Home Buying Experience in North Dallas Wylie/Sacshe Area - with Grand Homes, Grenadier, Lionsgate and Megatel (Happy: house, water heater)

[Jake26]

Wow! sounds like you really negotiated well. When did you request for the changes in gas plumbing? Before signing the contract or during the pre-construction meeting?

Before we signed the contract, we have requested for extended fence (27ft each side), floor tiles in the formal dining room, SS GE refrigerator( builder providing $1000 credit) and closing costs of 3% (builder and lender will pay). They approved all of our requests. Then we found out later that the laundry sink pre-plumb is not included in the plan and we already signed the contract. So, we asked for the pre-plumb and asked for a discount but was not granted. So we paid $1500 for the pre-plumb ( laundry will be in the second floor). Oh, we don't have a buyer's agent. We just did the negotiation which took at least an hour.

We are still waiting for the pre-construction meeting and permits approval which the sales agent said will take about 4-6 weeks...

[sirdevan]

We have yet to have the builder's meeting, supposedly next month. We got the 3% as well and negotiated the price down about $3k though we really tried for $8k. Sounds like we will be neighbors, good luck!

I will post again when we have a builders meeting scheduled. I have a list about 80 lines long for that meeting! Including putting some rooms on separate circuits, window placements, make sure all ceilings are blocked for fans, frosted glass in bathroom downstairs, media room 7.1 wired, weep hole exclusion, inset behind fridge for reverse osmosis tank, outlet in attic for wifi extenders, Rainsoft piping, garage keypad wiring etc etc.

[Jake26]

I am very frustrated about the news that I received from the sales agent. She told me that my house will not fit in the lot that we picked. I asked her how come they approved the contract if the house will not fit? She said the engineering department just returned a detailed floor plan of our house and lot. We really like the lot that we picked because it is by the cul de sac. Now we have to decide where we want to build the house. It is just frustrating to know this after almost 3 weeks of waiting....;(

[sirdevan]

Wow, I had this issue previously with Grand. It was horribly frustrating. We ended up choosing a different plan because we liked the spot so well. What plan were you happiest with if you don't mind me asking? You might ask them if there is a plan that will fit that still has everything you want in the current plan.

I know currently we love our plan so much we would find a lot for it, so I can understand that side as well. We have only dealt with Adam with Megatel, never met anyone else besides the builder briefly. Because we had had this issue previously we kind of checked on that right away and Adam looked at the size of the lot and house to make sure. Of course, you never know, we might get the same call.

3 weeks ago puts about the time Adam was on vacation. I wonder if you were dealing with his temp replacement and that might explain why she didn't know about the size issue. Just an assumption though.

[Jake26]

I was reading my previous posts here and totally missed the part of mentioning what city we are building. It will be in San antonio area.

I did not know that this situation is possible. Where you able to renegotiate additional upgrades that you want in Grand since your house did not fit in the lot that you liked?

This is totally frustrating and waste of time. Now, we have to start all over again....

[sirdevan]

It was horridly frustrating and with Grand they gave us an additional $3k in upgrade cash (we started with $19k in upgrade cash, use it or lose it money, can't put it toward house or anything), but since Megatel doesn't do upgrades really, I am not sure what you could work out.

You might be able to get a different plan with a small amount less on the offer that fits the lot, but again I am not the salesman.

I will state, that is something the sales person should have caught way before it went to corporate. They definitely dropped the ball there and they know it. On the other hand the Megatel sales people don't get near as much commission as other builders due to lack of upgrade options, so they may not be able to move a lot on price, but they can discuss that with the builder and see.

When it came down to the final price of the home we negotiated the price down about $3k via the builder (sales person had to call them. We asked for $6k less, his counter was $3k and we accepted) so there is movement on those prices.

[sirdevan]

Megatel Planning Update: I spoke with sales person today and the final blueprints are finished and being submitted to the city this week. I am told in the next 2 weeks I should get a call for the redline/builder meeting. This puts it right around end of this month or first of next which is exactly what they told us when we signed. So things are still on schedule even with our plan request changes.

[sirdevan]

Builder's Meeting Scheduled.

I know it's been a couple weeks, but I got an email 2 days ago actually giving me 6 dates for the builders meeting, starting first week of November. Unfortunately we had a death in the family so we are pushing it out to the 3rd week of November due to being out of town for a while. I only state this so it is noted that the builder did not push it out this far, but that we did.

Everything is still going as planned and we are excited to have this meeting next month. I am not so sure the builder will be excited once he sees our list! We have so many questions... Giving a list of the prominent questions/requests below in case it helps others.

1. Change swing of 2 doors (master bathroom and laundry room).
2. Closet at top of stairs to be shelves instead of coat closet.
3. Can we put taller windows in the card room?
4. While we are getting electric stove, we want gas stubbed as well for future use. (have this included in price)
5. Can we get eggshell paint on all walls instead of flat?
6. Door knobs instead of handles (bc of little ones) they agreed on this already just 'reminding'
7. Rainsoft pre-piping? We have a Rainsoft system that we are moving to this house.
8. Are there outlets in the 4 attic accesses?
9. Weephole exclusion?
10. Can we have the dining room tiled instead of carpeted?
11. Inset behind fridge for reverse osmosis tank?
12. Access to the circular part of the attic. Stairs go to it, but it's blocked in the one we walked.
13. Garages insulated.
14. Release vents in garages?
15. Moving data port and sockets in Study.
16. Need locking doors to study and pantry.
17. Tile from powder room to garage? Not sure from blueprints
18. Internet/Cat5 main box put in media room closet instead of master closet.
19. Separate Circuits for Study and Media Room Closet.
20. Large window in master bathroom frosted?

[sirdevan]

We had our official Builder's Redline meeting today. It went well. Took about 3 hours. Because of our own personal postponement they had already started building. Basically just the plumbing in the ground. We were surprised they had started, but we knew we had no changes to the foundation. They covered most of our requests, some of them with no additional charges.

Of my list above they said no to 3, 7, 9, 11, 12. Some of these they just said they would charge too much for so do it after. 3, 9 and 12 we were told were just not possible. We only looked into Weephole exclusion because Terminix had suggested it to us. The builder said that was a very bad idea and against code.

It was a cost to do 5 ($2,000 said no ridiculous), 10($1,056 good price, but decided against after discussion), 17($160), 19($250). We also added a "Christmas Lights" option that puts 2 outlets on each corner of the house with a switch to them at entryway for $250. We added one outlet in kitchen area ($100) and Upgraded media room from 5.1 to 7.1 for $200 (they wire it).

They are making a closet to media room (moving low current box from master closet to here) for free and changing all bedroom (also media room and study) to locking doors for free.

We asked several more questions and most went well. They admitted they charge a fortune for more fencing and would give us the number of the fence company to have them add on our end instead of through Megatel.

We are officially in building phase!

[holldog99]

Thanks for sharing! The builders' websites don't always have as much information as I would like- coming from another state, I don't want to call them up because we're not "serious" at this point. We don't know when we're moving and will likely rent first. Then, we have to decide to buy an established home or to build. I especially appreciate the costs of upgrades- which are rarely on the builders' websites. It's hard to tell if I'm looking at so-called "starter homes" or nicer-upgraded homes. I like how megatel shares photos of the homes rather than just floor plans.

I would love it if others would chime in and share their building experiences.