new construction homes

I have been in the construction biz, mostly, since 1983. I've seen neat little 2,500 sq. ft. homes, 5,000 sq ft tract homes (we call them cookie cutter mansions) with the 20 foot entrance, and sprawling estates that require 3 electrical panels. I know of a home builder that used to own a big house and it was mainly to show clients. He got tired of it and bought a 2,500 sq ft home and spent his money on interior finishes he really liked, including built-ins, custom wood finish. In that same vein, I worked on Emmett Smith's (formerly of the Dallas Cowboys. Yes, I have met him. Generally, a nice guy) home in Addison, Tx. While it was big compared to my house, for example, it's not as big as he could have afforded and not as huge as others in the neighborhood. He, instead, built for style and functionality.

So, I would say, determine your needs for size and layout. Rather than having the gargantuan palace, see if the living area and dining and kitchen areas are kind of open to each other. A 5 or 10 year old home won't be a lot cheaper than a new one if it was built well and is in a neighborhood of stable value (houses are of similar construction and worth).

Also, do you need to live in the city? You could always buy land and there are dozens of design houses that have house plans that you could use to either build on your own or hand over to a gen con that's willing to work with you.

Thanks for the advice. :)

We are looking to NOT live in the city.  I would give my left arm rather than live in city limits.  Firstly, Pittsburgh public schools leave a lot to be desired and we are planning to start a family in this house :)  Secondly, you pay higher (wage) taxes in the city than in the 'burbs.  Thirdly, I like LAND rather than being on top of neighbors.  There are a ton of nice townships and boroughs around Pittsburgh that aren't in the city.  We are mostly looking to move north, for anyone familiar with the area, though we live south right now.

We're only looking for maybe 2000-2500 sq ft, really.  Athough more is nice, we really don't need it.  My ideas are simple.  I want a house that either has a finished basement or one we could make into a finished area, a master bath that could accomodate a nice, big jacuzzi tub, and at least 4 bedrooms, 2 baths.  A bedroom for us, 1 each for 2 kiddies and an office.  maybe an area that could be a guest room if neeed?

Seriously, a "used" house that is maybe 10 years old isn't much different than a new construction?  I just don't want the hassle of finding plans and modifying them.  I like some of the ones now since they have 20-30 plans you can choose from and modify, but I don't really care if the cuboards are oak or cherry wood.  I kind of like buying a house that is already built rather than a hassle of new contruction loan and waiting while it is built and such.  But, if new construction isn't really any different in price, maybe its the way to go?

My folks got a modular house, and though it's nice, it's not what I want.  Everything in it is cheap, you can tell where they pieced it together, even the carpet is showing a lot of wear and it's less than 3 yrs old. They have a 3 bedroom 2 bath 1300sq ft ranch which is also something we don't want, so it probably influences us as well.

the problem is that the lower-end new builds tend to be lovely when you move in BUT unless they've got a hellacious homeowner association fighting tooth and nail to keep everything bee-you-ti-ful and pristine, then in 5-10 years you've got an entire subdivision of "starting to get ratty" homes.  Everyone's property devalues and you may not be as ahead as you think you are.  AND HOAs can be tough when you have pets so be-ware!!!

The other problem with a new build is it ALL depends on how well they're building THIS bunch of houses.  Man, research the reputation of that company BIG time because altho they may look nice in a few years it can all be falling apart.  Just because houses are a quarter of a million dollars now instead of $80,000 doesn't make them nicer or better!!

The other problem with a new build - often they're going to tell you that your appliances are *free* -- no, they're not.  They're part of what you're paying for and frankly you're paying for that stove, refrigerator and dishwasher for the next 30 years!!  AND they are all going to wear out at the *same* time. Your water heater too!!  It all gets 'old' all at the same time.

I'd be looking to find the house YOU like in an area YOU like and that suits ... well ... YOU.  You'll see better how well it's constructed ... and if you guys are handy you may be able to do a little fix up of your own and do better for your money. 

But essentially the rule of thumb is never buy the cheapest in any subdivision.  But neither buy the best.  Go for the max of what you can afford.  But if you go with a property that's a few years old you're better able to gauge how stable the neighborhood is -- is it holding nicely?  Or is everything shoddy and ugly?

