Taylor Wimpey homes

treend

Hiya all. I'm looking for a new home and am visiting a new site in Warton Preston where Taylor Wimpey are going to build. We got an invite for an open evening and are quite excited. Although a bit worried about some of the stories we have read today about homes being pulled down and one built over a mine shaft. Does anyone know if Taylor Wimpey are a reputable company? We have two children so need a good home which will rise in value, as we would one day want to help kids out to buy they're own homes. I like the thought of a new build because everything is new, but don't want to buy a problem home, got enough stuff to think about with a family and work. Any help from people who have bought a Taylor Wimpey home or just anyone with knowledge of new builds and any pitfalls. Thanks alot. xx

Fuzzyness

i'd say they were one of the better house builders but i've not lived in one of their houses so dont take my word for it.

LeafGreen

I haven't heard of any particularly bad experiences with Taylor Wimpey but you will most likely find good and bad stories about any house builder if you look hard enough.

You say you "need a good home which will rise in value, as we would one day want to help kids out to buy they're own homes." In that case, an off-plan new build is the worst idea. You do pay a premium for new-builds and you could struggle to negotiate much of a discount off list price if it is not built yet. In other words, it is likely to go down in value before it goes up, and you could be waiting a long time to see any decent gains.

I'm not completely against new-builds (in fact seriously considering one myself) just be aware that the market is not what it was 5-10 years ago, and interest rates only have one direction that they can go.

Don't skimp on surveys/searches etc just because it's a new-build. These should satisfy your concerns about old mines etc.

pinkshoes

It depends what type of housing they're building. The words "affordable housing" makes me shudder, as it basically means Timber Frame construction, which I can only think of as shoddy, and wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

I can't see from their blurb what they're going to be built from.

Surely "rising in value" doesn't matter, as if it hasn't risen in value in 25 years, then neither will any other properties, and you will have paid off your mortgage, so still have a handsome sum to pass on to your kids.

treend

Thank you all so very much for your replies so far, some great advice, I am so greatful.

There are affordable homes on the Warton development, I have no idea what that means. We are interested in the four bed detached houses, I think the affordable ones are three bed.

Would they be constructed in a different way then? If we buy a four bed on this development and there are three bed affordable, might we buy a badly constructed four bed.

Sorry if these sound like silly questions. We currently have a lovely 1930's home which was all beautifully done up when we moved in and we are just a bit worried about having to do too much work on a home because of a lack of D.I.Y skills and the little monsters.

One hour to go and we will be hearing the sales pitch, I don't know what to ask really.

We did notice one strange thing when passing today to see what Warton is like, they mention meadow, so we thought it was facing a meadow, but it isn’t. (Meadow view) they call it, but no meadow. Also the lovely village we passed through called Wrea green is pictured on Taylor Wimpey’s site, but the development is not in that village. Warton looks ok, but not as nice as the other village.



Any questions I should ask before we think of securing a plot?



Thank you thank you thank you xxxxxxx great site!!! Wish we had found this site years ago.

kiwigirl

Bought a TW house 4 yrs ago, currently renting it out due to not being able to sell when I relocated. Mine is a 3 bed townhouse, end of 3. They're an ok firm I suppose, seen better seen worse.

When I moved in I had no curtains poles / blinds, no mirrors in bathrooms, nothing to hang towels in bathrooms, no toilet roll holder stuck to a wall or anything like that, so you'll need to factor in purchasing and if no one DIY savvy how much will it cost to get someone in to do that? Some of bathroom stuff can wait but curtain poles etc within a few days I think necesary esp with kids.

Build quality, mine was ok, not much paint I'm afraid inside, think if I cleaned one wall with a little elbow crease and could see plaster :rotfl:, my house had settlement cracks appearing still after 3 years. A neighbour of mine could put a £1 between the stairs and walls! If you keep an eye on things and get them to do it soon enough they'll come back if you nag them enough!

One of the detached had to paint the walls about 5 times in one room before it was ok, but think they painted too early and not let the place dry out enough first.

I bought in the first part of the development, the affordable housing at my place was reached via another road and I lived off the main road to the main estate so I didn't need to go much further than where my house was. A place where I rented we had AH and some of the residents were pretty bad behaviour issues, but you could have that with your next door neighbour who's a millionaire too.

I personally wouldn't go for an off plan house, mine was already built and start of the crash, other side of the 3 was £7k more than I paid as she paid off plan, she had to pay for flooring, garden fence, tiling additional whilst although not my preferred taste mine were in when I viewed first. (I got a friend of a friend to tile bathroom and kitchen and got a discount off his suppliers for tiles of my taste).

