New build extras?

Nynaeve

Have you searched this forum for something along the lines of "should I buy a new build"?

Might be useful reading...

Movingsouth

99thomasar wrote: »

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.

Thanks for the info. You did well to get those extras! Are you saying you got those extras for £2K or did you have to pay more on top? Am wanting a few things that you mentioned in your list of extras, but my cost estimate way exceeds the amount they are offering, so am going to have to put aside a bit more money for the extras.

All the best in your move. :beer:

TerryCTR

Useful thread revival for me as it shows all the prices they charge for the extras in 2011, meaning its going to be even worse now.

I plan to buy a newbuild from Taylor Wimpey this year if it all works out so its good to see what options people are going for

littlesparkles

I bought from TW in Dec 2012.

Extras were:
Turf and fence £300
Upgraded kitchen £475
Upgraded kitchen tiles £100
Extra tv point to bedroom £130
Alarm £530
Shower over bath and tiling around bath £750
Outside light at front £115
Upgraded hob and oven £280
Upgraded chimney hood £100 or £200 depending on make
Integrated washer dryer £720
Integrated dishwasher £420

durzoblint

Hi Guys, I am in the process of buying a house from persimmon homes. the builder gave me the following for free:
Flooring, tiles to wet areas, white goods. Now the problem is we wanted hard wood or laminated wood flooring in the lounge but we were told that the "flooring" mentioned in our contract meant carpets alone. I was quoted £1,500 to "upgrade" the lounge to wood Laminate wood flooring which i think is ridiculously high.
My question is, will i be able to get the builder to credit the value of the carpet for the lounge back to me so i can then get the flooring done myself ?

HouseMoo

durzoblint wrote: »

My question is, will i be able to get the builder to credit the value of the carpet for the lounge back to me so i can then get the flooring done myself ?

durzoblint: In theory yes, the only awkwardness is that Persimmon would have to give you the money as a discount on the purchase price (which would have to go into your contract), and they don't like doing this. The easiest way is if you purchase £1500 of other things through Persimmon and they would essentially give this to you instead (e.g. extra sockets / lights / curtains / loft hatch / turfing / upgraded kitchen doors / shower in main bath / more tiling etc)

I only know this as we're buying Persimmon and due to the particular carpets we wanted being withdrawn and the upgrade to the next level up being over £1500, we spoke about what we could do if we wanted to carpet it ourselves (and get the money back instead as this was one of our agreed incentives). Eventually we ended up coming to an agreement with Persimmon still doing the carpets as they found another supplier for the one we wanted.

- HouseMoo :www:

durzoblint

HouseMoo wrote: »

durzoblint: In theory yes, the only awkwardness is that Persimmon would have to give you the money as a discount on the purchase price (which would have to go into your contract), and they don't like doing this. The easiest way is if you purchase £1500 of other things through Persimmon and they would essentially give this to you instead (e.g. extra sockets / lights / curtains / loft hatch / turfing / upgraded kitchen doors / shower in main bath / more tiling etc)

I only know this as we're buying Persimmon and due to the particular carpets we wanted being withdrawn and the upgrade to the next level up being over £1500, we spoke about what we could do if we wanted to carpet it ourselves (and get the money back instead as this was one of our agreed incentives). Eventually we ended up coming to an agreement with Persimmon still doing the carpets as they found another supplier for the one we wanted.

- HouseMoo :www:

Thanks for your reply HouseMoo, only problem is we have already ordered everything else. The only other thing we may have wanted would have been fitted wardrobes but they aren't being offered at this development.
I have checked pricing of materials for the wood flooring i want, even if i choose the most expensive it only comes to about £500 for a 25m2 area so i really am confused about how they came about their costs. especially since this is meant to be minus the cost of the free carpetting they offered me.
Wonder if they will agree to provide the labour free if i buy the materials

durzoblint

After flatly refusing to pay that much and refusing to exchange, persimmon came back and said a mistake was made on the pricing. They took over £600 of the cost of putting in the wood flooring.

HouseMoo

durzoblint, I'm glad you managed to get your issue sorted, Persimmon do seem to be reasonable if pushed hard enough! The hardest part is usually getting issues past the sales team and getting them to speak to their managers / HQ who can actually make the decisions. :-)

durzoblint

HouseMoo wrote: »

durzoblint, I'm glad you managed to get your issue sorted, Persimmon do seem to be reasonable if pushed hard enough! The hardest part is usually getting issues past the sales team and getting them to speak to their managers / HQ who can actually make the decisions. :-)

Yes, I agree. I noticed they are usually reluctant to call HQ.