Often the cheapest housing attracts less desirables.  In fact, you can find entire subdivisions of that -- and that can be a future "slum" to be honest -- so look for something that's standing the test of time.  Preferably something without an HOA -- preferably something where no one will hassle you if you have 2 or 3 dogs, and no one telling you what color you can paint your deck.

When you are wanting kids in this house -- you are better off in a neighborhood that's 'known' and established where it's known what schools your kids will go to (rather than a school system suddenly deciding that new 3 subdivisions on the outside of town are just too much and your kids wind up bussed to the next county).

Something to also keep in mind when buying a brand new house, the house will settle in the first couple years.  What this means, is that the house will shift, which can cause damage.

My former co worker and her BF bought a brand new home and it settled and shifted, they can no longer close their bedroom door and there are cracks throughout, they were lucky, though, the foundation didn't crack, if that happens it is very very very difficult and expensive to fix. 

Yes, the builders will come back and fix problems after the house shifts, however, as she has found out it is very difficult to GET the builders back to actually fix it.

I don't think I would get a brand new house, it would definately be lovely, but it could be a lot of hassel.

This is very true' My husband has heard many horror stories from work about new homes.Many of the guys had complained about shifting,cracks, builder not fixing things. I think I'd rather stick with something already built.

It's this sort of stuff I'm worried about.  I like the idea of new, but not sure about the hassle.... and obviously there is a good amount of hassle sometimes!  My folks had a good deal of trouble, even though theirs was modular, but it was hard to know if that comes "standard" with a new construction or if they just had a bad company.  But, it does make us think a lot more about it.....

One of our home buying rules is, NEVER buy new build.

HOA alone is a deal breaker here, telling what kind of fence we can have (IF we can even have one), how many pets, how our home should look, etc. Ridiculous.

I've also heard too many stories about how one can hear every word of a convo across the home because the walls are so thin. Not badly built, just cheaply done. I've also watched "Holmes on Homes" enough to know that bad builders are evvvverrywhere LOL.

No thanks.

I wouldn't buy a new build from a builder. The only way I would have a new house is if I bought land and hired people myself to do it. I'm a realtor, and although I'm not a residential one I go to a lot of brokers open type events in the "McMansions". They all have a cheap feel to them. A lot of them are drafty, etc. They look beautiful from the outside, but they just aren't built as well as some of the older homes are.

You look at all of the 100+ year old homes in our area, and they will still be standing in 100 + more years. I don't know that I could say the same about some of the new homes.

Now in a historic home you will have problems as well of course, but I would always prefer to get a house that is a bit older (10-20 years). When I bought our house we bought it at foreclosure. The previous owner was "the creepy cat lady" of the neighborhood so it was a true fixer upper. The owner was in a wheel chair and had dozens of cats and a few large dogs in the house with her. We had to replace everything. It kind of turned out to be the money pit actually, but we still ended up paying less then we would have for a new house, and ours basically is new now.

Also be aware with a fixer upper things can easily spiral out of control. I learned that the hard way. We bought ours for 50k at foreclosure, and planned on putting about 50k into it to fix it up. We ended up putting about 175k into it, lol. We had to replace all of the floors, subfloors, etc. Then when we were almost finished we had a sink hole open up in our basement! It was a true nightmare.

rwbeagles

One of our home buying rules is, NEVER buy new build.

HOA alone is a deal breaker here, telling what kind of fence we can have (IF we can even have one), how many pets, how our home should look, etc. Ridiculous.

I've also heard too many stories about how one can hear every word of a convo across the home because the walls are so thin. Not badly built, just cheaply done. I've also watched "Holmes on Homes" enough to know that bad builders are evvvverrywhere LOL.

No thanks.

 I love Holmes on Homes!

We wouldn't do one with an HOA -- some have one, some don't around here.  And we would NEVER do a townhome which is the connecting ones.  We would have a free-standing single family home.  But, you're correct that after watching the show enough you see how badly things are done and covered up.

