In a neighborhood where half the people are doing laminate, a 30% price increase doesn’t seem like you’ll make it back. Nicer neighborhood, fewer upgrades?

The price range of $300k is normal hardwood in many areas. Here, you’d get a condo...with hardwood. Lol.

Based upon what you're saying, I think you're setting yourself up for resale failure. You say that most of the houses in your neighborhood are selling for 325K ... so for resale, you want to stay UNDER 325K.

The tract builders have a game, and you're their favorite player. It's called set-out-a-basic-house-and-tempt-them-to-pay-big-for-every-nice-detail. They've convinced you to add 40% to your final bill and to make yourself one of the most expensive houses in the neighborhood.

Remember, too, that you're not just looking at paying 100K in extras ... you're looking at financing 100K in extras, which means interest on top of that cost.

Is this okay? Is this normal. Do people get this many upgrades?

I think you're in a position to judge this using empirical data. Take a look at the houses that've sold on the secondary market over the last year ... make a chart including the upgrades those houses included ... and compare them to the selling price.

People will pay 5% more than neighborhood comps for a house with upgrades. They are never ever going to pay 40% more.

I think this is a pretty good rule of thumb.

Here's an example: My daughter and her husband just bought a house in a modest neighborhood; it's the kind of place where you assume carpet and vinyl, laminate countertops, simple bathrooms ... but their house includes some pretty expensive upgrades: Plantation shutters on all the windows, jetted tub, a bay window in the dining room, built-in speakers, real tile in the kitchen, outbuilding with electrical, extended patio ... and the biggie: a heated, all-tile inground pool-and-hot-tub. From the real estate agent and the neighbors, we know that the original owners tried for several years to sell the house ... couldn't get the price to "break even" with all their upgrades ... eventually they lost the house. The idiot sellers let the place fall into disrepair: The air conditioner didn't work and the roof needed replacing -- no one with any sense would say, "Who cares about having a good roof? I want those plantation shutters!"

Okay, a smarter seller could've handled that better, but the core of the problem was that they over-built for the neighborhood and couldn't get the money out of it. My daughter and her husband bought it for a reasonable price (after all, it had no air conditioning and a roof worth nothing), so the upgrades were almost "free". Not really, but they fully understand that they can enjoy these upgrades but will not "make money" from them in the future.

The extra room will probably make our house the biggest on the
street, but not the biggest in the neighborhood. The expansion is out
the back of the home and would not make the house look bigger from the
front, but would enable us to easily add an additional bedroom in the
basement.

Do you currently NEED this space?

Cabinets will have dovetail solid wood drawer construction as opposed to
stapled particle board drawers which are standard. The island has bar
seating for 4. The upgraded kitchen comes with 7 extra recessed lights
on the ceiling and 4 extra mini pendants (one per seat at bar/island).
Soft close doors and drawers.

This all sounds very nice, but 20K is a huge pricetag to take you from "standard" to "fancy". I think if I were in your shoes, I'd go with the standard option -- assuming it wouldn't last forever -- and in ten years, use 20K to renovate with whatever's trendy at that point.

Yes, I agree. However, that one is important to the wife. I
couldn't care less if we have a fireplace at all. The regular fireplace
is still 4K without the stones

I'd probably skip the stone. You're not sure how long you'll stay in this house, and you'll get nothing back for a fancier fireplace at resale. A stone fireplace has 0 improved function over a regular fireplace.

In closing, I think you want us to say, "Oh, pay for it! Enjoy the upgrades!" You can do that, but it's not a solid financial choice for your future. Good luck making your decisions.

Ms. Pete,

I really like what you pointed out. In regard to the wood floors. We have wood floors now in the entirety of our current house. Our current house costs 1/2 as much as the new house we would be building and is in a cheaper area of town. Our current house also has dovetail drawers in the kitchen, and quality cabinetry. I suppose I have just been confused as to why I would pay 100K more for a house that has a lower quality kitchen, and flooring. Our current house also has a brick fireplace. While the neighborhood we are building in has homes in the lower price range, the area we are building in has many homes up to 600K or more. In fact, there are two 1 million dollar homes less than a 1/2 mile away. They were just built on a non tract development and have more land. The area is considered to be one of the more affluent parts of town, but has a lot of variation from house to house. Some of the homes are full brick, some have vinyl siding. Some have all wood floors, some do not.

In terms of needing the space, we don't know, and that's part of the problem. We have 5 children (oldest is 8), and may later have to have additional family move in with us, or may end up adopting two more children, so there are a lot of unknown and complicated factors and our initial thought was to be prepared just in case.

I don't really want someone to tell me to do it. I want someone to tell me, 'hey I did that and it was a bad idea', or 'hey I did that and it worked out just fine'. I am loving the advice, but other than the seller you mentioned, no one seems to have a personal experience Perhaps they are all too smart to fall into the trap. :-)

All RE is local. This forum is US. Classic advice is to be cheapest house in a neighborhood.

But other things matter. We sold our house in 3 days and it was the most expensive sale on a street of 55 comparable homes. 15% higher than the closest in the last year. We custom built but they are all custom homes. We had an unpermitted basement. Our front yard was a mess.

Why did we sell so fast for so much? Most would say taste and design - credit to my wife and the architect (really house designer). Our back yard was a TOB. But apparently the buyer's just loved our brick. We had upgraded beyond the neighborhood - subzero/Wolf in a mostly GE profile hood. We broke even after 8 years. A neighbor with a similar house built 3 years earlier sold right after ours and lost money.

I can't believe I am asking this...do you have an agent and what do they say?

The important part up front is what the house will appraise for. Because you aren’t getting a loan for 350K for a 250K valued house. Upgrades don’t add much. Square footage and location are what bump an appraisal.

Are you prepared to pay the whole 100K out of pocket? In addition to the standard 50K down? Banks don’t loan based on a cost to build. They loan on what they could sell it for if they had to foreclose.

David Cary,

Do you have an agent and what do they say?

We do not have an agent. However, my in-laws are helping guide us in our decisions. They have built 5 houses with various builders. They believe that we will be underwater on the build regardless of what we do. However, they think that once we finish the basement ourselves that we will regain most of the lost equity from the purchase price, and that in the end we will be happy with the house.

Which brings me to an equally important question. From a quality of life standpoint, is it better to lose 30K and live for 10+ years in a house that I love, or to gain 20-30K and live for 10 years in a house that I think is a piece of crap?

Sophie Wheeler,

It is included in the contract that if my chosen lender does not appraise the house at or above asking price, they will either reduce their asking price, or the contract will be terminated and all my earnest money fully refunded. I will not purchase the home at all if it does not appraise appropriately, and then would take my money elsewhere.

As part of the agreement, we are having my lender do two appraisals. The first appraisal will be of the blueprints with all of our selected options before construction begins. The second will be of the completed house before closing.

Wood flooring in the whole house (except the 4 bedrooms and loft) - 18K

How many square feet are we talking about here? The $16.50 a square your builder is charging, is that the total cost flooring material and install? I ask because my engineered wood floor glue down is costing me just around $10 a square foot for everything.

And as I said, my house is costing considerably more than yours.

As for the fact your builder doesn't offer LVT have you suggested it to him/her?

'Fancy' kitchen (11 extra cabinets + 10ft Island bar + quartz counters) - 20K

Is it worth more than 6% of your build for just the cabinets?

Stone fireplace 6K

I wouldn't put in a stone fireplace. Especially one that costs 6k. I put in custom, handmade tiles on my fireplace and the cost of the tile plus the installation didn't cost that much.

cpartist,

This is a link to the manufacturer's site for the exact flooring we have chosen. The square footage total is about 1000 sqft of wood floored area + the stairs. The $16.5 is including install.

This is a link to the exact fireplace we would receive. The standard fireplace looks like this and is 4K.

This linked image shows the kitchen and island, but we have selected different cabinets and a different backsplash, but the same dimensions and layout.

