thoughts on buying a new construction home (Dallas: hardwood floor, apartment)

[kdai]

* little info about ourselves
my wife and i are in our late 20s working as young professionals in the dfw area. The rent on our 1 bed apt is almost $900/month and it is continuing to go up each time i renew my lease. Also, both of us have relatively stable jobs, and we don't see ourselves leaving dfw any time soon. Last yr around sept, oct, we decided to start shopping around for our first house.
We don't have kids, so we didn't feel like we need a whole lot of space. A ranch style sfh, 3, 4 bed around 2,000 sq ft will work just fine. the max budget on the house is 300k and this includes renovation. Long story short say, we ended up settling on a new construction, when we saw the model house, it was kind of love at first sight. It met most of our criterion, one story, 4bed2bath, well under budget, in a good school district. The only downside was the house was a 25mi drive from my job.

*what we learned about buying a new construction
pros
1. you are buying a brand new house! no one has ever lived in the house before.
2. you are involved in the building process. Before the builder actually builds the house, if you are buying a ready to build house, you can decide whether you want a fireplace or not, whether you want to have a 2nd living space or convert the area into dinning/studying. meet with the designer and pick out the color of the doors, kitchen cabinets and the exteriors.

cons
1. the model home fools you. To sell their houses, the builder will make the model home look as nice as possible, which means the model house that you see will include lots of upgrades, the wall will be painted nicely, the floor will be upgraded with hardwood, nice granite countertop with the undermount sink in the kitchen, stainless appliances...
We signed the contract and put down the deposit last oct. Now, the house is about to close soon, when we went to see our house in the last few weeks, the craftsmanship is a little sloppy to say the least. I guess for the buyers, buying a house is a big purchase for us. The down payment that we put on the house is literally all the money that we have saved since we started working, but to the builders who build the house, our house to them is just another project that they have to do in order to fulfill the contract and earn their paycheck.
*tip, when you walk into a model home, at least figure out how much all the upgrades will cost, so when you decide to make your house look like the model house, you don't get a sticker shock on the price.

2. upgrades on the new construction
Depends on how you look at it, this can be a pro/con. Pro, it gives you the chance to customize your house, if you are willing to spend some $$$$$ on the upgrades, you can make it into your dream house and move right into it after closing.
Con, if you don't want any upgrades, the base model that the builder offers simply look cheap! from the light fixture to the floor to the kitchen countertop. If you want upgrades, the price that the builder charges on the upgrades is simply outrageous and the selections are somewhat limited. The engineering floor that i liked, the builder wants $14/sq ft. If you want to hire your own contractor to install the hardwood floor, you have to wait after closing; which means if you want hardwood floor in the kitchen, and the builder decides to install tiles for the purpose of passing inspection. you have to pay your contractor additional money to take off those tiles before the hardwood can be installed, simply a pain!

*These are all the things that i can think of for now. If you have any questions about anything that i wrote above, feel free to ask.
To make my thread concise, there are some stuff i didn't bother to cover, for example, whether or not to use builder's preferred lender when it comes to finance your mortgage, what kind of upgrades are worth getting. I am not an expert on these things by any means, but i did learn a thing or two about financing and upgrades.

[jcl_cls02]

You made the right decision in buying a home. You'll eventually outgrow this one a buy, or build another home. You'll eventually figure out what you want in a second home. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

[RJ312]

That will be a soul sucking commute for you. Keeping renting was the better choice.

[kdai]

Originally Posted by jcl_cls02

You made the right decision in buying a home. You'll eventually outgrow this one a buy, or build another home. You'll eventually figure out what you want in a second home. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

jcl_cls02, i guess in the short term, money will be a little tight, all the renovation that we are planning to do after closing, spending the money to furnish the house... extra expense on the property tax. But i think in the long run, it will pay off. I am only in my late 20s, so i like to think long term.
Due to inflation and people's demand for houses in good school district, house price over time will always go up, so relatively speaking, buying a house is a safe investment.

Originally Posted by RJ312

That will be a soul sucking commute for you. Keeping renting was the better choice.

yea, im not looking forward to the commute either, but with our budget and our requirements, we knew we had to sacrifice on something. It is our first house, it would be naive to think we will find a house thats under budget and meets all of our requirements.

[SaltySugar]

Your mileage may vary but if I were in your shoes, I would buy a small single story near my work and spend more on advancing my professional marketability seeing the world, adventures, and experiences.

It's too early to dedicate your life to commuting, building, maintaining, upgrading, decorating and furnishing a house. You are young only once. If you have extra money then save it so later in you can move into a bigger better home with huge down payment.

[richard88]

Originally Posted by kdai

jcl_cls02, i guess in the short term, money will be a little tight, all the renovation that we are planning to do after closing, spending the money to furnish the house... extra expense on the property tax. But i think in the long run, it will pay off. I am only in my late 20s, so i like to think long term.
Due to inflation and people's demand for houses in good school district, house price over time will always go up, so relatively speaking, buying a house is a safe investment.


yea, im not looking forward to the commute either, but with our budget and our requirements, we knew we had to sacrifice on something. It is our first house, it would be naive to think we will find a house thats under budget and meets all of our requirements.

25mile commute.... it depends which highway you're taking.

[kdai]

Originally Posted by SaltySugar

Your mileage may vary but if I were in your shoes, I would buy a small single story near my work and spend more on advancing my professional marketability seeing the world, adventures, and experiences.

It's too early to dedicate your life to commuting, building, maintaining, upgrading, decorating and furnishing a house. You are young only once. If you have extra money then save it so later in you can move into a bigger better home with huge down payment.

a new construction around the area that i work is at least 400k, and 1 story 4bed almost doesn't exist. i guess i could have bought an older home and fix it, but i cannot stand fireplace and a lot of the older homes have a fireplace. Summer in dallas is quiet long and the temp during the winter only gets about the mid 30s. I used to live the midwest, where the snow can be 5in high. When i see people hang their tv on top of their fireplace, it is a big turn off.
25mi is manageable, a lot of people commute from the burbs to downtown. I know people who live in plano/mckinney and work in irving.

[kdai]

when i was a single guy, i traveled, went to alaska and rent a rv with some friends, visited europe twice, but now, married. My wife doesn't want me to spend 5k on traveling anymore, especially this yr, with all the additional expenses on the house.

[lifofifo]

Originally Posted by kdai

a new construction around the area that i work is at least 400k, and 1 story 4bed almost doesn't exist. i guess i could have bought an older home and fix it, but i cannot stand fireplace and a lot of the older homes have a fireplace.

You maynot stand a fireplace. But there's a reason every house has one. And if you didn't build one in your new house, that'd likely hurt the resale prospects of your house in the future.

[TheotherMarie]

My husband and I moved to the Dallas area for his work. For the first year, we lived in an apartment. Even though we lived only 10 minutes from his office, and the area was beautiful, and the apartment was brand new, it was a terrible experience.
We ended up buying a newer house with a commute close to what yours is. But it was totally worth it.

We have bought four homes during our marriage. You learn something new with each one.
Our third house was also a new build, only with basically NO upgrades. You learn to ask what's included, and scrutinize. You learn how expensive landscaping and fencing are. You learn to be patient while making the home your own. The bonus there is that you don't have to choose from the builder's limited choices. If you want stainless counters, bamboo floors and pebble tile in the shower, you can do that.

Anyway, enjoy your new home. Have fun with it, and learn from it. It will probably be just one of a few houses you'll own.