New build extras?

Movingsouth

geek1981 wrote: »

I'm also buying a newbuild from TW. Its a part-exchange, so they are not too keen to give too much freebies. However got options worth 2K so i can get whatever i want from them using that money. It was interesting to find their upgrade flooring (those shiny glossy tiles) was just £50-60 more than standard ones, so i would suggest take a look at the upgrades + free whitegoods (may be)! Good luck!

We are the same, part ex with TW. Got £3K for options, they said for flooring and carpet, this could mount to £3.5K. Like you said geek1981, we didn't get as many freebies as we wanted. No whitegoods, no turf. Hoping to spend on floor tiles, carpets, don't know if this will stretch to a wall mounted shower over bath?!

We have chosen a house, and in the early stages. Have you been given a catalogue or shown prices of all fittings? Are you able to tell us what happens after you put down a deposit to reserve the house? Do you choose the fixtures and fittings before the contracts get sent out? Sorry, so many questions!

geek1981

Movingsouth wrote: »

Have you been given a catalogue or shown prices of all fittings? Are you able to tell us what happens after you put down a deposit to reserve the house? Do you choose the fixtures and fittings before the contracts get sent out? Sorry, so many questions!

Yes there was a catalogue with price list for all the fittings & accessories. TBH I found some of the things cheaper (like whitegoods) to get it from them, may be because i think they are buying it VAT free as it's for new build.

Things completed:

1) They valued my house using 3 Estate Agents (no house visits though) and offered me a price.
2) Reserved my house in Sept based on that offer
3) Paid for extras - Upgraded tiles for kitchen + half height tiles in kitchen/bathroom + tap in the garden
4) House was ready early December and we have visited few times.
5) Surveying company assigned by developer visited my house for doing home buyer report survey, took pictures etc
6) Developer solicitors are waiting for few more paper-work from my side - I couldn't find my S106 for my current property so need to get duplicates from council.

Things left:

1) Exchange contracts on same day
2) Complete on same day
3) They told me they will leave keys of my current property for 2 weeks for me so i can move things slowly.

If everything goes well i will move in few more weeks. Is it the same for you? Did you exchange?

Cheers!

Just_30

An excellent post guys! We are considering buying a new build from Taylor Wimpey later this year and this has answered quite a few questions I had about haggling for extras.

As an extra question, does anybody know what kind of negotiation room we will have if we take advantage of a shared equity scheme? Looking at either NewBuy, FirstBuy or Taylor Wimpeys own Easystart.

Can we put in a low(er) offer on the property to compensate for the "new build premium" and/or get extras included, or, will the developers take the view that one of these schemes is doing us a big enough "favour"?

Cheers.

Kyrae

Bought a new build a few years ago and i'd advise not to ask them to throw in free turf, it tends to be very cheap quality and they don't weed the ground thoroughly first so you get tons of weeds growing up through the lawn and out from under the edges! If it's a reasonably small lawn you're probably better off preparing the ground and turfing it yourself.

We got free carpets and vinyl thrown in and found it very useful as we could move in immediately without having to worry about putting flooring down. I'll admit the quality of the carpet isn't good though and 3 years later and most of it could really do with replacing as it's flatten down and looks very worn, think they install the cheapest carpet they can find!!

Movingsouth

geek1981 wrote: »

Yes there was a catalogue with price list for all the fittings & accessories. TBH I found some of the things cheaper (like whitegoods) to get it from them, may be because i think they are buying it VAT free as it's for new build.

Things completed:

1) They valued my house using 3 Estate Agents (no house visits though) and offered me a price.
2) Reserved my house in Sept based on that offer
3) Paid for extras - Upgraded tiles for kitchen + half height tiles in kitchen/bathroom + tap in the garden
4) House was ready early December and we have visited few times.
5) Surveying company assigned by developer visited my house for doing home buyer report survey, took pictures etc
6) Developer solicitors are waiting for few more paper-work from my side - I couldn't find my S106 for my current property so need to get duplicates from council.

Things left:

1) Exchange contracts on same day
2) Complete on same day
3) They told me they will leave keys of my current property for 2 weeks for me so i can move things slowly.

If everything goes well i will move in few more weeks. Is it the same for you? Did you exchange?

Cheers!

