Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in
lovely Greenville South Carolina I'm
your host as always Stan McCune realtor
right here in Greenville and you can
find all of my contact information in
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just do those few things I would really
appreciate it today um I want to talk
about new construction because there has
been a lot of misconceptions I
feel like when it comes to new
construction and I think maybe I have
muddied the waters a little bit with
some of just maybe some comments I've
made in passing on the show and and
various things
but new construction is really really
important right now and it's it's an
important thing for us to talk about
because a huge percentage of inventory
right now is new construction by
production Builders and when I use the
term production Builders here's what I
mean
oh for a lot of people they're gonna
imagine cookie cutter neighborhoods and
that those are production Builders
typically
but a production Builder
it is not necessarily going they're
not all exactly alike when it comes
to how cookie cutter their neighborhoods
are right but at the end of the day a
production Builder is a builder that
doesn't do custom homes they do Homes at
scale
so they might have somewhere between
five and ten different types of homes
that they're building in a neighborhood
and a variety of different options
that they can do within those homes but
at the end of the day it's restricted
you can't just go in with a floor plan
to a production Builder and say Hey I
want this floor plan can you build this
for me no they're going to tell you
here's the floor plan options which one
do you want in some cases it's not
the you don't even have that much
ability in some cases they already have
the floor plans basically figured out
and it's like okay
which a lot do you want these all
basically have the same floor plan it
just kind of depends from one Builder to
the next
whereas on the flip side a custom
builder which this episode is not about
I just want to be clear and I will touch
on custom Builders just briefly later
but this is a an episode about
production Builders but custom Builders
you can just bring a floor plan to them
basically bring any idea to them say Hey
you know I want you to do this or I want
you to do that and a custom builder can
assist you with that
now there are reasons why very few
people go with custom Builders and again
that's what I'm going to touch on in a
second but right now when we're looking
at active inventory in Greenville MLS
one thing that's very interesting is
well first off as we've been talking
about inventory is very very low and so
I always need to preface things with
that
I've been checking routinely like how
many active listings we have in
Greenville MLS it's usually around
2600 is what we've been seeing the past
the past few weeks 2600 active
listings now those 2600 roughly 1400 are
new construction so over half of the
active inventories new constructions
that means that
active homes
homes that are that are resales
Will Will just say that rather rather
than active home it's not really a good
definition but resale homes as opposed
to new home sales
only make up about 1200 of the
current active listings
that's a very very low number because
it's not uncommon in Greenville for us
to have 1200 closings in a month now I
don't know how uncommon that'll be this
year but going back the past several
years there have been several months
that we've had that we've been at or
well exceeded 1200 closings so there are
fewer resales on the market right now
than there are what would been a typical
month of closings in the Greenville
Market
which is crazy so these the
current inventory which is very low is
dominated by new construction over half
of the current inventory is homes that
are being built by mostly production
Builders and so we need to talk about
this and we need to clear out and
clean out some of the waters that might
be muddy when it comes to these Builders
because the reality is
people that are looking to buy this year
they're looking to move whatever the
case may be it at the end of the day
over half the homes that pop up in their
search are likely to be new construction
depending on on your search criteria
so that's something that we need to
that we need to discuss I've also seen
you know in some cases some of my
clients like way more than than half of
what's popping up in their search
criteria new construction so always ask
do you want me to just clear those out I
mean how do you want me to how do you
want me to address this because it gets
annoying when you're just getting
emailed constantly with new construction
and you know those listings tend to be
very scant on details the builders they
they're they're not putting a whole lot
even if they put it in MLS they're not
putting a whole lot of details in there
as to what the the renderings are or
photos or specifics on the property
because there's some flexibility there
they're just putting it on MLS to get
your attention and hoping that you'll go
and have a meeting with them and then
you know perhaps walk through some of
the floor plans or go to the design
center and look at what they have there
or whatever the case may be
but to to kind of paint the the stage
historically here
the past obviously three years as
we've said multiple times in the show
have really been a tremendous anomaly
for real estate and from 2021 to 22 in
particular a lot of people a lot of my
clients just a lot of people in general
really felt like they had no choice but
to go the new construction route because
inventory was low and or they kept
