This blog is provided to provide consumers with information about New Home Communities and Subdivisions in the Charlotte Area.
New Construction accounts for over 30% of the home sales in the Charlotte Market. Every new home built generates 2.5 jobs per year.
Please feel free to share your experience if you have first hand information about any of the subdivisions in this blog.
New Construction accounts for over 30% of the home sales in the Charlotte Market. Every new home built generates 2.5 jobs per year.
Please feel free to share your experience if you have first hand information about any of the subdivisions in this blog.
What You Need to Know When Buying a Home
This article is designed to provide you with the 6 step that every buyer must take to buy a home. When I talk about steps, what I mean is, what are the decision making points that you will go through before you make a buying decision on a home. It is very important the home buyers are comfortable with each one of these points and have done the research or are satisfied in their own mine that the decision is good for them.
I've always used the acronym "Backflip", well, it's not a perfect acronym but you will get the gist of it and it at least help you remember the points that you will need to confirm in your decision making process on a new home. After you buy your new home, you will be doing "Back Flips" because you will know that you have made the right decision.
"Backflip" stands for Budget, Area, Community, Floor plan, Lot, Paperwork. Now, lets dig a little deeper on each one of these.
Budget.
Now Budget is the number one decision that you will have to make before you make a home buying decision. Budget can be viewed in two different ways. How much do I qualify for and what kind of a monthly payment do I want. These are two different things to consider. The first part, how much do I qualify for will be determined by your total monthly income, your monthly re-occurring debts, your credit rating, and the interest rate. I strongly suggest that you visit a mortgage broker or your banks loan officer to determine exactly how much you qualify for. The second part of your budget decision is what kind of monthly payment do you want. Obviously, your monthly payment has to be equal to or less than the amount that you qualify. You may qualify for a home where your monthly payment would be $2000 per month, but based on your financial budget and priorities, you may only want a payment of $1500 per month. Great, Now that you know that you want a payment of $1500 per month and that you qualify to get a loan for a payment of $1500 per month, now your lender can help you work backwards to find out what your maximum home price would be to get you a payment of $1500 per month. Now, if you find the right house in a price range that yields a payment under $1500, your budget no longer will be part of your buying decision on a particular property because you have already made your "budget" decision.
Area.
What location do you want to live. This is the number one factor for most buyers when searching for a home. Now I'm not talking about a specific area within say a 1mile radius, I'm talking about the general part of town or of the county that you want to live. Being too restrictive on the area may only result in disappointment or frustration in searching for your next home. Most people would be willing to live within about 10 to 15 miles a given location and would be perfectly comfortable with their buying decision. It is better to think of area as a measure of time and not distance, and this greatly depends on roads and traffic. You may want to be within a 1/2 hours drive of your job or 10 minutes from the nearest grocery store, or within 15 minutes of family members. So when looking for a home, decide what general geographic location you want to be and then list the places or types of places you want to be near and what is the acceptable time to get to those places. It may actually surprise you of how big a geographic area this will turn out to be and broaden your opportunity to find the right home for you. Now if you find the right home in this area and it falls within your budget, you will be ready to move forward on your home purchase.
Community.
Now that you have your Budget and Area nailed down, Community is the next thing that you want to make a decision on. Only go to communities that are in "Your Area" and have homes that are in "Your Budget". You will need to make decisions on what types of things are important to you as far as communities go. Your list should be broken down into two categories: "Nice to haves" and "Got to Haves". Think of the "Got to Haves" side as the show stoppers. The internet and the assistance of a real estate professional will be your best resources when doing this research. You will be able to cover a lot more ground, research wise, than you would by just blindly driving around. You may actually discover communities that you otherwise would miss by hitting the road first. Now make a list of communities to visit based off of your priorities. Now when you visit the community, and it checks out, if you find the right home for your family. You will be ready to place an offer or write a purchase agreement in the case of a new home community because the home is in the right community, the community is in the right area and the home meets your budget.
Floor plan.