Thanks for the information. The developers have had our house valued (they sent one of local estate agents to view our house and used another local agent but did not view). The one that did not view our house, valued it lower. The developers chose the middle of the 2 valuations. It was way lower than we expected so tried to negotiate a bit higher, and also negotiate a bit off the selling price and to have some extras (£3K worth of options). We have not reserved the plot yet which the developers are pushing us into and said that we have to go sign the papers straight away. We have a few things to sort out before reserving. Am talking to our current mortgage company today, going to port our existing mortgage and borrow a bit more on top of that. Talked to our solicitor yesterday.

Its good information regarding the white goods. We were going to buy integrated white goods as we thought it would be cheaper than the developers, but then thought that we would have to request that the developers put the cupboard doors on rather than leave an empty space. We will have to see how much it will cost.

The house will not be turfed so we will do this ourselves as we know its cheaper and also better to clear soil of rubble and weeds etc. Have been told there will be no outside tap. The bathroom should be half tiled according to their spec. We are looking at floor tiles and carpeting by the developers. Just think it will be easier if ready when we move in, it will save having to move furniture to get the carpets laid if choosing an independent carpet company. Also looking at getting a wall mounted shower over bath, a thermostatic or electric one, again depending on cost. The house is ready March/April, around the same time the new job starts so the less hassle the better! I am guessing you paid for the extras at the early stages?

At what stage did you choose your fixtures and fittings? When you reserved, did you have to sign some forms? I understand after the reservation fee has been paid contracts are sent out to the solicitors, and when the solicitors receive the forms, the 28 day policy, the period in which they are supposed to complete the exchange. I've read that reservations forms are signed after paying the reservation fee.

It is good they are giving you the keys for 2 weeks to move. It looks like not long before you can chill and relax (no more dealing with solicitors, developers, paper work etc). All the best!

geek1981

For integrated white goods, you can find the model # and specs in the catalogue and compare with outside price. To me theirs was cheaper as they put decent branded ones in our development, not the cheap ones. For turfing I've seen many people complain about the quality of developers turf, so i think i will get it done properly from outside after we move in. You are lucky you got free half tiles everywhere, for me it was just the main bath free, i had to pay for half tile en-suite, W&C and the kitchen, but its not so costly TBH.

I started paying for extras (it's half of the cost you pay before complete) after we reserved, cos some things need to be done before completion. For eg: i wanted my toilets/washbasins to sit on tiles rather than cutting them if we lay it later. Also garden tap had to be fixed before the plumber leaves, but i used my 2K options money for paying them mostly.

When you reserve, you sign the reservation forms and also you receive detailed info on your house. They will also spend half an hour with you going through the floor plans etc. It's the best time to ask if you have any queries about fixtures, surroundings etc. For me there was no 28 day policy to exchange as it is a part-exchange deal and they were busy with December completion. They will also send you a part exchange contract by post which needs to be signed and sent back to the developer.

Did you get fitted wardrobe included in the house price? For me that's a killer as they are so expensive and it looks ugly if i put standalone ones in the space for fitted ones. I have to find a cheaper place to get a fitted ones.

Movingsouth

No I may have misinterpreted, sorry. We did not get free tiles all over, I assumed the half tiles in the bathroom was included! The only thing we are getting is £3K for options and guess this will be easily spent in no time. There was no mention of fitted wardrobes, so I assume this will be extras/upgrades. We will use our existing standalone ones for now. Probably buy some new furniture for living room and take time to replace the old furniture for the bedrooms. One of my relatives was only saying the other day to have kitchen units sitting on tiles (like you mention under the toilet and washbasin). Would like to have floor tiles in kitchen, hall and cloakroom. May have vinyl for bathroom and ensuite to save some money and be able to tile it in future if we wanted. We put tiling on the floor in our current bathroom and it looks good! Shame moving due to work! As for the whitegoods, we went to a showhouse but it was in a different town, as the one we like is not built yet, and all the goods were Electrolux make. On the spec it says they use Porcelanosa for tiles, thats quite expensive place for tiles.

TW mentioned the 28 day policy to us, so may be it depends on when you purchase.

Keep us updated. Its good to hear positive posts. Was saying many people only post when something is negative!

99thomasar

Hi all, just thought I'd add my input as my partner and I are in the final stages of buying a Taylor Wimpey home in the Buckinghamshire area.

