Let me suggest a few things for you to consider when building a home. This could save you thousands of dollars on your home.

There are several routes that you can take when building a new home.

You can build one from scratch.

This involves

• Finding a suitable lot in an area that will satisfy your immediate needs and some of your future needs.
• Selecting a reputable builder and then going through the process of choosing a home plan, hopefully one that will suit your needs and also be appealing to others so that when it comes time to sell it and move up it will provide you with the money you will need to move up.
• Then there is the process of making many many decisions as to what will go into the house. If you do a good job here, you will have the satisfaction of designing your dream home yourself while remembering to keep resale value high.

Purchase one from the inventory of a home builder

The route most new home buyers take is to purchase one from the inventory of a home builder.

A twist on this is to purchase one in the process of being built or one that will be built. The advantage of doing this is you get to choose some of the options that go into your new home.

The disadvantage is that you can’t see what you are getting until it is built and making changes at that point can be expensive and time delaying.

The advantages of buying from the inventory of the builders existing homes is that you can see exactly what you will be getting.

A compromise which most builders offer would be to select only certain features to change so that the impact of a bad decision in minimized.

Other advantages to buying or building a home in a new subdivision .

First, the builder probably got a much better price for the lot by buying a large track of land and subdividing it than you would in buying a single lot.

Second, the builder can save a good deal of money in construction by building similar models, hiring work crews to do multiple houses, purchasing in volume and other cost cutting methods which are not available to the builder from scratch.

Also factors which affect the resale value are better understood by an experience builder that the one time home builder from scratch. When a builder makes a mistake like choosing a poor floor plan he doesn’t have to just live in an inconvenient layout, he has to sit and watch his inventory of unsold homes growing and his interest payments eating his profit and livelihood and be faced with the prospect of having to lower the prices or (usually is the practice) offer more incentives to purchase. For this reason and many more builders are very careful to choose great floor plans and features that the public want in the particular price range of the houses in the track. This is why they won’t let buyers just choose any style and décor they want because it will impact the sale and resale of the other units in the track. Tracts usually take several years to build out and the builder doesn’t need early buyers that have to sell before the track is completed being faced with trying to sell a house that has a greatly reduced resale value because of design modifications which are not appreciated by the general home buying public.

Where does a realtor fit into this scheme?

If you buy a lot that is not in a new subdivision and build from scratch then a realtor is your best bet to finding the lot that perfectly fits you current and future needs and keeps resale value in mind. Remember the seller pays sales commission of the buyers realtor so you get representation and experienced help without having to pay extra. Also the realtor can help with choosing a reputable builder.

Buying from a builder in a track or subdivision

If you buy from a builder in a track or subdivision you definitely need a realtor that represents you because the sales person that you are talking to at the model home is a realtor and they represent the builder not you. Even if the house is yet to be built you still need your own realtor. After all you wouldn’t want to go to court in a lawsuit and use the opposition’s lawyer to try and represent you and the person who is suing you.

Why it is best to get a realtor to represent you side of the transaction

Remember the seller, in this case the builder, pays the realtor and if you choose to use the builders sales person/real estate agent then the sales person gets to keep all the commission that the builder pays rather than having to split it with your realtor. By the way, they can come up with some pretty convincing arguments as to why you don’t need your own realtor so they can to control all aspects of the purchase and keep all the builders commission. Another thing to keep in mind. After you have signed the dotted line, you may have to deal with a less friendly face when you see things not going the way you expected them too at the home site.

Builders want the good will of all Realtors

Builders know that you, as a one time home buyer, are important to keep happy so as to spread the word to others that they are a good builder. They also know that you will be living in the new neighborhood and your neighbors will be in a similar situation as you and your complaints to them will only get answered by like complaints. That also know that realtors are the lifeblood that brings them new buyers and that Realtors talk to other Realtors on a daily basis and they don’t want bad karma going around about their subdivision. That is why request from your Realtor usually carries more weight than one from a purchaser.

Realtors know the market

Also a Realtor can advise you of other homes either new or existing that might fit your needs better and maybe at a lower cost.

These are just a few of the things for you to consider when purchasing a new home in Memphis. There are many more that Bettye and I can help you with. Just give us a call and we will be glad to help you.