Buyers Should Use a REALTOR Even When Buying New Construction - Part 1
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, New Construction
Now that my client has moved in, I feel like I can tell this story. You see, my client used a REALTOR and he purchased a new construction home. The reason I mention this is because I humbly suggest that had he not had a realtor he wouldn’t be living in the new home he has today. If you ask him, he would say the same thing.
I’ve have occasionally worked with clients who believe that we can only help them with resale purchases. They see the new construction offices staffed with eager sales people who are brimming with brochures and think that is all the information they need - and that they might get a better deal if they “come without an agent.”
Indeed, I had one client who was relocating to Alpharetta. We started working together but he had a house to sell in North Virginia so we didn’t actively pursue anything. After a few months we reconnected and I learned that he had bought a new construction home. He told me that he felt he was able to get a better deal on his own: he paid full price for the house but got the builder to finished the basement for him.
It worked out okay for this client, although I believe an informed agent he could have negotiated a better deal: Builders are routinely reducing purchase prices by $25k, $50k, even $100k on million dollar plus homes. I just saw where one of my favorite homes in Canterbury on the Lake sold for $1.35M. That’s $100k less than the list price.
Back to my more recent client, though. He never would have achieved his goal of purchasing in Alpharetta had we not had the good fortune of working together. The home he selected was originally built as a model home in a nice new Peachtree Residential neighborhood. We elected to get an independent inspection. I always suggest this even though the home is brand new and the builder offers a warranty. You never know what you will find. Often buyers who don’t have an agent decide not to get an inspection because they figure how much can be wrong with a brand new house.
Our inspection report came back with page after page of defects, some of them structural and potentially deal killers. I read the report, called my client and told him, “We have our work cut out for us.” I was amazed that a top-end builder could produce a product with so many flaws. Where were the building inspectors in all this? I wondered if anyone from the county was actually walking into these house to inspect during construction.
Admittedly, private home inspectors can be overly picky in some cases; but in our case the inspector was very thorough and cited the building code of all the defects, although I felt the wording of the report was a bit inflamatory. If you read the report there would be no way you would buy the house: it sounded like the roof was falling in and the foundation splitting in two.
I knew this was a good house, though, and we had negotiated a good purchase price, so we went to work on the defects. I was simply AMAZED at the way Peachtree Residential stepped up, owned the issues and resolved them above and beyond the client’s (and my) expectations. Had Peachtree not been so agressive, this deal would have fallen apart.
Peachtree rebuilt decks, repoured concrete, reran duct work, added attic access and ventilation, obtained engineering reports and analysis and extended their structural warranty, to name just a few. They had workers crawling all over that house making everything just right and we closed on time with a happy client.
I wouldn’t say that it was an easy transaction. I will say that had the buyer and the builder not had a realtor to a server as “transactional lubricant” and to communicate each party’s concerns to the other in a way that was constructive and moved both sides closer to resolution, the transaction would not have closed even will all Peachtree’s efforts. And I’ll tell you, as much hard work and stress as it was, there was a great sense of satisfaction at closing for the value added in this process.
If everything were easy, there would be no need for realtors, attorneys, sports agents and the like. Things are NOT always easy though, and competent professionals can and do add value in new construction situations. Stay tuned here for more stories from the trenches on how a realtor can keep your marshmellows out of the fire when buying a new construction home.
Download my vCard for your Outlook Contacts
