Buying Home. Does anyone know if William Lyon negotiates? (Mesa: countertops, lender)

[webbyguy]

I'm considering buying a new home in Mesa, AZ. The price is a little over our budget, and we don't have a realtor. Does anyone know or have experience with negotiating with William Lyon? Will the negotiate on the price of the home, options, closing costs, anything? We were thinking they have 3% savings by them not having to pay a realtor, that maybe they could use to lower some of the price.

[fluffythewondercat]

Don't they have salespeople? And don't those salespeople work on commission?

[gemstone1]

Everything is negotiable

[webbyguy]

Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat

Don't they have salespeople? And don't those salespeople work on commission?

The definitely have salespeople. It is probably a good assumption they work on commission.

[webbyguy]

Originally Posted by gemstone1

Everything is negotiable

Did you have experience with negotiating with them? Any tips?

[Jkgourmet]

I didn't deal with WL specifically. We dealt with Toll. I think others will, in general, agree with my comments which apply to all tract home builders.

Builders don't negotiate on the base price of the house (unless it's an already built spec). They may (and often do) negotiate on upgrades and lot premiums. You may get some concessions if you use their lender (and that often is a good deal - BUT NOT ALWAYS).

Expect to pay 15-20% above the base price for the house. If you go crazy on upgrades, you'll pay even more.

Don't pay the builder to do anything you can get done afterwards. Pay for upgrades that are structural or big jobs. Don't pay for screened in porches, custom closets, painting, light fixtures, ceiling fans, landscaping, outdoor lights, security systems, surround sound, etc. You're PROBABLY better off paying them to upgrade floors, cabinets and countertops and any electrical/plumbing changes you want.

Get the comfort height toilets. You can thank me later.

IMHO, you've already made a mistake by going into this without an agent to represent you. The builders are not going to take off 3% because they don't have to pay an agent's commission. That's a common fallacy (aka fairy tale).

[webbyguy]

Thanks Jkgourmet,
We've got a couple builders we're considering, so hopefully we get one of them to budge. As we kinda already have it narrowed down, maybe we'll try paying a broker ourself to negotiate, and just give them a percentage of what we save.

[gemstone1]

"Did you have experience with negotiating with them? Any tips?"....no. However I subscribe to the old adage..."if you don't ask, you don't get". It will boil down to how bad you want them to do the work, vs how bad they want your business.

Good Luck
Gemstone1

[SMG]

Originally Posted by webbyguy

Thanks Jkgourmet,
We've got a couple builders we're considering, so hopefully we get one of them to budge. As we kinda already have it narrowed down, maybe we'll try paying a broker ourself to negotiate, and just give them a percentage of what we save.

You don't have to pay the broker, the builder will pay your agent. Every builder out there pays a buyer brokers fee.

[sandy6879]

From my understanding - if you go to a new development without a realtor, you can't add one to the process after. You need to go in with a realtor in the first place. This may be wrong but this is what every realtor in every networking group I've been to has said. You may want to go to a different neighborhood with a realtor to start the process. The ones you've already signed into without one, you're pretty much on your own with.