Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am thinking of buying a new home in Providence Place in Morrisville NC. Any advice from previous buyers in this neighborhood about working with the builder? What do the realtors/homeowners feel about the resale value of that neighborhood? If you don't like Providence, do you prefer any other neighborhood nearby? We are open to Morrisville and Cary. Our range is $300-350K and we want around 3,000 square feet. It's important for me to have a first floor bedroom/guestroom.
We are looking for a family-friendly community with a pool and common area where people actually gather and spend time together. Since there is no club house, is that a problem? Does anyone know neighborhoods in that area that incorporate passive solar? Any foreclosures/short sales available? One of my friends recently bought a short sale, and saved around $50K. So many questions :-)
We looked at Providence Place when we moved here and ended up elsewhere because of 540 being so close. $300-500k is a large range and $300k will buy you a vastly different product than $500k. It will depend on the lot size you want. As for short sales, they CAN be a deal but they can take months to close and you won't get a dime out of the seller for repairs, etc., so it's definitely a risk.
Carpenter Village is super nice and has a nice pool with a swim team, a large village green, a farmer's market, and good schools. I would just avoid the 2 outlying sections b/c it would seem to me to be harder to see neighbors and get to the main social areas.
I live in Savannah in Morrisville and we have a nice community--I live in Phase III which is separated from the other 2 phases but in our case it's been really nice b/c I feel like I know almost all of the neighbors and there are lots of kids. Maybe you can provide more detail? What do you expect to get as far as bells and whistles?
Ok, here it is. The onsite agent works for the builder. Find yourself your own Realtor to help you buy new construction. That Realtor should be able to tell you what the lowest home sold for, what incentives are being offered and what incentives you can ask for. If you are buying new, the onsite agent will tell you that you must use their lender...make sure your Realtor checks their fees against other lenders and also, make sure the rate is comparable. If the builder's lender is offering you $2,000 in closing costs, it may not be a smart idea to take that with a higher rate when you can do better with another lender.
Ok...getting off the soapbox.
As for your questions...In the $300K to $350K price point, you'll have a few n'hoods to choose from. My personal opinion is that I like Providence Place but you must be diligent about making sure you know where the highways are and what any vacant land is "proposed" to become. Check zoning but be smart enough to know that zoning can be changed.
As annesg stated above, short sales can be difficult to get closed. I believe some banks are working harder to get them to close but it could be as short as 45 days (this has just changed as it was 3 months) or as long as 9 months.
I have to apologize--I misread your price range to be $300-500. Sorry. Agree 100% with Vicki. When we bought our house new from the builder, it was listed at $383k plus there was a $7k lot premium. We didn't have to pay the premium and we got a TON of money off the house (they were closing out and happy to negotiate) b/c our realtor went to bat for us. Also, she recommended another lender or two and we did better than the builder's lender...AND they threw in $1500 in closing costs. So get a realtor!!!!
There is a house in Savannah for $329000 that has ~3000 sf. It's a pretty floor plan with a finished 3rd floor bonus room. You can also check Breckenridge--some parts seem nicer than others but it's huge and has a lot to choose from!
I looked at all the local pools near (maybe 15 or so) my neighborhood last year as part of a project we were considering (dealing with pool gate access control) and I was pretty impressed with the Providence Place pool. Seemed pretty nice with some cabanna type areas here and there and a water sculpture for kids to play under.
No idea about the overall atmosphere there though.
I will def. use a buyer's agent. Who was your agent when you bought your Savannah home? I will schedule a visit to see that house. The third floor space sounds really nice!
Keep your ideas coming, I'm really learning alot!
Thanks...
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 09-02-2011 at 12:04 PM..
Reason: Realtor recommendations are NOT allowed.
I had my heart set on Savannah before I'd ever been up here (thanks to the internet LOL) and my agent made me go see comparably priced houses in the area. I am happy with out choice--there's always a sacrifice somewhere but we needed the square footage. I *believe* the model for sale in Savannah is the one with a first-floor master (might be the same as my floor plan). If so, we use that one as the office b/c we wanted to be upstairs with the kids--so we use a 2nd floor bedroom that's huge (has a turret room, too) and has its own bathroom. There are 2 other beds and a bath on the 2nd floor, and we have a full bath on the 3rd floor, which is really 2 rooms (we have a playroom and another bedroom up there). It's pretty flexible.
Lots are small here--I have one of the bigger ones that backs up to green space, but there are tradeoffs.
Providence Place is nice....I just worry about resale for the 540 issue. but if the house you choose has no 540 view or noise, it might not matter in the least.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 09-02-2011 at 12:05 PM..
Reason: Realtor recommendations are NOT allowed.
I live in Prov Place so I will do my best to answer your questions.
I bought new 2 years ago. I used a flat fee realtor to sell my old house and we worked out a deal to split the commission on the new house and he repaid me the commission on the old house. I dealt directly with the sales agent, who was very bad, and they fired her just prior to our closing. I don’t know the new ones.
In that price range I assume you are looking at the Preserve section. Like everything around here, house prices dropped significantly over the past 3 years but I think the new home prices have been level the last 2 years. The list price is actually about $10 higher than when I bought, which was right after a huge drop. They are selling very quickly without maintaining spec houses so I assume they are doing well. There have recently been two very low price resales that I am unhappy about, but I don’t think that they are indicative of a real drop in price. One was what had to be a short sale (it was for sale for a while but the owner refused to have a for sale sign and wouldn’t allow any showings until he got really desperate). The other was right across the street where people who had the opposite issue, more money than they knew how to waste, no mortgage and they dumped the house for a huge trade-up. I think in general, resale has been set by the new house price, and while re-sales will slow down because of these, I assume it will come back up to the new home prices.
In negotiating for the price, they would not budge on the base price, but like I said prices are actually higher now so maybe that has changed. There is one model and at least one spec house available. I don’t think they build spec houses so I assume someone backed out of the contract. If so, they will deal more on this as they already have $10k in earnest money for it.
I did have more luck negotiating on options - and I think this is really where they make their money. When I bought, they gave $30k towards options if you used their lender, which I applied to have and finish a basement. They actually have trouble selling the basement lots but I think this is crazy because I LOOVEE my basement - lots of daylight and 10 foot ceilings. If you want a basement I bet you can get a lot off of this and make them waive lot fees. I had a few custom option requests, such as structural changes and more windows and they would come down on these. I signed after dealing on the structural options but before going to the design center, and they would not budge on the design center prices at all. In hindsight, I would have gone there, put together an offer will all structural and design options and told them to take it or leave it. I figured I could easily do the floors ect later, but I wasnt happy about not being able to upgrade the cabinets without paying more than the entire retail price for the new cabinets for just an upgrade.
Also, be very nice to the construction supervisor. I wanted a few things like a larger deck, a patio and an extra coat closet and talked to him individually about these. He went above and beyond to accomodate requests and he arranged for me to just pay their contractors directly for the patio and they charged a lot less than any quote I would be able to get. Also, he let me go into the house to run cable and internet lines and prewire for wall mounted TV and surround sound myself before the drywall went up. They use CPI to do this and they way overcharge. For about $300 in wire and box costs I ran wire to every room and did what CPI probably would have changed several thousand for. Just dont use CPI's boxes, they yelled at me for that.
Overall I like the neighborhood. We and everyone we know are very happy with the schools. We have a very nice pool with a cabana and there are always people hanging out there but it’s never crowded. There is a volleyball court and people play a lot of pick-up games there, sometimes as many as 20-30 people. In the back section there are always lots of kids in the cul-de-sacs. There isnt a central hangout place but there are always a lot of people out walking or on their front porches.
540 noise is pretty minor unless you are very close to it, and none of the houses in your price range are. Plane noise exists, but the primary flight path is from teh south end of the neihborhood south to the downing glen neighborhood. At this point the planes are still low enough that if they aren’t right overhead, you don’t really hear them. We do get a few planes directly overhead, but they need special permission to do so and it only happens a few times a day and almost never at night. One thing you should be aware of is that the intersection at Church St and 54 will close in a few years and the new north access to 54 will be to go through keystone crossing which will be connected through to Hopson Rd. There is about a 50% chance that the triangle expressway will eventually (10 years or so) be connected to Town Hall Drive, in which case there will be a connection between the back of the neighborhood and this extension as well as Davis Dr. Also, Mason Farm Rd is slated to eventually go over the tracks (which will be lowered below grade apparently) directly to 54 at the intersection with Perimeter park, but this is at least 10 years away. Also in the very long range plans, if they ever build commuter light rail, the Morrisville station is supposed to be next to Shilo Park, so almost directly across the street.
Thank you ever so much for this detailed message. It is so helpful. I actually printed it out.
We want our 2 year old to be in a neighborhood where people are friendly and interact... in our current neighborhood, that's not the case, though we have a couple of nice neighbors, there's not much interaction. That's why we thought a club house/pool may help. Since Providence Place doesn't have a club house, I'm thinking most of the interaction at the pool is summer-based.
I'd love to know what structural changes you incorporated into your building process. For me, given the recent hurricanes and such, I've been wondering about a safe inner room in case of tornadoes. I'm also very keen we have passive solar, and the house be as non-toxic as possible. But those things can be hard to get from a cookie-cutter national builder I know. I also want our downstairs to be accessible to people with disabilities for visibility. If one of our Iraq vets visits my home in a wheelchair, he/she should be able to get in to the house, use a bedroom and a bathroom and the common areas at least. That's something I think all houses should incorporate.
I will keep all the tips you mentioned in mind, and maybe ping you privately later about your realtor, when we get closer to making a decision on providence. In the meantime, thank you, thank you, thank you!
We are planning to give our current home in Raleigh on rent -- FYI> good rental market, not so good resale market.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thanks for all these helpful suggestions
