Redrow Experience

Armchairhero

My fiance and I are interested in buying a Redrow new build. The woman at the site was particularly brusque and bullish about how well they are selling (despite the builds not havng started yet and no show homes existing).

Where we are looking at is a prime location for commuters in the midlands so I would imagine that they have a high degree of interest and potentially some sales. Perhaps it's just that it's her job to sell but I've head from another couple interested in the same site that they were quite adamanet about zero price negotiations.

I am just wondering what other people's experiences are of dealing with Redrow. Neither of us have ever bought a new build before so unsure about the pitfalls.

We intend to sell our existing property first and to get a mortgage in principle which we are not expecting to be an issue to aid our negotiations. While we can afford the full price of the house, there is also the 3% stamp duty which would be a sizeable amount and just going through another site, I worked out that some kitchen upgrades, carpet and tiles would cost close to £15k which would suddenly make the whole purchase, that much more expensive and would increase our mortgage beyond what we would like.

ryan1977

My partner and I are in the process of buying a Redrow new build in South Wales and the staff on site couldn't have been more helpful. This is my second Redrow home in five years and I'd certainly buy another. We had a few delays with our mortgage due to the property being undervalued and despite going way past the agreed completion date, Redrow were happy to hold the property for us until our finances were sorted. The sales advisor has been fantastic and has kept us updated at every opportunity. Moving on Friday so we can only hope that the house will be as good as the buying experience suggests.

GeekTrek

I have reserved a plot from Redrow in east midlands. Very popular I must say. All the houses that they released where reserved in the opening weekend. We have had some ups and down since then, nothing major so far. But I have read from many forums that the sales team can be harsh and bullish but the after sales is very good.

Some developments are more popular then others so they tend to give out less incentives. We just managed to get carpets and vinyl's. Others in the same development got more and some none.

I personally do think that Redrow upgrades are far too expensive. We considered the upgrades for half tiles and ceramic tile flooring but the cost would be too much. We finally concluded to stick with the basics.

dgtazzman

Yeah, be careful with buying upgrades from the builders. We aren't buying from Redrow (though I must admit their houses look nice, they're just not currently building where we wanted to buy), but the prices of some of the upgrades we were quoted were just plain having a laugh. Double to triple retail price for white goods, which would cost them close to nothing to build in while installing the kitchen. The best was towel radiators for the bathrooms, they wanted more than 5 x retail price for those. On the other hand, upgrading to an induction hob was pretty much bang on retail price for the hob loose, which was extremely reasonable if you take installation into account. Basically have a good sniff though the price list of upgrades and shop around before buying any.

Armchairhero

GeekTrek wrote: »

I have reserved a plot from Redrow in east midlands. Very popular I must say. All the houses that they released where reserved in the opening weekend. We have had some ups and down since then, nothing major so far. But I have read from many forums that the sales team can be harsh and bullish but the after sales is very good.

This sums up my experience with them to date. They have been very bullish but according to them, their properties have been very popular, selling well and many are selling as soon as they have been released.

How can I make sure we know when they will release a load of houses so we can get in quickly? Was there any movement from Redrow on price or was it mostly just a few extras?

Thanks

FTB48

Hi Arm

We are also in the process of purchasing our first home from Redrow and have had a good experience so far!

We reserved early enough to pick all our standard options and they even replaced the whole kitchen as it wasn't the colour we wanted (lucky I know!:D)

With regards to deals, we seem to have had a very good one after reviewing some of the comments on this forum. We finalised ours in May (before HTB really took off) and got a £2.5K reduction on the total price, £5.5K towards our stamp duty and £10K for options. As the £10K was based on cost to Redrow (not sale price) we have struggle to use it all!

The Estate has sold really well and there is only 1 house left. The hardest part of the whole process has been waiting to get it! :mad:

FTB48:money:

Armchairhero

FTB48 wrote: »

Hi Arm

We are also in the process of purchasing our first home from Redrow and have had a good experience so far!

We reserved early enough to pick all our standard options and they even replaced the whole kitchen as it wasn't the colour we wanted (lucky I know!:D)

With regards to deals, we seem to have had a very good one after reviewing some of the comments on this forum. We finalised ours in May (before HTB really took off) and got a £2.5K reduction on the total price, £5.5K towards our stamp duty and £10K for options. As the £10K was based on cost to Redrow (not sale price) we have struggle to use it all!

The Estate has sold really well and there is only 1 house left. The hardest part of the whole process has been waiting to get it! :mad:

FTB48:money:

That does sound liek a good deal and thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you're having a good experience with them.

It looks like the hardest challenge for my Fiance and I will be to make sure we are able to reserve early. Unfortunately we can't really put our house on sale before April as we are getting Married then and the first builds won't be finished until June/July which I would expect to have been reserved so we may have to target the 2nd phase.

I'm just concerned as to whether we would be notified when he 2nd phase will be released as we've rather set our hearts on one of the Redrow homes as it looks fantastic. We've already been round a showhome somewhere else twice already...!

FTB48

From my experience, it is key not to panic.

When we initially looked around the houses, we were joined by 4 other couples! All supposedly showing "keen interest"...

Since May, none of the other couples have put a deposit down. Although a lot more people are looking at purchasing, I believe all the hype in the press is causing hysteria.

If you contact the sales office and express interest, they will be able to keep you updated on when the houses will be released. You will only need a small deposit to reserve a plot and ours was refundable if we were unable to secure a mortgage.

I hope this helps

FTB48:money: