How to get a deal on a new home
New home builders often offer price or option incentives. Is it possible to get more than they offer in a new home? The answer is yes but is dependant on several factors.Take a look at my video as I discuss the sweet spot for getting the best price and option combination from a builder.
Builders give incentives for upgrades. What you can get above what is offered depends on:
- Time of year
- Supply and demand
- Production (tract builder) or custom builder
- Move in ready or pre sale home
- Your ability to buy with no contingencies
- Builder competition in the neighborhood
- Your agents ability to know the sweet spot
Transcription of New construction in the Triangle. Can you get a deal?
Hi, I’m Marianne Howell Wright with Triangle Area Real Estate. One of the things I’ve been wanting to talk to you about that is a question a lot of my clients have is the question whether builders will negotiate with new construction. And the answer to that is that it really depends. Real estate is local. So what is the rule or generally accepted in your part of the country might not be the same as it is here in the Triangle. And even in the Triangle, we have little micro areas where it’s different.
If it is a pre-sale that you’re interested in, a pre-sale is a house that you’re going to contract with a builder and they’re going to build from scratch. Generally you won’t get any kind of a deal or negotiate with that. The exception to that rule would be, is if it’s a brand new neighborhood and it’s one of the first houses in the neighborhood, you’ll often get a big incentive or a lower price, a pre-construction price. An inventory home, market-ready home, a spec house, is a house that the builder wants to move.
If it’s been sitting on the market or is almost finished, the builder wants to go on, and that’s when you can get a deal. You can negotiate sometimes with price, not that often, and you can typically get some kind of an upgrade. In looking over what builders have typically done in our area, I found that with a market-ready home, you can sometimes get something off the price. Usually that happens at the end of the year, at the end of a quarter, or the end of the builder’s fiscal year.
That’s when they want to get their numbers. When we talk about taking off the price, it’s usually not that much. They have to keep their appraisals up. So it’s maybe, during most of the year you might get a half a percent, a percent off. If it’s towards the end of the year, with clients we’ve gotten as much as five, and maybe a few other things thrown in. But that’s the exception and that absolutely does not apply to a pre-sale.
So it’s putting together a package that you need, that will make the builder do the deal, and that’s really important. It’s that sweet spot that we’re always trying to hit. If you go in and ask for the moon, usually you won’t get anything. So I guess my best advice is figuring out that sweet spot so that you get the best deal that you can possibly get. I hope this helps. This is Marianne Howell Wright with Triangle Area Real Estate.
