I’ve seen a lot of homebuyers mention a lot of unexpected stress and expenses related to homeownership. For those of you who have bought a new build, do you feel like this also applied/applies to you? Or less so because you’re starting out with everything new?

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It’s different but still stress and expense. Your arguing warranty with the builder. New homes settle causing paint chips and cracks, even top of the line stuff can be a dud and need to be replaced or changed out, if you bought a spec maybe there’s additional features you want to add, new furniture to buy or what not. There’s always something.

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Most builders include a one year warranty that covers quite a bit. For example, we have been in our house just over a month and found quite a few things we missed in our final walkthrough (and we found quite a few things there too!) - a hole in the carpet, paint splatters on the side of a cabinet and back of a door, sliding doors that were really hard to slide, a hole in the bottom of a cabinet, and a few other things. They fixed all of them. Some stuff can be frustrating and take forever though - no sense of urgency for the builder once you close. A neighbor had their ac go out and it took them THREE WEEKS to fix. We are in AZ so that was a total joke. At least it wasn’t summer, but still.

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Guys my dad was a builder and I grew up in the sites. I’m dangerous with a hammer but can’t build a house but know what quality looks like. Due to lack of material, builders are putting minimum materials in houses. Unless you are buying in Florida or in north where stricter building codes are in place. Don’t fall for a smith douglas or any other big home builders. These houses will fall apart in 10 years. If you have no choice, buy new and sell in 3 years cuz they are built out of cardboard. Literally. I haven’t bought a house yet because I’m not sure what to do myself. Maybe I’ll buy a house built 5 years ago. But I will not buy a house built in probably from years 2020-2023.

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I think those comments are often a matter of inexperience or lack of research. As a homeowner, you have to pay for “new” things that were previously included in your rent, like maintenance for repairs, landscaping, even some utilities like water and others. But, you also get to deduct items like mortgage interest and property taxes and, hopefully, see your home’s value increase over time. Homeowners insurance is more complicated than Renters insurance.

On a new build, unexpected expenses are the window treatments (blinds, curtains, etc.) any upgrades from what you see in the model (lighting, counters, flooring, etc.). So make sure you understand what the “standard” package includes. Also, location matters on a new build, just like everywhere else. A corner or cul-de-sac lot will be more expensive. Hire your own inspector to go through the house twice. Once after framing, prior to sheetrock, and once when completed. Have the builder address any deficiencies prior to closing. Have the inspector return a 3rd time, 11 months later and have the builder fix anything found, under the 12-month warranty. Finally, remedy it’s YOUR house. Monitor the quality of the construction. We had the builder do hardwood stain twice and the tile in the master bath done 3 times because the installers kept screwing up.

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This sounds so much worse than an existing home.

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We bought new, but discovered the shower had been slowly leaking until we discovered it three years later. Tile install was terrible. Should have been covered under the warranty but the builder and tile guy were both terrible. “Outside of warranty period so it’s not covered!” We got a lawyer who sent demand letters for us, but when they didn’t get responses, the lawyer said it probably wasn’t worth going to court over.

So yeah, not totally stress free.

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In my experience it applies more. I bought a new place, but quickly learned 1) many builders don't honor the home warranty they claim to provide and 2) its so expensive to sue them its not worth it unless you have really significant damages. I ended up eating ~$8K to replace my AC/Furnace and about half the light fixtures across my house. But now that Im 5 years in, things have stabilized and I do love my house, just know there is a risk.

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I already hate new builds … we were in the process of one and had to terminate contract because of shady builder practices including breach of contract (also the cost of materials due to covid etc was insane and they kept increasing the price). And everything is considered an “add on” - example: we wanted white bathroom vanities - didn’t have that color so cost more to paint it.

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Was this a new build you designed yourself/a one-off or as part of a community/grouping?

The stress period of new builds starts during design also because they are going to screw up some totally easy things that you need to really pay attention to notice or won’t notice for a while.
I am still happy I did a new build, and did a lot of diligence with which builder we used. There are some horror stories with other builders in our area, and ours has been generally ok.
The one really big thing that is a continuous stress is they used really shitty drywall in our house. Apparently nicer drywall was an upgrade, but we had no idea that was an option, so we’re stuck with drywall that’s tough to hang things in.
Also builders use paint that is utter dogshit. Just repaint it before you move in if you can.

I feel that new build can almost be more expensive. 😓

I have some new builds with one “starter” builder and one “high” quality builder. We’ve had little things in both but both have always been fixed in the way I would like. With the “high” quality builder they offer a 2 year warranty and have in most cases gone above and beyond. Happy to answer or provide any further detail if you want to DM me.

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