Opinion on model homes (Houston, Happy: sale, new home, neighborhood)

[Happylady1024]

Hi all,
What's public opinion about buying a model home? We checked out couple model homes & really liked them.
We want to put an offer.is it a good option/deal/catch?? One builder offered to sell us the furniture aswell at a negotiable price.

What are the pros & cons of buying a model home?

[Firefly in sweet land]

Originally Posted by Happylady1024

Hi all,
What's public opinion about buying a model home? We checked out couple model homes & really liked them.
We want to put an offer.is it a good option/deal/catch?? One builder offered to sell us the furniture aswell at a negotiable price.

What are the pros & cons of buying a model home?

When we were house hunting 2 months ago, we came across similar situation. We decided against it because during that time we were also considering a little older home simultaneously so asked our inspectors opinion. For various reasons, like those are the first homes to come in the neighborhood as well as fastest homes to come in the neighborhood. Cosmetically they might look superior, but it ages abnormally in the sense that any significant mistakes might have gone unnoticed for long, since nobody really lives there. Also, factor in the extra price/ sq. ft if youthinkof negotiating for furniture. Try to pay bare minimum /sq.ft because its nothandpicked by you. Also it might have lots of wear and tear on them. These are all the feedbacks/advices we got when we were house hunting. so essentially i dont know how far all these are true/applicable. All the best in your house hunting.

[Beto]

They are sometimes overpriced and depending on how long the model has been there some of the standard features within the model home may not be comparable to what the current built homes have in them. So the best bet is to compare what the standard feature sheet list shows and what the current model has in it.

[dd1153]

Good deals on furniture
Get the furniture for pennies on the dollar.. usually about 15-20% of what the real price is

As far as buying a model home..
How fast does a builder take to construct a model... 30-45 days
How fast does a builder take to construct that home for a home buyer.. 4-5 months

Good luck

[Schumacher713]

Just hope it is not in a mud district. Taxes are about 2-2.5 times more than normal Houston taxes.

[Aggiebuttercup]

I just moved into a former model home. We chose the model over building on one of the last remaining lots because the model included features that had been removed from the floor plan. We listened to the reasons those features had been removed, but all were cosmetic, and we liked the original plan best. We also already liked the décor of the model (not as much immediate painting to do) and the corner lot.

We got a good deal, almost 20% off the cost of building that particular house, with those particular options, brand-new. And we had them throw in mini-blinds and got all the curtains. I worked with a trusted realtor so I knew what market value for this particular house should be.

We did a full walk-through with the project manager before closing and had him fix a few things that we found. It was random stuff that no one would have noticed not living there (like the upstairs shower wasn't hooked up to hot water, just cold). We also discovered that the cable outlets in all the bedrooms weren't actually hooked up.

Beazer sold the furniture through an auction company. Some of the pieces went for good deals - but be sure you know the quality. We bought some gorgeous bookcases at the auction, and then discovered that half the screws were missing, so if you touched it wrong it might fall apart. It was a relatively easy fix, but still annoying. They also left ALL of the bedding and pillows for us for free (and I don't want any of it, so that's now earmarked for a garage sale ).

And one last tip - change the locks, and keep the doors locked at all times for a while. The first two days we had random people walk in our new home because they thought it was still the office.

[Happylady1024]

Originally Posted by Schumacher713

Just hope it is not in a mud district. Taxes are about 2-2.5 times more than normal Houston taxes.

hi,
i didn't understand what you meant here.

[mcphee25]

to be honest I know nothing of the area you're in, but we bought a model home in our area in Washington state. I absolutely love my home. If we could move it to Texas when we go I'd do it in a heart beat. LOL!!! If, however you have the time to BUILD in the neighborhood, there were a few tweaks we'd have done to ours now having lived in it for a few years. Unfortunately, it takes a few years to decide what truly works and what doesn't. I'd say if you love it, go for it!!!!

[Aggiebuttercup]

MUD = Municipal Utility District. Many new communities are located within the geographic boundaries of a MUD. This means the MUD issued bonds to build the water and sewer infrastructure for the area, and people who live in that area pay additional taxes to the MUD to pay off that debt. As more houses are built, the debt is paid off more quickly, but for years the taxes are high.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by dd1153

Good deals on furniture
Get the furniture for pennies on the dollar.. usually about 15-20% of what the real price is

As far as buying a model home..
How fast does a builder take to construct a model... 30-45 days
How fast does a builder take to construct that home for a home buyer.. 4-5 months

Good luck

I guess that if extreme home makeover can do it in one week, that makes 45 days look like a pretty good amount of time.