Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Inside dealing?
I'm considering buying a new home in Texas. There are certain
incentives on the house, but even then the house is kind of expensive. So, we want to negotiate some more off. The salesman said his company wouldn't be able to take any more off the price (for legal reasons)? unless we used a Realtor. (I thought the idea of using a Realtor for a NEW house was kind of odd.) He then suggested a friend of his who could kick back 1% of the normal 3% commission. Does this seem strange, or sleazy to anyone? I hope someone can answer soon, because I've just laid down $3000 in escrow and it's soon to be irrevocable. (You can E-mail me if you want.) |
#2
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Inside dealing?
|
#3
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
Thanks, Keith, for your advice. I really appreciate your answering so
promptly. However, I didn't make clear that the salesperson has NOT deposited the escrow check. It will be deposited after we sign the escrow contract, approximately this weekend. Meanwhile, the house is under construction (sheetrock state or later), and they seem to keep throwing in the cheapest possible materials. They've said they'll price according to the actual materials used (the salesman's boss verified this), but we're concerned that they'll sneak in a higher price on us, while at the same time using the cheaper materials. Is this common practice with homebuilders generally, and, in any event, how can we prevent this? We feel we're being pressured, even though there aren't many customers (even though this is Houston, Texas, and not one of the recession-plagued areas of the country), and that we have to watch them every step of the way. |
#4
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
|
#5
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
Thanks, Thomas, for your prompt reply. This is in response
particularly to Thomas, since he said he lives in NW Harris Co. (Anyone else is, of course, welcome to reply, and you can either reply on the board or E-mail me.) The builder is Pulte, and it's in Seven Meadows in South Katy. It's in Cinco Ranch, and it seems to be an in-demand neighborhood. We were told that we'd receive a limestone elevation (everyone on that street receives one, as it faces Fry Road). (That elevation has now been put on the house.) We were told that elevation would be free (value of $10,000), and that we'd receive an additional $5000 off for going through Pulte's mortgage company or paying cash (which we intend to do, if we purchase the home). We were then led to a model home, and my wife asked the salesman if they're going to use the same materials that are in the model in the home we are considering. He said they'd use materials of equal quality. In the model, they showed us a nice dark granite countertop. We asked if we'd be getting that. They said that no, the model we'd be getting (the Thoreau) had a "tan" granite countertop. We were shown nice cherry cabinets, but alas, they were out of the cherry; we'd be getting maple. (He said that maple held up better than cherry anyway.) And the closet shelves they had were wire shelves, just like we have in our apartment. The salesman tried to hang from them, and show us how sturdy they are, but they bent under his weight, and he's not a very big guy at all And last time we went, we saw that they'd already put a cheap-looking front door on the house, even though he'd said nothing previously about a door having even been ordered. Also, the carpet in the model home was nice and thick and plush, but the carpet sample that he showed us was this rough-feeling thin carpet made of recycled Coke bottles. It doesn't take an expert to evaluate the quality of the samples vs the quality in the model home. It's plain common sense; people can tell from looking at and feeling these materials. We said that since, if we took the home they're building (since we like the direction it faces and everything), we'd have to rip some of THEIR stuff up and put in our own stuff (and the salesman said that it'd be cheaper to do that anyway), we'd need a discount off the price of the house. The salesman said ("I think we can take a few thousand dollars off"). When we got back to the office, he said, "The only way I can take any off the price of the house is if you use a realtor. Now, do you have a realtor?" We said. "No". He said, "I know a realtor who would take the normal 3% of commission, and then return 1% of that to you. He'd also return the $2000 bonus (from our marketing fund that we use for realtors only) to you. That should be enough to compensate you for not getting exactly what you want, and you should be able to make any changes." However, they'd offer this deal to anyone who doesn't have a realtor; therefore, this is not really compensation for inferior materials. There is a huge gap in quality between the materials they showed us in the model home and the samples they showed us, even though the materials they're putting in the house we're considering are supposed to be upgrades, and we feel they're charging us an "upgrade" rate for standard features. We wonder if they'll continue to cut corners, even after we've signed the escrow contract (which we will this Friday).. Does this sound honest? We chose Pulte because of their reputation; we've never purchased a house before. |
#6
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
|
#7
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Inside dealing?
