New Build Tampa Area - MI (Brandon, Trinity: sale, 2013, HOA)

[NEMMTM]

Has anyone bought a home in the Tampa area from MI....or any other builder (Beazer, Lennar)? How is the quality? Did you use a realtor? How did you go about finding out total cost? ....base price + price out options? Were you able to negotiate? Any advice or sharing of experiences would be great as this is 1st time considering new build. Looking in Land O Lakes.
Thanks

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

I looked at Lennar when I was first here in March of 2013. The homes are inexpensive and in my opinion, they look it and the are cookie-cutter (they all look very similar). I bought a home built by Westbay.

I used a realtor and she was very helpful in providing cost and fee information. Once I knew where I wanted to buy a house, I investigated costs, taxes, maintenance, CDD, HOA and all fees thoroughly by asking questions.

I negotiated (through my realtor) based on the configuration we wanted. When we got to final pricing after working with the design center, our final price came in 5000 dollars under our negotiated price because we changed some of the options we had selected.

I used my long term financial planning spreadsheet to determine the impact on our cash flow and to select a financing option. It turned out the a 15 year amortization was the best choice.

So, plan, organize, ask lots and lots of questions and use computer tools to help you decide.

This was the first house I have ever had built for us. I am overall very pleased with the end result and the quality.

[spbbound]

I own a Lennar home in Tampa Palms that is currently a rental. Bought it new in 2001. Nearly everything about the build or installed products were low in quality but I didn't know better at the time. It's almost frustrating enough to sell but I've replaced so much of it now that perhaps it will stabilize; this includes the roof, a/c, two appliances, all the tile flooring and some stucco work due to cracks from what I consider to be more settling than should have occurred, much of the sprinkler system, broken pump on master bath jets, in-wall pest control tubes never worked, reinstall gutters to drain correctly, additional locks on the extremely cheap windows that were flimsy enough to simply push in the middle to bypass the factory lock and raise them, heavy window treatments to deal with the noise coming through the thin windows, leaks developed in several of the sinks' water feeds, etc.

As far as the community, it is all cookie cutter; four models of home painted in similar colors with owners having had very few options to choose from on the interior other than counter tops and colors. The streets in the development are just now starting to look good because the trees have really grown in nicely, but it took 13 years to get to this point. The HOA mostly stinks but a lot of that is because the bylaws can't be changed thanks to Lennar creating the HOA in a way that required an in-person 75% owner representation at the semi-annual meetings to make changes, and of course as with many communities in Tampa Palms and the like, no one ever shows up for the meetings.

I know it's an attractive idea to make your first house a new house, that's what got me in the door at Lennar since "everything's included...", but I would not make that mistake again. Actually I shouldn't say that because I did make that mistake again on my second house; had another inferior quality home constructed by a smaller builder. Now I really really think I know what I'm doing and have a home going up in St Pete Beach. I'm using the knowledge gained to keep a close eye on this one. Anyway, I'd recommend buying an existing home that has had some time to be broken in, get a good inspector to make sure the reason it still looks good is because it was built well and not because they threw some paint on it, and you'll be happier in the long run. Save the building for your second or third home when the budget is higher, you know what issues you have and can watch out for, and you can get your own GC to do it right.

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

Lennar - "everything's included" and, most important, if you want anything else that is not on their list of "everything's included", their answer is that you'll have to do that yourself after closing - meaning, you're on your own, bud.

In the case of Lennar, you definitely get what you pay for. I'd walk away.

[gulfer]

Interesting read folks and I sincerely say thank you for your answers.

I do disagree somewhat in what a new home brings vice a re-sale. The fact that you have new appliances is a huge thing. You're not forking out 6K or 7K for a very reliable A/C system a year into ownership.

Lennar builds in packages. I know folks that have bought and are very happy with what they receive. Lennar runs a program specifically for Realtors called Aces. They show how the homes are built in segments and I personally am impressed. It doesn't fix the fact that you had a bad experience I know.

GREAT POINT ON HAVING ALL THE PRICES IN FRONT OF YOU. I wish everyone would do this. Know what Mortgage, Insurance, HOA, and CDD will be!!! Having no surprises at the end of the day is extremely important!

To the OP's questions:
Base Price is normally not negotiable. The builder doesn't want to sell the base lower than what is already sold. They have clients that already purchased and don't want to have falling prices so they can maintain the price of their community. Homes that are already built (here is where you will find your best prices) have price reductions that will get you ten/twenty/thirty thousand off sale price (not necessarily - but could be - base price).