I wouldn't buy a new build from a builder. The only way I would have a new house is if I bought land and hired people myself to do it. I'm a realtor, and although I'm not a residential one I go to a lot of brokers open type events in the "McMansions". They all have a cheap feel to them. A lot of them are drafty, etc. They look beautiful from the outside, but they just aren't built as well as some of the older homes are.

 Yeah, I'm not experienced enough to tell, but after staying in my folks' place for a while I agree that theirs isn't the best-built house.  AND, they paid to have things done better - like use 2x6 instead of 2x4 or something like that, a stronger roof, a better basement, and it still isn't great.

But, we want something kinda new.  Would something 10-15 years old be built that much better?  Although I don't want to go "old" I can sacrifice some newness to have a better built house.

The things I personally notice that make a house feel "cheap" to me -

#1: windows. Having good, thick, well-installed windows is so nice! Saves a lot on heating/cooling, too!

#2: floors. Are they fairly solid? Super squeaky? Good material?

#3: doors. For whatever reason, this seems to be an area where a lot of builders skimp. You want to make sure the doors aren't always sticking, or coming off the track if they're sliding doors, etc. This was a huge problem with the sliding glass doors in my house in CA - they were installed backwards so when they were opened, the part that slid back was on the outside of the house instead of the inside. As a result, the track collected dirt and debris like you wouldn't believe and was ALWAYS getting jammed, despite our best efforts to clean it.

#4: wiring/plumbing. For obvious reasons, this can reaaaaally come back to bite you if there are problems. You don't want a house where the plumbing is poorly done and always breaking. (This can also be, obviously, much harder to tell beforehand!)

Do you best to go by the quality of the individual house instead of just the age. I mean, my house in CA was built in the 70's and there were just a lot of shortcuts taken. Nothing awful, but enough to be frustrating and require upgrades later on down the line. My father's house was built in the 80's, and he's had way more problems than I had in CA. (Particularly the windows - he has one of those East Coast "pretty" builder houses that look tall and huge and lovely outside, but inside it is soooooooooo drafty you have to wear a sweater inside on windy days, even with the heat on! And there are a LOT of windows to replace!) 

Sorry this is so long but we got totally burned buying our house and if someone can benefit from our painful mistakes, then I'll feel a bit better.

calliecritturs

The other problem with a new build is it ALL depends on how well they're building THIS bunch of houses

Print out the above and put in on your refrigerator because truer words were never spoken. :)  Our house is new construction and we researched the builder before we signed the contract. He had a good reputation---but his company was growing TOO fast. The project manager he hired for our little development was incompetent and a liar. It was a nightmare for us. Other developments where the original builder was project manager turned out very differently from this one.

Have someone who knows constructon read ALL the specs before you sign anything. I looked through for basic stuff (size of joists, etc) but there were lots of things I took for granted that they skipped.like insulation in the wall between the bathroom and the garage crawl space. The only thing between the bathtub and the cold garage was a piece of wallboard so if we closed the door to the bathroom and left a wet facecloth in the tub overnight it would be ice by morning!

If I were building again I would hire someone to check the contruction as it goes along, but I would NOT build again unless I had a fortune and could make sure it was all being done properly. 

REMEMBER: If your house isn't finished on time there is nothing you can do unless you have a penalty clause in the contract---and you're not going to get one of those! Meanwhile you may have to move out of your old place and find a temporary place to live and that can be tricky if you have dogs.

My advice is look for an established neighborhood in a good school district---and look at the neighborhoods AROUND it. Your kids may make friends three streets away and that's easier than the other side of town. Don't take anyone's word for the quality of the local schools--research it.

When you find a house that suits you have a good home inspection service go over the house from top to bottom. 

Use a buyer broker because they work for YOU. Real estate agents who show homes are really working for the seller and have a legal obligation to represent the seller's interests---not yours.