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:12:05 -0500 from :
I'm considering buying a new home in Texas. There are certain incentives on the house, but even then the house is kind of expensive. So, we want to negotiate some more off. The salesman said his company wouldn't be able to take any more off the price (for legal reasons)? That's right up there with "our insurance company says we can't let customers use our restroom" and "I'll pull out before I ____". He then suggested a friend of his who could kick back 1% of the normal 3% commission. Does this seem strange, or sleazy to anyone? Yes to both. I've just laid down $3000 in escrow and it's soon to be irrevocable. Are you so sure it's not irrevocable? -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com Shikata ga nai... |
#8
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
|
#9
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
Thanks, Thomas, Stan, and Keith for your timely and thoughtful
advice. Right now, we are trying to decide what we should do, and all of your comments are really helping us to make this very important decision. This afternoon, we received 2 calls from the salesman's boss and 1 from the VP of Finance for the local branch of Pulte. At the end of the 2nd call, the salesman's boss started to flag and said, "Maybe Pulte's not the right builder for you." He also seemed to start to take back the tile we'd been promised everywhere except the bedrooms; but after I got angry, he called the salesman and said we were getting the tile. At this stage, we thought about hiring an expert to evaluate the materials in the home, as well as a real estate lawyer to put clauses in the escrow contract to ensure that if we don't get what we paid for, we can back out without penalty (or they'll have to reduce their price). (We're scheduled to come back in and sign the escrow contract this Friday or Saturday. but we haven't selected either, and I don't see how we can get both experts by that time). We'd also like the real estate lawyer to read the sales contract, when we close on the house. By the way, I'm a little confused. Is the escrow contract (in Texas, if it's different there) different from the final sales contract? As far as a buyer's agent goes, we tried that a couple of times. The first time, we negotiated a 1 1/2% rate, because we did all the legwork. All we really needed was someone to let us in to the house and help us with the contract itself. Still, this buyer's agent apparently wanted more than 1 1/2%, and lagged on putting the bid in, thus costing us the bid. Once we found another house (through our legwork) that we wanted, we found another buyer's agent (like the first, recommended by the National Association of Buyer's Agents), who pushed to put in a bid that was $10,000 - $15,000 higher than the bid which we wanted to put in (based on our legwork at the tax assessor's office). We terminated that relationship as well. We've found that the "Buyer's Agent" designation is no guarantee of quality, even when they're recommended by the best buyer's agent organization we know of. As for foreclosures, they're really too risky for first-time homebuyers, because of possible lien-related complications. As for existing homes, that's what we've been looking at. However, in the course of looking at existing homes, we came across these new homes, and we really love the neighborhood, but we're not sure we really want to put up with the BS from this builder. Any further advice, anyone? |
#11
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:46:03 -0500 from :
We'd also like the real estate lawyer to read the sales contract, when we close on the house. That is *way* too late. You may think you aren't committed, but you handed over the check, and unless you have it in writing that it's non-binding you are already on the hook, most likely. Get thee to an attorney, NOW. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com Shikata ga nai... |
#12
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks everyone
Thanks so much for all the advice, Thomas, Keith, and Stan, and if
I've left anyone out, I deeply apologize. Just wanted to tell you all what we've decided. As everyone said, we've decided to pass on this house. If someday they come back with a better price, maybe we'll consider this house again. We were sort of leaning toward walking away anyway; your kind, thoughtful and wise advice confirmed what we were already thinking, and gave us confidence to move on. BTW, to answer krw's question, the buyer's agent put in the bid WITH our authorization. He just put it in too slow and lost the deal for us. Also, the foreclosures and the buyer's agent are 2 different issues. We were thinking of looking at foreclosures, but there are a lot of problems with them, including with the lien and title. We're searching on the Net to find houses; no realtor would want to work with us to do that, because we just have too many G-D requirements. We have worked with a couple of different buyer's agents (both recommended by National Assoc of Exclusive Buyer's Agents); the first put in the bid too slow, and the second named a bid that was too high for us. And, I understand about the seller paying. We wanted the first buyer's agent to kick back (to us) 1.5% of his 3% commission (because all we needed him for was to submit the bid and help us with the contract at closing). Sorry, I just got a little lazy there. To answer Thomas' earlier question as to who Pulte has a good rep with, they've won the J.D. Power Home Builders' survey for 6 - 7 years running. Also, the second buyer's agent once told us that during the last recession, every builder skimped on materials. We wonder if it's happening again. If any other questions are left unanswered, or if anyone can answer my question in the previous paragraph, please feel free to post. Tony |
#13
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks everyone
wrote in message
... Thanks so much for all the advice, Thomas, Keith, and Stan, and if I've left anyone out, I deeply apologize. Just wanted to tell you all what we've decided. As everyone said, we've decided to pass on this house. If someday they come back with a better price, maybe we'll consider this house again. We were sort of leaning toward walking away anyway; your kind, thoughtful and wise advice confirmed what we were already thinking, and gave us confidence to move on. ....snip. Good for you! Trust your gut. There is another deal out there; never get so worried about one slipping by that you go against your common sense. To answer Thomas' earlier question as to who Pulte has a good rep with, they've won the J.D. Power Home Builders' survey for 6 - 7 years running. Also, the second buyer's agent once told us that during the last recession, every builder skimped on materials. We wonder if it's happening again. Take any award from J.D. Power with a grain of salt. The way they fund their "research" is by licensing their logos to the proud, winning companies. If the results of their surveys are unfavorable, the companies are unlikely to pony up. Very biased. |
#14
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Alternative to J.D. Power?
In a previous post, Travis said to take any J.D. Power award "with a
grain of salt". Who, then, is a more reliable ratings agency than this (I'm in the Houston market)? |
#16
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks everyone
|
#17
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
|
#18
Posted to misc.consumers.house
|
|||
|
|||
More about this house
Thanks, Travis Hayes, krw, and aemeijers for the timely and thoughtful
responses. Travis, we'd heard that the J.D. Power surveys weren't as good as Consumer Reports, but we had no idea they were that bad. krw, thanks for mentioning about the web search and "local consumer resources", and also mentioning that you can get more aggressive with a buyer's agent than we'd thought possible. aemeijers, we completely agree with you about your description of the buying experience - it was exactly like going to a car dealer. Also, we liked your idea of going to a locat independent builder - would this be like a custom builder? I assume this would also be like David Powers, who, although he's not a custom builder, just builds houses in the Houston area, and has an excellent reputation. (We can't, however, afford him.) BTW, we're now strongly considering going with David Weekley in Seven Meadows. If anyone knows anything about them, I'd love to hear from you. Locally (realtors, tax assessors, etc.), Weekley and Pulte seem to have the best reputations in the Houston area. And Weekley is headquartered locally, and seems to treat us more nicely and honestly than Pulte. Tony |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Dealing With Dry Skin | Home Repair | |||
Dealing with Illegals | Home Repair | |||
OT(ish) dealing with DIY injuries | UK diy | |||
OT Dealing with a nuisance dog | Metalworking | |||
dealing with a nuisance dog | Metalworking |