California Pacific Homes upgrade costs

T

TomHugh

New member
What would you guess Cal Pacific charges for upgrades on their units?

For example a small SFR, 1700? two floors or a smaller condo 1300?.

For example what would it cost to say get their cheaper laminate flooring options on the kitchen/living floor? Anyone have experience dealing with cal pacific homes?
 
Yes - I have quotes from this year on a bunch of flooring options from when we were selecting upgrades. PM for details. It was a lot more expensive for some things than others.
 
I bought a CalPac home. My recommendation, regardless of builder, is to do any upgrades outside of escrow. Firstly, their prices are inflated by 2x or even 3x from what I've found. Secondly, why would you want for the lifetime of your home ownership to pay property taxes on home upgrades? They all get added into your tax base.
 
Cares said:
I bought a CalPac home. My recommendation, regardless of builder, is to do any upgrades outside of escrow. Firstly, their prices are inflated by 2x or even 3x from what I've found. Secondly, why would you want for the lifetime of your home ownership to pay property taxes on home upgrades? They all get added into your tax base.
Click to expand...

Doing upgrades outside the builder will cost more money upfront whereas you can just use the percentage of your down payment if the cost of home includes all the upgrades. If you have enough cash in your bank, doing it outside the builder makes sense, but for some, it might be better to use the builder. They also take care of stuff if you need to fix something, but if you used the 3rd party vendor with no license (for cheaper labor fees), then they might say you need to go through that vendor.
 
It?s mainly curiosity because one of the salespeople said that if we were willing to take an already upgraded home the builder may be willing to offer a builders credit that can be used on cosmetic upgrades. Stuff that can still be done, no electrical, insulation etc. Just floors, carpet, countertop maybe, etc.
 
If they are trying to sell you an already upgraded home they should be able to give your the list and prices of the installed upgrades.
 
Here are the things that you typically want to upgrade through the builder...

Foundation/structural options - bedroom/loft, california room/conservatory room, etc
Cabinet options
Electrical options
Kitchen countertops
Recessed lights

Here are the options that are considerably cheaper going with a vendor outside of escrow...

Light fixtures/ceiling fans
Flooring
Window covers/shutters
Faucets/door hardware
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
Here are the things that you typically want to upgrade through the builder...

Foundation/structural options - bedroom/loft, california room/conservatory room, etc
Cabinet options
Electrical options
Kitchen countertops
Recessed lights

Here are the options that are considerably cheaper going with a vendor outside of escrow...

Light fixtures/ceiling fans
Flooring
Window covers/shutters
Faucets/door hardware
Click to expand...

Thanks.

So I talked to the salesperson yesterday and they mentioned the upgrades. Basically the usual of kitchen counter top, backsplash, bathroom tile. It did have electrical and insulation upgrade.

So if we convinced them to give us a rebate what would you spend it on. It would have to be used at their design center.
 
I care a lot about the 1.6 ~ 1.8% property taxes I have to pay a year in a typical irvine MR neighborhood.
So lowering that base price is one of my top priorities.

That's probably why I would never buy a new house as they don't reduce the price of the house.  They just give you credits.
I like houses in old neighborhoods.
 
I think the cosmetic things you can spend on are things like: appliances, window treatments, garage floor epoxy, water softener, solar (depends on builder), etc.
 
IMO if you're upgrading existing faucets using 3rd party contractor will be cheaper.  But if you're adding additional faucets, such as outdoor faucets on the patio or in backyard, having it done by the builder is easier as they lay the pipes during construction.
 
TomHugh said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
Here are the things that you typically want to upgrade through the builder...

Foundation/structural options - bedroom/loft, california room/conservatory room, etc
Cabinet options
Electrical options
Kitchen countertops
Recessed lights

Here are the options that are considerably cheaper going with a vendor outside of escrow...

Light fixtures/ceiling fans
Flooring
Window covers/shutters
Faucets/door hardware
Click to expand...

Thanks.

So I talked to the salesperson yesterday and they mentioned the upgrades. Basically the usual of kitchen counter top, backsplash, bathroom tile. It did have electrical and insulation upgrade.

So if we convinced them to give us a rebate what would you spend it on. It would have to be used at their design center.
Click to expand...

I would do paint, flooring, stair rails, bathroom shower walls/frameless doors, and garage epoxy.  I find that the builders rake you over the coals for window covers the worst.

Btw, get a closing cost credit of $10k to cover your closing costs (use a lender impound account to soak up any unused credits) first and then get a credit for design center upgrades.  The closing cost credit is a dollar for dollar credit and are more valuable than design center credit.
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
TomHugh said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
Here are the things that you typically want to upgrade through the builder...

Foundation/structural options - bedroom/loft, california room/conservatory room, etc
Cabinet options
Electrical options
Kitchen countertops
Recessed lights

Here are the options that are considerably cheaper going with a vendor outside of escrow...

Light fixtures/ceiling fans
Flooring
Window covers/shutters
Faucets/door hardware
Click to expand...

Thanks.

So I talked to the salesperson yesterday and they mentioned the upgrades. Basically the usual of kitchen counter top, backsplash, bathroom tile. It did have electrical and insulation upgrade.

So if we convinced them to give us a rebate what would you spend it on. It would have to be used at their design center.
Click to expand...

I would do paint, flooring, stair rails, bathroom shower walls/frameless doors, and garage epoxy.  I find that the builders rake you over the coals for window covers the worst.

Btw, get a closing cost credit of $10k to cover your closing costs (use a lender impound account to soak up any unused credits) first and then get a credit for design center upgrades.  The closing cost credit is a dollar for dollar credit and are more valuable than design center credit.
Click to expand...

If we close by the end of the year we would get the 10k closing cost as well as the design credit.
 
I had an excellent buying experience with CalPac, including the design center.  It was our first new home purchase and CalPac set the bar pretty high.  We ended up doing all of our upgrades through the builder except recessed lighting is secondary bedrooms, window treatments and epoxy garage flooring.  Those were all done within a day from contractors and much cheaper.

I thought CalPac's upgrades pricing was reasonable to just have pretty much everything done when we moved in.
 
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