Anyone here ever bought a BRAND new house? (square footage, price, construction)

[Panu16]

I am in the process of buying a brand new Lennar home in Northern Virginia. Walkthrough is this Friday and closing is tentatively next week. Overall, I think the experience is OK. You will have to be more attentive to details and visit the house often to get what you want. They mis-framed one of the half-walls by about a foot and I don't think they would have fixed it once dry-wall was up. In the other house that was built simultaneously, they mis-framed the powder room by about two feet and the buyer never come to see the house.

One thing I absolutely detest is the change of materials during construction. I understand that materials may become discontinued by manufacturers but we should at least be notified of the change before they put it in. I would have put everything that I want in writing explicitly on the contract option sheets (e.g,, cabinet hardware pulls vs knob, color of door knob & hinges, color of light fixtures, carpet runner on stairs, etc).

Lennar's fiscal year starts in December. They will rush and push you to close at the end of their quarters (February, May, August, November). They are working long hours now to get my house ready for the walkthrough this Friday.

[FlightAttendant]

When we moved back to VA from CA we bought a brand new house in the then developing Oakton, VA. Now it is quite a luxury address. It was a gorgeous house. 1981

[Panu16]

Brand-new house should be less troublesome for the first few years. New houses are built really airtight and watertight. Be sure to hire a home inspector for the pre-drywall walkthrough. Mine did not catch any major problem except for additional caulking in few places.

As a poster above said, the quality of your house depends largely on the building supervisor. The supervisors are full time employees of the builder while the labor workers are contractors and subcontractors. If the supervisor sucks then you will have to visit the house often and catch things by yourself. Keep a good relationship with the "new home consultants" (sales people) and the supervisors. My "new home consultants" have fought the supervisors many times over things that I caught.

[Garson]

Every home I have bought has been new construction. Our most recent a Lennar home. We had an independent inspector walk the home twice and felt very confident that it was well built. We felt so good about the community that we bought another home to rent as an investment.
And YES it is MUCH more energy efficient than just about any older home. Living in a very warm climate I would never buy an older home - for this reason. We just like the cleanliness and open floor plans of new homes.

I can appreciate the beauty of some older homes but...the creakiness, the unknown issues that show up.....the lack of energy efficiency.....NO thank you!!

[Panu16]

Attached is a picture of the kitchen on my new house. I cannot stop posting to this thread as I am very excited. Buying a brand new home also allowed me an opportunity to design custom low voltage wirings throughout the house (had to work with Lennar's approved contractor to install them through). I spent over $5,500 in wirings for 30+ Cat 6 drops (Ethernet, whole house audio system, security camera), 30+ speaker cable drops, additional RG6 (coax) drops, security system with a bunch of sensors, wirings for motorized blinds, conduits, and wood blockings to wall hang TVs & and projector all over the house.

[Lacerta]

I've never lived in a home that wasn't new construction when we moved in, except for the one when I was a small child and it was under 5 years old when we moved in, so almost new.

My parents are builders in my area, so all their houses and my house were all built by them. I love my house. I've lived there for 11 years now and done practically nothing for repairs, other than some appliances. There isn't even much maintenance to be done. My roof is good for several more decades. We put on Hardiplank siding, so the paint still looks brand new. My AC/furnace/water heater are reaching the end of their expected lifespan, so I expect to need to replace them sooner or later, but so far, they all work fine.

But I have no familiarity with Lennar, they do not build in my city that I know of.

[ToriaT]

It all depends on the builder and whether they build quality. One of my homes was new by a very good builder and I am getting ready to build another new one with his son. Very nice homes. I have had no problem with any of the homes I have had just the normal maintenance and repairs but there are probably horror stories out there. Your existing home is certainly interesting but most would consider it very dated by todays standards.

[emm74]

I moved into my new construction home almost 3 months ago. I am absolutely LOVING it! When you renovate, it's rare for most people to be able to do the entire house all in one go, so it is unusual to have 100% of the house be exactly what you want, but with new construction, that's the reality.

Ok, well in all honesty, as delivered from the builder, it was not 100% what I wanted, but I knew that going in, and had decided what upgrades were worth doing during construction and what things I would do after closing. For example, my custom master closet was just installed this week, once I figured out exactly what I wanted and my handyman built it. I still have a couple of larger projects and a few smaller ones left, and I'm having fun figuring out the details.

But mostly, I love that everything is new and exactly to my taste. The couple of smallish issues I have had so far have been fixed by the builder with no issues at all - if anything, they have been more responsive to these warranty claims than they were about things I wished they had done differently during construction.

There are downsides to going with a tract builder, vs. a custom build, and in an ideal world, I would have had a custom build where I got to spec every detail. But that wasn't my reality, so for some things (like light switch and outlet placements), I've made my peace with it not being exactly what I would I have done. That degree of control is part of what I am liking about the projects that I have been doing on my own and not through the builder.

[DMenscha]

The only issue with new construction these days is the quality of the framing lumber compared to the old days. In OR, the douglas fir forests are set up to be harvested on a 60 year rotation. Clear cutting and reforestation gives the trees "too much" growing room and they add a lot of wood every year. Older growth forests yield tighter growth rings and less lumber defects.

[riaelise]

Yes. The home we're selling was new. It was built by a mass-production builder similar to Lennar. Fortunately, our home was actually built satisfactorily. New construction is a mixed bag in terms of quality. Personally, we are very happily pursuing a 26 year old custom resale that doesn't look like your typical box on a lot new construction and seems to have quality construction. The only plusses I can think of with new is lower homeowner insurance rates, newer wiring, roof, better insulation, stuff like that. As far as utility consumption, it depends on the builder. If you're building with a typical mass production builder (unless it's their higher end division) be prepared to deal with undersized HVAC units that will need replacing earlier than ten years and will consume a lot more energy. In addition, standard features are garbage. We have had to pay enough things out of pocket to sour us on new. In addition, many of the new construction neighborhoods are of the cookie cutter variety, which we do not want.