Contract issue with Westin Homes (Houston, Spring: sales, house, buyers)

[newbuyer11]

Hi guys,

We are first-time home buyers and considering Westin Homes at Discovery in Spring trail. But right now we met the bottleneck because of the contract issue with them. Although the salesman agreed to give us 30K discount, he insisted that the original base price was written down on the document and "...up to 30K discount" would be shown on it also. We aren't comfortable with that and think it will leave too much space to argue. In other words, it maybe a trap. Did you guys meet same problem before? Or do you have any advise?

Thank you in advance.

[MasonParkMom]

Do you have your own realtor?o r are you using the salesguy from the builder?

We made the mistake of using the sales guy WHO WORKS for the builder and we were not informed of quite a bit of things..I had a very bad experience with my home..but I may be wrong with this guy.

You need to have everything clear and in the open before you proceed; because i tell you what..you don't want a $4600 tax/escrow bill come almost 1.5 years later like we did because we were not in the loop (we bought a new construction home and were not informed of how high our taxes were going to be).

GET YOUR OWN AGENT. It does not COST YOU anything..the sales people at the new construction homes give you a good incentive because you are not using an agent..but at the end you need to find someone to represent you. I made the mistake of not doing this and it has cost us dearly.

[cheryjohns]

The contract should be clear, "up to $30K discount" sounds murky.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by newbuyer11

Although the salesman agreed to give us 30K discount, he insisted that the original base price was written down on the document and "...up to 30K discount" would be shown on it also.

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

The contract should be clear, "up to $30K discount" sounds murky.

This.

I'm not sure how a contract (INAL) can even use that phrase, "up to". Your contract should state exactly what you think it should. Or walk away.

[tdhg566]

Better yet, instead of relying on contract language, prepare a spreadsheet with ALL the costs shown as individual line items. Original/list price, original discount, other discounts (my salesman had an additional $5000 discount, over and above the builder's published discount, in his pocket to use as a last resort - of course I made him use it), price of each option, etc etc etc

Attach the spreadsheet to the contract and HAVE THE SALESMAN DATE AND SIGN IT. Whatever the salesman signs is legally binding on the builder.

Each time there is ANY modification to the price, update the spreadsheet, and have the salesman date and sign.

[newbuyer11]

Thank y'all very much for your comments. I totally agree. We really like the floor plan and nice view very much. So it's hard to walk away(((. We asked all our friends but nobody met same problem before. We are suffering. We dare not to accept this contract. It's a real big deal for us. If they gave us ZERO discount at last, we couldn't put a word on it.

[kreeyax]

Do they have your earnest money already?

[chris_ut]

Tell him he can put that if he puts "up to $XXX,XXX" as the sales price of the house

[Houston321]

There has to be some details missing here. There will be a base price, price of options, and discount. For Example:

250,000 Base Price
35,000 Options
(30,000) Discount

Total Purchase Price: $255,000.

There has to be a miscommunication here. Westin wants to sell homes, not trap you. Have the salesperson draw up the contract so you can look at it. Get an experienced realtor to review it. All builder contracts are pretty basic and should be fairly straight forward.

[nimbusdog]

Originally Posted by Houston321

There has to be some details missing here. There will be a base price, price of options, and discount. For Example:

250,000 Base Price
35,000 Options
(30,000) Discount

Total Purchase Price: $255,000.

There has to be a miscommunication here. Westin wants to sell homes, not trap you. Have the salesperson draw up the contract so you can look at it. Get an experienced realtor to review it. All builder contracts are pretty basic and should be fairly straight forward.

This is probably it. My guess is that they aren't going to budge on the base price. The "up to $30k discount" will come in the form of upgrades. If you don't select $30k worth of upgrades, you don't get the full $30k discount. If you select over $30k in upgrades, then you get the $30k off of the upgrades.