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Special Events

 

Lynchburg Sales Office

Free Homebuilding Seminar

Learn everything from the builder and lender you need to know to save thousands on your new home!

Sponsored By:

David James Homes & Bank of the James

 

Get Real Dollar Answers to:

1. Building vs. Buying - Dollars & Sense

2. What Style of home is most cost effective?

3. Choosing a home that fits your lot or visa versa

4. How your lot affects the price of your home?

5. How much home can I afford?

6. How much cash will I need?

7. How can I use my lot as Down Payment?

8. How much will my payments be?

 

Guest Speakers

Randolph Nexsen, Sr. Vice President, Bank of the James

Joe Hepler, Builder, David James Homes

 

When:             Tuesday, January 24th from 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Where:            Quality Inn, Fort Early Room

                        Odd Fellows Rd. Exit off Rt. 29 Lynchburg

RSVP:             By Monday, January 23rd to 434-239-5077  or

                                  jhepler@davidjamescustomhomes.com

 

This is a free seminar, but seating is limited!

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5 THINGS BUILDERS DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

 

1. "My quote is not cast in stone"
The quotation is merely the bait to entice you into accepting a builder to do the job. The “extras” and even the slightest change to the plans will cost you more than you imagined, homeowners say. And what you may regard as part of the job, the builder will regard as an extra.

Claire*, from Hout Bay in                 , says your builder will never tell you what the work will really cost. She and her husband were forced to take out an extra bond to pay their builder – or be stuck with an unfinished house.

The quote for their house was $185,000, but she and her husband ended up forking out $234,000.

Claire’s advice – which she does not believe is foolproof – is to have the builder give you a much more detailed quote than they are usually inclined to give and include any conceivable extras. Alternatively, keep a notebook in which you record any changes to the plans and the agreed extra costs, and have the builder sign for them.

Expect to pay 20 to 25 percent more than the quote, Chris*, from Four Ways in Sandton, says. Chris recently had his property renovated at a cost of almost $80,000. The original quote was for $58,000.

Colin de Kock, the executive director of the Gauteng Master Builders’ Association, warns that consumers should not simply accept the cheapest quote. To assess whether you are getting value for money, you should ask for two or three detailed quotes and then compare each price per task, rather than just the overall figures.

Bear in mind that many quotations are based on provisional prices. For instance, if you specify that you want carpets in your bedrooms, the builder will make an assumption about the type and quality of carpet unless you are specific about quality, type or make and unless you get actual prices upfront.

Never accept quotations based on a rate per square foot. One builder might quote you $125 a square foot and another will quote you $150 a square foot for the same job. Accepting either of these quotes can leave you seriously out of pocket, De Kock warns, because you have absolutely no idea what you will be getting for $125 or $150.
Quotes should be as detailed as possible.

2. “I’ll sneak in second-hand fittings and poor-quality materials"
Ruth*, from Claremont in                , bought a new house from a developer and then discovered peeling enamel in her bath after using it a few times. It turned out that the builder had fitted second-hand re-enameled baths in her house. Ruth also found a 25-year-old hot-water cylinder and second-hand roof trusses.

After asking for, and receiving, quotes on specially treated timber for decks at his property, Chris discovered that the builder had used ordinary pine. A check with the supplier revealed that he had not stocked the treated timber for many years.

Chris also found that his builder had used sea sand instead of building sand. “That’s why he was so keen to paint, because the paint acts as a bonding agent for the plaster,” Chris says.

The window handles were of such poor quality that some have broken off.

 

3. "I'll not only cut corners — I'll sever them."
Shoddy work has always existed in home building, but the 1990s housing boom has made the problem worse, says Jonathan Alpert, a Tampa, Fla., attorney representing homebuyers. He has handled cases in which builders didn't seal roofs, in which 2-inch concrete slabs have been used instead of the 4-inch slabs specified, in which sewage pipes have been cross-connected to drinking-water pipes.

In some cases, builders are skipping steps dictated by municipal building codes. In one Sarasota, Fla., gated community called        Rock, four families cut open their houses in 1998 to ferret out the source of some mold growth. What they found, in addition to wet lumber, were several code violations, including missing hurricane straps, which are steel plates that tie the wood frame together and to the concrete base. Says Brian Stirling, the structural engineer hired by the homeowners to investigate, "If we'd had a strong storm, they would have had some serious problems." Like what? "Like losing their top floor." The builder,                        Home, agreed last summer to buy back the four houses and said it would make county-supervised repairs on 12 others in the subdivision. "We dispute the extent of the problems," says the builder's attorney, Fred Z. But by settling the case, he says, "                      Home did the right thing."

 

4. "You'll never see me once you move in."
It's one of the great ironies of building a house: During construction, you can't wait to have the builder out of your sight. But once the work is done and problems crop up, he's nowhere to be found. "One of the biggest problems is that once the home is built, you can't find the builder with a Texas posse," says Clark.

Denise Burton knows all about it.  Even before she and her husband closed on their $205,000 Glendale, Ariz., home in September 1997, they knew there were problems. Their walls weren't plumb, for example, and there was no framing behind one. Worried about losing their low interest rate, they moved in anyway, with a promise from the builder,                 Homes, that everything would be fixed once they got in. It didn't happen. Burton made at least a dozen calls to the Phoenix-based builder over a four-month period and sent letters and faxes. Mostly, she was ignored. And when the builder did send workers out to her house, says Burton, "they'd make it worse." It wasn't until October 1998 that the builder finally made all the proper fixes. And that was only after the state agency that regulates contractors, acting on Burton's complaint, temporarily revoked                         's license.                    declined to comment.

5. "I haven't budgeted enough for decent light fixtures."
It sounds like a reasonable practice. Rather than specifying every item for the house, a builder will set cost allowances for things such as light fixtures or carpeting. That way the buyer gets to pick out what he wants. The trouble is, many builders use allowances as a bidding strategy, low-balling the cost to keep the total price down and land the contract.

When author Fields and his wife bought their house in 1990, their builder gave them a $500 allowance for all their light fixtures. "We walked into the store and were just floored by the prices," he recalls. The couple shopped for discounts, but still had to spend $1,000.               , the Memphis builder, says low-ball allowances are common in his region. He says they usually range from $450 to $600 for light fixtures in three-bedroom houses when the real bill is more than double that. "And that's for cookie-cutter fixtures," he adds.

Credits:

Personal Finance Online, “10 things your builder won’t tell you”, February 15, 2003 by Charlene Clayton

Smart Money, “Ten Things Your Home Builder Won't Tell You” By Terrance Noland  January 2000

WATCH FOR MORE  “THINGS YOUR BUILDER DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW”