Home Purchase During Covid

SARAHLEEK wrote: ↑ Hi there,

Yes, I am looking for a detached home.

I wonder if it makes sense to wait several months to see if prices drop even more? Obviously no one knows. If prices drop I don’t want to face bidding wars with buyers whom are also waiting on the sidelines. I’ve read bidding wars are happening now, which isn’t entirely a surprise given the limited supply (I am also aware sellers are listing below market).

SARAHLEEK wrote: ↑Yes, good point! If I go down the preconstruction route I’ll try to negotiate for more incentives. I have been told builders will typically offer upgrade credits. But with their markup these credits get you what, a few potlights?

Can anyone share their experience purchasing a preconstruction detached home? Aside from the obvious pitfalls including delays, etc...

callmebob wrote: ↑ Ah the dreaded upgrade price list, I tried to suppress these memories lol! We have bought through Mattamy before and they were up front about cost of upgrades although this was a few years back and it may not have been at time of sale. But pricing was standardized and provided well ahead of our design meeting. Remington has been more grey, they didn’t share any pricing on upgrades except to say “oh sure we can do that, you’ll find out at the design meeting”. It wasn’t a good experience but I hear that’s how most builders operate, it’s in their interest to hold back the information.

In our case we negotiated about $25K in upgrade credit. It seemed like a lot initially but you can easily go through it. We decided to get the upgrades that were structural in nature and couldn’t be done by contractors or a hassle to do later: so removing bulkheads in kitchen or washrooms (where otherwise the builder would have ducts or plumbing runs), smooth ceiling instead of popcorn, changing tubs to standing showers, deleting the bullnose on stairs etc. we will probably go through a number of design choices through the builder as well due simply to the convenience (kitchen, countertop upgrades, etc and there are still some upgrades we will do later after we move in, eg waffle ceilings, extra interior Potlights and exterior Potlights). All said, be prepared to add $50-100k easily to your final purchase price.

We looked at resale homes for a few months before settling on a new build. We loved the larger lots in the older homes, privacy, more mature neighborhoods, but the inside more often that not let us down- old bathrooms, low ceilings, lived in feeling etc. Now there were many that were kept very well and had gorgeous backyards and upgrades but some things like ceiling heights or just generally old style/layout we couldn’t get over. We reasoned that we spend far more time inside the home and would rather have brand new and enjoy it for the next 10-15 years than be in constant reno mode with an older home.