Negotiate the Best Deal from Your Builder when Buying a New Home (photo by Jason Floyd)
Last week Dave wrote about our friends that just purchased a new house in Toronto. They did a fantastic job of negotiating the best price AND a ton of upgrades into their deal. Dave didn’t take the credit for the great deal they made, but he did spend hours on the phone coaching and prepping them for the negotiation so I think he could safely take some of the credit!
The bottom line is that our friends had done their research and came prepared when they met with the builder. If you are buying a new home in today’s market, if you want to get the best deal available, you should too!
Often a builder will be unable to negotiate on price – or will have very little room to move. This can be for many reasons, but the biggest one could be constraints that have been placed on them by their lender.
Where you can often get some fantastic deals with a builder is in upgrades and finishing work on your new home. But, what can you ask for? I will give you a list of ideas, but your best source of information will come from competing builders. Shop other new home developments in your market. Find out what incentives, upgrades and terms the other builders are offering and use those to negotiate the absolute best deal you can.
Upgrades to Consider Negotiating into Your New Home Purchase Deal:
- Flooring (better quality of hardwood or carpet, different colour, more of it, etc.)
- Higher quality windows
- Light fixtures
- Mirrors
- Paint colours or type
- Plumbing and fixture improvements (or additional – sometimes you may want things roughed in for a wet bar in the basement or a different spot for the washer and dryer – all of these things can be done much easier before the house is finished!)
- Basement (sometimes the basement will be unfinished but you can negotiate some of the finishing work to be done)
- Quality of finishings like light switches, door handles, railings, cabinet hardware etc.
- Doors
- Countertops – you can negotiate the type, the style, the colour and maybe even get extensions like our friends did (see http://lifeasrealestateinvestors.com/2009/03/real_estate_deals/)
- Appliances – you can usually negotiate at least a better model of the same brand but sometimes you can even get a totally different brand
- Insulation – maybe you want thicker insulation or a different type
- Driveway material
- Fencing
- Landscaping
- Other exterior finishings.
If you aren’t able to negotiate exactly what you want, you can always try asking for a discount on their current upgrade package. While the builder may be unable to move much on their list price, there might be more room to move in the price of their upgrade package.
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Great article, thanks for the information.
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our door handles broke easily that is why we are now using tempered steel or tempered bronze`,`
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new homes these days are made of energy efficient insulations and most of them use environment friendly materials too ;~”
All new construction is built to Energy Star standards which include energy-efficient building techniques and features such as more effective
insulation, high-performance windows, tight construction, more efficient heating and cooling equipment, and Energy Star rated lighting
fixtures and appliances
I just want a house…=(
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What happens when an upgrade is installed and you didnt request itm