Will be heading into color selection meeting in a few weeks and was wondering if anyone had any insights to upgrades (Townhouse).
1. Free Basic appliances or Free Granite countertop or Free main floor laminate : Saw the appliances they offered and it was complete trash. Thinking of free counter-top with under mount sink and get better appliances myself and hardwood later.
2. Optional rough in bath in basement: Thinking of doing this through the builder.
3. Stairs: Roughly how much do you guys think it would cost to upgrade carpet to a hardwood stairs for this unit? I'm thinking if we go through the builder, they will ask a fortune for the stairs (3 storey + basement). For the floors, i'll probably use a contractor later. Just need something(Rough price range) to compare to before going into color selection and get ripped off completely by the builder.
1. Agreed on builder appliances being trash. Just a note on hardwood though - it can be pretty high maintenance. Gets scratched/dented easily, any water residue ruins the finish (especially in summers if there's a lot of humidity inside), but they still happen to be an 'in' thing for resale value. New engineered laminate are more sturdy and lower maintenance.
Granite gets stained more easily (especially by people who use turmeric in cooking). Consider quartz, if possible, which holds better against stains.
2. Yeah, better to get this done though the builder
3. Hard to say. I've seen the costs vary a lot from builder to builder but should be ≤ $5K.
All the best
CPA. Investor. Realtor @ Royal LePage Ignite Realty
Stairs are going to be a lot more expensive than you think.
It's also a ton of work if you think you can do it yourself.
For 3 flight of stairs, probably 15k+.
You most likely need to change everything under the carpet.
Tried it myself with our first house as the agent said it's cheap to replace, not at all...
I would also factor in the time it takes to do the item after closing.
For instance, replacing carpet for hardwood upstairs is a hassle if you are already living there. Where do you put your furtniture, do you stay in the house with all the dust and noise crammed with supplies and your stuff packed in together? Or do you stay in a hotel. So that’s a cost to consider.
For the carpet also, if you are putting in hardwood stairs after the fact, they will most likely need to be stained on site, so it will be smelly and super inconvenient because you can’t use the stairs until they are stained and the stain is dry. (The builder had to refinish mine so this is from experience)
The other part; it’s easy to say, oh I’ll just replace it. But the builders won’t deliver a house without flooring, or a countertop. That means you will move in and be faced with the prospect of throwing out items you have already paid for in your purchase price; like carpeting, like countertops etc.
So keep that in mind because once you move in, and you see the amount of things you still need to buy the last thing you are going to want to do is throw away perfectly good countertops or carpeting or whatever it may be. Oftentimes, whatever you get at closing is what you end up with for at least a few years. Because there are more important things s right off the bat than replacing perfectly functional brand new things.
Hardwood stairs in our new build (2 story) was 13K. BUT its better just to pay for things you won't/can't do later. Upgrade your ceiling height and door & window frames if thats an option. I would also recommend hardwood stairs & flooring even though its expensive. Set a budget, and also make a list of what is most important to you and go to your colour selection meeting armed with both.
