Negotiating on New Homes

Hi all, i am glad i have found everyone again from IHB..i was feeling kinda lost for a moment when the board got shut down but somehow i found this <!-- s --><!-- s -->

Anyhow, i was very interested in buying the coronado plans 1 or 3. I wanted to know what your opinion is on negotiating. I wanted to do couple things:

1) bringing my own realtor (the lady told me they dont work with realtors but is this a lie? i heard many builders work with ur own buyers agent)
2) Upgrades incentives. They told me none for right now.
3) Negotiating on the prices. (Prices are going "up" as the sales lady says :

Am I being unrealistic about wanting all three things above? what are some tips or advice you can give to buy new homes? I am wondering if everyone who is planning to buy or signed a contract already did it without any negotiating and just bought it "off the shelf" because they thought they were getting a good deal.

Hello,

Well, when there are many people on the priority list waiting to buy (so they claim, but yes I am one of them). They will not give you any of the these three things you are referring to.

Well, lousy floor plans and lousy builder so I hope you don't become a lousy buyer.

[quote author="fe9000"]Hello,

Well, when there are many people on the priority list waiting to buy (so they claim, but yes I am one of them). They will not give you any of the these three things you are referring to.[/quote]

i went on sunday and they called me Tuesday. Also from the sales persons' body language and conversations, they seemed a little desperate for us to sign up and buy the home now. I think the number of people that they say are interested is not really right..they have only sold 20 homes out of 100? and they have total of 14 phases? they still have a long way to go. Ffrom what she told me there are 2 units available right now for the plan I like..so i am not feeling the hurry. The only thing is , if we buy now we can get the 8k credit, if we wait longer for the other phases, no credit. thats the only difference to me....

[quote author="graceomalley"]Well, lousy floor plans and lousy builder so I hope you don't become a lousy buyer.[/quote]

IMHO, if you dont love it dont buy it. but i love the plan and i like Irvine and the value for these new homes are pretty good compared what the market is offering now.

Any reason why you want Coronado? I personally don't like KB and everyone knows they do shotty work.

And the minute KB knew I wasn't on the priority list, the sales people treated me like crap.

KB was swapping out furniture all last week even during the rain because the pieces did not hide the flaw of the plan well.

the new 2010 collection has no incentives, no broker co-op, nothing. It's basically supply and demand.

portola springs is paying a 3% broker co-op, but you have to register him/her on your first visit. seasoned developments that are having trouble selling will start offering incentives, etc. to attract buyers. los arboles in ps told me to "make an offer"... after the market started firming up they said the price was non-negotiable...

all the things you asked about exist, they are just not offered at 2010 WB and WBE

[quote author="readytobuy"]The only thing is , if we buy now we can get the 8k credit, if we wait longer for the other phases, no credit. thats the only difference to me....
[/quote]
But if there aren't enough people buying in later phases, they may have to give incentives or drop prices... and that will probably be more than $8k.

Who wants to bet that if the $8k credit is not extended that TIC may create their own "$8k credit" as a marketing ploy?

[quote author="irvinehomeowner"]
[quote author="readytobuy"]The only thing is , if we buy now we can get the 8k credit, if we wait longer for the other phases, no credit. thats the only difference to me....
[/quote]
But if there aren't enough people buying in later phases, they may have to give incentives or drop prices... and that will probably be more than $8k.

Who wants to bet that if the $8k credit is not extended that TIC may create their own "$8k credit" as a marketing ploy?[/quote]

This 8k credit is like a pet store offering a free bag of dog food and now you have to buy a pet.

Anyone who is buying in 600's and above should really
not be basing their decision on 8K of credit. By the time you pay mello roos, HOA, mortgage etc for 30 years this 8K is probably
a noise. Unless ofcourse the 8K allows you to immediately close the deal on another rapidly appreciating Irvine property and make you 100K in the next 2 years.



[quote author="readytobuy"]
[quote author="fe9000"]Hello,

Well, when there are many people on the priority list waiting to buy (so they claim, but yes I am one of them). They will not give you any of the these three things you are referring to.[/quote]

i went on sunday and they called me Tuesday. Also from the sales persons' body language and conversations, they seemed a little desperate for us to sign up and buy the home now. I think the number of people that they say are interested is not really right..they have only sold 20 homes out of 100? and they have total of 14 phases? they still have a long way to go. Ffrom what she told me there are 2 units available right now for the plan I like..so i am not feeling the hurry. The only thing is , if we buy now we can get the 8k credit, if we wait longer for the other phases, no credit. thats the only difference to me....

[/quote]

[quote author="frank69m"]Any reason why you want Coronado? I personally don't like KB and everyone knows they do shotty work.[/quote]

well:

1) its the one that we can afford as SFR. Other homes are in the upper 600s and 700s. I can afford max mid 600s but that's pushing it a little.
2) we looked at existing homes and this is actually a little cheaper than what we saw. Like Northwood II detached condo for $600k or 620k for similar house in coronado.

what do you think its the best builder right now in woodbury east?

