if there are still plenty room.

I guess next time I should just lowball offer a really low price like 10-15% off and let them counter-offer, at least that way I can get a feeling of their bottom-line.

[AustinGuy]

Is this an inventory home or a to-be-built home? If it is in inventory, you have a lot more room for lowballing bids at this point in time.

[shane79]

to be build, new construction.

[Chris2000]

I would say even on building, you could go WAY lower. You got somewhere around $30K off a $400k house. I got $35k off a $200k house. I would say you should easily be able to push another $30k off the home. EASILY.
Remember you are negoitating with these people the worst thing that can happen is they dont except your offer,,,Most likely they will COUNTER your offer, They dont want to lose you as a buyer.
I'd say go back and start playing hardball, in the end you hold all the cards.
Chris2000

[shane79]

When I made the offer I looked up the surrounding area homes that have been sold they are mostly 115-130$/sqft, so I thought 107$/sqft is pretty low already, now it seems I am not even close.

How many % I should take off from the homes that have been sold when making offer to new construction?

[achtungpv]

A construction manager for a major builder told me that the profit margin on 300K houses is 40-45%. Keep that in mind when you start haggling.

[atlanta hope]

You should see what the comps are for the area. $107 a sq ft seems like a good deal to me.

[shane79]

I use House Almanac for comps in the area it only shows 2007 sales data and does not include new house sales.
They are mostly 115-135$/sqft depends on lot/upgrades.

Anyone knows a better website/resource to look up for house sales data?

[say]

Today, 7% below listing price is generally not really a very good deal. If you come to a builder without a realtor ( there are some advantages with an honest and good realtor), you can easily (just under the table, it's not ok to write off on the paper) get 3% discount upfront. Lantana and Travis Country for the last 2, 3 years have been filled up with AMD employees. The current shaking of AMD coupled with economic climate make the area less competitive as 2, or 3 years ago. That's why your builder gave you an offer just one day of negotiation. If you really love the lot and the house, It's ok with that price because you're happy with the house you're living built by yourself, even though it may a little more expensive than you or people think. But if you don't care much and are really looking for best deal, i think you should try the water first by offering 15-20% below the listing price and negotiating from there.

About the cost per square foot, i don't think it's fair just comparing the figures without seeing the upgrades with your own eyes. Floorplan of 3999Sqf with rooms above gagrage are cheaper than floorplan of 3500sqf with no rooms on the garage. One story is more expensive than two story ( with the same squarefootage) ., lots with trees, no trees, good views ... there are many factors, internal designs ... all affect the prices.
To me, it's cheaper now to buy a spec or existing houses than building a new house by yourself (even you get some discount from the builders) because the builders will charge you more with the upgrades later one down the road. But anyway, all have pros and cons.