Barrett Homes and buying a house for the first time

glasgowdan

Why do you want to buy a new build? Something established and lived in could be so so much better in almost every way.

comeandgo

If you have the money do not use any of the large house builders, buy yourself a private plot of land and get a decent builder to build it to your own spec. The large house builders do not vary from their house plans, they don't care about anything but profits.

freeisgood

New builds in the UK are famously small...small rooms...I have a friend who has just moved from a new 3 bed house (tiny) to a 5 bedroom house (slightly less tiny) I was expecting the 5 bedroom house to feel spacious...how wrong I was.

gettingtheresometime

MyOnlyPost wrote: »

I am not aware of any major homebuilder who will alter the internal walls of a property for you. You have to remember that the plans have been submitted to building regs for approval and changing them would cause delays and extra costs for the builder as they would have to be resubmitted.

I think it's got more to do with practicalities....each house type will have different load bearing walls, requiring different types if foundations.

If you have say 4 types of house on a site then it doesn't matter whether you've got a site of 4 or 400 houses.....the engineering side of it will be the same for each house type. You start getting people not wanting walls all over the shop & the situation soon becomes a nightmare to deal with.

tim123456789

comeandgo wrote: »

If you have the money do not use any of the large house builders, buy yourself a private plot of land.

good luck finding a plot


the average self builder waits 20 years

gycraig_2

Supply and demand, you won't often get amazing service in an industry that has more demand than they can service.

Why would they redesign plans for someone when the there is another 20 people who wouldn't want changes.

comeandgo

tim123456789 wrote: »

good luck finding a plot


the average self builder waits 20 years

It's who you know and where you look. Non of the people who I know have waited more than a year.

swishy87

We've just bought a David Wilson house (part of Barrett) and I'm actually very impressed! Our room sizes are fantastic and the whole house is really spacious with a big hall too. Much bigger than I expected.

[Deleted User]

I still remember the absolute astonishment of a new build rep when I asked if an additional window could be put into a very dark lounge. I looked at another one and wondered if the designers were on speed..., lovely large kitchen, cubby hole of a lounge that you'd have difficulty putting a 2 bed sofa in, tiny study just big enough for a desk and a lovely top floor main bedroom. Fine if you want to live in the bedroom or kitchen but not for an average family. At both I had reps confidently predicting the houses would sell fast.., houses you'd have to pay me to live in and I still wouldn't lol.

If you want a nice house, find a refurb house that fits your needs. You are likely to get bigger room sizes, bigger plot, a layout you like because you can search til you find one you do, better than paper thin walls. You do have to make careful checks of the refurb to make sure no corners have been cut but I'd advise anyone to do that with a new build.

New builds can be better insulated.

ViolaLass

tzzt123 wrote: »

I don't have to buy anything, but it's always good to make an informative decision, whether it's a yes or a no

I didn't say do you need to buy 'at all', I said do you need to buy 'new'. Not new houses can be viewed as they actually are. Why buy new?