At the start I found it difficult to find current opinions and information on buying from them, so I hope this helps somebody in that position.

We bought through FirstBuy, where you need a 5% deposit and then a 20% equity loan is provided by Taylor Wimpey (10%) and the government (10%). This allowed us to go for something a little bigger, as the LTV on the mortgage was just 75%. Anyway, as long as your joint income is under the threshold and you have the 10% deposit you should be fine getting approved for FirstBuy AS LONG AS THE DEVELOPMENT HAS FIRSTBUY ALLOCATION LEFT (it's a limited pot per development). The process took about 3-months from first application to final approval, and they made us change our mortgage term to 25 years instead of 30 at the last minute (due to a change of policy).

Our home is due to be completed in March/April and I have to say that Taylor Wimpey have been great. They've answered all of my queries promptly and honestly and been very helpful in guiding us through the process and keeping us informed at each stage.

In terms of extras, they offered us flooring throughout, which they said was worth about £2000 (sounds like a standard pitch from what other people have said). I already knew from my own measurements and a trip to CarpetRight that this figure was accurate for our size of home -roughly 1150 sqft. However, we weren't impressed with their selection of flooring within that price range, so we opted to negotiate for other things instead. We loved how they'd set to show home out, which was obviously to a very high specification, so I used those features to compile a list of what we wanted, fully expecting to get rebuffed and eventually meeting somewhere in the middle. This list included:

- Floor to ceiling tiling in the main bathroom and en-suite.
- Half height tiling in the WC.
- Upgraded kitchen pack (all appliances, better units, spa tap, additional lighting, stainless steel, better tiles, double oven).
- Outside tap.
- TV points in all three bedrooms + lounge.
- External lights (front and back).
- Power and light to garage.
- Doorbell.
- Turf to rear.
- Shower in main bathroom bathtub.
- Full built-in wardrobes in master bedroom and second bedroom.

I basically said to the sales rep that we had the deposit, we had initial approval by Catalyst, no chain as first time buyers, mortgage estimates from two mortgage brokers, and also that we were dead keen but wanted the house to be impressive, not basic, or it's a no-go. Two days later he came back to us and to our surprise his 'manager had approved' the whole list. Obviously we'll have to sort the flooring ourselves after completion, but with the money we've saved on appliances this won't be an issue.

We also chose to purchase upgraded taps for both bathrooms and the WC after that, which was about £200 in total - but taps are expensive everywhere so we thought this was reasonable. Even though the completion won't be until March/April 2013, they insisted that ALL extras needed to be ordered and paid for by the end of December 2012 and that after that there was very little else we could change, so bear that in mind and plan accordingly. Later, they also threw in mirrors for the bathrooms and will landscape the front garden area with plants - I don't know what possessed them to add these, but we won't complain!

Before haggling for extras we asked about negotiating on the asking price, but they said that because we're using FirstBuy this isn't possible. They mentioned that if we bought the house normally then there would be some wriggle room somehow, such as paying the stamp duty or solicitors fees, but the asking price still wouldn't change hardly at all. I looked at the average sale price of similar homes in the area and found Taylor Wimpey to be asking about £5000 more than that, but seeing as it's not going to need maintenance (hopefully) or renovation for ages I don't mind this premium.

Overall Taylor Wimpey have been professional and supportive throughout the process. The extras we negotiated were beyond what we expected to achieve. We'll know later this year if the home lives up to expectations, but for now it's all good.

newsgroup_monkey

2 things.

Firstly, this is exactly what a 2 year old thread probably shouldn't have been reopened..... (I've never noticed it so much before on MSE).....

Anyway,. the poster above me, interesting that they insisted on 10%?
Firstbuy (the whole point) is that you only need 5%

http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/special+offers/firstbuy/

I'm not saying it's right, it's just what TW say on their website.

99thomasar

Yes, my bad - got muddled with the 10%'s. It is 5% and 75%LTV with FirstBuy, but we had 10% ourselves. EDITED ACCORDINGLY. :rotfl:

And I don't really think it's relevant when this thread was created to be honest - I searched for Taylor Wimpey, this came up on the first page, I had some input that I felt would be useful to people in a similar position and I gave it. Last I checked Taylor Wimpey are still trading, so this is still a relevant topic. And if it helps even one person then it's served it's purpose.

Thread revival is OK, people. Chill!