Does Anyone Own A Westin Home? (Houston, Center: tax, pricing, legal)

[huma281]

I didn't purchase a Westin home, but from the looks of it, I think I got a good deal.

No lot premiums, standard - granite in master bath/kitchen, 42" cabinets, tech shield in attic, granite shower seat in master bath, r38/r15 insulation, 8" kitchen sink, nickel hardware - doors/showers/faucets etc, water filtration system under the kitchen sink wired to the refrigerator, some pest control system, EFL builder and some other minor things I don't remember at the moment.

Upgrades I did, granite in secondary bath - $300, undermount sinks - $100 each, 11x11? backyard covered patio (roof + foundation) - $2,000, sprinkler/gutters/full sod - $4,000, brick back - $2,000, tile in family room - $1,600, gas stub for backyard patio - $300, plumbing for water softener in garage - $700, rain glass in master bath - $300, mahogany front door - $900, bullnose for all my granite - $300.

Try negotiating on the price of some of the upgrades. I was able to for all of the ones I felt they were charging me too much for. I told them the home came with these upgrades as standard and they should lower the price on the upgrade of a upgrade.

I did a slew of other upgrades, total in upgrades is about $18,000. I got a little over 11% of my sale price for upgrades/discount on home, 2% (about $3,600) towards closing cost because I found a realtor to do a 2/1 split with me and another $4,000 towards closing cost if I use their preferred lender.

I would highly recommend finding a good home inspector to help you find things the builder or you might miss when the home is being built. The three main phases are pre-pour, frame and final. It's a little expensive up front, but it's worth it for the peace of mind and the money you'll save from future repairs. I hope I was able to help you decide on some upgrades you didn't consider before.

[a_guerrajr]

Originally Posted by huma281

I didn't purchase a Westin home, but from the looks of it, I think I got a good deal.

No lot premiums, standard - granite in master bath/kitchen, 42" cabinets, tech shield in attic, granite shower seat in master bath, r38/r15 insulation, 8" kitchen sink, nickel hardware - doors/showers/faucets etc, water filtration system under the kitchen sink wired to the refrigerator, some pest control system, EFL builder and some other minor things I don't remember at the moment.

Upgrades I did, granite in secondary bath - $300, undermount sinks - $100 each, 11x11? backyard covered patio (roof + foundation) - $2,000, sprinkler/gutters/full sod - $4,000, brick back - $2,000, tile in family room - $1,600, gas stub for backyard patio - $300, plumbing for water softener in garage - $700, rain glass in master bath - $300, mahogany front door - $900, bullnose for all my granite - $300.

Try negotiating on the price of some of the upgrades. I was able to for all of the ones I felt they were charging me too much for. I told them the home came with these upgrades as standard and they should lower the price on the upgrade of a upgrade.

I did a slew of other upgrades, total in upgrades is about $18,000. I got a little over 11% of my sale price for upgrades/discount on home, 2% (about $3,600) towards closing cost because I found a realtor to do a 2/1 split with me and another $4,000 towards closing cost if I use their preferred lender.

I would highly recommend finding a good home inspector to help you find things the builder or you might miss when the home is being built. The three main phases are pre-pour, frame and final. It's a little expensive up front, but it's worth it for the peace of mind and the money you'll save from future repairs. I hope I was able to help you decide on some upgrades you didn't consider before.

What subdivision and what builder, if you dont mind me asking?

[axvu]

Can we make the first design center appointment before we sign any legal binding paperwork or do we have to sign the paperwork first before we get to go to the design center appointment? Thanks for all of your input, we're checking this forum daily and making changes to our spreadsheet to stay in our budget. So far, we're doing a pretty good job and want to stay firm with our salesperson. He's still saying 6% so we're still trying to negotiate that part to at least 8%.

[manja]

Does anyone know whom to contact if something goes wrong after purchasing a westin homes still under warranty? Like faucet starts to leak. Their online warranty request does not seem to work.

[a_guerrajr]

Originally Posted by axvu

Can we make the first design center appointment before we sign any legal binding paperwork or do we have to sign the paperwork first before we get to go to the design center appointment? Thanks for all of your input, we're checking this forum daily and making changes to our spreadsheet to stay in our budget. So far, we're doing a pretty good job and want to stay firm with our salesperson. He's still saying 6% so we're still trying to negotiate that part to at least 8%.

They won't take your offer serious until you have check in hand and pen in the other. Don't try to negotiate over the phone, just ask questions.

Our strategy, we arrived with money (check ), we priced out a few things. We told them we'll take it if you can give us 10%, simply because we are down to you and another builder, and frankly at this point the other builder has a slight edge. Pull out your check, and ask them if they want to sell a home. You have to be confident, otherwise the salesperson will not budge or take you serious.

As for the design center, you won't actually sign or finalize until your second appointment, so you can rack up 50K in upgrades, and at the second appointment cut it down back to 10K.

We did a 1 4hr appointment, we had a strict budget, and we did alot of planning ahead and had the mentality to only get things that we couldn't do later.

Good LUCK !

[a_guerrajr]

Originally Posted by manja

Does anyone know whom to contact if something goes wrong after purchasing a westin homes still under warranty? Like faucet starts to leak. Their online warranty request does not seem to work.

You should of gotten some warranty forms.

But in the community info sheet, it sould have the emergency #'s to several key people like plumbing, hvac, etc...

Your sales person should be able to help you with that.

[davidrod8]

Originally Posted by axvu

Can we make the first design center appointment before we sign any legal binding paperwork or do we have to sign the paperwork first before we get to go to the design center appointment? Thanks for all of your input, we're checking this forum daily and making changes to our spreadsheet to stay in our budget. So far, we're doing a pretty good job and want to stay firm with our salesperson. He's still saying 6% so we're still trying to negotiate that part to at least 8%.

@axvu - You can't go to the design center before signing your contract...
Here's a timeline...
First you sign the contract - We put $2,000 down and had a contingency letter place in, if our current house didn't sell, we would get our money back. At this time you also need to give them the name of your realtor, if you have one...

Second comes an appt with your salesperson at the model home to go over your external upgrades... 3rd (or 4th) car garage, brick, stone, etc...

Then you schedule the design center appt...

You sound very concern about not going over budget, and here's the thing, you don't have to get anything at the design center... you can get everything standard and not spend a penny there...

From reading your posts though it does look like you want some upgrades... I would put them all down in a sheet of paper and bring them with you when you sign the contract. The salesperson has access to all the pricing from the design center. They wouldn't print a pricelist for us, but they were able to check every price for us which helped in narrowing down what we wanted to get...

[d2mini]

Forget the pricing.
Go in with specific demands.

Example: "I want upgraded wood floors in the dining, living room, kitchen, entry and master. The 3-car garage option. Upgraded granite countertops. Sprinkler system. Water softener. Plus $5k off the base price of the house."

Make it known you have check in hand and are ready to sign right then and there.

[a_guerrajr]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Forget the pricing.
Go in with specific demands.

Example: "I want upgraded wood floors in the dining, living room, kitchen, entry and master. The 3-car garage option. Upgraded granite countertops. Sprinkler system. Water softener. Plus $5k off the base price of the house."

Make it known you have check in hand and are ready to sign right then and there.

Westin doesnt' work like that. They won't sell below base price.
They dont' give items as upgrades, they give you incentive money and you can use it as you wish. At least that's how I understood from meeting 3 different sales people from different communities.

If a builder lowers the base price, that's a bad sign already.

[d2mini]

Well that's too bad if they won't do it any other way.
I went with Trendmaker and ended up with the equivalent of about 14% in upgrades + money off the base price, a brand new build with first lot choice in a new section.
Pretty much every builder we were looking at was offering everyone X amount of dollars in upgrade money, which would basically take care of floors. Then we got an initial offer from TM with specific items and promos, and we countered with more, check in hand. Worked well for us. And with TM's top reputation, I knew it was a good deal. Different situation I guess.