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Hi - May be relocating to Charlotte in Jan, will buy new construction, and am a little overwhelmed with so many options (that's a good thing!) We won't have time to do much looking, so am basing my current research on a visit to the area last year.
Seems like everyone I know who has bough new construction has complaints about their builder, so I have pretty low expectations regarding builder customer service and responsiveness. I've read the JD powers builder survey, searched these boards, and it seems I can find most anything I want positive or negative about almost any builder.
So.. if I may ask some of you great folks your opinions, I'd really appreciate your input!
Location isn't a huge issue, I'm in outside sales, so work from home and just drive to appointments. Family subdivisions with lots of family type amenities like pool, clubhouse, activities would be ideal. Budget is up to 225k. Our families have brainwashed my husband and I that we must send our kids to catholic school, so school zones aren't so important.
Mccar in Berewick fits the bill, but I'm worried about their jd powers rating for quality. So as far as a qualility build with the above criteria, any opinions? thanks!
I would also say another probability to think about is.. Does the builder plan on staying on with continuing in the subdivision or are the economic times hitting them hard and pulling out or selling out. I know our builder has not released any new lots and says they are only selling the one's they currently have available and do not know when they are releasing the rest. Little scary during these time, our builder is McCar but a different subdivision. Just a FYI to keep a look out for.
Berewick is a large community with lots of children. I have several friends that live in or around that area. You can also look into the other builders in that neighborhood.
You will have plenty of options in your price range. Also, check into huntington forest. Shea did alot of the building in there and there are tons of families too (very nice community pool). The library is just across the street, and down the road from both neighborhoods is winget park. Very nice large park to enjoy all kinds of activities.
I enjoy the steele creek area, and if you have any questions about the area feel free to ask.
McCar is finishing up in their village at Berewick so you dont have to worry if they will pull out and leave lots unfinished. Berewick has a clubhouse with year round activities. Huntington Forest has a nice pool with cabana but no clubhouse or planned activities for the community.
Hi - May be relocating to Charlotte in Jan, will buy new construction, and am a little overwhelmed with so many options (that's a good thing!) We won't have time to do much looking, so am basing my current research on a visit to the area last year.
Seems like everyone I know who has bough new construction has complaints about their builder, so I have pretty low expectations regarding builder customer service and responsiveness. I've read the JD powers builder survey, searched these boards, and it seems I can find most anything I want positive or negative about almost any builder.
So.. if I may ask some of you great folks your opinions, I'd really appreciate your input!
Location isn't a huge issue, I'm in outside sales, so work from home and just drive to appointments. Family subdivisions with lots of family type amenities like pool, clubhouse, activities would be ideal. Budget is up to 225k. Our families have brainwashed my husband and I that we must send our kids to catholic school, so school zones aren't so important.
Mccar in Berewick fits the bill, but I'm worried about their jd powers rating for quality. So as far as a qualility build with the above criteria, any opinions? thanks!
colleen
Catholic Schools in Charlotte (http://www.charlottediocese.org/macs.html?sid=9495 - broken link)
...Mccar in Berewick fits the bill, but I'm worried about their jd powers rating for quality...
Stand by for a flood of opinion in this post...
My wife and I rented a McCar home in Berewick for nearly a year. It was great for a rental home (mainly because it was new and not destroyed like most rentals get). However, I'd never buy one. The quality was not so great...at least not for the price ($200k-ish). Nail pops were everywhere (where there should have been screws used, in my opinion). The house was not grounded very well, so electrical shock was common, in in the humid summer months. The walls were paper thin, so you'd feel like you're in a helicopter when the AC kicked on and started humming/compression wave. The walls were not true (wavy and slightly out of square rooms). To top it off, the neighborhood is a typical boring blah clear-cut and plant back scrawny 2" diamter trees. Not my cup of tea. But alas, this seems to have become the accepted norm of new construction over the past 5-10 years...so on that note, they're probably no worse or better than any other builder.
