Hello everyone and Welcome once again to another episode of Selling Greenville your favorite real estate podcast as I like to to say and I believe your favorite real estate podcast here in lovely Greenville South Carolina I am your host as always Stan McCune realtor here in the upstate of South Carolina here in the dog days of the summer and I appreciate you guys tuning in as always I like to mention my contact information is in the show notes you can look that up reach out to me however it's most convenient for you and if you need a realtor I'm your guy and by the way if you like this show please subscribe to it I'd appreciate that i' like to see more subscribers and I really like to see those ratings and reviews you guys leave please go ahead and do that that helps the show and I appreciate it every time I see one of those come through today we are going to be talking about the don'ts of new construction the don'ts of new construction that's a weird word to say it's it's it's not easy to say don'ts without sounding really weird but that is what we're going to be talking about today new construction is is a Hot Topic you know in a market when there is low inventory some people are just saying you know what rather than getting into bidding wars on every single house that comes on the market why don't I just build my my own house that's so much simpler in so many ways but there are a lot of pitfalls to new construction and we want to make sure that we get out in front of those things and so I don't want this to be a negative episode but I thought about doing the dos and the don'ts and I decided let's just focus on the don'ts maybe we'll do maybe we will do the dos and I'm not referring to Mountain Dew which I guess that was her slogan at one point something close to that but but maybe I I'll do a podcast on the Dos of new construction at a different time today just the don'ts and so let's Jump Right In there's a lot of of of different assumptions that people have when it comes to building their own home and by the way when I when we're talking about new construction here I'm I have in mind primarily with production Builders you know building and subdivisions some of this may also apply to to communities where or or or to custom Builders where you can buy your own land and then build using that custom builder but I'm I'm focused primarily on production built communities production built neighborhoods and let's just start here don't assume that the HOA in the community that you're building in and most of these communities now they have HOAs do not assume that that HOA is going to let you do anything and that that's a very important distinction right a very important caveat HOAs you know they will they will have covenants and restrictions and you need to to make sure that you are aware of what those covenants and restrictions say and and and then you know go from there make sure that for instance if you're wanting to put a pool in you need to make sure that you know not just what the HOAs requirements are for pools which by the way most HOAs do not allow above ground pools most of them are okay within ground pools but then it's got to be a by an Architectural Review Committee now if you're in a community which there's a lot of communities now being built that are on septic systems rather than public sewer you might not even be able to build a pool in there because of the septic system so you need to get out in front of some of those things and unfortunately some of those things you won't be able to get out in front of until after you close an Architectural Review Committee with an HOA board they might not even talk to you A lot of them will not even talk to you until you actually are an owner in the community and submit to them actual plans and yeah it's frustrating this is why some people hate HOAs but this is the way it is don't assume anything when it comes to the HOAs make sure that that you do as much homework as possible if you're planning to do particular if you're planning to do unusual things on the outside of your house or or if you like to have things in your backyard that are perhaps you know trampolines and and pools and and you know things like that that not everyone has in their backyard if you want to have a unique animals a lot of them have restrictions on on animals if you have a an RV or something like that a lot of them have restrictions on where you can park those things boats same thing make sure that you know what you're getting into on the front end let's just say this HOAs are not getting more lenient they are getting stricter and so with each new community that's being built you know it's you know the the over and window as as it's called for what's acceptable is is Shifting and things are getting stricter and stricter so don't make any assumptions when it comes to that don't assume that new construction means that you can customize anything that's the second Point here don't assume new construction means that you can just customize anything and everything with regard to the home some Builders allow you to customize more than others and and some communities as well you know there are for instance Ryan Holmes and DR Horton they will do some I don't want to say low-end communities but some communities where they're you know just kind of throwing up homes pretty quickly and then others that are kind of nice you know and the standard for what they allow you to customize might be different in one Community versus another but the main thing is almost all of these are are pretty strict and they're getting stricter in terms of what they allow you to customize they might not even allow you to customize all the colors in a house or or they might have you know a a small list of colors that you can base off of you know for your paint and for the exterior and whatnot they might have requirements for this home has to look XYZ different than the home next to it there's all sorts of things so so people oftentimes I'll hear that that they want to do new construction because they want to be able to pick out everything every Community is a little bit different make sure that if you're if that's a big selling point for you that you're going into a community where you actually can pick out what you want to pick out most of them have limitations and and by the way major changes to the the floor plan or the structure and whatnot most production built communities are completely uninterested in doing that there are a few I have I've had closings with a with a few like Sable Sable is an example of one that that that has allowed some unique customizations to layout and to you know moving some walls around and whatnot most of them will not do that most of the production Builders unless you you really start to get into the higher price point where essentially the production Built Homes aren't really production built they're just custom built they're just all done by the same Builder but in these communities that are you know under $500,000 most of them what you what you see is what you get in terms of of the floor plan and and things like that so don't assume that you can make dramatic changes to the floor plan and some of these communities as well don't assume that new construction is better or worse than older homes I I hear both of these you know some people are like I I've heard of people use the the phrase Speck Hol almost like a swear word this is like a speck Holm you know I don't even really know what that means when people use that as a swear word but listen new construction is sometimes better or worse than older construction I have seen some really shoddy older construction around here I've seen some really shoty newer construction I've seen great on both sides as well you you can't go in with assumptions one way or the other me as a realtor I can help you from the standpoint of of being able to advise which Builders I think do a better job than