new homes

Does spending more get you more?

by John Rice

I’ve always been into two things: Houses and cars.

There are a lot of luxury cars out there that are really just blinged out versions of cheaper cars. Cadillac Escalade? At its core, it is a Chevy Pickup truck…….sorry if you have one and I have insulted you. Lexus TX? It is a better looking Toyota Highlander. Nothing wrong with these companies doing this. It is an economy of scale to be able to sell essentially the same thing to buyers in different socioeconomic classes. They add a few features and make it look better for a lot more money, but all the important stuff is shared with their cheaper platform mates.

Now that you’ve got the concept of today’s blog post, let’s see how it relates to houses.

I showed a house to a client today. It was in a very Toyota Highlander neighborhood. It was close to 3500 square feet with a basement. Great location. Great school district.

I told my client I thought this $484k house was a great value. Why? Because if you spend $100k more, you wouldn’t really get a bigger or better house, you might just get brick on all four sides and be in a more Lexus TX neighborhood.

Sometimes spending more doesn’t really get you much more.

What I like about a contingency contract

by John Rice

Well, I don’t really like them, but there is a good side to this type of contract if you are the seller.  Guess what it is? The buyer will typically pay you more with a contingency to sell their house first than they would without it.

I see it all the time. A buyer with a house to sell gets really nervous about not knowing where they will be living once they sell their old home. Now, unless the buyer already has a contract on the house they are selling, I always counter back with a kickout clause.  That basically means that IF the seller would like to sell the house to another buyer who does not have a contingency, they give the contingency buyer a certain amount of time to remove the contingency or back out of the deal. 

Another thing I like is that IF the contingency buyer can and does remove their contingency,  you have a back up buyer. Sometimes it helps when negotiating repairs if the buyer knows there is somebody else wanting the house if the deal falls apart!

I don’t really care for this kind of contract though when I am working with a buyer…..for all the same reasons. When I have a buyer who wants to write a contingency offer, I usually try to get them to just wait until we sell their house first. Here is why I don’t think they are a good idea for the buyer who can’t possibly remove the contingency if needed: Any decent realtor is going to counter back with a kickout clause. That means that if another buyer comes along they will lose the house. If no such buyer comes along, that means that the house would still be there when the buyer’s old house eventually sells, and they could probably strike a better deal at that point.

How I learned a great real estate lesson from a video game

by John Rice

Ever play Sim City? I must admit, I haven’t done it in like 30 years, but I always loved to watch what happened when you built a neighborhood beside an industrial zone, or watch a neighborhood grow when you added a commercial district beside it.

Sim City is a lot like real life in the way something outside a neighborhood can have an impact on what happens within a neighborhood. 

One day many many years ago, I was talking to a neighbor who bought her house brand new back in the early 70’s. We were talking about all the traffic on Pimlico Parkway. She told me that before they opened Man-O War, the only traffic on Pimlico Parkway was just people from the neighborhood. It was just the main drag through the neighborhood, like any other entrance and exit  in your neighborhood…..until something changed.

And I guess that is what is on my mind. How things are always the same, until something changes.

Another example of a road like this is Autumn Ridge Blvd. I remember when it was a new neighborhood. You took Autumn Ridge all the way back, turned on Pleasant Ridge just like you do today, only back then it ended before you got to Andover Forest…..and oh, there was also no Hamburg back then either.

Next thing you know, Hamburg is built and you can get to it straight through Autumn Ridge. It really worked out great for everybody….except those folks that lived on the cut through streets.  They saw a lot of traffic and watched as their houses became less desirable than the same house on a different street in the neighborhood.

So, here is my advice: Don’t buy a house on a road that ends at an undeveloped area.  SOMETHING will eventually be there….just like on Sim City, and odds are it will change the vibe of your neighborhood. Sometimes it changes it in a good way, but most of the time it means increased traffic, which usually means increased crime…..just like Sim City.

