Vibes on new home please...

[bjornolf]

Y'alls vibes and prayer work so well, I thought I'd give this a shot...

My wife and I had an opportunity fall into our laps to purchase a new home. It's in a better neighborhood and it'll be within 1/2 mile of the kids' school. It's a chance to get our "forever home" as my wife calls it. Every other house we've bought has been a "temporary home", a stepping stone. However, the current house, with the current market, was starting to look like our forever home, but it turns out we have a unique opportunity.

We've been praying a lot about whether to do it or not, and which home to pick. So, I'm requesting vibes and prayers that this all works out, the timing of selling our current house and getting enough out of it, the purchasing of the new home, etc., etc...

Any general advice about buying a new construction house would be greatly appreciated, too. One that we've always followed is to choose structural upgrades over cosmetic ones, as the cosmetic ones can mostly be made later, whereas many of the structural ones just CAN'T be done later, especially with modern day HOAs.

Thanks so much.

[Lavabe]

Let the vibing begin...

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Vibes! }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Several folks here have bought new (to them) homes in the last couple of years. Let them chime in on recommendations. Me? I bought a temporary home in December 1979, and am still in it...

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

Since this is new construction, I'm assuming it's in a development. My best advice is to pay particular attention to drainage. Contractors tend to move dirt around, changing the terrain to suit themselves. Make sure proper grading was done before the house was begun, especially considering this awful NC red clay. Make certain all water will be carried away from the foundation. Good luck!
Love, Ima

[CathyCA]

Tell us more about the new home. Are you building it from the ground up, or is it already built? Have you made an offer yet? Have you marketed your current home yet? Have you chosen a realtor? You should consider staging your current home in order to get your best price on it. You should get an independent inspection (not an appraisal) from a qualified home inspector on your "forever home" before closing on it.

I've bought four different homes. Each experience has been unique. Only one has been what most people would consider a typical purchase, and that was my first home. My second home was a competitive bidding situation with multiple families making offers on the house. My third home was new construction, and I was on the construction site daily, from the digging and pouring of the foundation to the placement of the final piece of trim in the kitchen. My fourth home was a short sale.

I've sold three homes. The first home sold within 24 hours of being put on the market. The second home took a little longer to sell--four weeks. The third home (the one I staged) sold within 5 days of going on the market, and I had multiple offers on it. I'm finally in my "forever home," and I'm glad that I don't have to sell it because this home has several drawbacks that would prevent typical purchasers from taking a second glance at it (small kitchen, only 3 bedrooms, and a few more repairs that I have yet to make, but they're on my list of things to do).

If you're involved in the construction process, now is the time to put in as many structural upgrades as possible. It's cheaper and easier to do those things now rather than later. Structural upgrades will add more value to your house in the long run. As you noted, you can take care of the cosmetic upgrades later.

If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask away. You can PM me or call me on my cell.

[bjornolf]

Yea, this will be our third home purchase. All of them have been new construction. The first was a townhouse. We bought it in 2001 when we got married. Our second we bought when we were thinking about a second child to have more room. We sold our townhome in 2004 for a $100K profit after commission, with a couple of bids. Our second house we bought AS the market was climbing toward the peak. We won't QUITE make back what we spent on it, but there are folks in our neighborhood that paid more than $100K more than we did, so we should be okay.

This will be new construction in a nice neighborhood right next to my kids' school. It's in a subdivision. The ONLY thing I don't like is that the lots are only 1/2 acre, but it's really hard to get bigger anywhere near where we want to be. It's also still a heck of a lot bigger than our current 1/9 acre lot. ;) Here's the website of the model we're thinking about getting:


http://www.craftmarkhomes.com/hometype_ ... .php?id=39#

We're looking at elevation 4. You can get the PDF brochure there if you wanna see the floorplans and options. We were trying to decide between getting this one with ALL the structurals we want (brick front, bump out on kitchen, family room, and living room, morning room, fifth bedroom version with sixth bedroom in attic, possibly the masonry fireplace) vs. getting the Oakton, which is bigger, with only a couple of structurals. I think we're going with the former option, especially since one of the incentives the builder is giving is 40% off structural upgrades (we can get 90% of the structurals we want and still be under the difference in base prices).

Also, the lot we want has a very gradual slop down away from the house until you get to the back 1/4 of the lot where it drops off steeply. So, hopefully, unless the builder REALLY screws up, drainage shouldn't be TOO much of a problem. We have nasty red clay up here in NOVA as well. Afterall, it was built on a swamp.

[gadzooks]

Sending vibes for everything to work out the way it should!

[CathyCA]

Yes, get all of the bumpouts, as well as the extra bedrooms. Make sure that you get an HVAC system that will adequately cool and heat your extra space.

When we built our third house, I had the contractor take out the cathedral ceiling in the living room downstairs and put in a second floor playroom in what would have been empty space.

Using the second floor plan that appears first in your brochure, I would ask the contractor if he could floor in the cathedral ceiling over the family room and make that new portion of the master bedroom a walk-in closet for your wife. Then, I would ask him to put in built-in dressers in the middle of the closet and include lots of shelving for shoes, sweaters and accessories and line the entire closet in cedar. Don't put any windows in the closet because sunlight fades clothes and ruins them. Your wife would love her closet, and it would increase your resale value tremendously.

Also, put in granite countertops in your kitchen now. It's cheaper to have the builder put them in now than it is to upgrade later.

Just my $.02.

[CameronBornAndBred]

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Your wife, or the wife of the person who buys your home umpteen years from now, can never have too much closet space! Listen to what Cathy says! More than a few homes have been sold because they have abundant closet space. And even more HAVEN'T sold because they have small closets.

[TillyGalore]

Vibes that everything works out.

[colchar]

Vibes, vibes, and more vibes.

[ArkieDukie]

First off, vibes, vibes, and more vibes!

Secondly, listen to CathyCA. She has much wisdom. The closet idea is a great one! My vote is to get everything you want now, otherwise you may regret it later. Cheaper to do it while it's being built than to add it in later.

[bjornolf]

Yes, get all of the bumpouts, as well as the extra bedrooms. Make sure that you get an HVAC system that will adequately cool and heat your extra space.

When we built our third house, I had the contractor take out the cathedral ceiling in the living room downstairs and put in a second floor playroom in what would have been empty space.

Using the second floor plan that appears first in your brochure, I would ask the contractor if he could floor in the cathedral ceiling over the family room and make that new portion of the master bedroom a walk-in closet for your wife. Then, I would ask him to put in built-in dressers in the middle of the closet and include lots of shelving for shoes, sweaters and accessories and line the entire closet in cedar. Don't put any windows in the closet because sunlight fades clothes and ruins them. Your wife would love her closet, and it would increase your resale value tremendously.

Also, put in granite countertops in your kitchen now. It's cheaper to have the builder put them in now than it is to upgrade later.

Just my $.02.

We're getting the alternate second floor to get the fifth bedroom on the second level, so the family room doesn't have the vaulted ceiling. We'll have two WIC in the master suite. We plan to put blinds on the window, plus the clothing racks are not line of sight to the dormer windows. And, yes, the wifey is getting the WIC with more rack space.

I was thinking that I could do what I did in our current home, and double up my hanging space by making the original rack a little higher and putting a secondary one underneath. Then I could build a shelving unit on the wall closer to her WIC for all that. Further, in her closet, I could double up the smaller of the two racks, as she doesn't have THAT many dresses. I loved your though. If we hadn't needed that fifth bedroom/playroom/my office on the second floor, we'd definitely have done that.