My suggestion is to give a pre-owned home in an established neighborhood a chance. There are PLENTY of them sitting in our region right now waiting for a buyer. THe huge benefit is the established, mature neighborhood (speaking in terms of landscaping and trees). And if you buy a quality house built in the late 80's through the 90's, you're probably getting a better quality house than one built today. I've seen it, felt it, and been all through it to be able to make that statement and compare the two. I know it steps on a lot of toes to say all this (knowing there are McCar Berewick owners as well as other newer home owners on this forum). Unless you;re ready to sink $350k+, you're getting mediocre construction covered up with "upgrades" like cheap flooring and black or stainless appliances. Woooo!
My wife and I rented a McCar home in Berewick for nearly a year. It was great for a rental home (mainly because it was new and not destroyed like most rentals get). However, I'd never buy one. The quality was not so great...at least not for the price ($200k-ish). Nail pops were everywhere (where there should have been screws used, in my opinion). The house was not grounded very well, so electrical shock was common, in in the humid summer months. The walls were paper thin, so you'd feel like you're in a helicopter when the AC kicked on and started humming/compression wave. The walls were not true (wavy and slightly out of square rooms). To top it off, the neighborhood is a typical boring blah clear-cut and plant back scrawny 2" diamter trees. Not my cup of tea. But alas, this seems to have become the accepted norm of new construction over the past 5-10 years...so on that note, they're probably no worse or better than any other builder.
My suggestion is to give a pre-owned home in an established neighborhood a chance. There are PLENTY of them sitting in our region right now waiting for a buyer. THe huge benefit is the established, mature neighborhood (speaking in terms of landscaping and trees). And if you buy a quality house built in the late 80's through the 90's, you're probably getting a better quality house than one built today. I've seen it, felt it, and been all through it to be able to make that statement and compare the two. I know it steps on a lot of toes to say all this (knowing there are McCar Berewick owners as well as other newer home owners on this forum). Unless you;re ready to sink $350k+, you're getting mediocre construction covered up with "upgrades" like cheap flooring and black or stainless appliances. Woooo!
But...to each thier own...
You have just described my house to a perfect T...but I usually get called out for not accepting that builders all have flaws. Two seperate houses in two very seperate neighborhoods, same exact flaws. As far as the landscaping, yes they do plant very general and the same for every house. I absolutely agree on pre owned, especially mine now that we have fixed all the nail pops and now working on the drywall and repairing it to at least make a good appearance. Oh and yes they use the cheapest darn "hardwood" flooring you could ever get. That is why I made them rip it out of my kitchen and put in tile. Engineered crap that can't get wet or it warps and they put it in the kitchen and powder room, give me a break. The powder room we took care of and the foyer we are also taking care of as we rip out the cheap carpet that may last one more year to put in a better hardwood floor.
Can I make a suggestion? I was in the same boat as you. Relocated to Charlotte doing outside sales.
Even though I'm assuming you really want to settle in, would you consider renting for awhile?
If you don't know the area this is probably the best advice you'll receive....better to know what exactly you want then taking the plunge and saying "damn I wish i should'a done that.."
I'm assuming though that you really don't know the area.....if you've scoped out the area, then ignore this advice.
I can't believe I forgot to add my boiler-plate schpiel about renting first! Guess I got to side-tracked about "new" construction. There is absolutely no way for you to learn about all the different areas to live in Charlotte without living here for 6-12 months. No amount of visiting, no amount of posting on this or any other forum, and certainly not talking to folks that live here...at least not one of those on their own or even as a group without living here will get you the knowledge you need to buy a home. Opinions and advance are great, but htere's nothing like your own take on an area and how you see yourself living in a certain part of town...driving a certain type of traffic...having access to (or not to) certain stores...etc.
Find a renter that will do a 6 month with a month-tomonth option at the end (much more common here than most other places). After about 6 or 7 months, we were ready to make a purchase and actually ended up eating 2 months of rent at the end of a 1 year lease (against my better judgement, we took the one year instead of a 6 month at another place!). But hey, I'd never be able to offer the fine advice about McCar if I took the other route!
Maybe you would like to consider Huntersville. St Mark's Catholic School is right here. There are lots of new homes as well as many older homes like in my area of Wynfield. Wynfield is beautiful with pools, clubhouse, tennis courts, boardwalk path, playgrounds, bike path, lots of kids and really pretty landscaping. Not sure what all the fascination is with buying a new home when you could have all this.
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