Considering buying in Riverstone...Relocating from NY (Naples: hardwood floors, hotel)

[Jingie]

We are having crown molding and some extra trim done after we close on the house. GL Homes had a huge mark-up on that. Several of our neighbors did this as well, so we will get some contractor recommendations from them. We are also going to have our own laundry room cabinets and closet organizers installed. Again, huge mark-ups on those too. We did go ahead and have the extra electrical panel and pre-plumb for a pool done to try and make it easier if we decide to install a pool on our own down the road.

[CH183]

The sales rep at Riverstone has told me that the average amount spent on options and upgrades through the builder for the Dubonett Grande model is 150k. He also mentioned if you spend around 200k that's essentially topping out and getting the best option for everything they offer. Anyone out there that has built in Riverstone and gone through this process that can provide details on the process and whether there is any truths to this? I only ask because they way I look at selecting options is like planning a wedding you will have your self saying "well we've already spent this much, why not spend a little more and get what we want". This can get dangerous and balloon out of control and over budget.

[InPlaneSight]

Originally Posted by CH183

The sales rep at Riverstone has told me that the average amount spent on options and upgrades through the builder for the Dubonett Grande model is 150k. He also mentioned if you spend around 200k that's essentially topping out and getting the best option for everything they offer. Anyone out there that has built in Riverstone and gone through this process that can provide details on the process and whether there is any truths to this? I only ask because they way I look at selecting options is like planning a wedding you will have your self saying "well we've already spent this much, why not spend a little more and get what we want". This can get dangerous and balloon out of control and over budget.

For someone who recently completed the upgrade selection, I can attest that $200K for top of the line upgrades in the Dubonett Grande is probably conservative. Although we do not have the Dubonett Grande, we spent $110K on upgrades (and the Dubonett Grande is 80% larger than our home.) We declined many upgrades that were excessively priced, i.e. crown moulding, top of the line faucets, etc. Those very simple type upgrades I will purchase and install myself before we move in, as well as painting the entire interior of the home, will save me tens of thousands of dollars over GL Homes' prices.

As you expect, the greatest expense is upgraded flooring and the next biggest expenses are your kitchen and bathrooms. We also spent an additional $60K for our pool and spa. We did, in fact, go over our budget. I kept in mind that Riverstone is not a community of $800K+ homes (very few are even $700,000) so having the most expensive house, with all the bells and whistles offered, may not be an asset for any future sale.

[movin1]

Just wrapped up the process on the Chandon (2,313 sq ft single story). $53K for a 15' x 30' rectangular salt pool, single story cage was $9K of that total. No Riverstone markup on the pool-it is what it is from The Pool People. Same price before or after. From what I could tell, pools cost about the same from most contractors. Made sense to us to get the pool now and not mess with it after the house is built. You have to tear up your yard and jump through some hoops.

We spent about $100K on house upgrades (in addition to the pool). We got nice flooring, cabinets and kitchen appliances (I cook a lot). Appliances are fairly priced. Some things are 2X over cost, so we did not put in a Grohe kitchen sink faucet. Same thing with linen and bedroom closets, we will upgrade later. You can only do so much in the process to save money.

There will be more money spent after the house is done on painting, lighting fixtures, window treatment, outdoor kitchen, office furniture etc.

When it's all said and done, we will have 1,000 square feet more living space in Naples for less money than we had in our condo in Chicago where our parking space alone cost $40K. And, we paid an HOA fee 3X what it is in Riverstone for basically nothing and higher property taxes (paid an HOA fee and property tax on the parking space too). Oh yeah, our state income tax jumped from 3% to 5% a few years ago.

We are so glad we are moving to Riverstone.

[InPlaneSight]

[quote=movin1;35322287]Just wrapped up the process on the Chandon (2,313 sq ft single story). $53K for a 15' x 30' rectangular salt pool, single story cage was $9K of that total. No Riverstone markup on the pool-it is what it is from The Pool People. Same price before or after. From what I could tell, pools cost about the same from most contractors. Made sense to us to get the pool now and not mess with it after the house is built. You have to tear up your yard and jump through some hoops.


