New build - negotiate on options?

GDB2222

HappyHomeBuyer said:

GDB2222 said:

Have you paid a reservation fee, and is this refundable if you don’t go ahead? 

Have paid initial £500 fee - refundable minus reasonable costs. Haven’t completed or paid full deposit yet.

What reasonable costs do they have so far?  However, I expect that they will find £499 worth.

If you want to negotiate on anything at all, you have to be prepared to walk away from (most of) the deposit you've paid. They have no incentive to 'give' you £5 to spend on the property, let alone £5000. 

HappyHomeBuyer

GDB2222 said:

HappyHomeBuyer said:

GDB2222 said:

Have you paid a reservation fee, and is this refundable if you don’t go ahead? 

Have paid initial £500 fee - refundable minus reasonable costs. Haven’t completed or paid full deposit yet.

What reasonable costs do they have so far?  However, I expect that they will find £499 worth.

If you want to negotiate on anything at all, you have to be prepared to walk away from (most of) the deposit you've paid. They have no incentive to 'give' you £5 to spend on the property, let alone £5000. 

That’s fine, we’re not expecting anything for free given the popularity of the development. Just wondering if there’s anything that we should be asking for as a ‘no-brainer’. Happy to pay for the extras - knew we’d have to. As first time new build buyers would be good to hear from others experience of things we should prioritise in the options.

Thanks

Seashell517

My current house was a new build when I bought it. I arrange for turf and basic flooring to be included before I reserved.

For options... I had an outside tap, dishwasher socket/plumbing, spotlights, upgrading the flooring from the basic, shower over the bath, and half height tiling in the bathroom and ensuite. I was planning on having towel radiators done after but when I looked into it the cost from the builder wasn't much different so had those done by the builder too (meant they were included in the 5 year warranty). 

HappyHomeBuyer

Seashell517 said:

My current house was a new build when I bought it. I arrange for turf and basic flooring to be included before I reserved.

For options... I had an outside tap, dishwasher socket/plumbing, spotlights, upgrading the flooring from the basic, shower over the bath, and half height tiling in the bathroom and ensuite. I was planning on having towel radiators done after but when I looked into it the cost from the builder wasn't much different so had those done by the builder too (meant they were included in the 5 year warranty). 

Thank you - that’s helpful to know. We were going to leave the outside tap - I can get it for £40 compared to over one hundred with the builder. Definitely investing in the bathrooms!

hazyjo

Perfectly acceptable to try to get things thrown in, but it's (usually) done before you reserve a plot as part of the negotiations. Once you've paid your reservation fee, they're unlikely to give you anything.

Racky_Roo

I'd think again about the spotlights, the ceiling roses are rarely where you'd have a spotlight so you'll be patching up holes where they would have been. Also, spotlights are a lot easier to install when there's access via the upstairs rather than through an existing ceiling. Having done it in an older property, it's a right faff to work out the positioning, get fitted and try and make good the ceiling (and i'm good and filling and sanding). If you hadn't considered it, def go for spotlights on the landing too as it makes moving furniture a lot easier not watching for light bulbs and of course creates a nicer lighting effect too.

However, I didn't have to pay for any of my spotlights as my new home came with them pretty much everywhere as standard but I always think that extra couple of grand is small fry in the long term 

HappyHomeBuyer

Racky_Roo said:

I'd think again about the spotlights, the ceiling roses are rarely where you'd have a spotlight so you'll be patching up holes where they would have been. Also, spotlights are a lot easier to install when there's access via the upstairs rather than through an existing ceiling. Having done it in an older property, it's a right faff to work out the positioning, get fitted and try and make good the ceiling (and i'm good and filling and sanding). If you hadn't considered it, def go for spotlights on the landing too as it makes moving furniture a lot easier not watching for light bulbs and of course creates a nicer lighting effect too.

However, I didn't have to pay for any of my spotlights as my new home came with them pretty much everywhere as standard but I always think that extra couple of grand is small fry in the long term 

Really appreciate this advice - thank you!

tinytiddles

As others have said, the negotiations around incentives (or freebies if you want to put it that way but they are priced into the cost of the property so not really free) are done at the point of reservation and can usually be up to 5% of the value of the property before it will affect your mortgage lending. 

I don’t mean to be blunt but if you’re willing to buy a new build without any incentives then you’re being ripped off. We bought a new build over the summer and I pushed and pushed and pushed the sales guy until I could get no more and made sure it was all recorded on the paperwork before I parted with my reservation fee.

Carl2510

I reserved a Rowland Home in August.

They gave me integrated Dishwasher, L+R Fencing, £1000 towards legal fees and £2000 towards Deposit.

HappyHomeBuyer

tinytiddles said:

As others have said, the negotiations around incentives (or freebies if you want to put it that way but they are priced into the cost of the property so not really free) are done at the point of reservation and can usually be up to 5% of the value of the property before it will affect your mortgage lending. 

I don’t mean to be blunt but if you’re willing to buy a new build without any incentives then you’re being ripped off. We bought a new build over the summer and I pushed and pushed and pushed the sales guy until I could get no more and made sure it was all recorded on the paperwork before I parted with my reservation fee.

Appreciate what you’re saying. Thanks for taking the time to respond. We haven’t had much of an opportunity to push the sales people yet, but also know that the plot is in very high demand so if we walked away there are at least another 4 people waiting. 

Will certainly try to get what we can out of them.

Cheers.