Also, I forgot, the builder used to offer LVT but will no longer offer it as an option. We actually have very limited flooring options. One thing I have learned from this process is that if we ever build again (many years down the road), we will buy our own lot and do a custom build if for no other reason than opening up our options.

This is a link to the manufacturer's site for the exact flooring we have chosen. The square footage total is about 1000 sqft of wood floored area + the stairs. The $16.5 is including install.

I hope you read the reviews because they aren't positive for the floor. Additionally, it looks like it can be gotten for less online. It looks like Hosking Hardwood has it for about $7.50 a square foot.

This is a link to the exact fireplace we would receive.

Is that natural stone or cultured stone?

The standard fireplace looks like this and is 4K.

What is the brand of the fireplace. Also is it a vented fireplace or unvented?

This linked image shows the kitchen and island, but we have selected different cabinets and a different backsplash, but the same dimensions and layout.

I see nothing wrong with those cabinets and agree with mrspete that you'd probably be better off taking the standard and then changing later if you want..

cpartist,

I am aware of the lower price on the flooring, but once again, we don't have many options. The only way we are permitted to save money on the floor by the builder is to pick a different flooring material from the options they give us. We have considered a natural oak in thinner planks which would save around 6k, but is also much less attractive to us. Or we could get carpet and rip it out and install our own wood floors. But that's more hassle after closing.

The fireplace is natural Stone. It is vented, but I do not know the manufacturer. I will ask next time I talk to the builder's rep.

The white cabinets in the image are 2K more expensive than what we have chosen. Below is an image of the exact default kitchen from another house in a nearby neighborhood with the standard cabinets.

Below are the cabinets we have chosen in the configuration you saw before. These cabinets fronts are lower cost than the white ones you saw and have plywood rather than MDF center panels on the doors.

You are getting TOTALLY ripped off!!!! Where are you in the country? The GC is trying to take advantage of you.....and putting 'allot' more money in their pockets! Esp. on the wood floors and kit. As I've said before many times on here......around 99.9% people have 'no' idea what things cost. GC's 'know' this!

robin0919,

The zip code we are building in is 40245. Also, we knew from the beginning that the prices are a 'rip off', however, we also know that the building company is not specifically taking advantage of us. This is a cookie cutter operation. There is a room with selections and a large booklet with prices. The prices are fixed for all homes in the neighborhood. For example, any person who wants 5" Pine baseboards instead of 3" MDF pays $2300 extra. There are already at least 100 homes built this way over the past 6 years. I didn't go to a builder or contractor and tell them to build me a house with 'X' stuff and they said okay it will cost 'Y' dollars. If you yourself walked into the same office to build a home with the same stuff in it, your price would be the same, it's not really a negotiable operation. If we were to build the exact same house by contracting it out ourselves we would likely save about 60 - 80K, but the only lots in this area where we could do that cost 60K+ just for the lot alone. Building in the city. Even the same builder charges at least 40K less for the same house in slightly more rural areas.

Jim, many or most people do not spend $100k on upgrades on a $250k house. Often in your price range, the buyer is a first time home owner, just able to finance the base model.

If you want a Mercedes and you can afford one, buy it, vs buying a Volkswagen and putting a roll Royce grill on it. You will not get your investment back because those who can afford a Mercedes do not want to live with neighbors driving who can’t afford one. Your post indicates you have some money, do you want to live next door to neighbors who do not have money?

The $250k price of your home would not be a down payment in my neighborhood. What is the time on market in you area?

I have not seen home built for $250k being resold for $327k, and the developer continuing selling that $250k home for $250k.

You plan to live there for 20 years, but then you may not. Seems like you have conflicts. Make a plan based on what you want. If your plan doesn’t work out; it is what it is. What if Google/Facebook/Amazon/Tesla moved to your city? Your zip is Kentucky, tell me about your regions economy. At $250k per home, the value of land is almost zero. The cost of your home is based on the cost of building and land. $200k for the building and $10k for the land $40k for the developer. Not a property I would invest in.

Repeat after me. All RE is local. This forum is US.

Raleigh here, so more expensive but not that far off in the suburbs. 250k for a 2000 sqft basement house is very inexpensive and is really hard to fathom in the custom world. Especially including land.

Jim Mat - I really don't think 350k and 250k are so far apart that he will be living among looters and pick pockets. Read what you wrote and see if you don't think that is just a little harsh. I mean because poor people - that can afford to buy a 250k house are really no good to live near! And you would be amazed at the wealth that sometimes lives in 300k houses when that is what is normal in a region. There are plenty of people that can buy their house for less than a year's salary.

A quick Zillow search shows that only about 1/6th of the houses in the zip code are currently for sale for less than 300K. Of houses that have 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, that figure also seems to hold constant. I'm no real estate guru but that doesn't seem too terrible of a figure and is actually fewer low cost homes than I was expecting. My bosses boss who makes double my salary lives on the next street over. And my sister's in-laws bought their retirement home in this community from the other cookie cutter builder. Real estate prices in our city have gone up by at least 20% in the last two years. For example, I paid 126K for my current house 4 years ago. The house next door with the same floor plan just sold for 165K about 4 months ago.

I am certain that I would be over paying for my house. But I am fairly certain that very few are building the base house. For example, the house in the image from my previous post showing the default basic kitchen recently sold for 300K. They chose very few interior upgrades, but paid heftily for a huge patio, deck and a fancy retaining wall for their patio among other things. Different people are choosing different things. Some people are paying 20K extra for full brick, most ore getting front brick and vinyl siding. Everyone cares about different stuff. An aesthetic and nice interior is most important to us.

First I want to say that Robin is our local houzz troll in that anytime anyone mentions a build figure that is above 5 figures, (s)he comes on and says the OP is getting totally ripped off. This has become this person's mantra, so I wouldn't try and defend yourself against him/her.

And I agree with David that all RE is local and that Jim's implications were not thought through. However he does bring up an interesting point when he said, "I have not seen home built for $250k being resold for $327k, and the developer continuing selling that $250k home for $250k." I have also found that if the majority of the neighborhood is selling for $250k at the time of the build, then you are probably overbuilding for the neighborhood.

The extra room will probably make our house the biggest on the street, but not the biggest in the neighborhood.

When you say neighborhood, are you talking your block or the whole zip code? I ask because if you are in an area like I am, a few blocks over in my zip code can make a huge difference in housing prices. So while I'm in the same zip code as houses a few blocks away, my house is worth considerably more. It's all location, location, location.

Meaning if all the houses on your new block are selling for under $300k, I doubt you'll be able to sell your home for $325-$350 if you needed to sell, even if one block over they're selling for that price. Yes RE can get that local.

That one block difference might be because of a better view, or better services or most importantly better schools. Even if you don't send your kids to public schools, a better school district will usually mean higher housing prices. Or it could be because your house is the only one that is that large.

It is included in the contract that if my chosen lender does not appraise the house at or above asking price, they will either reduce their asking price, or the contract will be terminated and all my earnest money fully refunded.

Is this YOUR lender, not one the builder is providing? As long as it's YOUR lender, then you're good IF you've vetted the contract with your own RE lawyer because if you haven't vetted it with your RE lawyer, there are usually outs for the builder.

OP, is this builder you are working with one of the large regional or national production builders? It sounds like it.

The way these production builders work, in general, is that the base price is often offered as a 'teaser' price. By that I mean that the home can be built for the base price but that what you get normally needs extra's just to bring it up to a standard for the neighborhood. The pricing is meant to bring you in the door. The builder charges a lot for extra's because that is where they pump up their profits. It's a new home pricing strategy that works and has been around for years.

The model shows a bunch of upgrades to whet your appetite so when you go to the builders design center you are primed to spend more money. The 'design center' offers limited upgrades deliberately - cost control by the builder to maximize his profit is one reason.

