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We had hoped to put in an offer on a new Centex inventory home here. We needed a 10% discount off the list price to afford it. Our agent just spoke to the builder agent, and unfortunately they are offering NO discounts at all on inventory homes. Their only current promotion is $10k in free upgrades off a pre-construction home.
We're in total shock. I guess we got too attached to this particular home, and assumed we could get a solid deal in this market. Granted, the community is in a great location, and is cheaper than neighboring ones.
But this exact community was offering 10% off inventory homes in August! And the market here has gotten worse since then. And another Centex community 8 miles away is offering $25,000 off any inventory home.
My agent says we should offer what we can afford anyway, just to make sure. Do you realistically think the builder agents have a policy of saying "no discounts", but really do if you negotiate hard?
What do you have to lose? Unless these homes are flying off the market, they need to sell them.
If not now, in a few weeks & especially in Jan when ARMs reset, you may see some movement.
I've always been told anyone can negotiate. But at the same time, Centex could have a strict policy in place due to the market.
I'd still put in what you can afford but at the same time, may have to sit on it awhile & see what happens the next few months.
Make the offer. worst you will hear is no, and that puts you in the same position you are now. No worse off.. But if you hear YES.. well you are ahead of the game....
Of course they are going to tell you that b/c they want you to put in a full price offer! The builders agent wants to get her full pay so to speak.
Put in the offer you want and then sit and wait. They may reject you or they may agree to yours. I would see what other homes have gone for and try to determine if they are dying to get rid of inventory. If they are moving inventory on a regular basis, then they probably won't accept your offer. But, if they haven't sold much in the last 3 months, then you may get what you want.
"you only get out of life what you have the courage to ask for!" (Oprah, I think
Make an offer with a pre-approved loan. The builder will reject your offer when you just ask them because they don't want to agree on the phone and then, you send a even lower offer. If you and your realtor walk into their office, put down your offer and a preapproved loan in writing, they will tell you that they need to call their boss and usually accept the offer in this market. Just my experience.
Blue, in this market you need to just make your offer. Either they take it or they don't. You have nothing to lose because there are boatloads of nice homes out there lowering their prices every day. Good luck!
The builders agent never backs down in the beginning. Negotiating 101. Luckily for me when I bought, it was right before the quarter closed and the agent needed the sale to make her #'s look good.
LingLing makes a good point. You hold the cards in this market. Take advantage of it.
Thanks for the info all. We've decided to go ahead and make an offer in writing (with preapproved loan) at 10% below list price. My agent says this is a good idea because she can rationalize that offer to the builder (since they were offering 10% off back in Aug).
This same community was offering me a $20k promotion that expired a week ago. Our agent is saying we should hopefully be able to get that, if we don't get the 10%. Yes, and we do think it's odd that they were offering me $20k last week, but the other on-site agent told our agent "no incentives at all" yesterday.
When you deal with a big builder like this, who is actually making the final decision to accept or not? Do the on-site agents do it? A sales manager at the corporate office? An accounting person at corporate?
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