Building new v. buying existing home

[three_fish]

"If you are considering a tract home I would compare all of their incentives before deciding......and, I can't imaging that upgrades could possibly be $100,000 on a $300,000 home.....and, if they are, I wouldn't go there."

Maybe I'm not using the term "upgrades" correctly. I'm not necessarily talking about granite counter tops and other interior upgrades, but rather, the design elements listed as "options" during construction. Adding on a sunroom, or 3rd port for garage, or covered patio etc... Are those "upgrades" considered in the same catagory as the other? I guess that's why I thought it could be possible to spend some BIG-TIME cash. I certainly wouldn't want to spend that much just on cosmetic interior items (although I love the gourmet kitchen stuff).

Who are the other top builders other than Newmark? Maybe we'll check out someone else... Gonna be a lot to fit in to 2 days!!!

[llkltk]

If you are looking at a 300K home, a 3rd car garage won't be so impressive when selling. In my subdivision, there are only 2 or so homes out of 200 that have that 3rd garage. A few do the storage option that is 5' which I did as well. Your total upgrades should never go over 10% of the value of the home. It will take years to get that back. Sure, you may have a 3rd car garage, sunroom, covered patio but then your house maybe resells for 350K, your neighbor doesn't have these options and the same floorplan resells for $310K, believe me, the buyer will go for the 310K home. Don't overinflate the home, if you want to, then just go look at 400K homes instead that are bigger and offer more features.

Let's say you add 100K in options, then suddenly have to sell within a year. Your house was 300K base then with options it is 400K. In one year, you will be listing that house at around 310K and money will be lost. Believe me, it happens so much. Take the advice of others, don't invest that kind of money in a 300K home. Really, my brother did it and he's stuck in his home because it's not worth the 100K he put into it.

[llkltk]

Also, let me know if you want things priced out, I have an option list for a Newmark home and can give you an estimate of what things will run you.

[three_fish]

That's great advice. Maybe I'll shoot you a PM after we come back from Austin this weekend. Thanks.

[llkltk]

Sure thing. What subdivisions are you looking at? We live in Meridian in SW Austin. Newmark builds out here. The area is gorgeous.

[three_fish]

Cedar Park and Brushy Creek are two areas we've been looking at that I remember, but there was one area in SW Austin that I think my wife was checking out as well.

[llkltk]

The price list I have is pretty much the same as Cedar Park and Brushy creek, so I should be able to give you close enough numbers.