You do pay a high premium to get any extra through the builder. In my area it isn't unusual to spend $100k in extras - but as said above, all real estate is local. So do look at the actual comps for the house you are planning to see where you are in pricing. If the actual comps are $325k for what you are planning to build, then that is your benchmark for deciding how far you want to go with your extras through the builder.

I have seen kitchens offered by builders that are actually totally useless forcing the consumer to a kitchen "upgrade" to even get a functional kitchen. But again, this is a way to have the buyer pay for the kitchen on top of the sales price. Typical builder tactic - at least in my area. I'm a Realtor, so I see this everywhere with production builders. The question is: can you take the expansion from the builder and then put in your own kitchen afterward for $20k? Maybe - but probably not.

If you get the base house with some of the items that you can not do afterward (9' ceilings, bonus room, expansion room, expanded garage) you spend $32,500 in the price and then all of your other upgrades come after you have closed. You have infinitely wider choices and more control over what you end up getting. But there is a hassle factor involved and paying for those cosmetic items out of pocket or getting another type of financing (HELOC?) to pay for it. Which way do you want to end up with your upgrades? That is a personal decision.

In the end - yes, you pay top dollar when buying from a production builder. The factors that influence your decision are both monetary and non-monetary (time, stress, etc). If you keep your eye on true comps in your neighborhood, it will keep you from making a mistake - or at least minimize the amount you choose to spend over and above the comps. You said the neighborhood pricing goes to $600k. If that is accurate, then spending $350k is fine. However, if the actual comps are closer to $300k - you have a choice to make.

cpartist,

Based on looking at the homes being built, and understanding general marketing strategies, it appears that the builder is advertising the home at 250K, but almost never selling that base house.

When I say neighborhood, I mean, the houses that are on the same streets as where this builder is building homes. My house is only the 11th house out of 50 that will be on the final stretch of land where this company is building houses. The other end of the neighborhood across the street has about 50 -70 houses where this builder built previously, which are all completed. Behind my backyard is a large farm in a different county. Except for one other neighborhood, all of the nearby neighborhoods in my zip code are higher priced because my neighborhood is about 3 - 5 minutes from two golf courses / country clubs, but those neighborhoods surround the golf courses and country clubs. My house includes membership to one of the country clubs, but there would still be a monthly fee if we actually wanted to use it.

I don't know what the houses on my block are selling for because only 3 of the 11 houses are at the point of partial construction. One has a frame and is on a lot without a basement, the lot was a premium lot because of size, but the customer purchased a home that is slightly smaller and about starts at $240 for the base model, the lot was an extra 15K, I have no idea what upgrades they chose. The house two lots down from me is on a walkout lot with the same model I am choosing. There's a lot of unknowns.

It is my chosen lender. This is the same lender my parents use, the same lender I used on our current home, and the same lender I have referred my friends to. The builder had to contact my lender to verify they would be willing do the double appraisal and to explain their construction process, so it is not a lender the builder has ever worked with before, and they are not even based in the city where we are building.

Denita,

It is exactly like what you said. However, the zip code comps go up to 600K, not necessarily the immediate neighborhood. The most expensive house in the neighborhood sold for 400K this year. The next most expensive have been 380k and 360K. Most comparable homes are selling around 325K within the past year, but they are houses that didn't get the kitchen, got builders grade cabinets, etc. Just the kitchen alone would put us in a similar price point. But the default kitchen is significantly less functional. I have priced it out, if we paid for the expansion and upgraded the kitchen to the same one later, we would not be able to do it cheaper. The only thing that it is 100% obvious we could do cheaper after the fact is the wood flooring. Other things would cost close to the same price, or more, to do on our own.

Jagoe Homes?

Just as a point of reference in your general area, I am in the next population center west of you. I am building a semi custom home with a small local builder. Our entire home of amish built cabinets were 26K. Similar to this back wall but a fully finished 10' island

Ryan Snow,

That looks beautiful! Honestly, at our price point we likely would have been better off going semi custom. We hate the generic kitchen, but the upgraded kitchen is more kitchen than we initially wanted. We anticipate being the family center for future holiday gatherings, so it will certainly come in handy.