getting outbid on properties that were
that were resales properties that
were just normal properties not new
construction on the market
that what what they call I called it
active home sales what technical people
people that study real estate market
economists and whatnot they call it
existing home sales as opposed to new
home sales
people just kept getting outbid on
existing home sales and so it's like
okay well where will I not get outbid
new construction now even that was kind
of a myth at some points during this
period between 21 and 22 because I saw
situations where even new construction
ended up with bidding wars and that was
insane none of us wanted to see that
that didn't help anyone but thankfully
that has calmed down a bit we're seeing
fewer people just getting outbid in
general but now there's like very few
existing home sales that are available
to people there's very few existing
homes on the market and so now for a
very different reason than what happened
from 21 to 22 people are getting pushed
towards new construction it's not so
much I mean it's not completely
different but it's not so much that
people are just getting outbid all the
time it's more that they just don't see
what they want they just don't see
anything that they're interested in on
the market
and so
we're seeing again for as the market
is Shifting it's now shifting back
to people needing to reconsider new
construction now there are two big
misconceptions I hear from people about
new construction particularly from
production Builders which again this is
what this episode is about
one misconception is that home
builders don't like to work with
Realtors and I think I might have
muddied some of the waters specifically
when it comes to this in reality that's
it's quite the opposite with the
exception of One National Builder and
that's probably the one that I have
referenced before there is one National
Builder that
that does not have a good reputation
among really anyone and they tend to not
want to work with with Realtors I'm not
gonna
mention who they are you could probably
figure it out pretty easily
but that's just one exception all of
the other production Builders and we
have dozens of them in the upstate of
South Carolina
they love working with Realtors
because we we simplify a lot for them
we're able to at least good Realtors are
able to help to streamline the process
and kind of Shield the Builder from a
lot of the stuff that's happening on the
back end so that the buyers aren't just
constantly bugging the builders the
builders don't they they have a very
streamlined system for things so their
their system you know me as a realtor a
lot of what I do is very non-stream
lines it's not because I wouldn't like
to streamline it it's just because a lot
of this business is relational right A
lot of it is taking that late night
phone call hearing hearing someone
Express frustration about this you know
they're going through this or that in
their lives we as Realtors we we see a
lot of of stuff going on in in behind
the scenes in our clients lives that a
lot of even some of their closest
friends and family don't see
and so there's a relational and
emotional aspect to this job that the
builders simply don't have the bandwidth
for they're they're just not able to
handle that and so we when there's a
buyer agent involved the buyer a buyer's
agent can really provide value to the
Builder by shielding them from a lot of
that stuff from shielding them from a
lot of or from helping to the you
know help buyers through the process of
new construction different things like
that
and so the vast majority of the
builders they really like to work with
Realtors right now the vast majority of
them are offering even more than than
the standard three percent buyer agent
commission I'm seeing some offering you
know even
five ten thousand dollar bonuses to
agents so there's a lot of things going
on right right now with home builders
that they want to work with agents and
this is on top of the incentives that
they're offering buyers and by the way
another this is kind of this isn't a
separate misconception I didn't write
this down but this is kind of a subset
of this misconception they're not going
to
you might think okay well if they're
offering ten thousand dollars to an
agent
if I don't have an agent then I can
just get that ten thousand dollars
that's not how it works actually
they they have their incentives for
the agents but they don't give those
incentives to buyers if the buyers are
unrepresented because that's just not
how it works there I could get into the
the legal aspect of of why they they
don't operate in that way
but the long story short is that you're
not going to get any more incentives
from the Builder you're not going to
benefit in any tangible Way by not
having a realtor so I just want to make
sure that everyone understands that
and obviously as a realtor I don't I
know some have a bad reputation in this
industry for when this new construction
they just check out and they just let
the Builder handle everything that's not
how I operate actually a new
construction closing for me a new
construction transaction is a lot
more work for me than a resale in a lot
of ways I attend all of the inspections
that happen I I have a lot of my
own ideas when when it comes to things
I've been through this a lot I've been
through a lot of new construction
transactions so I know when things don't
look right when when it seems like the
Builder is trying to do something fishy
there's all sorts of things like that
that you don't necessarily think about
when you're starting to work with a
builder
so I just want to make sure that people
