Buying a new build home.

ratters7470

Good morning all.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of buying a new build home?

My wife and I have recently viewed a four bed town house built by Ben Bailey Homes and having never concidered a new build before I was after some advice.

The house is already completed and therefore has all of the normal customer choices fitted.

Ben Bailey say the house has been recently reduced in price from £269k to £250K but I can’t verify this. Would it be appropriate for me to offer less on the basis that I haven’t been able to choose the fixtures and fittings, the house has remained unsold for a few months and also their end of year is coming up in December. The sales advisor says they won’t go lower than the new asking price but I’d like to see if I can lower the price without being unreasonable.

This is my first experience of house buying and would be grateful for your opinions.

Many thanks in advance.

Rgds

G_M

ask

they'll say yes.... or no.

stator

You can use the FireFox addon called Property Bee to see the old asking price of a house. If that fails you can also try to use google's cached version of the sale add, or perhaps try web.archive.org to see old versions, if they are cached, they might not be.

There's no harm in asking but don't expect much

StumpyPumpy

If it is the one in "a picturesque market town" in Norfolk, then PropertyBee says:

23/10/2014

• Price changed: from '£260,000' to '£250,000'

02/08/2014

• Price changed: from '£269,995' to '£260,000'

19/07/2014

• Initial entry found.

In answer to your question though, the Pumpy family motto is - don't ask, don't get.

SP

ratters7470

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the replys.

I did a bit of homework but the cached pages didnt reveal anything much.

Thanks Pumpy, yes, those are the ones!

Well I did ask and I didnt get! The price is firm with ZERO incentives thrown in. So its decision time.

Thanks again.

Rgds

aleny121scott

hi
welcome to this site
and get more information some important topics..

kinger101

You could go back again with the another offer say halfway between what you offered last time, and what the asking price is. Stress any other positives on your side (e.g. not in chain). They'll probably say no again, but it's worth a shot. Is there only one sales advisor there? Or is there a possibility you can submit your offer to someone else.

lessonlearned

Ex new build sales negotiator here.

If their final year end is December then yes keep pushing for some extra discount.

There is just 7 weeks till Christmas. If you have your money sorted then you should be able to exchange and complete quickly.

They will be wanting to legally complete by around the 23rd December at the latest because of the Christmas shut down.

You are holding all the cards, brazen it out. If they need this sale for their year end figures they have only a couple of weeks left and ideally they need to make the sale this weekend, next weekend at the very latest.

You just might snap up a real bargain.;)

Good luck.

Ps the latest I ever sold a house for the December figures was Dec 1st with a LC for 23rd December. However that was in the days when lenders were much quicker with their mortgage offers.

Just edited to add. If they cannot give you cash discount - sometimes they really can't - they do have to be accountable to their shareholders.

Instead ask for extras. For example carpets might cost you around £2 to £3k - they can get them for a lot less. Turfing, fencing etc can all be extras that can save you a small fortune especially if you have to employ someone to do the work for you.

It's too late for extra tiling, electrics etc at this stage.

When negotiating always point out the benefits to them eg they are improving their sales and meeting their targets, the negotiator will be getting commission (maybe even double commission on this particular plot).

Sell them the benefits as to why you are a good bet, ie you have your money ready, you can complete to meet their deadlines.

Always remember the magic phrase. "If you give me (or do) this, then I will do (or give) you that.

So that would be something like "If you give me a discount (or whatever) then I will legally complete by ........ (insert date)."

Show them you are serious and mean businessness by having your reservation fee at the ready. Slap you bank card, cheque book, whatever, down on the desk

Show them the money..........

ratters7470

Hi,

Just an update, we did buy for the asking price but got to keep all of the fixtures and fittings as it had been used as a show home. Not a bad deal I thought and we really love the house.

The snagging is another matter entirely!

7 months in and I still have a list as long as your arm. I’m past the point of no return with the site office and after a long conversation with head office they are now saying they are unaware of any outstanding faults, the saga continues.

On the whole I have found the local staff, sales team, site manager & tradesmen all to be very good and minor issues have been rectified within hours but typically I’m left to deal with the call centre for the big issues!

On a lighter note, if anyone knows how to use dual zone digital thermostats then feel free to give me a shout, I can’t for the life of me get them to turn the heating off!

Rgds