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We are considering buying a new home in Brier Creek or Southbridge.
Our most important considerations are family friendly neighborhoods with good schools and easy commute time to Duke and Morrisville.
Any suggestions would be helpful and experiences with builders for new construction
Thanks!
I like John Wieland at Southbridge mainly because of the good quality construction and the fact that Southbridge is an excellent development in a great location. It's interesting that whilst prices are slightly reduced at Southbridge on the remaining homes they have added significant upgrades in terms of finishing basements and roof space without increasing the prices.
Southbridge is a 15 minute drive to Brier Creek, Southpoint and RDU. It will be less than 10 m inutes to the new Sams Club and super Walmart at Shiloh Crossing. The drive to Duke is less than 30 minutes via 55 and 147.
My experience with JW Homes was a very possitive one so long as you had a clear idea of requirements and expectations which is pretty normal for any new construction. And the convenience of Harris Teeter less than 1 mile away is invaluable
I went into a Toll Brothers model home a couple weeks ago just to see what the Toll Bros hype is all about. The sales rep asked where we lived now and I told him where and that it is a Wieland neighborhood. He said "oh, he builds good homes. We build good homes too, but he builds really good homes." Interesting comment from the on site sales rep.
I live adjacent to Southbridge, and I like the looks of the homes. I also like that I see a lot of kids outside playing. The schools for Southbridge are great, and I'm going to gamble and say, most likely stable in the grand scheme of things. I've seen some decent values on the homes for sale in Southbridge.
Understand, though, that Southbridge is for those who don't care to have a lot of yard. Some of us don't.
JW is more expansive then Toll Bros on a per sf basis, but JW homes are stick built, using better material, with more features and more attentions to details. Prices for JW upgrades in general are not as exorbitant as Toll's. To my (maybe uneduated) eyes, Toll houses are like enlarged starter houses (with apology to Toll owners). As for screened porch, it's a pretty hafty upgrade for JW as well (the standard is a lousy deck); and be careful with their pricing, JW may over-charge sometimes (i.e., same features get charged differently from house to house--to the ones paying more, they looks like overcharges).
Weycroft would be a very good fit. You will trade a little square footage for better build quality (although John Wieland builds a nice house). I'm just not a Toll Brothers guy. At 600K+ I don't buy a tract home. Too many great local builders around here-
Ange
Homescape
Homes By Dickerson
Bluepoint
Woodard
Carolinian
and a bunch of others that just aren't on the tip of my tongue right now.
You could also look in Hilliard Forest-DJF and Loyd are both terrific. The neighborhood is off to a slow start but I think they will be OK.
I personally find the lots in Southbridge completely atrocious. I can't stand any of the following-
Backing up to a greenway
Corner lot where the house behind me buts up too close
Steep grades up or down
Curved roads where the homes are staggered so I can be standing in my driveway and look into someone else's back yard
Pretty much every lot in Southbridge has one of those flaws. Nice homes but clearly packed in too tightly.
If I was looking for a home in that range, and wanted a larger builder with a little more stability I'd go with Wieland over Toll any day. That being said, you may be able to get a better built home form one of the custom builders. I'd think you'd get a little better fit and finish, and a lot of those guys are struggling right now, especially in that price range, so you could find a great deal as well. Have you looked at Colvard Farms down 751?
And I know that you were looking at new houses, but if you're willing to consider a house that is 2-3 years old, you can find much better deals. I would look at something like this... Fonville Morisey Property Listing (http://tinyurl.com/mr26l6 - broken link)
And I agree with everyone else on this thread. If you have $600+, don't waste it on Toll Bros. or Weiland. You get so much more for your money by going with a local custom builder. If your priority is about how much square footage your money will get you, and you don't care as much about moving into a house with one basic builder grade color of paint, basic fixtures, etc., then go with Toll or Weiland. It all depends on your priorities.
Hi Gunni, I and my wife went house hunting in April- our price range was 350- $400,000. We found some beauties in Clayton and Fuquay, and we ran into a custom home builder who took us to see a couple of his finished homes. OMG they were fantastic but a little out of our price range, but they do fit into your price range. It would be worth your while to check him out. His name is Marty Scott and his site is Maranah custom homes. His work is beautiful in every detail, I would not hesitate to use him if I could afford it. So give it a Google and look for yourself. We should be moving into the area later this year, here comes retirement.
Thanks WorkingMomOf2. I think that's a good example of what you get from a custom builder vs a wieland or toll. Look at the pictures and note the trim level - the more intricate mud room, abundant crown mouldings, stained wood on the front, real wood window trim, high level kitchen cabinets. This is the difference. Wieland is definitely better than Toll but even there your kitchen is going to be two or three grades lower (and you'll pay through the nose to improve) and your general trim level will be substantially lower. Also their lots tend to be very small and they put huge houses back to back.
If you want to build yourself (longer process for sure) then custom is the only way to go. With Wieland - and I will also add Drees who I'd class as a pretty good "spec" builder - your customisation options are limited. There are "options" on their floorplan and with Drees that's cool you can go online and use their little tool to add a porch here, bedroom there etc. But it's pre-canned. We built with Cityscape and first step was spending several hours with the architect custom designing the floorplan. Drees' web tool is nice but nothing compared to sitting with an architect with pencil and eraser and carving out your own layout exactly as you want. Then after that every single aspect was custom designed... all the cabinetry, all the fixtures, all the finish etc. This is a big undertaking but if you have the time and commitment it is a fabulous experience as you are literally only limited by your imagination (and of course cost but you don't get taken to the cleaners for deviating from some set plan)
On the plus side I will say this about Wieland homes... their neighbourhoods are very well kept, they seem to have proud home owners. I have always been impressed by the look of their sub divsisions. Also go to Wake County Real Estate Search and search by owner "John Wieland". You'll find 14 pages of homes. That's a lot. That means they are very ready to deal and given their large size they have the ability to do so (vs a smaller local builder with 10 or so homes and a bunch of lots that are all mortgaged and he simply can't afford to discount so much). The deal side is enticing... you will likely be able to negotiate strongly.
I'm very curious to hear from Toll owners. Seems opinion on Toll here is pretty clear. Personally I have no idea why anyone would spend north of $500k on their homes yet even today their average national sale price is $590k. They have $1-2m homes in Brier Creek and Chapel Hill that in my personal opinion are awful. You get the trim level of a $200k Centex home (no offence to that level just when you spend that kind of money you expect a big difference). So what is it that makes these places sell? Even square footage doesn't do it. At those big price points you can get huge square footage. I have been in some of these homes and am stunned that the people paid the price they did. I remember when we moved here they showed up on all web search results so were very easy to find.... I am just wondering if it's mostly implants who didn't really look into much depth?
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