Like Ryan, my Amish built kitchen with cabinets to 10', all 3/4" plywood boxes, blum hardware, and all custom with drawers came in at almost 1/2 the cost of a mid priced cabinet line. In the long run, you might be better off going custom on your own lot if you're willing to shop and do a lot of preplanning. Just a thought.

There's a lot of unknowns.

Including the large farm in your backyard, which could easily turn into a sea of houses when the farmer gets an offer s/he can't refuse.

For me all of the unknowns and the virtual bait-and-switch production builder scenario Denita describes would raise an awful lot of red flags. Especially with 5-7 kids and the possible addition of additional family members to consider. What I think would bother me the most is not getting the biggest bang for the buck. Yes, it's one thing to have the 100K, it's another to know that you've spent it knowing that you could have bought a much better quality product for less, and banked the rest. You'll be living in this house reminded daily of the inadequacies, long before you may have to deal with the possibility of selling and getting back your investment.

How far along in the contract process are you? Depending on how locked in you are at this point, you may just have to put your head down and forge ahead through any buyer's remorse you might, quite understandably, be feeling.

Sorry to here that Jim, we looked at all of the builders, both regional and local. Our house being built now is about the same price as the regional builders ~350-380 but we were able to pick a better neighborhood and make changes to the plan until we were comfortable. We have had to spend much more time picking out items but we get exactly what we want and get to make decisions based on trade offs not what they get great deals on.

cpartist,

At this point if we back out we will lose our 2K deposit on the lot, which is not much compared to 30K lost in home value at moment of purchase. Also, technically if they really wanted to they could sue to force us to build based on the contract, which they probably wouldn't do because it would just be easier for them to keep our 2K and sell the lot to someone else.

We already know that our eventual next build, which is hopefully many years down the road after all the kids are gone, would be custom.

Either way, with 5 kids in a 3 bedroom house, we are busting out and need to move. Sadly we don't have the time to go the custom route. My in-laws home is custom and it was a pain for them through the process. They probably spent about 70K less than we will and have 10' ceilings and some other nicer things, but 40K of that is the lot pricing out in the country vs here in the city.

The worst thing is that this is the most annoying stuff to deal with. We bought our current house thinking we would do x,y,z thing to make it nicer, and we haven't done a single thing, and decided it wasn't worth it and we would just buy a different house. However, most other homes people had the same idea and are not providing much improvement aside from size. Building we will be losing money, but will have a much nicer home without the hassle of buying and upgrading. I wish we had the time to build custom though. We'll get it one of these days.

beckysharp,

As I mentioned to cpartist, we have signed the contract, but they will not move forward with the construction without an additional 5% deposit. If we back out we will only lose 2K. However, with the options we are given in this area, there is no way to avoid buyers remorse without buying an existing home, or building fully custom. If I don't spend the money on the upgrades, I have what in my mind would be an overpriced home that I don't like, and If I do spend the money on the upgrades, I lose, unless I get lucky. So, it is kind of a no win situation if you look at it from that perspective.

Ryan Snow,

If I had to go back and do it, I would probably do what you are doing. What made it too easy for us to build with the company we are using is that my sister lives in one of the houses in the neighborhood with her in-laws and they seemed completely satisfied with their house, which is their retirement home. So we kind of jumped on the bandwagon and did all the pricing research after we already signed the contract. We did look at at least 4 different builders and neighborhoods though. Part of the problem I think, is that we picked our builder based on the available floor plan. We really didn't like any of the floor plans any of the other builders were offering. The builder has good reviews and we know other people from our church who have also used them. They have all told me that they wouldn't build with them again, but that in the end they love their home and that their house has appreciated in value overall, but they built it 4 years ago, and the entire market here has gone up, which means really they just got lucky!

did all the pricing research after we already signed the contract

Yikes, that's a lesson.

Good luck going forward, Jim.

