New home builders in the Columbus area (Rockford: sales, real estate) - Ohio (OH) - City-Data Forum

JerryDublin · 08-10-2010, 07:49 AM

We just moved here and are looking to buy a new home. We've checked out 3 builders so far - Fischer Homes, Rockford Homes, and MI Homes. Rockford's pricing is way better than MI and Fischer, and while that has kinda been a good thing, it's also made us nervous as to how they could offer pricing that's so good.

Does anyone have any experience with them? Or is there anyone here who's bought a new home from them recently? Any advice and suggestions on any of these builders is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Jerry

buckeyegal78 · 08-11-2010, 09:26 AM

Hello-

I have worked in real estate and can tell you a little about this...

Avoid Fisher. Their homes are cheaply built. Dominion, Rockford and MI are all great builders to work with and they build quality homes. We actually built a Dominion home (and so did a few of our friends) and we have been really happy with the quality. Regardless of who you go with, make sure you can TRUST your sales rep and lender because that will make your life so much easier during the process. If for one minute you feel pushed into a sale, walk away.

I know many of the Sales reps in the area so if you'd like to send me a private message I can refer you to someone. Good luck!

cmhgirl · 08-12-2010, 08:28 AM

We built with MI and had a great experience. One of our friends built with MI, almost with Rockford, but they were not willing to change some things during the building process. Something to ask about as the process goes. Fisher are cheaper homes. Nice but not worth it in my eyes. We almost built with Maranda, boy I'm glad we didn't make that mistake. We were down to Dominion and MI.
We got along great with the site guy. Picking out our floorings, colors, finishes went good, the designer helped us keep in a budget and made sure we didn't over-do it for our area. We stayed in contact with the site guy all the time and went over to the house almost everyday. So when we ran into a couple issues with some work that had been done, we were able to call him up right away and he would get it fixed. We also added some insulation on some interior walls around the laundry room, he called us a couple days before they were going to drywall so we could come in and put it in.
we had a good experience. let me know if you have any specific questions!
happy housing!

JerryDublin · 08-12-2010, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyegal78

Regardless of who you go with, make sure you can TRUST your sales rep and lender because that will make your life so much easier during the process. If for one minute you feel pushed into a sale, walk away.

Thank you. This is quite good advice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyegal78

I know many of the Sales reps in the area so if you'd like to send me a private message I can refer you to someone. Good luck!

We already have sales contacts with each of the builders, and all of them have been nice and easy to work with. If for some reason, things don't work out with any of them, I'll send you a private message.

Thanks once again.

JerryDublin · 08-12-2010, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmhgirl

We built with MI and had a great experience. One of our friends built with MI, almost with Rockford, but they were not willing to change some things during the building process. Something to ask about as the process goes. Fisher are cheaper homes. Nice but not worth it in my eyes. We almost built with Maranda, boy I'm glad we didn't make that mistake. We were down to Dominion and MI.
We got along great with the site guy. Picking out our floorings, colors, finishes went good, the designer helped us keep in a budget and made sure we didn't over-do it for our area. We stayed in contact with the site guy all the time and went over to the house almost everyday. So when we ran into a couple issues with some work that had been done, we were able to call him up right away and he would get it fixed. We also added some insulation on some interior walls around the laundry room, he called us a couple days before they were going to drywall so we could come in and put it in.
we had a good experience. let me know if you have any specific questions!
happy housing!

Thank you, MI has given us a good vibe so far. It's quite likely that we'll go ahead with them.

And that is a good tip - to keep checking every few days when they are building. I hadn't really given that much thought.

penzey · 08-12-2010, 09:45 AM

I'll second the recommendation on M/I. I built with M/I in 2003 and recently sold the home. The quality was very good and building process was smooth. Over the seven years I owned the home, I had minor problems with some windows and the hot water tank, but they were covered by warranty.

JerryDublin · 08-12-2010, 12:20 PM

Thanks Penzey. That's great to know!

Also, in general what's a reasonable percentage that you can expect as a discount on the pricing? Would it be normal to ask for a 7-8% discount on the final price including all options and upgrades? Or should we try for a bigger discount say 10%?

*Danielle* · 08-17-2010, 08:11 PM

We just had a home built with MI...They are fantastic to deal with... They follow up well and really have great customer service... We love it here!

ETA...some upgrades they did for us...for free...

Upgraded our appliances to a level 3... poured a back patio...put blinds in all of our windows... play the game...they will definitly give you what you want.

cmhgirl · 08-20-2010, 10:21 AM

Glad we could help. The big benefit of checking in each or ever other day really paid off. One night we took some friends over the house to see it. One light in the kitchen had a bulb in it and when our friend, who happens to be a dry-waller on the side looked across the ceiling, the light in the kitchen showed a bunch of waves in the ceiling. no fault to MI, since it's all contractors. But we noticed it throughout the entire house. eek! so the next day, we called and the site manager got them back out there and they had to sand the entire house down and re-do all the ceilings. we checked that work and it was good.

cchamberland · 08-24-2010, 06:48 AM

If you are looking for a discount, there is no set percentage. Just make them a reasonable offer and they will consider it. In this market, I've seen builders accept offers that are 10-20K less than their asking price just to get it moved. Good Luck!