It would seem the drought of new construction listings in the Maple Valley, WA market is over. There for awhile, as the standing inventory of the 2007-2008 market was reduced and slowly absorbed, many builders found it increasingly difficult to obtain spec financing. Local neighborhoods under construction began to resemble ghost towns. I’ll never forget previewing homes for a client relocating to the area back in mid-2008. It was a Monday afternoon and as I walked from home to home with my MLS key in hand, I suddenly stopped and realized that it’s Monday afternoon! Where was everyone? There wasn’t a single truck or construction worker to be seen. The entire plat was eerily quiet. Some builders/developers have since sold their lots, while others have made product adjustments in order to meet the demand of first time buyers eager to cash in on the home buyer tax credit. Even though some buyers may lose out on tax credit dollars, due to the fact these listings are being sold as presales (meaning the home isn’t yet built), many are opting for these homes rather than the even greater risk/unknown of the short sale purchase. Currently there are 65 Active Single Family
Posts Tagged ‘ New Construction ’
Buying a New Home in Maple Valley
Now more than ever, there are great opportunities for anyone wanting to buy a brand new home in Maple Valley. Builders have brought prices down to a point where previously lukewarm buyers are beginning to sit up and take notice. Currently prices for New Construction range from 309,000 to over 1.5 Million, and offer a wide variety of amenities, square footage and lot sizes. The majority of the new construction inventory is between 300-500k. Whenever I’m showing new construction to clients, we begin the process by weeding out developments based on price and/or amenities-is there a nearby park? What’s the proximity to shopping, schools, etc. Once we’ve narrowed that down, I begin to guide them through the differences between builders and locations. The pros and cons of each neighborhood, home style and overall product offered by the builder. Once you’ve settled on a neighborhood, turn your eye towards resale down the road. Is your lot one which a buyer (in 3-5 years) might find more attractive than another you’re considering? Do you really need to invest all that money in the master bath? How much of that, if any, might you get back when the time comes to sell? Because
What Defines a “Reasonable” Offer?
I received another “Builder Incentive” email in my inbox this morning. “There will be a drawing this weekend for a hotel stay and no reasonable offer will be refused”. It made me pause and ask, “What makes one offer ‘reasonable’ and another not?” In the early 90′s I wrote a very ridiculous offer on a Builder owned property, which of course was rejected. I was a “newbie”….I’m sure my clients had bought and sold more homes than I had, and I allowed that to intimidate me. We wrote the offer low and asked for the moon…., furniture, new deck planters and benches to be built, fence, paint….oh, and we were about 10% low on purchase price when the market was indicating homes were selling within 1-2% of List price!!! The laundry list of requests took up a whole 8 1/2 x 11 blank addendum. Of course we were shot down, the builder didn’t even counter. I remembered that offer when I received the email this morning and I know that somewhere an agent is writing a ridiculous offer that a builder will think is unreasonable. So what’s the difference? How low is too low? How much is too much to ask for?