If you are going to continue the purchase per your post above, you can mitigate some of the extra expense by doing the floors and FP after you close. That will 'save' you $18k and $6k which is $24k in your purchase and those two items can be installed afterward if you have the time, money and fortitude to actually do it. The problem then becomes, will you have the funds to do the flooring right away, or will you wait?

By the way, your experience with your current home is not unusual. Life gets in the way - and before you know it a decade has passed and none of the items you thought you would do are done. I see it regularly on listing appointments where the (now) sellers were going to do x,y,z and never did....because life got in the way. Don't beat yourself up about it.

To say the housing market in our area has changed in 4 years is a huge understatement. Houses in Louisville and my area are on fire. Who is the builder you chose?

beckysharp,

I may have explained that wrong. We knew from the moment of signing that we would be paying a higher price than what we would receive. We did not request access to specific product details until afterward to compare pricing for what we are getting to what we are paying. For example I have contacted the flooring manufacturer and the cabinet manufacturer, and priced out fixtures and many other things. I would not initially have considered doing that unless I was building a custom home. From pricing everything out it appears the builders profit margin is around 20% on the big ticket items, but much more on some things like fixtures.

Ryan Snow,

We are using Inverness.

Denita,

When I priced out installation of a gas fireplace, we wouldn't save a whole lot. Now if we just did a nice electric fireplace and mantle. That would definitely save us about 5K. And yes, I keep going back and forth. I am considering scrapping the floors and installing them before we move in. We won't have to sell our current house to buy this one as we are mortgage free right now.

Have you already signed for the upgrades? If not, I would try to bargain. I'd ask if you can get your 100k of upgrades for 80k and see what they come back with. You might also say that you have been doing your own research and the numbers you are seeing for the same products are much less. You might even go farther and let them know that you are SO disappointed you are have considered walking away and forsaking the 2k deposit.

If you want a Mercedes and you can afford one, buy it, vs buying a Volkswagen and putting a roll Royce grill on it. You will not get your investment back because those who can afford a Mercedes do not want to live with neighbors driving who can’t afford one.

This is a good analogy.

You're looking at buying a tract home in a neighborhood -- you're looking at buying a Volkswagen. Volkswagens are good. They're economical, dependable -- but also average. Not Pinterest-fancy, not gonna 'specially impress people. But you're trying to add a few "extras" to make your Volkswagen feel like a Rolls Royce. Presumably you'll enjoy those nice features, but when you go to sell, it's still a Volkswagen underneath.

This isn't necessarily a horrible idea; in fact, I'm doing something similar: I'm building a small house with some high-end features ... but I'm not building it in a neighborhood, so it isn't really comparable.
And you would be amazed at the wealth that sometimes lives in 300k houses when that is what is normal in a region.

You'd also be surprised at who actually has money and who doesn't. In my area, "rich people" tend to live in 250-300K houses. My husband and I have more than most of our friends, and we live in a 150K house.

Often the people who appear to have the most actually have the least.

I don't know what the houses on my block are selling for because only 3 of the 11 houses are at the point of partial construction.

Does your county have online GIS?

Including the large farm in your backyard, which could easily turn into a sea of houses when the farmer gets an offer s/he can't refuse.

I live in an area that's booming, and lots of family farms are turning into neighborhoods; however, you just can't know. I've had a pretty big number waved in front of my eyes, and I didn't even consider it. My land's been in my family since before America was America, and I will never sell it for any price.

rockybird,

We have signed for the upgrades, but the build is conditional on us paying 15K additional. If we walk away and don't pay them that money, they can cancel the contract and keep the 2K or try to take us to court and force us to build anyway. They would likely be better off if they just sold to the next guy.

Mrs Pete,

Honestly, I am generally an extremely frugal person. I wouldn't mind a much lower cost home, it would just be a stepping stone to later getting what we really want and doing it the way you are.

The GIS won't help because the homes are only sold after the construction is completed. I tried checking it.