2 doors other way same type of house but a semi was £17k more expensive and only a slightly bigger garden than mine, I had the best parking out of the 3 houses. The only 2 bad points I'd say at build point was they shared the guttering over the 3 houses and I didn't get the down spout, so couldn't collect rainwater for the garden. Which is ok if you don't like gardening but as I didn't have an external tap (had to book at planning stage), I had to fill watering cans in kitchen and bring through lounge to back garden, which was a bit of a faff as I realised I enjoyed gardening there.

Parking is a big problem on new estates, most places might be lucky getting place for 2 cars and a garage, then most families will have 2 cars and not use garage, then where are the visiting friends going to park? Say if 2 houses nearby do that, it results in total chaos at times! We had one of the neighbours decide to block off 8 houses and one of the blocked owners went into labour and we couldn't get anyone to move cars at the time, so it went a bit chaotic.

Meadow comment, it's just a name - our estate was a bit random too.

When they were building ours it wasn't too bad until they finished on site and opened a path quite near my house, and we did have some odd people walking through the road at that point. We even had some vandals attempt to break in to a neighbours car, which luckily dog across road barked and they fled. But that could happen anywhere.

I can hear my neighbours walking up and down stairs - rather unnerving when you don't realise it's the neighbours and you think is someone going to come through the door in middle of night! But a detached won't be a problem there.

I found the estate quite odd, the ones over 30 would talk to you or wave etc, the ones under 30 wouldn't make eye contact, would say please / thanks if you collected a parcel for them, that might be an age thing (I was only 30 when I moved there myself and found this a bit strange), or it might be an area thing as a colleague to mine said the same about her new build estate when she moved. The new build place where my parents moved to (as 2nd owners) is great, someone will always lend a hand to watch garden if away or when they were both too ill to go to shops (I was away at time) neighbours did their shopping and went to chemist for tablets etc. One of them even did dad's ironing when mum landed up in hospital!

Salz

A friend of mine is off to picket a new TW development over the weekend. She moved into her TW house 6 years ago, their's was one of the last houses on the estate to be finished, and they still haven't finished the roads. She loves her house and has had no major problems with it, but is fed up of buying new tyres for her car all the time!

treend

Thanks for all the advice. We were given a pretty good sell. The affordable homes and smaller, cheaper properties aren't on sale yet. I felt they were holding back on a few details, so we will wait and see what happens over the next few weeks or months. There are other developers to look at yet.

We now realise that we will have to do a lot of work even in a new home, we were so lucky with this home because they left it beautifully done and we bought their fittings so had curtains and carpets, even white goods. It looks like we will have to do a lot of shopping, not sure if our piggy bank is full enough for the price of a new home and all new stuff, but we'll see.

We don't worry too much about cracks, our house is full of them yet is in very nice order. I think we're more worried about the developer not fixing things if they go wrong, or the finish not being as nice as we expect. I would prefer to see what we are buying, so won't jump the gun, as Taylor Wimpey would love!!! They just want you to buy off plan with promises, we are just not that silly.

Anyway thank you all for your comments, it definitely made me think a little harder before getting carried away. We have read some horror stories about Taylor Wimpey, but then we have read stories about a few new home builders and it would seem you are either lucky or unlucky.

I love the bit about life being chillies and not a box of chocolates ... so true!

We will look around Warton and Wrea green, pity we can't afford the new homes in Wrea green, but that would have to be a lotto win. The area seems good and we have been told that schools are also very good, which is the main thing.

We would still like to hear opinions on new builds, particularly Taylor Wimpey as this seems the most likely new build we will go for.

Thanks again, have a lovely weekend, hope that sun shines for you all.

jenna78

Well we wanted an affordable home and were told that there would be these kind of homes on the warton development. We went to pick up a brochure and most impotantly find out the prices and they say they are years away. we are furious as this estate only got permission if they were to build affordable homes, yet all the houses they are selling are expensive ones which we can't afford. We were given some talk about newts and how they will probably develop over the newts as they have not seen any. How do the council get away with allowing this sort of thing to happen? This developer does not give a damn about these endangered newts or the need for affordable housing. We will go elsewhere and not touch a taylor wimpey build as they are full of promises that they don't intend on keeping. we waited months for this ales office to be built so we could find out about the affordable homes, they just want to make a killing on expensive houses and then slap in the affordable homes last minute if the are forced to by the council. whats the bet they really don't want to build them at all! so disgusted with this.

horngkai

cracks in new homes are to be expected I think. took 2-3 years for mine to settle down.

ankspon

DO NOT BUY WIMPEY HOMES.They are terrible quality and the aftercare and customer service is worse than there build quality.