Getting Builders to pay closing (Cypress Lake, Cypress Lakes: mortgage broker, attorney, loans)

[noles.alum9]

Has anyone had any success in having a builder pay all closing? I am looking at building an Engle home and wanted to know how to approach the subject with the sales lady Sunday...

[NS_Highlander]

Yes, that is easy- Just as long as you go with their preferred lender and closing attorney...

Every case is different, just make sure it is right for you. There are some builders I don't trust and wouldn't recommend this route.

[her2001]

You can make an offer to include anything you want. The buyer can always accept or counter.

[rholborn]

absolutely everytime. make sure you know where your escrow check will be held after the negotiations too. also, if you are unrepresented, you may want to have a real estate attorney review your contract. Congrats to you!

[GregTraub]

Easily, in fact right now they say they will pay doc stamps, and title fee's plus up to 3% in closing costs, as long as you use their "Preferred Home Mortgage" company. They are notorious for high rates and fee's and WILL make up their loss with a profit on making your mortgage. Usually, going with their preferred lender, means that the 3% may not cover all your closing costs.
I just negotiated with engle for a client last weekend, FYI Engle just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. So everything is up in the air as to their finances, the bankruptcy judge has final say of some aspects of their business now. Bringing up concerns about their home warranties, some communities in a flood zone (engle claims they are not and will pay for flood insurance until maps are re-zoned), ability to build new homes. Let's just say we were able to modify the purchase terms to ensure their mortgage lender didn't gouge them, and got ALOT of information about other concerns. Throughout the entire process their sales rep promised many things and said many things that later was overturned or proved false by her district VP I ended up having to talk directly too. Engle was acting weird to say the least and their filing for CH11 early this week may have been the reason.
A little info from their site: :::: TOUSA :: Breaking new ground ::::

Once you sign a builders contract you are ALMOST guaranteed to never see your deposit back should something go wrong during the process. Make sure you know of all the potential pitfalls before hand!

Your best bet is to get a Realtor familiar with Engle and their communities to negotiate on your behalf, especially now.

Which Engle community where you looking in?

[noles.alum9]

Originally Posted by GregTraub

Easily, in fact right now they say they will pay doc stamps, and title fee's plus up to 3% in closing costs, as long as you use their "Preferred Home Mortgage" company. They are notorious for high rates and fee's and WILL make up their loss with a profit on making your mortgage. Usually, going with their preferred lender, means that the 3% may not cover all your closing costs.
I just negotiated with engle for a client last weekend, FYI Engle just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. So everything is up in the air as to their finances, the bankruptcy judge has final say of some aspects of their business now. Bringing up concerns about their home warranties, some communities in a flood zone (engle claims they are not and will pay for flood insurance until maps are re-zoned), ability to build new homes. Let's just say we were able to modify the purchase terms to ensure their mortgage lender didn't gouge them, and got ALOT of information about other concerns. Throughout the entire process their sales rep promised many things and said many things that later was overturned or proved false by her district VP I ended up having to talk directly too. Engle was acting weird to say the least and their filing for CH11 early this week may have been the reason.
A little info from their site: :::: TOUSA :: Breaking new ground ::::

Once you sign a builders contract you are ALMOST guaranteed to never see your deposit back should something go wrong during the process. Make sure you know of all the potential pitfalls before hand!

Your best bet is to get a Realtor familiar with Engle and their communities to negotiate on your behalf, especially now.

Which Engle community where you looking in?

The sales rep called us Tuesday and told us what had been filed, what was about to hit the media and gave us the website you have linked to above. We currently live in Cypress Lakes as renters and we are looking to build in the new Engle community they are adding at the other end of the development. I sent the sales rep an email today letting her know, since we are currently renters and have very little to put down on the house we would like them to pay closing,, of course I got the "only with our in house lender" response but I have also heard they are much harder to qualify through as well. My mortgage broker has a realtor friend we may hire on but doesn't that mean more $ on our end? We are supposed to go back to the sales office again Sunday, we may go, meet with them and determine at that point if we need someone with stronger negotiating skills behind us.

[nickindependence]

I recently bought my own property in Independence(Engle) and have put a couple of deals together for a couple of my clients which are going through at the moment, and getting Engle to pay all closing costs wont happen. If you use their preferred lender, who in my personal and professional experience dont offer good loans then even then you would only be entitled to 3% back. I used my personal lender who smashed their preffered lenders quote out of the ball park, and because there was no comparison they honered the 3% just because they couldnt beat it. Even so, this is unlikely to cover all closing costs. I managed to negotiate my closing costs but when you have to put X% down and are only entitled to a set amount by your mortgage provider....i.e in many cases 3 % then you wont get it all back. Other builders work around this and some do pay all closing costs but to be honest Engle wont. Because i have put a number of deals together with Engle, i have managed to negotiate in the townhomes which havent been upgraded things like upgraded counters to granite and carpet and upgraded paint scheme, but they wont pay all closing costs, nor reduce the price of the homes.

If you need any other info on Engle or other builders give me a hollar.

Nick

[GregTraub]

Originally Posted by noles.alum9

The sales rep called us Tuesday and told us what had been filed, what was about to hit the media and gave us the website you have linked to above. We currently live in Cypress Lakes as renters and we are looking to build in the new Engle community they are adding at the other end of the development. I sent the sales rep an email today letting her know, since we are currently renters and have very little to put down on the house we would like them to pay closing,, of course I got the "only with our in house lender" response but I have also heard they are much harder to qualify through as well. My mortgage broker has a realtor friend we may hire on but doesn't that mean more $ on our end? We are supposed to go back to the sales office again Sunday, we may go, meet with them and determine at that point if we need someone with stronger negotiating skills behind us.

Yup Nickindependence knows his stuff, I have had very similar experiences with Engle over the past few months. I know of the community you are talking about, I work that area frequently.

I wouldn't say it is much harder to qualify through their preferred lender, in fact I'd say it's easier as they are pushed hard by engle to qualify everyone at all costs. However they are VERY notorious for their bad rate and terms. I have negotiated a guarantee of a certain rate as given by an outside lender, and if they ended up changing the deal at the last minute my clients were able to go with their own lender (other conditions applied)

If you plan on going back to the builder this sunday without a realtor, know that they have policies of not paying a realtor if they are not with them at the outset. It may even be a problem already bringing a realtor with you, depending on how long ago you first registered with them. So if you go alone again, you may be nixing your ability to use a realtor. Using the realtor will not cost you a dime, as the builder pays our fees out of their marketing budget, and is a separate agreement not adding to any of your closing costs.

[noles.alum9]

Has anyone ever asked an agent to split their commision to assist with closing?

[SANDYHAIR]

I am gonna ask for that when I buy again I want something BUT I WILL DO MOST OF MY OWN FOOT WORK