First time buyer--new home construction (for sale, real estate, lender)

[fishdelasol]

We are first time home buyers and are looking into buying a new townhouse in South FL (we live in SFLA).

Lennar is the builder and when we walked through, the woman representative said that we had to use their approved lenders UAMC in order to get any of the incentives. We have also been working with a realtor while shopping for non-new homes.

I have researched about Lennar and buying new construction. There seems to be many conflicting sides.

Should I use a realtor or does buying from the builder rid the need of a realtor? I feel like a realtor will protect me from what the builder isn't saying. I also want a real estate lawyer to look at my contract.

Lennar also has a 50/50 reputation. Some people have horror stories and some people like their homes a lot. Most of the bad things being said is that Lennar is horrible about getting back to owners to have things fixed. There was even a website dedicated to complaints about Lennar by a realestate agent and it seems that Lennar has bought the site with the "Lennar Cares" slogan. It is now under construction.

I am fine with getting things fixed as long as the builder will cooperate and send out people to do it!

Any advice?

[renriq02]

RUN! lol

FL is a title company state....so asking for an attorney will cost more.
The title company peforms the closing.

Your realtor may help you obtain a better price...but her commission is coming from the sale of the home. You can ask the builder to lower the sales price by what they were going to pay her in commission. Most builders will not do this...but it's worth a shot.

If your home is going to be 50/50 good/bad....then I wouldn't buy the home at all. THAT'S WAY TO HIGH OF CHANCE. If the home builder has 20% or more in problems....then I wouldnt even consider them.

Remember if you use the builder's lender...the interest rates come out higher...nothing in life is for free.

Originally Posted by fishdelasol

We are first time home buyers and are looking into buying a new townhouse in South FL (we live in SFLA).

Lennar is the builder and when we walked through, the woman representative said that we had to use their approved lenders UAMC in order to get any of the incentives. We have also been working with a realtor while shopping for non-new homes.

I have researched about Lennar and buying new construction. There seems to be many conflicting sides.

Should I use a realtor or does buying from the builder rid the need of a realtor? I feel like a realtor will protect me from what the builder isn't saying. I also want a real estate lawyer to look at my contract.

Lennar also has a 50/50 reputation. Some people have horror stories and some people like their homes a lot. Most of the bad things being said is that Lennar is horrible about getting back to owners to have things fixed. There was even a website dedicated to complaints about Lennar by a realestate agent and it seems that Lennar has bought the site with the "Lennar Cares" slogan. It is now under construction.

I am fine with getting things fixed as long as the builder will cooperate and send out people to do it!

Any advice?

[filo74]

Lennar is excellent company...they have been around for a very long time and have perfected new home buying. Pre-construction home are definitely the way to go. I have purchased two pre-construct homes in the past. As long as you develop some type of friendly rapport with your sales agent, you will not have trouble having them come back to fix things that need to be fixed. Believe me...Lennar is an excellent company and you should have no problems. I would go with their lender as well to get the incentives. Good luck !

[desertsun41]

Oh my !!!! You are buying a home? Wow whoever Realtor you are working with must be treating you like royalty. A real live home buyer !!! Wow I didn't think there were any of those anymore.

One home buyer and millions and millions of houses for sale. Talk about lop sided.

Hey good luck to you. You have the upper hand in this market. Dont let them sucker you. Especially Lennar.

[rogerbacon]

I bought a Lennar-built home a year ago. I bought it from a buyer who bought it pre-constroction (one of those flippers). The home still had 9 months warrentee on the work and Lennar was very quick to send peopel out to fix the problems we found. That being said, there are some issues that make me wonder what kind of people did the construction in the first place. Who doesn't know which way an electrical outlet goes in? Some of ours were upside down. The lock on our bathroom door was on the wrong side (so you could lock someone in but could not lock in from the inside. They fixed the problems quickly and without any charge, of course.

If you are buying a new home you might want to look at existing homes that were built a year or two ago that are the same model. Lennar, and probably all builders are cutting back on expenses now that the home prices are going down. That results in lower quality houses being built. For example, in my area the houses that were built a year ago have a concrete second floor but hte same models being built now have a wood second floor. That can make a big difference if you plan on putting a waterbed up there.

[miamicarpetc]

Goto [url=http://www.ripoffreport.com]Ripoff Report: By Consumers, For Consumers[/url]
Type in UAMC and Lennar and see what comes up.
Some questions: buying directly from a builder why do you need an agent? especially a FREE agent that gets paid from the builder. Builder pays agent, you dont. (read between the lines there) On another note builders also give incentives for going through their own lenders....
Builders give discounts that us Mort Brokers can't beat, they also clause in
no refunds with outside Mort Brokers. (make sure a clause in ur favor states if u go though their lenders and anything happens you get full refund of your deposit) See if you can also clause in a paper sale prior to or the day of closing. (assignment of contract) Just in case you dont want to buy it when time comes to close. This gives you the option of selling all the work that you've done up to this point and either make a small profit on the dwn payment if the market goes up. or loss if it goes down. Read more, do more research and ask all the questions you can on all info I provide. Good luck ! and enjoy your first home. [mod] advertising is not allowed on this forum [/mod]

-Michael.