Before you buy your house look at the sex offender registry and see who is already in the neighborhood.  Someone we know could not sell his house  (three years old, big, upgraded, gorgeous with a new inground pool three miles from a private town beach) and part of it was because two registered sex offenders (offences against kids) lived a few houses away from him and another one was around the corner. He was from out of state when he bought the house and didn't know---but the people around here knew.   One person said straight out that nobody with kids was going to buy a house two doors away from "so and so." (Yes, I understand that even convicted child rapists have a right to live somewhere but I also think that you should know if you are buying a house next to someone the state considers "has a high risk to re-offend.";)

MORE EXCELLENT ADVICE:

calliecritturs

But essentially the rule of thumb is never buy the cheapest in any subdivision.  But neither buy the best.  Go for the max of what you can afford.  But if you go with a property that's a few years old you're better able to gauge how stable the neighborhood is -- is it holding nicely?  Or is everything shoddy and ugly?

Often the cheapest housing attracts less desirables.  In fact, you can find entire subdivisions of that -- and that can be a future "slum" to be honest -- so look for something that's standing the test of time.  Preferably something without an HOA -- preferably something where no one will hassle you if you have 2 or 3 dogs, and no one telling you what color you can paint your deck.

When you are wanting kids in this house -- you are better off in a neighborhood that's 'known' and established where it's known what schools your kids will go to (rather than a school system suddenly deciding that new 3 subdivisions on the outside of town are just too much and your kids wind up bussed to the next county).

NicoleS

AND, they paid to have things done better - like use 2x6 instead of 2x4 or something like that, a stronger roof, a better basement, and it still isn't great.

See THIS is the problem...YOU shouldn't have to pay a PROFESSIONAL to build your house "right" like Holmes says...since WHEN did it become "an extra" to get that better quality? In the 50'5/60's/70's when most of the homes we bought were built...this was THE STANDARD, quite simply it was the way to build a house!

That alone would make me never buy a new home...the idea of paying them extra to do their job correctly.

Wow, I appreciate all the advice!  It's overwhelming.  I'm actually surprised that no one has chimed in on the positive side -- which says a lot to me.  We definitely are concerned about the school district and I've been watching the newspapers, asking coworkers, and checking out the demographics profiles of the schools/areas.  We've lived in Pittsburgh long enough to know the extreme good ones and extreme bad ones, but the ones in the middle are the ones that are harder to judge.

It's hard to know exactly what to expect unless you are close to someone who has just done it -- and most of our family members have either bought houses 30 yrs ago or rent, with the exception of my folks and this modular they had built.  I just feel buried under all there is to learn about, so I'm glad we are starting research now.  Like, using a buyer broker.  We've heard this before, and will most likely do it, but do they work for one real estate company?  Are they independent?  How do we find a good one?  And then there's mortgages.  yes we want a fixed rate one but do you pay points or no?  Just so many decisions!  How do you time a closing of a house to be close to the end of a lease, so you aren't paying twice for many months?  It's enough to make you go crazy!

Almost makes me want to remain a renter :)

NicoleS

I wouldn't buy a new build from a builder. The only way I would have a new house is if I bought land and hired people myself to do it. I'm a realtor, and although I'm not a residential one I go to a lot of brokers open type events in the "McMansions". They all have a cheap feel to them. A lot of them are drafty, etc. They look beautiful from the outside, but they just aren't built as well as some of the older homes are.

 Yeah, I'm not experienced enough to tell, but after staying in my folks' place for a while I agree that theirs isn't the best-built house.  AND, they paid to have things done better - like use 2x6 instead of 2x4 or something like that, a stronger roof, a better basement, and it still isn't great.

But, we want something kinda new.  Would something 10-15 years old be built that much better?  Although I don't want to go "old" I can sacrifice some newness to have a better built house.

Don't knock old homes if they're kept up correctly.   Also don't knock new homes.  ;)  All the houses are individual but I would probably look for a pre-owned home before buying in a new subdivision.  This is because you never know what will happen in that subdivision over time.  My original home was in a single family subdivision which, after time, part was sold to put in duplexes.  Plus the park they promised?  ppphffttt.....

But we've also purchased two pre-owned homes that need some serious work.  Mostly because previous owners did not keep up the house the way they should.  Shortcuts were taken in building and things were not fixed they way they should have been.

So find the area you like and then look at the houses there.  Go to LOTS of them and definitely pay for a full inspection, it's worth every penny!