Buying new house in Summerwood (Houston, Oakhurst: hazard insurance, mortgages, loan) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

jptexas · 09-26-2007, 02:01 PM

Hi everybody, I just discovered this message board.

Would someone be kind enough to share their experience in buying a house in summerwood.
- most importantly, I would like to know the kind of incentives you obtained from the builder. did you get a price discount, or mainly cash bonuses on upgrades...
- I am a first time buyer, have you experienced or realized anything that I should consider before signing anything? (unusual fees of any kind, ...)

Thanks so much for the precious help!

jptexas · 09-26-2007, 09:58 PM

actually, my question might be too specific to hope for an answer
if anybody that bought a house recently in a houston community could share their experience, that would be terrific, thanks!

I got offered the promotion of the month, $10K+$2K to be used towards upgrade, for a ~$280K house. How much more can I hope for?

chris_ut · 09-26-2007, 11:25 PM

I just bought a new house in Oakhurst for 210k. I got 20k incentives towards upgrades plus a free stainless steel refrigerator thrown in. We ended up spending 23k to get all the upgrades we wanted (so 3k out of pocket), keep in mind that they mark up all their stuff usually 50-100% so its best to do only things you cant have done later easily like flooring and cabinets. Ceiling Fans and such that you can get from Home Depot are best avoided as upgrades as you will pay more to get that from the builder. Usually you can haggle with them for up to 10% of the price of the house so 12k incentives on 280k seems a little stingy.

Another thing to watch is how much of your incentives are tied to using their lender. They will try to make back a lot of the money with junk fees and increased interest on your loan. I was lucky that I have a VA loan for my house and the builders lender was forced to drop $1200 worth of junk fees from the original GFE that the VA wont allow. Watch out for things like a "courier fee" as if they dont just email everything, or a "processing fee", they make money on your origination and then they sell the loan for a profit so any fees you accept out side of stuff like the survey and the title company is mostly just pure profit to them. Also you should never have to pay an "application fee" for a loan. They wont even bother with the paperwork until you are pre-approved and then they are set to make several grand off your loan so why exactly should you pay them to accept your application.

If your looking for info particular to Summerwood my best advice is walk around the neighborhood and talk to people. Ask them who their builder was, how their experience with the builder and the neighborhood is and what kind of incentives they got when they bought.

Kandy · 09-27-2007, 08:34 AM

JPTexas,

I post on another Houston site on Babycenter.com. I'm not sure if you have children, but it's a site for Mom's and it has lots of different bulleton boards. There is one for the Houston area and I know of at least two people on there who are building homes in Summerwood. You may want to post your question there.

Good luck on your building your new home. I am in Fall Creek - just down the beltway.
~K~

jptexas · 09-27-2007, 11:33 AM

thank you for your answers!!

also, what is the typical hazard insurance I can expect to pay? There is an estimate with the mortgages estimates, but it seems so high to me, would I get a lot lower when I getmy own insurance?

what they quote for hazard insurance is 2,000 for 280K house, is it standard?

Kandy · 09-27-2007, 03:19 PM

Yes. Unfortunately insurance is really high around here and rate you were quoted is typical. Also, if you want flood insurance on top of that, there is an additional fee around $300/year that must be paid all at once. I think it's because of hurricanes & tropical storms, plus being in Harris county.

BearBranch · 09-27-2007, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jptexas

thank you for your answers!!

also, what is the typical hazard insurance I can expect to pay? There is an estimate with the mortgages estimates, but it seems so high to me, would I get a lot lower when I getmy own insurance?

what they quote for hazard insurance is 2,000 for 280K house, is it standard?

I shopped around for Hazard insurance. For my 187k home with Allstate I'm at $95 per month.

chris_ut · 09-27-2007, 04:50 PM

I was quoted $100 per month so yours does seem high. Are you in a flood plain? If so I would suggest not buying there.

nsooshant · 09-29-2007, 01:45 PM

Summerwood has the rep of having very sluggish resales and also a relatively low annual appreciation rate. You might want to have your realtor provide you with good hard data on this before making a final decision, assuming you are still looking. Insurance: if it's a new home, I would think your annual premium should be no more than $125/mo. for a HO-B policy. Mine runs just <$1000/yr. for a $265K, 1% ded.

sdecet · 07-12-2008, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nsooshant

Summerwood has the rep of having very sluggish resales and also a relatively low annual appreciation rate. You might want to have your realtor provide you with good hard data on this before making a final decision, assuming you are still looking. Insurance: if it's a new home, I would think your annual premium should be no more than $125/mo. for a HO-B policy. Mine runs just <$1000/yr. for a $265K, 1% ded.

we just bought a house in Summerwood and our insurance is double w a 2% deductible. Would you be so kind as to share who your insurance company is so we can get it that low.
Thank you for your help.