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Old 06-06-2008, 07:32 PM
 
Location: Monroe, NC
4 posts, read 12,551 times
Reputation: 10

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Hi All,
My name is Paul and I've been lurking for the last couple days. My wife and I just picked out a plot of land with KB Home in The Glen at St. Johns Forest and placed a 1% Binder Fee down to hold it. We are going on a tour of the Design Studio on Saturday at 3:00pm (and will probably go earlier just to look around ourselves) and two design appointments within the next three weeks.

My family has been renting in Charlotte for over two years. We moved here from Massachusetts to get away from the brutal winters and to find affordable housing.

I was curious about how others who may live in the Monroe/Wesley Chapel/Weddington area like living there and/or specifically, how you like living in the St Johns Subdivision, if you live there.

In general, I'm wondering how people who have purchased a KB Home have fared at the Design Center, and how the whole experience -- from picking out your plot of land, to the walk-throughs, to closing -- worked out for you. I would also like to hear about the quality and speed of getting repairs done after you moved in. Finally, on a scale of 1-to-10, how has your overall experience been with KB Home?

Good or bad, it probably won't deter us from continuing the process. It's a good price for us, even with the expected upgrade costs. We will probably stay in the home until our youngest of three daughters is out of high school. That will be a while from now as she is over a year away from Kindergarden.

Thanks!
Paul
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Old 06-07-2008, 01:46 PM
 
Location: Charlotte, NC
422 posts, read 1,362,667 times
Reputation: 242
I was a sales agent at KB for a long while....... and the biggest complaint Ive always had was about the design studio.

There are ALOT of options and there are ALOT of things you will want to upgrade.

KB's standard features are minimal.... so be prepared to spend some $$! And dont let them show you stuff thats out of the budget.

Other than that, Im sure your experience will be just fine. Just make sure to be thorough (not sure how to spell that :-) ) on your walk throughs....

Good luck and be prepared for a LONG DAY at the Design Center....
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Old 06-07-2008, 10:57 PM
 
Location: Monroe, NC
4 posts, read 12,551 times
Reputation: 10
Thank you for the info and advice. We are definitely looking forward to and are preparing for our "LONG DAYS" at the DC. My wife and I went on the 45 minute tour today (before the two scheduled appointments) and it was actually a good experience for us. The woman who gave us the tour was very pleasant.

One of the things I was hoping for when we go to our first appointment a week and a half from now was to get a price list of the amenities that are available at the Design Center, so we can "comparison shop" at Lowes and Home Depot for the same items, such as garage door openers, light fixtures, appliances, etc. I was pleasantly surprised that they actually gave us our price list before the tour today. So we'll have all that time to analyze and compare prices with a fine-toothed comb. For those items that cost more on KB's list, we will just opt either not to get them and buy them later, if it is an item we can live without for a while (ie: the garage door opener), or just get the "Builder Included" items from KB installed and simply remove them, upgrade to our preferred, less expensive item from one of the home improvement stores, and sell the "BI" item to someone else for less than what they would pay for it (ie: light fixtures and appliances). Buying later with cash will save us money in interest as these items would become part of our loan of both principal and interest if we were to get them through KB.

We also figure we can live without the more expensive countertops and cabinets for a while. We plan on living in this house for at least ten years. (I've moved too much in my life, bouncing from apartment to apartment, to living with my in-laws, and back to apartments again. Needless to say, I'm ready to settle down for a while.) We can upgrade gradually later on to better cabinets and countertops, so that when we do sell, the better pieces will be more attractive to buyers.

My father-in-law is a general contractor and knows all the Good v. Bad products and materials on the market. And my brother-in-law is very knowledgable in this regard, too. (Like father, like son.) They can look at the list and tell us what is worth getting through KB as far as time and labor in letting them (KB) do it versus us doing it ourselves.

My wife and I are very frugal and don't need extras like the covered porches and the fancy exteriors. The available exterior facades that KB has are all very nice, IMHO, anyway. So far, a preliminary selection of the things we do want, which do BTW include a few top-end upgrades, have us spending only 60% of our budgeted amount. I'd say that's pretty good thus far. I have no delusions that as we dig deeper into the selections available to us we will spend more. But, so far, I am feeling good about our overall experience.

I'd be interested in hearing about the complaints people had about the DC. I've read about some of them on this forum, but nothing recent. I wonder, with the slowdown in housing purchases, if KB has "cleaned up their act" so to speak.

Last edited by WeatherExperiment; 06-07-2008 at 11:07 PM..
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Old 06-08-2008, 03:37 PM
 
1,242 posts, read 4,025,469 times
Reputation: 201
Default KB..welcome to the neighborhood!

I can tell you though that we spend close to $40,00 in upgrades on our house most people spent at least $20,000. I can tell you we really didn't do anything crazy but change all the cabinets to white, a kitchen bump out and 9 ft. ceilings, oh and a railing system...our house does not look decked by any means but it is the perfect size for my hubby and me! KB does not include anything..nothing is standard..at the time we bought we have to pay $600 for window sills. That is one of the main things we didn't like...there are also a few neighborhood problems with some bad kids..the pool is always a problem..too small for all the homes and it is not taken care of well.

SInce the prices are so low you have some general problems with some people not taking care of their homes but everyone is very friendly and nice.

We had a horrible time at the studio. I hear it is better now though. We actually had a girl fired b/c she was so awful.

Dm for more direct questions.

Last edited by SunnyKayak; 07-14-2008 at 08:47 PM.. Reason: no mentiong pm dm or direct message in the forums this isnt a chat room
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Old 06-17-2008, 11:07 AM
 
8 posts, read 25,470 times
Reputation: 11
does anyone know if you go to these builders if you can use a custom cabinet guy. a friend of mine moved to wedddington and we really liked her cabinets. her cabinet guy did the model home in anklin forest and stratford hall. he is totally custom. we don't want boxed cabinets even if they are the higher end ones. the finishes just don't look the same. and we like the wood grain to show.

thanks
c.j.
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Old 06-17-2008, 01:27 PM
 
Location: Charlotte, NC
3,364 posts, read 9,997,303 times
Reputation: 1948
Quote:
Originally Posted by freemotongal View Post
does anyone know if you go to these builders if you can use a custom cabinet guy. a friend of mine moved to wedddington and we really liked her cabinets. her cabinet guy did the model home in anklin forest and stratford hall. he is totally custom. we don't want boxed cabinets even if they are the higher end ones. the finishes just don't look the same. and we like the wood grain to show.

thanks
c.j.
Usually not, the only possible way is for them not to put cabinets in (good luck getting a credit) and then once clsoed thave your own guy.

Totally not worth it on a production build.
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Old 07-14-2008, 06:12 PM
 
8 posts, read 25,470 times
Reputation: 11
TWC did allow us to use a custom cabinetmaker. The allowances are not very high. Either way with custom or what they call "semi-custom"
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