understand that the other major
misconception I hear people say is I
don't think that I can afford quality
new construction something like that in
reality there are several builders that
offer competitive prices for Quality
builds the biggest thing you have to
come to grips though is that these homes
as I've already said they will look very
cookie cutter and there's a good chance
that they will have very small yards
which is something I'm going to come
back to here in a little bit so that
that's just the reality of the situation
the the more cookie cutter things go the
cheaper it is right because the Builder
can can streamline things they can buy
things in bulk they can make everything
look the same it's easier for from a
labor standpoint that the subs they
they're just doing the same thing over
and over and over again so they become
very efficient whereas the builders that
have more of a custom look to their
homes and to their neighborhoods
obviously the price point then goes up
you have a more expensive community at
that point
so that's just something to to keep in
mind so let's look at some numbers here
and again if you're not if you're
just listening to this I'm not flashing
any of these numbers on YouTube for
this time because I'm just not getting
into a ton of numbers in this episode
but I want to look back kind of
before this weird dynamic changed where
so much of new construction and so
much of of existing inventory was new
construction or
where just buyers found that they
just had a difficult time getting
existing homes under contract
so let's go back to 2020 which was
obviously when the the market shifted
from pre-pandemic into a pandemic Market
but before things got really really
crazy I mean they were crazy but they
weren't as crazy as they got in 2021.
in 2020 there was
and and I'm gonna reference some
numbers that I pulled myself from
Greenville MLS
just know that that there's always
off-market transactions that happen
there's also a few different ways to
pull these numbers so you know if you
were to pull them you might pull them
slightly differently but at the end of
the day it should be pretty accurate No
matter how we pulled them we should be
able to come to the same conclusions I
just want to make sure everyone
understands that but in 2020 there
were
3120 new construction homes sold in
Greenville MLS the median price point
for these homes was about 250
000 and that's in contrast to existing
home sales which there was a lot more
existing home sales I don't have that
number right in front of me but the
median price point was 229 000 so new
construction median price point was
twenty one thousand dollars higher
than existing home sales now how does
that compare to the past six months
which by the way that's a a difference
of what I think nine percent
okay so new construction nine percent
more expensive than existing home sales
the past six months there have been
two thousand one hundred five new
construction homes sold so we're on
Pace to have over four thousand new
construction homes sold for the for the
calendar year that began six months ago
so that's interesting
the median price point for those
homes was three hundred seventeen
thousand dollars in contrast to existing
home sales of which there were four
thousand seven hundred seventy sales so
a little more than double the new
construction with a median price point
of two hundred eighty one thousand so
that's what a thirty six thousand dollar
difference roughly about 13 is what I'm
coming up with of a difference between
new construction and existing home sales
so this is one of the problems with new
construction right now is it's gotten
disproportionately expensive due to
supply chain issues and various things
like that the cost of construction has
gone up and so whereas in 2020 it's
about nine percent more expensive to get
a brand new home versus an existing home
now it's about 13 more expensive if you
want to go the new construction route
versus the existing home sale route
that being said supply chain issues have
improved
and you know maybe that number will
come down but right now the spread
between buying new construction and
buying existing home sales is higher
than it historically has been now I I
will say one of the biggest challenges
the past two years has been like
timelines for new construction
because of all these different supply
chain issues because of government
agencies being backed up you know
when when there I had one closing that
was heavily delayed because of of
needing to wait for Duke Energy to do
some electrical inspections and to make
sure the electricity was set up
correctly and all of that
thankfully things have gotten better
I mean there was one point at which
where basically Builders wouldn't
even commit on a price like you would
sign a contract for a price but Builders
had a way to essentially get out of it
where they could raise that price or
and if they did then you had the option
to to back out at that point so it was
crazy it was the wild west from 2021 to
2022. thankfully that has calmed down
where home builders knew that that was
not popular people did not like that as
soon as they were able to kind of
stabilize their their construction
process post pandemic
then they started to get rid of that
I don't know of any home builders
right now that are like that
they're also much more and their
timelines were really hard to hit
like you just didn't know when closing
was going to happen
you know the past couple of years
that has gotten much better as well so
buying new construction now
is much better it's a much better
process in general than it was from 2021
to 2022.