Here is some more advice: When you are considering a neighborhood that has roads like that, take a look at a satellite view of the neighborhood. You want to see what is on the other side of the vacant land to see what may eventually be connected to your neighborhood. Also, don’t rely on zoning. I hear people say things like, “Oh, that is zoned for single family, so we’ll be okay.”  Well, lets say that it stays zoned as such. That doesn’t mean that it will be a single family neighborhood similar to your neighborhood? But even more of a big deal is that there are zoning changes all the time.

And you know what usually happens when there is a big change in the neighborhood don’t you?  All your neighbors decide to move at the same time.  Never a good thing for resale value……and Game Over for you!

Price of new construction driving up “Used” home prices

by John Rice

Used to be that new construction in your area held back the value of your house. The “Used” houses needed to sell for much less than a new one would. Even in a mildly appreciating market, your newer home didn’t really go up in value until that last brand new house sold. It was like the thought was “Why wouldn’t I just get a brand new one instead of buying a ‘Used’ home?” I know this is hard to believe for those of you new to the real estate market, but you used to be able to be the only offer on a completed new home and if you had time, you could pick your lot and pick your floor plan and have your house built. Today, builders like to finish the house and put it on the market to see how much they can get for it. Construction times have gone from 6-8 months to 10-12 months. Builders don’t want to be locked into a sale price where they won’t get paid for 10-12 months in inflationary times and with supply chain issues.

While an existing home will still sell for less than a brand new one in the same neighborhood, I am seeing something that hasn’t happened before. Since new construction is sooooo expensive these days, I am seeing the value of existing homes being boosted by the sticker shock of new construction homes. Yeah, the market is good and inflation is driving the prices of everything up, but prices are rising even faster than I expected in some neighborhoods with a lot of brand new homes going up, such as Masterson Station and The Home Place.

A brand new 2000 square foot home in Masterson is about $325k and the same size in The Home Place is about $440k. Now, instead of saying “Why wouldn’t I just get a brand new home instead of a used one?” buyers are saying “This existing home is a bargain compared to what the brand new homes are!“

The riskiest house to buy

by John Rice

What is the type of house that is the riskiest to buy?

 

(I’ll pause to give you a minute to think.)

 

I bet you didn’t come up with a brand new house as an answer, did you?

Now, new homes are built every day all around the country.    Most of the time everything goes well.  Probably like 98% of the time, but there are some risks involved that I always like to check out before a client decides to build a house.  So, why is new construction risky?

  1.  You don’t know what the neighborhood is going to look like until it is done.  Ever drive down Wilson-Downing and see that one street with about 12 houses that are much bigger than the rest of Belleau Woods?  Those were the first houses in what was going to be a neighborhood similar to Hartland.  Until interest rates shot through the roof in the early 80s and the only thing that was selling were small homes.   The people who bought their new houses on that street didn’t get what they expected.
  2. You don’t know what the value is going to be after you build.   A brand new sale is a unique sale.  It is never going to be brand new again.  It will be a “Used” house for each subsequent sale.  That is why when I have a client who builds, I like to look at the sales of other “Used” homes in the neighborhood so I can tell them what to expect.
  3. You don’t know what the builder is like.  Building is like most industries where 99% of them are good honest hard working people.  The rest are the ones that bring their whole industry down.  Many many years ago, there was a custom builder who was flying first class to see every UK basketball game, using his customer’s money to live large instead of you know, building their house.  He got arrested because he was telling banks that houses were nearly done so he could get more drawls from the construction loan.  There were a few houses that were still vacant lots.  This is why I like to check out my client’s builder to see if I think he is going to take their money and run.  Usually a long track record of building homes and a good reputation goes a long way with me.  I get nervous when the builder has only been around for a short time.

These are just a few things that pop in my mind when a client says they want to build.  Like I said, most of the time you never have these issues, but I think it is always a good idea for you to have your own realtor involved.