House Price negotiation (Austin, Meridian, Streetman: sales, how much, home builders)

[Joe0109]

Do you know how much will the builder come down from the list price of a new home? My experience has been that it depends on the builder, location and how long it has been on the market. I like Drees, Meritage and Montery home builders. But I am not sure what is considered good price. How to measure that?

Joe

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by Joe0109

Do you know how much will the builder come down from the list price of a new home? My experience has been that it depends on the builder, location and how long it has been on the market. I like Drees, Meritage and Montery home builders. But I am not sure what is considered good price. How to measure that?

Joe

My advice is to work with a realtor that has experience dealing with builders. My realtor dealt with Drees for me and a friend and was able to get good deals (I think). but they do act differently than normal resale houses.

If you want DM me for my realtor name.

[tourbound129]

In October 2007 my wife and I were able to get $18,000 off a list price of $214,000 plus get the builder to pay all closing costs. They had finished building the home in July and had 1 or 2 potential buyers drop out during financing. We were not using a realtor at the time.

[Jennibc]

I've noted that many spec houses here in SW Austin have gone from 10-40K off the list prices. All have been list at higher than 300k. I am sure that it depends how long they have been sitting vacant as to how much a builder is willing to come down. Most have been in Meridain but the one that was over 40K off was in the Alta Mira section of Circle C.

[Joe0109]

The spec. homes that I am looking at is currently being built by the builders. Thus builder seems to have some time to sell it.

[nmnita]

I think it depends on whether we are talking a spec home, just one in an area or are we talking large tracks? Large tracks are much harder to nogotiate pricing. Single home contractors are more flexible. I agree, get an agent to represent you...

Nita

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I think it depends on whether we are talking a spec home, just one in an area or are we talking large tracks? Large tracks are much harder to nogotiate pricing. Single home contractors are more flexible. I agree, get an agent to represent you...

Nita

What do you mean by "large"? Most of the houses I referred to were built by companies like Newmark, DH Horton (I think that's the name) and Streetman. They go in and develop a several block area in a subdivision, and those are the houses that have been negotiated down. But again, they all were complete and sitting so builders had an incentive to lower the prices because they were already not selling at the original price.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Joe0109

Do you know how much will the builder come down from the list price of a new home? My experience has been that it depends on the builder, location and how long it has been on the market. I like Drees, Meritage and Montery home builders. But I am not sure what is considered good price. How to measure that?

Joe

I frankly think that's the wrong approach to start with when looking for a home. More mistakes are made by people chasing great "deals" than buy buyers who simply seek out the homes that will best serve their needs, and then start figuring out after that what the value would be to them and making offers.

But to answer your question, not even the sales rep on site knows the answer to how low they can go. Builders are no different than any seller. Once they have a real, actual offer in front of them for consideration, they may go lower than they thought they would, or they may decide they are not as motivated as they thought and hold out for a better price.

Finally, the paradox of deal shopping is that the builder willing to make the best deals is the one I would be most afraid to buy from. If they are having to cut extraordinary deals to sell inventory, there is a reason for that, and your purchase will simply become the most recent comparable sale, thus rendering it no deal at all. There are of course exceptions, but you have to really know what you're doing when making these decisions.

[llkltk]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

I've noted that many spec houses here in SW Austin have gone from 10-40K off the list prices. All have been list at higher than 300k. I am sure that it depends how long they have been sitting vacant as to how much a builder is willing to come down. Most have been in Meridain but the one that was over 40K off was in the Alta Mira section of Circle C.

Yeah, the spec homes in Meridian you mention are in the range of 350-450K which is not doing as well as the ones under 300K. There are still a few left in here that someone can get a great deal on, they have been vacant for a while.