and so for those looking to buy I
really do think that new construction is
a good route to go it's something that
should be seriously considered now the
process is obviously much different than
buying an existing home
and of course that process varies
based on what point in the the
construction cycle you you get
involved with as a buyer you could be at
the stage where your ground hasn't even
been broken yet and you're picking out a
lot and then picking out the home and
and all of the design options Etc or you
may be all the way at the end where the
home has already been built it's what we
call a spec home and and and you're
walking through it and you know deciding
if you want to buy that spec home or
maybe there's another one that that you
want to look at that you want to buy so
you could enter at any stage in that
process and I've helped clients at at
all stages of the new construction
process
now with regard to the the the
entering at the spec home stage I will
say this I've I've heard the term spec
home used in a pagerative way as if like
spec homes aren't Built Well
a spec home isn't going to be built
any differently than any other Home in
the neighborhood
now I guess you could make the
argument that you weren't able to you
know attend the pre-drywall inspection
to to look at the framing and maybe the
Builder did something fishy listen
they're still going to have to be
approved by Greenville County or
whatever County that the that the
home is built in so there are always
going to be minimal standards
and but generally speaking when I
have seen new construction the the spec
homes are built just as well as all the
other homes in the community the ones
that where the buyers are involved from
the very get-go so I don't like to use
the term spec home as if you know
that refers to a home of lesser quality
than others I just want to throw that
out there
now
one thing that's different let's say
that you bought a bought new
construction five years ago and now
you're you're considering doing it again
you need to be aware that home builders
have become pushier and less flexible
the past few years
now this is where a good realtor can
add value
especially given that you shouldn't
have to pay anything extra to have a
buyer's agent assist you a good realtor
can't can navigate you know okay are
there some things here where the Builder
might be able to be a little bit more
flexible on
and maybe there's a modification
that the Builder is pushing back on that
the realtor is able to to help the
Builder realize hey let's let's just do
this this is not going to be difficult
you know you guys have have done
these kind of modifications in the past
let's just go ahead let me talk to the
project manager whatever needs to happen
so that we can go ahead and get this
done
me as an agent that's a big part of what
I do in the new construction process
however there is it's become less and
less that Builders have have diverted
from just the standard things that that
they're doing so you do need to be aware
of that it's harder to get special
modifications now than it was say five
years ago when you're talking about
production-built homes
and you know let's say that you
want to move a wall on the back end
let's say you want to to open up an
opening you know from one room to
another
and it's like you want the Builder to
just you know maybe they they're not
willing to open up
that doorway or that entryway the way
you'd like them to but you're like you
know well maybe just don't sheetrock it
or maybe just leave this out or that out
sometimes you'll run into issues where
you can't where the Builder can't get a
certificate of occupancy if they do that
type of thing so you'll run into stuff
like that as well so you just need to be
aware that for these production Built
Homes Builders used to be willing to
to to make modifications to take
ideas from buyers and try to implement
those ideas within reason
that's happening less than it was in
the past but it's more likely to happen
if you have a realtor on your side than
if you're just by yourself
and you know it makes sense right at
the end of the day production Builders
the way they make money is by building
at scale right so they are building a
bunch of homes that use essentially the
same materials and then they're able to
sell things cheaper and that's what
we've already talked about that's why
the the ones that are more custom they
have to charge more because the more
custom things go the more expensive the
whole process is
now all in all from what I'm hearing
and seeing is that home builders are
doing much better now than they were a
few months ago that they got crushed
when these interest rates went way up
and they really had to change some
things because it was like they had
already kind of had a damaged reputation
from the pandemic from all of these
stunts with changing prices and you know
taking forever to you know finish new
construction all of that well that has
gone away for the most part but the
stigma's still attached and then you've
got on top of that these mortgage rates
going up so what home builders have done
that seems to have worked is they
they've started buying down buyers rates
and offering you know in some cases
I've seen you know like the first
year your rate is maybe 3.99 second
