Cedar Ridge Grovetown Subdivision (how much, houses, neighborhoods) - Augusta area - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

Larissa 77 · 08-17-2012, 07:28 PM

We are closing in 2 weeks on a crown home close to Cedar Ridge Elementry School.We love the house and the location .But know closing date is coming closer and we have second thoughts.It is ouer first and hopefully last house we by.Any advises what to look for at the inspection befor closing.I am thankful for any advise from crown home owners.

tckr83 · 08-17-2012, 08:20 PM

Why are you having second thoughts, or what specifically is making you have second thoughts? The house itself? The builder? The price?

Larissa 77 · 08-17-2012, 09:29 PM

I made some resurche abaut crown homes , and it lookes like a lot of people have problems .We allready found lots of details which I think they will fix..Example:holes in tieles,skratches in doors,No sreens in windows,deck moves when you walk on it.It yust makes me wonder how the rest is build.I will wait for the inspection and the final walk ....

tckr83 · 08-18-2012, 08:25 AM

I don't know how much you know about Crown, I haven't heard much about them lately... I will say that those things you mentioned are minor in comparison to things you really need to be looking for as someone who purchased his first house last April and is going through the one-yr follow up right now. I have friends that used to work for Keystone and all 3 are now with another larger local real-estate company in the area now... I have no bias against Crown or any other company because of this, but Crown is or at least was known to have crews working at breakneck pace to throw houses up in weeks, having crews working through the night to get one up in literally weeks. Not only do I know this from others in the real-estate "biz", but I've seen it myself when we were looking to buy last year and I personally and intentionally didn't step foot in a Crown home when we were looking. To me, corners are cut or things get overlooked building a house that fast... they build a lot of them and might have the process down, but you pay for what you get. Remember that.

On the walk through you're going to see nail-pops, no screens, cracked tiles and stuff like that such as you say... however... (and you'll have an inspector i'm sure, but) you need to especially be looking for potential foundation issues: staircase cracks, settling, any needs for french drains because of gutters or A/C runoff... depending on the terrain, you want all the water flowing away from your house, shouldn't be a problem as they grade all the new neighborhoods as such, but there's also no trees in new construction now, so the water can get some speed and travel a ways. Make sure there isn't any moisture issued under the house, make sure the plumbing is working correctly (walk around and flush everything, turn everything on and off).

I'm not going to keep rambling, but it's your biggest investment, ANYTHING that you could possibly think of going wrong, you better look for. Walk through the house (inside and out), make a list of things, then sit down and add to it what you need to check that you can't see... like plumbing, etc. I know nothing about Crown after the buy and if there is a one-year follow up or not (which helps you), but if they're willing to work with you or not is or should be evident to you... if not, I'd make it a point to test that part of the relationship between the buyer (you) and your builder.

I hope you were wanting help on potential issues and that I helped somewhat. If you were wanting info no things to ask for from the builder before you buy, as in "goodies" (fence, fridge, etc)... that's something you'll have to barter on with the builder. We found a house that had been on the market for a while and the builder was wanting to sell it, so we got more than the average buyer I'd say in the goodies department. It's a great house, more "goodies" than the others in the neighborhood, but people are looking at square footage instead of quality in most cases and that's what happened in the case of our house... I guess 3300 sqft isn't what it used to be with the big 4500-5500 sqft "box" houses out there now.

Good luck. Be assertive! It's your money, get the most for it and don't jump into anything too fast, no matter how much you like a house.

Cardinalfan · 08-18-2012, 10:12 AM

Crown specializes in mass-produced housing subdivisions meaning throwing up homes in the shortest, least expensive way possible. Getting all the square footage for such a relatively cheaper price comes with a tradeoff in the quality of home.

Larissa 77 · 08-18-2012, 07:48 PM

Thanks tckr83,

We have a privat inpector who will look at the house and also we think abaut getting a lawyer.

tckr83 · 08-18-2012, 09:06 PM

You're welcome, I hope it turns out to be a great house for you and your family if you get it.

I'd also make a point to completely understand what is and isn't under warranty in/around the house.

amlovingit · 08-19-2012, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tckr83

I don't know how much you know about Crown, I haven't heard much about them lately... I will say that those things you mentioned are minor in comparison to things you really need to be looking for as someone who purchased his first house last April and is going through the one-yr follow up right now. I have friends that used to work for Keystone and all 3 are now with another larger local real-estate company in the area now... I have no bias against Crown or any other company because of this, but Crown is or at least was known to have crews working at breakneck pace to throw houses up in weeks, having crews working through the night to get one up in literally weeks. Not only do I know this from others in the real-estate "biz", but I've seen it myself when we were looking to buy last year and I personally and intentionally didn't step foot in a Crown home when we were looking. To me, corners are cut or things get overlooked building a house that fast... they build a lot of them and might have the process down, but you pay for what you get. Remember that.

On the walk through you're going to see nail-pops, no screens, cracked tiles and stuff like that such as you say... however... (and you'll have an inspector i'm sure, but) you need to especially be looking for potential foundation issues: staircase cracks, settling, any needs for french drains because of gutters or A/C runoff... depending on the terrain, you want all the water flowing away from your house, shouldn't be a problem as they grade all the new neighborhoods as such, but there's also no trees in new construction now, so the water can get some speed and travel a ways. Make sure there isn't any moisture issued under the house, make sure the plumbing is working correctly (walk around and flush everything, turn everything on and off).

I'm not going to keep rambling, but it's your biggest investment, ANYTHING that you could possibly think of going wrong, you better look for. Walk through the house (inside and out), make a list of things, then sit down and add to it what you need to check that you can't see... like plumbing, etc. I know nothing about Crown after the buy and if there is a one-year follow up or not (which helps you), but if they're willing to work with you or not is or should be evident to you... if not, I'd make it a point to test that part of the relationship between the buyer (you) and your builder.

I hope you were wanting help on potential issues and that I helped somewhat. If you were wanting info no things to ask for from the builder before you buy, as in "goodies" (fence, fridge, etc)... that's something you'll have to barter on with the builder. We found a house that had been on the market for a while and the builder was wanting to sell it, so we got more than the average buyer I'd say in the goodies department. It's a great house, more "goodies" than the others in the neighborhood, but people are looking at square footage instead of quality in most cases and that's what happened in the case of our house... I guess 3300 sqft isn't what it used to be with the big 4500-5500 sqft "box" houses out there now.

Good luck. Be assertive! It's your money, get the most for it and don't jump into anything too fast, no matter how much you like a house.

Great advise that will help me when I purchase a house.