Upgrades (sale, countertops, equity loan)

[jmoak]

I just signed a contract with Richmond American homes. We haven't gone to the home gallery just yet. I was hoping someone could give me a general idea on how much their upgrades cost? cabinets, flooring, countertops, ETC. This way I'm some what prepared before I go in there. I hear they have an amazing home gallery.

Thanks in advance...

[markas214]

Why didn't you ask before you signed the contract? Do they try to hide the prices? I would want to know all the costs up front. Which subdivision? We really liked their floorplans.

[crystalys]

Upgrades can add tens of thousands of dollars to the selling price of a home. It is typical with a new home to sign a contract for the "base" price and then add upgrades. Sorry can't help on prices, haven't been to a new home gallery in a while. Have fun though but keep your feet firmly on the ground. It is amazing what they consider "upgrades". The home builder's mark up percentage is huge. Keep in mind that sometimes it's just cheaper to wait until after you close escrow and then get the upgrades through another company.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by crystalys

Upgrades can add tens of thousands of dollars to the selling price of a home. It is typical with a new home to sign a contract for the "base" price and then add upgrades. Sorry can't help on prices, haven't been to a new home gallery in a while. Have fun though but keep your feet firmly on the ground. It is amazing what they consider "upgrades". The home builder's mark up percentage is huge. Keep in mind that sometimes it's just cheaper to wait until after you close escrow and then get the upgrades through another company.

Back before the boom/bust the smartest advice was to avoid builder upgrades and do them later with an equity loan then refi the whole thing into a fixed first. Now, it's tough enough to get a purchase money loan much less and equity line. Anyway, the builder is much higher on the prices than a contractor would be (or DIY) later. If possible, try to go easy on decorator upgrades like tile and carpets, added concrete. Get things like additional electric outlets outside, hose bibs, ceiling fan wiring, garage egress door,. This kind of stuff is all more costly to do after the fact. It's a tougher call on things like appliance upgrades. Know how much a nice stove/refer etc cost. It is possible you could get a new one from Home Depot or somewhere for less than the "upgrade" price. Also, consider living with the base models for a couple years and then upgrading. That will be money in your pocket.

If you are young and this is your first house, remember it won't be your last either. So don't go putting a ton of money into upgrades that you will never get back on resale.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

We had a $10,000 builder incentive when we bought our Richmond American home. The tile work in the home cost $9,000. For us the deal was that we had to use the incentive at the Design center. I didn't want to do the tile work so that is where our money went. My wife wanted a slide out trash bin in the kitchen. RA will gladdly add one on for close to $500 I think. You can get the same unit at Home Depot for less than $100 and dIY. What I am getting at is the things you can change on your own, save that for later. The things you can afford to change later, have a contractor do it. The things you feel that you need the day you take possesion, spend the money with them. What you will be doing is picking out colors styles and designs. Many of these are included with your price, meaning that you need to pick out the basics anyway, so have fun with that. They are in the business to sell you the upgrades. I don't fault them in that, they are trying to make a profit anyway they can. It is a business. What I found is that you will not see a price list untill you have made all your selections and start to sign what you are contracting them to install. They will try to work on the emotions of the sale and work you into paying for something that you may not need. Also will try and sell you things that will make it easier to sell the home later on, like central vacume, an upgraded media center with built in speakers. All the stuff is good, but for the average residential home, I am not sure that the ROI is worth the cost.

Here is what I would do. Pick out how you want your home to look, make a decision before you visit the center. Decide on color combinations and designs. Decide on what you have to have as to what you can put in later on your own. For example if you plan on putting tile in and the cost at the Design center is charging is more than a contractor will charge you later, go with the base carpet. Information never hurts. I can tell you if you wait to do this on the day of your visit you will be overwellmed. You may even want to stop by the design center and get some ideas. Let them know you want to just get an idea of what they have to offer before you meet with them.

[jmoak]

Thanks a lot for the info guys, I appreciate it.

[JasonS]

Plan on spending about 2x what it would cost normally to do after you bought the house.

[beckyinaz]

My advice is to decide before you go there how much you are willing to spend on upgrades. When you look at each thing individually, it may not seem like much, but then you're done and you realize it's added up to 30K.

[nightgirl151]

I built my house with Richmond as well. We went to the design gallery a few weeks before our appt to look at all the different opts- because it will be hard to pick out everything in a 2 hour appt slot. Our builder inc for upgrades was 30,000- and we vowed not to go over that- our total upgrades was 32,000 when it was all said and done. Little things made big differences....like choosing maple cabintes over cherry...saved 8,000 there. They wanted 1200 to stagger the standard 36 inch cabinets, but only 700 to convert all to 42 inch uppers- which is what we did. They wanted 4000 to paint our 1800 sq ft house- which we declined and did that ourselves. Crown molding 4 inch on the cabinets was over 1000, but 3 inch crown molding was 400 bucks. Slab granite would have been over 10,000, but granite tile was 3000. Changing the little things made big differences to keep in out budget. We put tile in all common area except bedrooms which have carpet- our tile was 12000. Hope this helps....I still have all the paperwork from the design gallery...feel free to msg me if you have any more questions.

[Chanti8494]

Originally Posted by nightgirl151

I built my house with Richmond as well. We went to the design gallery a few weeks before our appt to look at all the different opts- because it will be hard to pick out everything in a 2 hour appt slot. Our builder inc for upgrades was 30,000- and we vowed not to go over that- our total upgrades was 32,000 when it was all said and done. Little things made big differences....like choosing maple cabintes over cherry...saved 8,000 there. They wanted 1200 to stagger the standard 36 inch cabinets, but only 700 to convert all to 42 inch uppers- which is what we did. They wanted 4000 to paint our 1800 sq ft house- which we declined and did that ourselves. Crown molding 4 inch on the cabinets was over 1000, but 3 inch crown molding was 400 bucks. Slab granite would have been over 10,000, but granite tile was 3000. Changing the little things made big differences to keep in out budget. We put tile in all common area except bedrooms which have carpet- our tile was 12000. Hope this helps....I still have all the paperwork from the design gallery...feel free to msg me if you have any more questions.

Hi, would you be able to send me the Richmond home design center cost sheet? We are currently looking into purchasing as well and weighing out our wants and needs.