year it's 4.99 and then the and then
from year three on it's going to be 5.99
whatever the case may be different I've
seen different things like that and
those incentives have really helped
people that now you know
they're looking at the gap between what
it costs for new construction and what
it costs for existing home sales it's 13
higher but then when you factor in well
these next two years my mortgage rate is
going to be much lower than it would be
if I bought an existing home sale maybe
it actually makes sense to go the the
new construction route and then in a
couple of years in theory interest rates
will be lower and then I can can refi at
that point hopefully as the before you
know I get completely locked into this
higher rate
and a lot of people are just in a
situation where they have nowhere else
to go again inventory is so low right
now
and so that's helping to push
buyers towards builders that
otherwise wouldn't be looking at new
construction at all because they
prefer not to go through all that
process or whatever the case may be they
would prefer to avoid new
construction so
with all of that in mind
should you consider new construction if
you're a buyer in this market I've
already alluded to it but I think you
should especially I mean they're
offering so many different things right
now because they've got all this
inventory that they started prior to
these mortgage rate increases and all
these neighborhoods they started prior
to these mortgage rate increases they
need to move some of these homes
and I'm seeing them as I've
already said buying down your rates
paying your closing costs giving free
upgrades obviously most Builders have a
great warranty program
that's much better than any other sort
of you know existing home sale warranty
that you could get
and so there are a lot of reasons
right now to to at least entertain
the idea of new construction but there
are a few pieces of advice that I'd like
to give and let me start by saying this
all right I already said this before but
this is a podcast about production
Builders not about custom Builders
I do have people sometimes that come
to me that talk about that they're
they're thinking about buying a lot and
hiring a builder to design a custom home
that that's totally fine and I can help
people with that as well because I know
custom Builders as well but you need to
be aware that this will be this this is
going to be expensive right
having a custom home built it's way
way more expensive expensive than having
a production home built
and it can be just challenging to
find a builder willing to do this
contractors right now they're still very
busy finding one that's willing to do a
one-off new construction build
you know particularly if you're
budget conscious now if you're looking
for a more expensive home you know
for this Market 800 900
000 million you're you're gonna have
more options but if you're looking to
build something for less than 500 000 I
mean good luck there's just not a lot of
Builders out there that are doing that
that aren't in the production Builder
world
at least not good ones I should I should
say that there are a lot of people that
claim that they'll build a house
for less than 500 000 but will it be
a good house
that's Up For Debate
you also need to be flexible on your
timeline and realize that that there's a
very good chance that not only will you
go over your timeline and I can almost
promise you you will but you will almost
certainly also go come in over your
budget which I mean I pretty much always
hear anytime someone has a custom home
built they come in over budget it just
happens and it's not even the Builder's
fault I'm not blaming contractors for
that it's just that once you get in the
process you realize you know what I
really want this I really want that I'd
like to upgrade this let's let's not be
chintzy here
and so that final budget just ends up
being higher as long as you're okay with
that
then you you might be a good
candidate for a custom build and like I
said that's something I can assist with
but that being said
and and with all of that caveat
the vast majority of my listeners will
not ever do a custom build the vast
majority of you guys
are going to be buying existing homes
or production built new construction
and so let's talk a little bit more
about the production Builders
for those production Builders and
neighborhoods
you need to really consider
particularly in the Greenville area here
what size lot and backyard that you want
and how much privacy you want because
this is the number one thing that I
think is the reason why people don't
want to go
the new construction route when you're
looking at
more budget Builders is because one of
the way the production more budget
Builders are able to save their costs
is their their building homes on small
Lots so they're able to build more homes
they're able to sell more homes and and
honestly even luxury home builders are
are doing this you go into a lot of
very luxurious communities that have
been built the past few years in the
Augusta Road area different parts of
Greenville you'll notice I mean homes
clustered together with shared driveways
yards that are small and maintained by
the HOA this is just the way it is in
Greenville like it or not so you need to
