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The problem with buying any new construction is this. Let's say you bought a home from KB,Ryan,Ryland or any mass produced builder such as these. You live in the house for 2-5 years and decide to sell. The builder you bought from has now moved down the street from you. The builder has started building phase 2 of your neighborhood and are offering many incentives and much lower rates(because they do thier own in-house financing). You now have to compete with your own builder to sell your house. The potential buyers look at thier options and wonder why they should buy your house and not buy the brand new one for less money and more options down the road. I know a new home is appealing in many ways but I've seen what happens to people in this situation and it is usually not positive. My wife also worked in this industry for many years and saw the poor construction that goes into these homes. Just some food for thought.
Good Luck
The problem with buying any new construction is this. Let's say you bought a home from KB,Ryan,Ryland or any mass produced builder such as these. You live in the house for 2-5 years and decide to sell. The builder you bought from has now moved down the street from you. The builder has started building phase 2 of your neighborhood and are offering many incentives and much lower rates(because they do thier own in-house financing). You now have to compete with your own builder to sell your house. The potential buyers look at thier options and wonder why they should buy your house and not buy the brand new one for less money and more options down the road. I know a new home is appealing in many ways but I've seen what happens to people in this situation and it is usually not positive. My wife also worked in this industry for many years and saw the poor construction that goes into these homes. Just some food for thought.
Good Luck
Ryan Homes is the best builder IMO with regard to the group you have listed. They dont build spec homes and their supervisors tend to be on the ball. Every builder is at the mercy of their subcontractors...ie their are good drywall crews and bad drywall crews, it all depends on the day when they do the construction work on your new home. Ryan follows the International Building Code as do most of the other builders, in fact, I think that Mecklenburg County requires it. If you build in a neighborhood that is popular, the builder should be around too long. Additionally, hire a certified inspector to check out your new home at EACH stage of construction.
I must agree that I did look into KB homes at first but was surprised at the cost of the upgrades as well. I like the floorplans but some were too big as in 3200 sq ft and the smaller plans just were laid out weird to me. (There's only 2.5 of us)
Ryan Homes is the best builder IMO with regard to the group you have listed. They dont build spec homes and their supervisors tend to be on the ball. Every builder is at the mercy of their subcontractors...ie their are good drywall crews and bad drywall crews, it all depends on the day when they do the construction work on your new home. Ryan follows the International Building Code as do most of the other builders, in fact, I think that Mecklenburg County requires it. If you build in a neighborhood that is popular, the builder should be around too long. Additionally, hire a certified inspector to check out your new home at EACH stage of construction.
I agree that in that price range Ryan is one of the best. They have great customer service, quality and they stand behind their warranties.
The problem with buying any new construction is this. Let's say you bought a home from KB,Ryan,Ryland or any mass produced builder such as these. You live in the house for 2-5 years and decide to sell. The builder you bought from has now moved down the street from you. The builder has started building phase 2 of your neighborhood and are offering many incentives and much lower rates(because they do thier own in-house financing). You now have to compete with your own builder to sell your house. The potential buyers look at thier options and wonder why they should buy your house and not buy the brand new one for less money and more options down the road. I know a new home is appealing in many ways but I've seen what happens to people in this situation and it is usually not positive. My wife also worked in this industry for many years and saw the poor construction that goes into these homes. Just some food for thought.
Good Luck
This did not occur to me when I was buying, but it just so happened that we bought in the last phase anyway.
We looked at an inventory home in English Trails, a KB development, in Fort Mill, before we settled with someone else. We found their basic furnishings very low grade...plastic chandeliers, bottom of the line door knobs and pulls, etc. The model home was fine but then when we asked what it took to get from the base to the model, we felt that the upgrades were indeed very pricey so we moved on.
Are you guys not liking the people or the builder/materials/prices? 2 different issues...
I thought the upgrades were priced great. The problem was there was just SO many. It's so overwealming..hehe.
When you go in to the studio, have a stopping point, for example you are not going to spend no more than 200k for the house. Work forwards or backwards with that number in the studio. Sure you might not be able to put hardwoods all in the downstairs but you can do the kitchen and dining room, etc. That's what my wife and I did - we set a number and worked with it. Have fun and enjoy it.
And trust me, if you think they are priced high, buy the base house only. Then go have subs do all your upgrades. Unless you have a friend/contractor in your pocket, its gonna be a lot more $$$ and a lot more headache...
Are you guys not liking the people or the builder/materials/prices? 2 different issues...
I thought the upgrades were priced great. The problem was there was just SO many. It's so overwealming..hehe.
When you go in to the studio, have a stopping point, for example you are not going to spend no more than 200k for the house. Work forwards or backwards with that number in the studio. Sure you might not be able to put hardwoods all in the downstairs but you can do the kitchen and dining room, etc. That's what my wife and I did - we set a number and worked with it. Have fun and enjoy it.
And trust me, if you think they are priced high, buy the base house only. Then go have subs do all your upgrades. Unless you have a friend/contractor in your pocket, its gonna be a lot more $$$ and a lot more headache...
Personally, I found the upgrades in some cases to be on par and other times way way too high. For instance they wanted to charge me $14.50 a sq ft for their standard hardwood flooring... I know people who have put identical flooring in after closing for $5-6 a sq ft. In some rooms they wanted to hit me for over $10 a sq ft for ceramic tile (again pretty basic materials). That said, we went to the studio in 6/06 and since then I have heard they have done alot of 1/2 off options which would make these numbers much more realistic.
Well be careful with the "1/2" off deals. Remember nothing is free..
Back when we purchased (this was in July) they offered us (County Wide) 10k off the upgrades if I went with Country Wide on the loan. But after I ran all the numbers, Bank of America's loan package was better for me even with 10k tacked back on.
County Wide's loan was just horrid (it was a pre-package loan/product that they could not change - personally I think it was configured to cover the 10k off, lol)
So always do your homework and do what's best for you. Lot of thieves out there in this business....a lot..
And yeah we did not do any tile upgrades (just went with the standard vinyl in the bathrooms). I will place ceramic in there later on, esp the master, since I can do that myself much cheaper, it's easy. I just did not want to mess with the hardwoods afterwoods so I went ahead and had KB to that. We upgraded the carpet one notch also. But with my kids it is not helping...they are just perma messes..haha
The main (bulk $) upgrades we did were:
Hardwoods in kitchen/dining room (they are connected as one big room)
Carpet Upgrade 1 (1 notch from the carpet they give you)
Corrian Countertops in the kitchen
Upgraded the stair case railing
Gas stove in kitchen
Then we did a bunch of little things, all the sink heads, no brass anywhere (door handles, light fixtures) etc. I cannot remember everything but it was quite a few upgrades.
I think we capped at around 23k in upgrades. Adding all we got I thought 23k was a great deal..materials yeah I could of def found cheaper, but labor and time (if your not doing it yourself) - that's the kicker...
Last edited by BigCountry; 02-27-2008 at 08:52 AM..
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