I used to love helping my clients buy a new home. That "New Car" smell, the long home warranty, the newness of it all. But recently that has begun to change. I have noticed a definite trend away from the easy to work with builders. I spoke to several agents yesterday that seemed to be seeing the same thing.
For instance, I am currently helping a young couple purchase their first home. We are working with a regional home builder that I have worked with before. They have a spec home that has had two failed offers on it. The paperwork showing upgrades is a mess. They want my clients to pay half the upgrade costs right up front. These upgrades were put into the home before my clients ever saw it. Not gonna happen.
My clients really like this home, so we made a full price offer. Nope, says the builder. We need an additional $675 over the listed MLS price. Oh, and the builder is offering a broker bonus on the sale of this home, but only if you ask, which I did.
Another agent lost a client because the on-site agent convinced them that they could get a better deal without the agent. They didn't. This builder has been banned from our office over that.
So, if you are looking at a new home to buy, now more than ever, you need representation from an agent to assure that you are not taken advantage of by what appears to be an increasingly hostile builder community.
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