Hagling while purchasing a home...Ping Real Estate know-it-alls

[Glengoyne]

My wife and I have been looking at purchasing some land with the intent to put a house down for some time now. We've been selective, probably too much so, and have recently decided that we would look into buying in a subdivision rather than buying the land, drilling a well, and then building a custom home.

The two most appealing options are finding something nice that is being foreclosed on, this isn't too hard to do right now, or to go to a new development and have something built new.

I'm not the best negotiator in the world, but I'm fairly confident that my meager skills combined with the fact that, to this point, I'm honestly not afraid to absolutely walk away from any deal on the table will get me pretty far.

One thing that I'm questioning when dealing with an agent at a new development is this;
ME: Well if you don't have any more lots of that size, we'll just wait six months til you open up that new phase of the development.
Agent: Oh well if you do that, then you will pay more for the lot and the house.
ME: Come again?
Agent: Well the price will go up every time we open a new phase.
ME: In this market? Prices are pretty much in free fall. That's why you are telling me that I won't have to pay extra for any of the options.
Agent: That is only for a limited time.
Me: If I wait six months, it seems to me that the prices will only drop. The market is trending seriously down.
Agent: The prices will ALWAYS go up on a new phase.

--More rambling then my question...

Just as a note, they have a "spec" house they are trying to move. I liked the house except I didn't like the counter tops. I said as much, and they offered to rip out the existing counter tops, replace them with the high end granite option for no additional cost.

The models we're looking at are priced at about $151 a square foot, the houses selling in the community are selling for $128 a foot based on the news paper. I'm of the belief that the homes are 10 percent high at least.


So here is my question. Not only do I question her certainty about the prices going up in the next phase, but I am wondering if the base price is really negotiable in these types of purchases.

All of the extras are certainly in play for negotiation. I'm wondering how far this goes. Are some of the structural upgrades fair game as well? If I convert the third garage to a media room, the "base" price increases twenty thousand dollars...I want the room but I'm not going to pay 20k. How is that going to float? I'm just wondering how much leeway these agents have? They are locking me into their own lender, so that represents several thousand dollars in ripping me off in addition to their projected 3% in closing costs.

[Glengoyne]

Oh yes. Here I am; entering into a life altering process, and I'm asking for advice on a text based sports simulation messaging forum.

Have at it.

[BrianD]

I would expect prices for future phases of a development to go up. In each additional phase supply goes down and the land becomes more scarce.

[henry296]

A couple of points.

New houses tend to be priced higher than "used" houses just like a car, so the 10% is the premium for new.

I think agents in new home communities have very little leeway, although are resident expert (Flasch) will way in. Prices and policies are set at the corporate level, unlike negotiating with the home owner.

Base prices probably will go up slightly for the new phase. They may offer more discounts to make the final price very similiar.

[Flasch186]

you are NOT locked in to using their lender, by law. All they can do is offer incentives to use their lender and those are capped by regulations although they can be worked around. Should you use your own lender though and they dont "perform" at the end they can go after you for "per diem" (negotiable at that time), or cancel the contract AND keep your deposit (which the amount is negotiable too).

how much room do they have?

Depends on the agent and their motive....do they care or just want to get paid? Are they willing to "sell" their manager? Are they smart? Will the manager answer their calls right then to "work it."

Its not as easy as $/sq.ft because the #'s are skewed right now HOWEVER all things are on the table EXCEPT selling you the home at below the base price to build it from scratch + their costs for the structural options....although its not as easy as just adding as there are other variables on each specific home and home site. Look to get your best deal on Sundays and the end of the month and the end of the quarter (considering that this is a big builder)...a smaller builder wont matter the days.

you should just call me.

[lynchjm24]

As they open the new phases the prices do always go up. At least in the recent real estate boom. I'm not old enough to know from the last time interest rates were rising this quickly.


I'm going through similar nonsense. We bid on a house that was listed at 575 this weekend. We bid 540 as they paid 522 about 18 months ago and interest rates went up a 1/3 of a percent in 2 days last week. They countered at 570. Good luck bitches.

[Flasch186]

in the market im in, there is no word "always".

[JediKooter]

I never understood the mentality of trying to 'outbid' someone on a house here in California, there's trillions of houses out here. By 'outbidding' all they did was jack up the price of houses where now, only about 10% of people can actually afford to buy a house now. Good luck selling that 150K house for 900k, stupid!

[Bee]

In this market, any builder raising prices just because it's a new phase is an idiot. Things are a lot different now than they were a year ago or even 6 months ago. Prices are down, inventory up and significantly less buyers out there. Like Flasch said, everything is negotiable other than selling you the home for less than it cost them to build it.

[Glengoyne]

Thank You Flasch. You were tremendously helpful in our phone conversation.

I'll let you all know if I can deliver on any of Flasch's suggestions.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Thank You Flasch. You were tremendously helpful in our phone conversation.

Flasch! ahh-ahhhhhh! He'll help everyone of us!