1st Visit and 2nd Visit - Model Tour and Meeting with the Sales Rep - 7/31/16 and 8/6/16

On 7/31/16, James and I visited two communities.  As I wrote about in the last blog, we did not like one one community at all, with their cliffs for backyards. I did my research before going to the communities and already had the floor plans that I was interested in printed off and ready to go.  In the Holly Ridge community I was most interested in the Milan floor plan and my second choice was the Venice floor plan.

When we visited the model(a Venice), we found that the community was new and they were offering a deal on the Venice floor plan with a selected home site of the month.  The deal included an upgraded kitchen with granite counter tops, a morning room, a GE appliance package, hardwood kitchen and morning room, luxury tile packages in the bathrooms, oak stairs, and a finished basement.  They calculate these upgrades at a ridiculous $50,000.  Most of these upgrades were a "must" want in our new home, so we decided to focus on the Venice floor plan over the the Milan floor plan.

The sales rep team set us up with an appointment for the next weekend (8/16/16) to come in a price out and talk about the home building process.

Recommendation #1, always make your appointments when your rep starts for the day.  We made an appointment at 1pm and sat around for an hour until he was done talking to a few clients who had just walked in.  PISSED!

Below is a picture of the front of the community.  The deals for the Venice Model were on lots 276-278.  If we wanted another lot, we could not get the deal.  Also there are these things called lot premiums.  For any other lots their was a lot premium of up to $20,000.00.  The only thing we did not love about this community was that our house would back up to a retention pond as you can see in the picture on the right.  It looks CRAZY on this image, almost like a quarry, but it is not terrible.  This was not a deal breaker for us.  We really liked lot 277 after walking the lots with the sales rep.

After looking at the lots, we went inside to price out our home.  The rep added all of the above deals and we chose to add on a soaking tub and separate shower in the master bathroom, a 16x12 deck, and a bunch of recessed lights, ceiling fan rough-ins, and light rough-ins.  After we priced our home, the rep wanted us to place a hold on the lot we wanted for I believe a refundable $1,000.  We chose not to do this as we wanted to talk it over. The rep was not very pushy, but did try to finish the sale with telling us that a lot of people were in and out all weekend and they had several interested buyers.  We let it up to fate, if they all sold in a week or two then maybe it was a sign not to get the place?

I started looking at blogs like this and trying to find anything I could about these options.  I found sites with lists of questions to ask the sales rep, things I would never think of myself.  I sent them all to the sale rep and we kept researching for about two more weeks before we were ready to make our final decision.

Here is the list of questions I asked the sales rep:

Interior Style Questions:

Oak stairs?  Provided on upstairs and downstairs steps?  What rails are we getting?

Will we get to pick interior paint colors?

Following up on my carpet question.  Need carpet specs.  Can an upgrade be done? Do not want crap.

Closet – Will standard wire shelving be installed as in the model?

Smooth or rough ceilings?

Shower height? Needs to be over 6’2”.

Interior Other Questions:

Will the windows have screens?

What brand of windows will be used?

French door or sliding door on morning room? Screen Door?

Screen door/storm door on front entrance?

Kitchen cabinets as seen in model?  No slam drawers?  Pull out drawer in cabinet in island? Etc.

Towel bars/accessories in all the bathrooms?

Appliance Questions:

Who is the AC and furnace manufacturer? Size of AC unit?

Where will the windows be in the basement?

What appliances are included in the package?

Will the included refrigerator have a water dispenser/ice maker/water line?

Electrical/Lighting Questions:

Where is all of the lighting? We went over additional costs for lighting in the kitchen, morning room, living room, and basement. Is there provided lighting in the following/what kind?

            Front porch?

            Back deck?

            Inside Front entrance?

            Outside basement door?

            Laundry room?

            Master closet?

            Upstairs hallway?

            Upstairs/downstairs staircases?

            Unfinished basement storage?

Family Entry?

            All other bathrooms? 

Standard recessed lights over each shower?

Where will outlets be located?

Will there be one in the laundry room?

Will there be one in the master closet?

Is there an outlet on the kitchen island?

How many outlets in the garage?

Cable hookups?

            -Living room and family room?

            -Each bedroom?

            -Basement?

Exterior/Garage Questions:

Will the community have sidewalks?  Will RH do that?

Are there outlets in the garage or anywhere on the exterior?

Will the garage be wallpapered and painted?

Where are the hose bibs located? Front and back of house?

Will the lawn be seeded or sodded?  If we move in December, when will this be done?

Will any other landscaping be done?  Trees etc?

What limitations do we have in terms of putting in a fence? Any HOA restrictions? What is the dimension of our back yard (that we can fence)?
What brand of roof shingles (and year) are on the house and what is the warranty? 

Will we have a concrete pad outside of our walkout basement?

Auto garage door openers included? 2?

Covered front porch?  Not sure with our elevation?

Mailbox?

General Construction Questions?

What inspections will happen at each stage?

When can we visit the site?

Can I bring in my own home inspector?