the others and then of of course we can follow up which I'm I'm going to mention here again in a moment it's good to have inspections done as well to to have an inspector lay eyes on it to make sure that things are being done the way they should we do have some codes that are increasingly stricter codes nowadays are just stricter than they were in the old days but that doesn't necessarily mean that the older homes were built more more poorly just because code was less strict part of why code gets stricter is because Builders try to cut Corners more frequently and so the code helps to to offset some of that and to ensure that Builders don't cut Corners in areas that are of the building process that are really really important another one I hear from frequently is some people have very strong opinions on Cross spaces versus slab homes listen both homes have pros and cons I live in a home that is partial basement partial slab my previous home was partial crawl space partial slab they they both have pros and cons there's not a clearcut this one is better than the other it really depends on what you're looking for that determines whether a slab home or a crawl space home would make more or less sense for you most homes nowadays are built on slabs in the old days the crawl space was much more commonplace don't assume that one is better or worse than the other another pointer here every home builder at least in the production built World they have a preferred lender that they want you to use and they have you know some type of arrangements with those lenders I don't know what all those arrangements are but basically if you use their preferred lender usually you'll get some type of a of a closing credit don't assume that that is your best option don't blindly use the preferred lender there may be better options there may be other lenders that are willing to match what that lender is offering in terms of the credit while providing a much better rate that I I've seen that happen before so you want to make sure that you don't just blindly use okay I'm just going to use you know the the Builder's preferred lender clearly you know they're offering a $2,500 lender credit I mean $2,500 is pretty awesome I definitely think I want that you actually may be leaving money on the table by doing that and and so this is where I can recommend lenders as well that we'll just be honest with you that I'll just say you know what we can't really beat that like you're going to you're going to be better off in the long run by just using them or if not they'll be honest oh yeah we can definitely we definitely have a track record of beating them we can definitely match that credit let's let's move forward with this another Point here don't ignore the value of the lot okay this is very very important the lot that you choose has a major major impact on on both your enjoyment of the house but also the value the long-term value of the house and sometimes it's really hard to visualize at at the beginning you know when it's just a piece of land a piece of dirt but some lots are clearly better than others there there and there's a variety of factors that play here in terms of sight lines in terms of how you know what does it back up to is it going to back up to another house is it going to back up to a road is it going to is it going to back up to trees there's a lot of different things to consider here and again it it can it may be difficult for you if this is the first time you've done it to visualize it and this is where I can help and I I again I can help to tell you okay from my experience this lot you're not going to have any privacy it doesn't look like you're going to have a whole lot of privacy with this lot whereas you know this lot this this one may have issues with with erosion when it rains there there's a whole lot of considerations I've got some experience with this so I can help you to to kind of paint the picture of what it's going to look like another pointer here don't be the first to move into a new community if there's a chance you'll be the first to move out or or one of the first to move out now this is really really important some of these communities take years to be built in fact a lot of them do a lot of them take years to to be fully built let let's say you're one of the first to move in and then a couple of years later you're ready to move out you might find yourself in really big trouble because you might find that you're now competing with homes that are being built that are brand new and here you have a 2-year-old home lived in home that's not as nice as the newer homes but you might be asking for a similar price point to those newer homes that is not going to work out super well for you that is a a scenario that you want to avoid like the plague so make sure if you're if you're one of the first to move into a new community make sure that your plan is long-term to stay in that Community because you may find yourself in a situation where you have a hard time selling that house down the road and you might say well I'll just rent the house out okay again look at the covenants and restrictions sometimes there are some some strict rules in terms of of renting properties out that the covenants and restrictions will outline so make sure that you're aware of what you can and can't do and know as well that those covenants and restrictions can change don't pretend like you know more than the Builder I see this sometimes as well where someone that has you know a a little bit of handyman experience or whatever they come in and you know start acting as if they know more than the Builder and they start educating the Builder on oh you you're not doing this right I don't like the way you're doing this what's going on here why why did you hang the sheet rock this way why did you you know they they'll just start doing all this stuff and that does not the Builder doesn't want to hear that they're they're not going to handle that well a better way to do that is to have the property have the new build inspected by a licensed home inspector that is the best way to go about it and it's what I highly recommend and will listen to an inspector they might not love what the inspector says but they know this is someone at the very least that's been licensed they've gone through some type of a some type of a process they do this for a living they're going to respect that person more than just you coming in you know and saying this is wrong this is wrong I don't like how you did this and last but not least Shameless plug do not go into the new construction process unrepresented these builders that are out here they want to work with agents they are offering to pay for agents realtor fees okay they're offering to pay that and they're not going to give you a credit if they don't pay it if you're unrepresented you're not going to have a cheaper house they'll pay for for your ability to be represented by another realtor and they see the value in that they love to be able to have another realtor on the other side that's able to handle all the drama in theory so of course some Realtors bring more drama but but a good realtor is able to handle the drama with their client and is able to to deal with things before they reach the desk of the Builder and so that is something that provides value for them it provides value and protection for you and you want to have someone in your corner someone in your corner that is representing you and that has your best interests in mind and that's what I can do I've worked with a bunch of these Builders over the years and I'm happy to help you if you go down the new construction route that's all for today's episode of selling Greenville I hope you guys enjoyed it my contact information as always is in the show notes if you have any questions please let me know rate review subscribe and until next time hope you guys stay safe and have a great rest of the week [Music]