The builder has good reviews and we know other people from our church who have also used them. They have all told me that they wouldn't build with them again

To me that's a big red flag. That means there were lots of problems when they built with them. The reason they are saying it's ok four or five years down the line is because they don't want their property values to go down.

Building is hard enough when a builder has a good reputation and the people would build with the builder again. My builder had an excellent reputation and all said they'd build with him again, yet I'm having problem after problem. The positive is it's a small builder so when I get upset enough, I can call him on his cell phone and he'll take my call. A production builder won't do that.

I would find out why they wouldn't build with them again.

And I'm sensing you are somewhat skeptical and concerned which is why you came here to ask. That too should be sending red flags to you.

Lemme see if I understand this: You have ordered $100K in upgrades for a house which costs $248K...and you have to pay $15K additional!

Surely I don't understand this correctly. Or it's your brother who's building and you're financing his children's tuition...

Virgil,

The 15K is money down, it counts toward the total cost of the home. We do not have to pay 15K additional. Sorry if I wrote it in a confusing way. When I said additional I meant 15K on top of the 2K for a total of 17K (roughly 5%) down up front. This is applied to the cost at closing.

I am looking at some bamboo wood flooring options I really like, and based on my square footage, I could take a few days off work and install 1000 sqft of flooring myself fairly easily. From what I'm pricing out right now it would save a huge chunk on the purchase price, and after installing would still save around 10K overall. I just have to get the wife on board now to let me do it!

Or you could cost yourself 40K going that direction if you’ve never laid floors before. Not to mention bamboo. It’s more glue than grass and is not a trouble free choice.

Sophie Wheeler,

I am failing to see how. Even with these floors? Please educate me, seriously.

Edit: Okay, after further research I can see where the trouble would come in, 9 door jambs and a fireplace to undercut, you mess up, you end up replacing the door frame. That's the worst of it though (a pretty big worst of it) haha!

I am looking at some bamboo wood flooring options I really like, and based on my square footage, I could take a few days off work and install 1000 sqft of flooring myself fairly easily.

A friend of mine did something similar to this -- it was years ago. She bought a condo, and carpet was the only option. She has allergies and cats, so she wanted hardwoods (or maybe it was laminate, or whatever). She couldn't avoid putting in the carpet, but she asked the installers not to stretch it much, just to lay it down. The day after the place was "hers" -- before she moved in -- she had the carpet removed and the hardwoods installed ... and she donated the carpet to something like H-for-Humanity (and got a tax write-off).

I am failing to see how. Even with these floors? Please educate me, seriously.

The problem is that Sophie will find a problem with anything. If you'd said laminate, she'd have had a different complaint. If you'd said tile, it would've been something else.

I personally have no knowledge of bamboo floors. I'll just say be sure you're keeping all your choices in line for the neighborhood.

What you're doing will be some trouble to you, but it's creative thinking and will save you money.

Now, what else can you do to bring down that 100K number?

Mrs. Pete,

I think we are going to scrap the extra room and save that money. Until we finish the basement, it would only provide 120 additional sqft and is basically just a breakfast area with a bunch of windows. It's beautiful, but an unnecessary luxury. Even the local model home doesn't have it. That will also save us 2K on the cost of flooring, so approximately 16K of total savings. Wife doesn't want to deal with the floors ourselves, we'll see if I can convince her. Her parents have installed many wood floors in their lifetimes.

Don’t do glue down as DIY! It’s hellish.

I wouldn't recommend bamboo for simple value reason. It’s out of style mostly.

Milly Rey,

We would do nail down for sure if we do it. Also, we could actually buy and install the exact same wood floors we had picked out with them for about 9K. Which is still only about half of what they are asking. At this point though, there are so many other things we will have to do ourselves right up front that it we may just let them do the floor to not have the hassle.

I would definitely have a professional install your flooring. Sophie is right that it could cost you more in the long run if you did it yourself. The HGTV shows make it look easy, when in fact, there's a lot of calculations & prep involved.

We learned today that they re-contracted pricing for a new LVT option for flooring. We are going to check into that the next time we go.