The price you (we) were quoted, and did not change, was because we were quoted GL Homes' price, not The Pool People price. The markup had already been done. This information came directly from The Pool People. Agreed, we didn't want to wait either just to save a few thousand dollars, and have to deal with the process.

[movin1]

That figures. Patty asked if we wanted to do it through Riverstone or after-there was no mention that the price would be different/cheaper. The whole process is really screwy compared to two other houses we had built in Illinois. Having to put up so much money so long before construction starts is ridiculous/scary. The other houses we built had construction loans and draws as the build progressed. The construction loan rolled over into a mortgage when the house was done. The last house we built in 2005, the contractor financed the construction. We paid when the house was done.

In Riverstone, we're all putting up a hefty down payment long before construction begins. We just paid for our pool 9 months before we will swim in it.

Hoping it all goes well.....

[CH183]

Thanks for the inputs this far. Very helpful. Any idea on delivery times? Has GL Homes been reliable in meeting the estimated closing / delivery dates?

"Movin1", when you say you will do painting afterwards, what exactly do you mean? I would have thought interior painting would be a standard item to have done with no extra costs. Am I wrong to assum this? In addition, is the standard landscaping sufficient or do I have to budget a certain portion of option costs to landscaping as well?

[movin1]

Riverstone paints the entire interior, it is included in the price. There are only two color choices, white and an off white. We will do some custom colors here and there to make it more interesting. We will close, take delivery and paint before we move in.

I'm curious about InPlaneSight's statement "as well as painting the entire interior of the home". Is it an option that you can get credit for painting and do your own? I doubt it, they probably won't close on the house if it's not painted.

Standard landscaping looked OK to me. I spent zillions of dollars on landscaping in previous houses and don't want to get in to that again. I did not see any upgrades to landscaping in the 148 pages of upgrade options.

You will get better answers from an agent at Riverstone, they are very helpful. NYFLbound closed on her house a while back and she said they were pretty much right on time with the estimated delivery date.

[InPlaneSight]

Originally Posted by movin1

Riverstone paints the entire interior, it is included in the price. There are only two color choices, white and an off white. We will do some custom colors here and there to make it more interesting. We will close, take delivery and paint before we move in.

I'm curious about InPlaneSight's statement "as well as painting the entire interior of the home". Is it an option that you can get credit for painting and do your own? I doubt it, they probably won't close on the house if it's not painted.

Standard landscaping looked OK to me. I spent zillions of dollars on landscaping in previous houses and don't want to get in to that again. I did not see any upgrades to landscaping in the 148 pages of upgrade options.

You will get better answers from an agent at Riverstone, they are very helpful. NYFLbound closed on her house a while back and she said they were pretty much right on time with the estimated delivery date.

No credit. I just don't want "white" so I will purchase paint (from Home Depot, I've already chosen the colors) and perform the labor myself. GL Homes appears to use Sherwin Williams colors. BTW, you see there was a $5000 price increase, across the board, posted yesterday, but becomes effective Saturday, 06/28.

[movin1]

Thanks for the info IPS. That's what I suspected was the case. At least white is a good base coat to start from.

I had not seen the price increase, thanks for the heads up on that. This is the third one since we bought just a few months ago-we're now $14K ahead of the game. We talked to some folks who had watched prices go up $35K from where they started when they first opened-we got in after all those increases, darn it. If the economy holds up and home prices in Naples continue to rise over the next 15-20 years, we might get back all the money we lost when we sold our last 2 houses, LOL.

You might want to rethink Home Depot paint (Behr I assume). The pro painters I have used seem to really like Sherwin Williams and say the Behr is not as good as Consumer Reports says it is. I'm on some other forums that discuss paint and most folks agree. We just had some painting done recently and they used SW. I have wiped off some marks on the wall with a wet rag and it holds up really well-can't remember which line of paint it was, but the painter told us it was washable. We had paint in a previous house that looked horrible if you tried to wipe it clean-ended up having to do a lot of touch up painting.