When we talk about floor plan, we are talking about the house itself. I use the term floor plan so it fits into the "BACFLIP" acronym. Every family has unique needs and tastes when it comes to choosing a floor plan so it is very important to make a list what are the minimum requirements of the house that you are looking for. I say minimum requirements because these are the things that if not met will automatically disqualify a home. For example, if you would like to have a 4 bedroom home but only need a 3 bedroom home and you decide that if you do find a 3 bedroom home that you like, you would buy it, than 3 bedrooms would be your minimum specification. A 2 bedroom home would be a show stopper, and a 4+ bedroom home would be just icing on the cake. Don't get too hung-up on the exterior of the home since the interior of the home and it's layout is where you and your family will be living. Having your own real estate professional assist you in finding a home will be of great value here since they can make the arrangements for you to view the homes for sale. New home communities are defiantly worth visiting and can be a great time saver since most new home communities will have a variety of different homes to look at and to chose. You may also consider having a home built so that you will be able to add the features and upgrades to your home so when you do move in, it will be the way you want it. Now if you find a home that meets your minimum needs and is within your budget, you will be ready to make an offer because you already made the decision that the home is in the right community and in the right area.
Lot.
This is the land part of your decision. You have to be brutally honest with your self on this one. In making a determination of what type of lot you need, think of what will be the actual uses of your yard. Do you really want to spend half of your weekend cutting grass? Other than yard maintenance, most of your time will be inside your home. There will generally be a trade-off if you are looking at houses in a certain price point: Get more land and less house or get more house and less land. You have to determine what your priorities are. Obviously if the minimum specifications for your house within a price point yields only homes with a certain maximum lot size , than your expectations may be unrealistic you expect to get the house you want on a lot size that is not available in a particular price point. Here is an exaggerated example. You are looking for a $200,000 home and homes in this price point for a given area yield about .25 acres than it would be unrealistic to expect to find a home that meets your minimum specifications on a 100 acre piece of property. Now if you like the lot, you already decided that the floor plan meets your needs and is within your budget, you already decided that like the community, and the community is in an area that you already decided would work for you, there really is nothing more to decide. It's time to do the paperwork.
Paperwork.
This is the last and final step. The paperwork is not really a decision because the decision making process was done in the prior steps. The paperwork is putting your home decision into action. If you are buying an existing home, you most likely would be making an offer, if you are buying a new home than you most likely will be submitting a purchase agreement. Typically new home sales centers have their own forms and the on site consultants will fill them out for you. In either case I highly recommend that throughout the entire process, you seek the advise of a licensed real estate professional.
Watch Video on how to get an additional 1% Cash back on Charlotte Homes
Search for Moderator cut: No real estate advertising allowed. Read the ToS again.
I've always used the acronym "Backflip", well, it's not a perfect acronym but you will get the gist of it and it at least help you remember the points that you will need to confirm in your decision making process on a new home. After you buy your new home, you will be doing "Back Flips" because you will know that you have made the right decision.
"Backflip" stands for Budget, Area, Community, Floor plan, Lot, Paperwork. Now, lets dig a little deeper on each one of these.
Budget.
Now Budget is the number one decision that you will have to make before you make a home buying decision. Budget can be viewed in two different ways. How much do I qualify for and what kind of a monthly payment do I want. These are two different things to consider. The first part, how much do I qualify for will be determined by your total monthly income, your monthly re-occurring debts, your credit rating, and the interest rate. I strongly suggest that you visit a mortgage broker or your banks loan officer to determine exactly how much you qualify for. The second part of your budget decision is what kind of monthly payment do you want. Obviously, your monthly payment has to be equal to or less than the amount that you qualify. You may qualify for a home where your monthly payment would be $2000 per month, but based on your financial budget and priorities, you may only want a payment of $1500 per month. Great, Now that you know that you want a payment of $1500 per month and that you qualify to get a loan for a payment of $1500 per month, now your lender can help you work backwards to find out what your maximum home price would be to get you a payment of $1500 per month. Now, if you find the right house in a price range that yields a payment under $1500, your budget no longer will be part of your buying decision on a particular property because you have already made your "budget" decision.
Area.
