Are prices of new houses negotiable

There is no law that says you can't make a counter offer. See what they say.

 

You MAY be able to deal by asking them to pay CLOSING COSTS...or an "UPGRADE" in the appliances or rugs...as far as the asking price...they probably WON'T deal, UNLESS you have a "GLUT" of new houses...

 

Depends on your area. In California, they'd laugh you out of the office. But here in Texas, you can bring the price down big time if you are looking for an over 300K house (new construction)

My example...

The house listed for 330K. My first offer was 270K. ;-) They countered with 290K, we settled for 285K.

We added 30K in upgrades to the house, paid 0 money up front for the upgrades and put less than 3K in earnest money into the deal. Usually builders want 50% of the upgrade up front. We negoiated 0% up front on the "original" upgrades and 100% on anything after contract signing. We ended up with another $500 out of pocket for unforseen upgrades.

We purchased the house for less than the original list price + 30K in upgrades! We ended up rolling in some closing costs and still were below the original asking price.

Our appraisal was done last week, it appraised for over 360K.

 

ONE UPGRADE YOU MUST HAVE~~CABLE/INTERNET/PHONE IN EVERY ROOM!!!

Real easy when the house is being built...

 

CA...then ask for AIR CONDITIONING if it does not come standard...

Also you can get an UPGRADED heat/ac...every room has own zone...

 

What are are you in? It sounds like Austin or Houston. Charlie

 

I agree with George. You will have more luck with upgrades and closing costs...this doesn't affect their "sales price".

 

we were working with a builder and according to him there was really no negotiating as far as sales price. They have other incentives such as a discount depending on what phase they are in. One builder offered a $10 discount if we put our money down and got the contract by a certain date. Another had an offer for a $10k voucher for Haverty's furniture. david Weekly offerered to give us a complete home theatre system. I think they just have different incentives at certain times. Most will pitch in for closing if you use their preferred lender and so forth. The impression I got was that they dont like negotiating, but it can happen. Upgrades are a good way, and also if they have one already built, they call it a "spec house", you can get credits for things that it has that you really didnt want to purchase, such as bay windows, screened porches, decks and other things like that.

we ended up going with an existing contruction, we just happened to really fall in love with it over the new ones. We scheduled to close on the 30th...thanks to creditnet.

 

Hey Slee,

We bought our house from the builder in May of this year, althought the price of $308,000 was NOT negotiable we did DEMAND to get some stuff free, like 3rd bathroom upstairs (otherwise a $5000 option)

The sales lady told us at first that we could not do that, and I basically said that there is no where in the law that says that we can't counter-offer.
And we did get it!

So I would say go for it. But don't go nuts it may backfire. Just pick stuff that you don't want ;

House comes with carpet, you will be installing hardwood, tell them to keep the carpet but in exchange you want upgraded tile etc. That works too.

But make sure that you put it all in the Master Agreement of Purchase and Sale, as otherwise they arent obligated to give you anything.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes!


Cheers,
Rhonda

 

we were going to put hardwoods in downstairs, but wanted upgraded carpet upstairs. they told us we couldnt close with no carpet downstairs. So we were going to have to pay for the carpet upgraqde, move in, and then rip up the brand new upgraded carpet. Seemed like a big pain.

 

charlieslex ,

Actually, I'm in Dallas/Ft Worth. The area is being hit pretty hard from the telecom recession and the mid range (300-500K) has been hit pretty hard.

Smartest thing I did in the whole process was higher a buyers agent. I interviewed a couple and settled on one who appeared to me to be the best "wheeler and dealer". I'm a computer geek and wanted someone with a great negotiating skills, something I hate to do.

I would have never came up with the type of deal he originally negotiated. I would have been happy with a 10K discount, not a 40K discount! Makes me now wonder what I could have got if we didn't have his 3% commission (paid by the builder) in the mix!

 

Isn't that insane? The builder wanted 8K to upgrade our carpet upstairs. The carpet people they use told me they could get me the same carpet upstairs for 4K, installed.

We did terazzo tile all downstairs (except the bedrooms).

So... we got the std carpet upstairs and will have the upgraded carpet installed the day we close.

The games of building a new home....

 

I hear ya' slee. The company I work for is in Orange County. I'm in Dallas and get out there every month or so. They would love to have me there. I want to stay, specifically for the housing prices.

When I show them pictures of the house I'm building for 300K and what that 300K would buy in Orange County they understand (a 1500 sq ft tract home as compared to a 4298 sq ft semi-custom!)

Good luck.

 

Have you talked to Goodman Homes? Are you in the Plano area? I know that Goodman has like 75 sub-divisions that they are building in, and they are a great builder (One of the top 10 builders in the US) Let me know I have their # and can get you to the right person. Charlie

 

Who told you that? It may be a lender requirement, or could it be a code requirement in your state. Have you talked to the lender and tell them what you want done? Maybe they can escrow the flooring money to be installed after close, and have the builder discount for no carpet?

Salesman motto - No is not no until you here it 3 times.