if if you want space to spread out
there's a pretty good chance that the
the production Builder option is not the
right one for you if the yard size is
not that important if you're okay with
having neighbors pretty close to you
then generally speaking it's it's you're
going to be okay the production built
route
now let's say let's say that
you're willing to go to some of the more
rural areas some of the production
Builders do have larger lot sizes in
some more rural parts of the upstate so
that could be an option as well but if
you're if you're wanting to be in the
Suburban part of Greenville County
generally speaking a lot sizes are going
to be pretty small unless you start
getting into you know outside of
those budget Builders into some of the
more expensive ones and even then like I
said most of them are going to have
smaller lot sizes so that's just
something to to keep in mind
I would say as well one thing to to
to do just as part of this process if
you're considering new construction
don't start by doing a bunch of research
yourself start by talking to your
realtor and and ask your realtor for
their thoughts on the various Builders
Realtors can provide a lot of valuable
information when it comes to what
these Builders have done and and just
like what their reputation is generally
speaking
but also keep in mind that a realtor
who's just had a one-off experience with
the builder may have experienced an
anomaly I mean the past three years have
been super weird for new construction
and it's and if I had an experience
with the builder five years ago that
doesn't compare to what might be the
past three years and also the experience
this year might be different than what
it was two years ago because so much has
changed with with the supply change and
the supply chain and has and has
improved
and so I might have had a really
really bad experience with builder in
2021 but now that Builder has kind of
figured out you know and and gotten
their processes in place in the
post-pandemic environment and now things
are a lot better so there's a a little
bit I would encourage you to to discuss
with your realtor but be aware ask
the right questions to see you know how
much experience does your realtor
actually have with this Builder and when
were those experiences was it recent was
it the past three months well that's a
lot more valuable than an experience
that they had in 2021 so that's just
something to keep in mind if you want to
vet out a builder even further
I would just say and and when I say this
you're gonna be like okay that's obvious
but you'd be surprised so many people
don't do this drive through some of that
Builder's communities that were built at
a price point at or slightly less than
what you're you're currently considering
and I say slightly less because you
think about it that Builders are always
trying to increase their prices and so
the homes that were
selling in the mid 200s two years ago
are now in the low 300s today so
that's a great idea if you don't know
where to start again that's something
that I if I'm assisting you or your
realtor can assist you with to help you
to figure out okay what are these
neighborhoods that I could drive
through to look at that this that
this Builder did and then as you're
driving through that you can kind of get
a sense of okay what's this neighborhood
like what's the vibe
are these homes starting to to
look kind of rough
you know look at them after after
like five years that's a that's a great
indicator too like that's just the past
couple of years look at a neighborhood
what it looks like after five years that
will tell you a lot about that Builder
and about what the the future of of
other neighborhoods that that they're
going to build might be
and while you're there another piece
of advice you can quickly assess the
quality of construction even if you have
no background in construction with just
looking at a few things okay one very
simple rule of thumb check out the roof
lines of of the properties are the roof
lines just very simple just like Gables
you know like when and a gable roof is
just like a simple triangle if for
those of you that don't have the
construction lingo think of it like a
triangle
just a very simple roof or is there a
little bit more character to the roof if
there's obviously you know a the more
basic a roof the cheaper it is to build
that's that's the the simple way of
thinking about it the smaller and the
simpler is cheaper
so if the roof lines of a property if
it's a more complex Roof then that means
it costs more money and and that's an
indicator of of potentially the quality
of construction
it tells you a little bit okay okay
that there is there is more put into
this home than a home that has a a
basic roofline
what about the elevations an
elevation again if you don't know the
construction lingo elevation is
basically the front back and sides of
the house what do the elevations look
like do they have character another good
indicator what about the interior of the
home if you're able to see the Interiors
or if you have an idea of what what the
Interiors look like what kind of molding
are they using is there crown molding
throughout the house is it only is there
only crown molding in the kitchen
or in the the master bedroom or