What location do you want to live. This is the number one factor for most buyers when searching for a home. Now I'm not talking about a specific area within say a 1mile radius, I'm talking about the general part of town or of the county that you want to live. Being too restrictive on the area may only result in disappointment or frustration in searching for your next home. Most people would be willing to live within about 10 to 15 miles a given location and would be perfectly comfortable with their buying decision. It is better to think of area as a measure of time and not distance, and this greatly depends on roads and traffic. You may want to be within a 1/2 hours drive of your job or 10 minutes from the nearest grocery store, or within 15 minutes of family members. So when looking for a home, decide what general geographic location you want to be and then list the places or types of places you want to be near and what is the acceptable time to get to those places. It may actually surprise you of how big a geographic area this will turn out to be and broaden your opportunity to find the right home for you. Now if you find the right home in this area and it falls within your budget, you will be ready to move forward on your home purchase.
Community.
Now that you have your Budget and Area nailed down, Community is the next thing that you want to make a decision on. Only go to communities that are in "Your Area" and have homes that are in "Your Budget". You will need to make decisions on what types of things are important to you as far as communities go. Your list should be broken down into two categories: "Nice to haves" and "Got to Haves". Think of the "Got to Haves" side as the show stoppers. The internet and the assistance of a real estate professional will be your best resources when doing this research. You will be able to cover a lot more ground, research wise, than you would by just blindly driving around. You may actually discover communities that you otherwise would miss by hitting the road first. Now make a list of communities to visit based off of your priorities. Now when you visit the community, and it checks out, if you find the right home for your family. You will be ready to place an offer or write a purchase agreement in the case of a new home community because the home is in the right community, the community is in the right area and the home meets your budget.
Floor plan.
When we talk about floor plan, we are talking about the house itself. I use the term floor plan so it fits into the "BACFLIP" acronym. Every family has unique needs and tastes when it comes to choosing a floor plan so it is very important to make a list what are the minimum requirements of the house that you are looking for. I say minimum requirements because these are the things that if not met will automatically disqualify a home. For example, if you would like to have a 4 bedroom home but only need a 3 bedroom home and you decide that if you do find a 3 bedroom home that you like, you would buy it, than 3 bedrooms would be your minimum specification. A 2 bedroom home would be a show stopper, and a 4+ bedroom home would be just icing on the cake. Don't get too hung-up on the exterior of the home since the interior of the home and it's layout is where you and your family will be living. Having your own real estate professional assist you in finding a home will be of great value here since they can make the arrangements for you to view the homes for sale. New home communities are defiantly worth visiting and can be a great time saver since most new home communities will have a variety of different homes to look at and to chose. You may also consider having a home built so that you will be able to add the features and upgrades to your home so when you do move in, it will be the way you want it. Now if you find a home that meets your minimum needs and is within your budget, you will be ready to make an offer because you already made the decision that the home is in the right community and in the right area.
Lot.
This is the land part of your decision. You have to be brutally honest with your self on this one. In making a determination of what type of lot you need, think of what will be the actual uses of your yard. Do you really want to spend half of your weekend cutting grass? Other than yard maintenance, most of your time will be inside your home. There will generally be a trade-off if you are looking at houses in a certain price point: Get more land and less house or get more house and less land. You have to determine what your priorities are. Obviously if the minimum specifications for your house within a price point yields only homes with a certain maximum lot size , than your expectations may be unrealistic you expect to get the house you want on a lot size that is not available in a particular price point. Here is an exaggerated example. You are looking for a $200,000 home and homes in this price point for a given area yield about .25 acres than it would be unrealistic to expect to find a home that meets your minimum specifications on a 100 acre piece of property. Now if you like the lot, you already decided that the floor plan meets your needs and is within your budget, you already decided that like the community, and the community is in an area that you already decided would work for you, there really is nothing more to decide. It's time to do the paperwork.
Paperwork.
This is the last and final step. The paperwork is not really a decision because the decision making process was done in the prior steps. The paperwork is putting your home decision into action. If you are buying an existing home, you most likely would be making an offer, if you are buying a new home than you most likely will be submitting a purchase agreement. Typically new home sales centers have their own forms and the on site consultants will fill them out for you. In either case I highly recommend that throughout the entire process, you seek the advise of a licensed real estate professional.
Watch Video on how to get an additional 1% Cash back on Charlotte Homes
Search for Moderator cut: No real estate advertising allowed. Read the ToS again.
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