Options/Upgrades/Lot Premium - Usually best place to negotiate

Closing Costs - I would not build with a home owner right now that doesn't cover closing costs. And I mean ALL CLOSING COSTS! This can save you 5, 10, 15 thousand right off the start. DON'T BUY WITHOUT GETTING THIS! Rates are just about as good as you can get. If they are .25% or .5% higher it may cost you an additional 100 bucks or so a month. But you have to own a home a LONG TIME to make that 100 a month add up to 10 Grand!!!

Getting a Realtor costs you nothing. Home builders have the price of Realtors already figured out. You aren't getting that money back in different areas. I have seen people right here on City Data come back and ask a ton of questions that your Realtor will provide, some were surprised they didn't get the Buyer Commission, etc... If you do not like negotiating (and many people do not) then you really want one. It is all about negotiating.

You will NOT get money back from the builder by not having a Realtor. It is Illegal for builders to provide kick backs. I have heard people say 'Well I got all these extra things because I didn't use a Realtor and the builder didn't have to pay commission'. NO you didn't. If it was in the transaction, it could have been negotiated.

Currently - Just about every builder has homes sitting there. They built all Winter and we have not had a Spring POP in Sales. I am getting e-mails almost daily on price reductions of homes.

If Land O Lakes (and I live in Land O Lakes) is still where you are looking for example you can check out M/I in Trinity Preserve or Connerton - They have standing inventory on beautiful homes and prices are being cut. The other builders like Lennar, Dr Horton, Standard Pacific, Southern Crafted Homes, Beazer, WestBay, and even Tayltor Morrison have standing inventory. There are some nice homes out there!!

[spbbound]

Originally Posted by gulfer

Interesting read folks and I sincerely say thank you for your answers.

I do disagree somewhat in what a new home brings vice a re-sale. The fact that you have new appliances is a huge thing. You're not forking out 6K or 7K for a very reliable A/C system a year into ownership.

Lennar builds in packages. I know folks that have bought and are very happy with what they receive. Lennar runs a program specifically for Realtors called Aces. They show how the homes are built in segments and I personally am impressed. It doesn't fix the fact that you had a bad experience I know.

Not sure I'd recommend buying a poorly constructed home to get a new A/C unit. Plus, most A/C manufacturers have very strict warranty registration requirements that allow little time to qualify. For example, Trane will not provide the advertised long warranty if the A/C is not registered in your name within 60 days of its installation. No first time home buyer is going to know that, so they're going to move in and when the A/C does break, they're going to find out they got a four year warranty instead of a ten year. My second home builder got me with that one. Plus, you can always negotiate a couple grand off a price if the seller's home has a very old A/C and no active warranty.

I think you'd find an entirely different Lennar build experience if you went to a job site on your own versus their prepared demonstration. I have a friend in Brandon in a Lennar community that has the exact same problems as my Lennar house. They sub out the work to the lowest bidder and expect that contractor to crank through all the active builds as quickly as possible because they're getting paid by the completion not the hour. I had to sneak into my home at dusk on Thanksgiving day to run whole home audio cable through the house since Lennar didn't offer it and wouldn't permit me to hire a company to do it. That was the only day people went home early. These crews were putting in 18 hour days working sun up to well into the evening; those kind of work hours are not how you get quality out of your workers.

[gulfer]

I hear you spbbound. But I do have to say I have been on the sites and not just a presentation.

Look, builders have problems. They all do. Getting through a walk through can be difficult once you see the builders product. Numerous cases of workmanship that boarders on poor. While you don't see it as much in the Higher End Builder or the smaller custom builders, issues are there as well.

But if they were as bad as you make them out to be on every home they built, they would be out of business. They build a product that looks very nice, is for a specific targeted demographic, and is as they say .. all included. People like that or they wouldn't be buying it.

I can't believe most people have the same issues as you is all I am saying.

I know of another that went in on his own and ran the cables. What can I say? They don't offer it in the packages that they have and until you the home builder sign for the home it is not yours. Do I like it? Nope. But it's how they work.

[Irishiis49]

I have heard bad things about Beazer(poor quality)...Both Lennar and MI built homes in Ballantree in Land-o-Lakes,my sister-in-law built with MI...she had very few issues and MI addressed them...are they custom quality homes? No...not by a long shot but they build a decent home...for the money...

[Tim Tim Tim]

I bought a home from Pulte and have been very happy. We are selling it now (not due to the home itself by any means, we just want to downsize and have the wife stay home with the kids). We havent had anything go bad or break, no cracking or anything. I would recommend them if you are looking to purchase a new home.

[HWTechGuy]

I looked really hard at MI (forget which development) in LOL but the numbers just didn't work out for me (and they really tried - came down quite a bit on asking price).

I was impressed by what I saw, and during a not-so-brief period of buyers-remorse, I wished I had gone that route instead. There are advantages/disadvantages either way (buying new vs. buying used). It depends on what's most important in terms of your needs/wants.