whatever the case may be what about the
siding is the siding vinyl is it Hardy
plank is it is it a mix of different
sidings those are something to consider
as well of course vinyl is is very cheap
Hardy plank is is a better quality type
of type of siding
and you'd be surprised a lot of
budget Builders what we would consider
the more cost friendly budget Builders
have been moving towards Hardy playing
siding which I think is really nice you
know it gives you the option down the
road if you want to paint it
just a variety of things like that
yeah and some people just hate vinyl
siding vinyl siding you know it can warp
in the sun it can do all kinds of things
it's nice to be able to avoid that so
those are some very quick things you can
do even if you have no construction
knowledge when you're driving through a
neighborhood to kind of assess it
another thing to consider is
we talked before about entering in at
different parts of the of the new
construction process you're better off
buying into a neighborhood early than
late you have more options
and fewer neighbors that you're
competing with when you buy in early in
a community and here's what I mean by that
if you're late let's say that we're
in a neighborhood that has you know
75 different plots that they're planning
to build on and let's say that you come
in when they only have 15 less well
obviously you're getting some of of the
worst Lots right for starters and that's
a big deal where the lot is and this is
part of the value that I provide as a
realtor is like considering all you know
I've got this experience so I'm able to
really consider okay and and walk you
through okay here's what to consider
with these different Lots here's why you
might want this one here's why you might not
so you've got fewer options on where
the home is going to be built but then
one thing a lot of people don't realize
is that you also have fewer options for
what type of home you're going to build
and what your what your colors are and
what your elevations are and all that
because a lot of these production
Builders they they know it's going to be
cookie cutter but they don't want it to
be so cookie cutter that the exact same
house is right next to it to each other
they don't want two of the same looking
house right next to each other so they
will if you've got Neighbors on either
side of you already you're going to be
restricted in terms of what type of home
what type of colors on the exterior that
you're going to be able to use because
they're not going to want you to match
the neighboring houses in any way so
you're better off buying early into a
neighborhood than late
now if you're picky about
appliances I'm just going to say be
prepared for disappointment
appliances in production-built homes are
always skimped on that is just the
reality of the situation
you can sometimes as a point
negotiation get some nicer appliances in
there but more often than not the the
appliances that they're providing are
not going to be very high-end they're
going to be more on the low end of
appliances I mean they're still going to
probably do stainless steel if you want
you know those types of things but we're
talking about really budget level
appliances so just be prepared for that
I would also say if you have concerns
about the bones of the house
which is a you know a phrase that
people use a lot
if you're concerned about the bones
of the house you should also probably be
prepared for disappointment listen
production Built Homes again they have
to follow County standards
there are some some basic things that
they have to do they they need to be
built well enough to withstand our our
weather and and everything here in in
the upstate of South Carolina
but the reality is that there's they
know what Corners that they can cut
and there's a lot more Corner cutting
now than there was 50 years ago so if
you're comparing a new construction
production built home to the home that
your grandfather built 50 years ago the
bones of the home are not going to be as
good it's not going to be structurally
as solid as the home as most homes that
were built 50 years ago so just be
prepared for that you know you just need
to be realistic that they're not going
to build a home you know from the 70s
today in terms of what's Behind the
Walls
and I've run into that as you can
tell probably tell by listening I have
run into that a few times people that
are really picky about the bones of the
house are oftentimes disappointed when
it comes to these production builders
so those are a few pointers
again is it right for you I don't
know it depends on your situation but
right now A lot of people are having to
turn towards new construction because
there just aren't a whole lot of other
options out there and so if that's
something that you're interested in talk
to me I'd be happy to discuss it we can
talk about the pros and cons a little
bit more for your specific situation and
if you want to do that my contact
information is in the share notes I'd
love to hear from you guys I'd love if
you could rate review subscribe like
comment all of these things whatever
platform you're watching or listening to
this on I appreciate you guys and for
all the support you give thank you for
listening or watching we will talk again
next time