If you are building a new home.... (wood floors, luxury)

[FLtoNC]

I saw a few posts on here about what to get in upgrades. We have an intercom system and a central vacuum system, and although they weren't too cheap, they are much appreciated in my house! I was very skeptical on the central vacuum system, but I can't tell you how easy it is to vacuum my wood floors. I also have a vac pan in the kitchen which you can sweep crumbs into & it goes right into the central vac system. No more bending down for dust pans. The intercom is a nice luxury, especially if you have a large house. I didn't get these, because I thought it would add value for resale - I got them out of convenience. Just curious though to all you realtors out there, what is your opinion on how these add to the value of the home?

One of the things I wish I didn't do as far as upgrades go is upgrading the wood floors. I paid a lot more to have a wider plank, but I don't think it was worth it. First of all, I have some issues with my wood floors (cracks in boards). But more importantly, I have walked into other homes that have the thinner standard plank & I do not notice a difference. I don't think anyone is going to walk in my home & say, "Wow, your floor boards are 1.5" wider than everyone else's." It wasn't worth the extra almost $5K we spent to get this - just something that the upgrade center makes you believe is necessary.

Also a warning to new those building a new home - make sure when you do your inspections that everything is there. This may sound obvious, but you wouldn't believe the things you notice a few months after moving in that are missing. For example, we just noticed that the dribble zone in our irrigation system for our plant beds was never installed. Why didn't I notice it before? My plants have looked decent up until now. Now, a few of my plants are dying, and when I went to plant some flowers, I noticed there were no lines there. Also, we just noticed that an air vent was missing from one of our bathroom shower stalls. Why didn't we notice this? We didn't use this bathroom until recently. The builder is taking care of these issues thankfully, but it would have been much easier to deal with this during construction. I will tell you that there were PLENTY of things I noticed that the builder corrected during construction, including things most people would have never noticed. Just goes to show you that even a keen eye will miss some things! No, I did not hire a inspector, but I honestly think an inspector would have missed some of the things I did find. If I built a home again, I would still feel comfortable not using an inspector, but I would be even more careful next time around (if there is a next time around).