When to start negotiating on a new build?

Delate

Hi All

I'm going for a new build house which is currently just a plot.

I had a meeting with the sales exec last week and have arranged another appointment to put down a reserve deposit this Saturday with the same sales exec.

I'm not all too good at negotiating to be honest and also struggle asking for freebies, for those of you who have any sort of knowledge I would be interested as to at what point in the process you started negotiating for extra options/reduction on the price and how you went about it?

At some point I will be having an options meeting to discuss the extras that I want for the house, I'm guessing It's at this point I would ask them for extras? Such as an integrated kitchen? Or alarm system? I honestly have no idea how far you can push it either or what they are more likely to give you and what they never give people.

Any input Is muchly appreciated as I'm super nervous about the whole process!

davemorton

Im sorry I can not speak from experience, but my opinion would be to haggle before a deposit is paid.  I could be wrong though. 

Spies

I'd have solar built into the roof depending on roof orientation. 

tinytiddles

I asked what incentives were available before we reserved ours, we then knew what their start point was before we got the more formal conversations going.

That way hubby and I were able to discuss what our “must haves” were before the big reservation day and then anything else we could squeeze out of them was a bonus.

If you’re buying with a mortgage the incentives can be worth no more than 5% of the asking price otherwise it affects the LTV.

Good luck!

bramptonbrew

The best time to negotiate for incentives/extras is at the reservation meeting (your next one).

We went to ours with the idea that we would ask for upgraded flooring and kitchen worktops/cabinets. We got those, and were also offered the shower package (i.e. they'd put a shower in over the bath in the main bathroom), an outdoor tap and the upgraded bathroom options. We didn't ask for turfing in the back garden because we already had our own plans for doing it ourselves and didn't need the whole of it doing (we have a fairly big garden for a new build). 

The only 'upgrade' we paid for was built in wardrobes in two of the bedrooms. We probably could have sourced these a little bit cheaper if we had them done separately once we were in, but it was handier for us that they were in place on move in day

We were able to see an unsold plot of our house style which just had the standard options for flooring/kitchen/bathroom and whilst it looked nice, we were glad that we managed to get the upgraded versions!

Noneforit999

As said above, the best time to 'haggle' is the meeting where you are paying the reservation fee and therefore reserving the plot. Once you do this, its likely you will have 28 days to exchange contracts so be prepared to move quickly, ensure you have a conveyancing solicitor lined up to start the process as developers want exchange done in 4-6 weeks normally.

In terms of extras, it really depends what is included now and what you see as important to you.

Flooring is probably the best thing to get included as otherwise you will get the keys and have no flooring so can't move in straight away as the developer is unlikely to let you get flooring down until completion. On the other hand, they will charge more for flooring than getting it done yourself and its easy to get a company to do this on the day you get the keys.

The things we regretting not paying extra for were:

1. Full tiling in main bathroom and shower over bath. We didn't use the main bathroom for 5 years due to having an en-suite but now we have a child, its used a lot and they no longer make the wall tiles we have so its not going to be as easy to do.
2. Additional garden paving. The paved area was fairly small, 2m x 2m so we should really have got them to make this bigger beforehand.
3. Quartz kitchen tops. The cheap laminate ones they used have not aged well. In fact the who kitchen hasn't aged well for only 7 years but the worktops need replacing really. 

Getting flooring thrown in is usually do-able but it depends on the demand, if they are selling like hot cakes they may be reluctant to throw in any extras. Look at the extras sheet, work out what is important and out of those things, get the ones that would be difficult to do later on.

TripleH

We had no options (but not sure any were available as builder had gone under and we weren't original buyer).

We'd have opted for built in wardrobes in 2 of the rooms (have now had them installed), a longer worktop in kitchen and different flooring in downstairs hall and the main lounge/kitchen area.

Racky_Roo

Not necessarily classed as an extra but some builders offer the choice of wall colour if you ask early enough. So if you don't like their standard colour, might be worth asking if they will do a different colour like white

SharkMoney

You need to negotiate at your “reservation meeting”. Don’t turn up acting like you are about the sign the dotted line, this is the only time the ball is in your court. Being invited to a “reservation meeting” means they really want you to buy it. 

The approach I took was go in with questions first but act super cool. Then say that you and significant other have had a chat and like the house but for it to work you’d need XYZ (carpets, stamp duty etc) go OTT so there is room to come down to. We were lucky and they said yes to our demands after a very quick phone call to the “director”. 

You MUST be prepared to walk away. The best was to do this is to have your meeting as late in the day as possible so it is extremely unlikely someone else will swoop in after you. Then sleep on it and wait for your phone to ring the next morning! It’s a gamble but it works. If you miss the house to someone else then so be it. There’s always another house. 

Delate

Hi All, Thank you so much for all your detailed comments!

I'm going to call the sales exec tomorrow and ask over the phone what incentives they are willing to offer, based on their response I can plan how to tackle the reservation meeting on Saturday!

Super nervous but also feeling much better about negotiating as it seems the majority of people who go for a new build plot do get some sort of incentives, if we weren't to get any I would be really disappointed and I'm not sure how I would proceed yet.

But thank you for everyones insights! I've read your comments in detail

sammyjammy

Delate said:

Hi All, Thank you so much for all your detailed comments!

I'm going to call the sales exec tomorrow and ask over the phone what incentives they are willing to offer, based on their response I can plan how to tackle the reservation meeting on Saturday!

Super nervous but also feeling much better about negotiating as it seems the majority of people who go for a new build plot do get some sort of incentives, if we weren't to get any I would be really disappointed and I'm not sure how I would proceed yet.

But thank you for everyones insights! I've read your comments in detail

If you have anyone thats good with haggling and negotiating take them with you!  You can always cross their palm with alcohol/chocolates/voucher!