[quote author="graceomalley"]
[quote author="irvinehomeowner"]
But if there aren't enough people buying in later phases, they may have to give incentives or drop prices... and that will probably be more than $8k.

Who wants to bet that if the $8k credit is not extended that TIC may create their own "$8k credit" as a marketing ploy?[/quote]

This 8k credit is like a pet store offering a free bag of dog food and now you have to buy a pet.[/quote]

i know i know its bad to use the credit as an excuse. but lets say you really need to buy and why not get the extra 8k.

[quote author="bones"]
[quote author="graceomalley"]

This 8k credit is like a pet store offering a free bag of dog food and now you have to buy a pet.[/quote]

Thats a great quote. Paloma at PS was offering 20K in upgrades about 6 months ago, though who knows about now. From what I heard, they almost shut down the project a few years ago, but it looks like they're going to finish out. Of course, they had to adjust prices to a more "reasonable" mid-600s range.

BK, I know you've recommended Brookfield. What do you think about the new Brookfield WB and WE homes? They don't look like their typical product, I figure they were hamstrung by TIC.[/quote]

i haven't checked portola springs, but from what i remember their mello roos is about 1.8% of the home price?

Paloma gives about 11K towards upgrade. Was as high as 25K
towards upgrade and 10K towards closing if used their lender.
This was in early summer 2009. Since then not only incentives have gone down the prices have gone up by 25K for same models.

The mello roos (all pieces inclusive) is about 6000 per year.


[quote author="readytobuy"]
[quote author="bones"]

Thats a great quote. Paloma at PS was offering 20K in upgrades about 6 months ago, though who knows about now. From what I heard, they almost shut down the project a few years ago, but it looks like they're going to finish out. Of course, they had to adjust prices to a more "reasonable" mid-600s range.

BK, I know you've recommended Brookfield. What do you think about the new Brookfield WB and WE homes? They don't look like their typical product, I figure they were hamstrung by TIC.[/quote]

i haven't checked portola springs, but from what i remember their mello roos is about 1.8% of the home price?[/quote]

[quote author="bones"]
[quote author="graceomalley"]

This 8k credit is like a pet store offering a free bag of dog food and now you have to buy a pet.[/quote]

Thats a great quote. Paloma at PS was offering 20K in upgrades about 6 months ago, though who knows about now. From what I heard, they almost shut down the project a few years ago, but it looks like they're going to finish out. Of course, they had to adjust prices to a more "reasonable" mid-600s range.

BK, I know you've recommended Brookfield. What do you think about the new Brookfield WB and WE homes? They don't look like their typical product, I figure they were hamstrung by TIC.[/quote]

To be fair I forced my 13 yr old daughter to walk the model homes with me so I can hear her feedbacks. Her comments were no different from mine.

Brookfield Homes has let me down. The models are extremely inefficient. The rooms are not big enough to add another function but in a weird "in between size" with left over wasteful spaces. The wasted spaces were pumped up like a free bag of dog food and using them to lower the home prices from the upper high $300's/sf to a lower $300s/sf. The homes did not gain additional functions.

I have seen all Brookfield projects since their debut projects in North Pasadena's La Vina and Irvine's Gleneyres. This project is their weakest so far lacking the usual Brookfield innovations and sexy merchandisings.

[quote author="readytobuy"]
[quote author="frank69m"]Any reason why you want Coronado? I personally don't like KB and everyone knows they do shotty work.[/quote]

well:

1) its the one that we can afford as SFR. Other homes are in the upper 600s and 700s. I can afford max mid 600s but that's pushing it a little.
2) we looked at existing homes and this is actually a little cheaper than what we saw. Like Northwood II detached condo for $600k or 620k for similar house in coronado.

what do you think its the best builder right now in woodbury east? [/quote]
Did you adjust the prices to include Mello Roos and the higher HOA? When you are comparing properties you need to normalize the Mello Roos and HOA between two properties so then you are comparing apples-to-apples when determining the total cost.

[quote author="readytobuy"]
[quote author="graceomalley"]

This 8k credit is like a pet store offering a free bag of dog food and now you have to buy a pet.[/quote]

i know i know its bad to use the credit as an excuse. but lets say you really need to buy and why not get the extra 8k.


[/quote]
You'd be surprised at the stupid financial decisions that many people will make to get their share of "free" gov't money.

The extra footage in all the Collection homes are like the free bag of dog food. Sheeple just love the freebie and fall for the trap. The extra footage in the hallways and circulation spaces did NOT IMPROVE the house function. It actually forces the consumers to buying a bigger house on the same size lot. When the plans have up to a 44% inefficiency the consumers are really buying more visual spaces and not functional spaces.

If prices are cheaper but then what happened to the $400k, $500k and low $600k detached homes?