more house questions

[forgotten_aria]

Since you've all been super helpful on the house questions (it's been really cool getting advice, thank you!) I have another question to pose.

Does anyone know about buying new construction. Initally I thought I really didn't want to do that, so that I wasn't the one finding out all the ways that the contractor messed up, but there's this potienally awesome home in Medford which is new constructions, so I should at least learn what I can about it. Can you still haggle the price? Are they less likely to take a low ball offer than a normal home owner in this market? If they do, will they start doing crappier work? Has anyone had exerience with home warrenties? What things are different when buying new construction.

For us it might work out better because then we would have a time frame to sell our house in, even after closing. We'd of course, leave some wiggle room for the project to be behind schedule.

My gut feeling is I'd still rather buy something I can see right now than something that might be cool in the future (but my understanding is you still get it inspected, so there must be some part of the contract that allows you to back out if they mess up) but no reason I shouldn't learn more.

Comments

[dpolicar]

I don't have any particular information, but we bought our house before they'd quite finished constructing it (we got to pick the carpeting, even) and it went OK.

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

where in medford? we live in medford...

Also, you should know that medford puts street lights on every telephone pole. even if it means that both sides of an intersection have a light. so don't expect to see the stars.

We failed to realize this before we bought the house...:(

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

16 Florence Ave Medford MA 02155

[honeyartichoke.livejournal.com]

I find most places in greater Boston are awful for looking at stars - you can see the orange glow at night...

[eccentrific.livejournal.com]

If you're concerned about quality, you could probably find out who the contractor is and check up on references and find out about other things they've done.

Also, I doubt you can back out if they mess up, but I'm reasonably certain you can refuse to accept the house until they fix whatever the mess up is to your satisfaction (i.e., you don't get your deposit back but they don't get their money either until it's fixed). Which is probably good enough for your purposes.

[binkbink.livejournal.com]

My parents had their houses built and they did have contractor problems, but they kept at it and finally got what they wanted. The thing is that any new construction will have defects, but a used house has the added defects from Mr&Mrs Homeowner.
Rarely does a house improve much with age (aside from the landscaping), so it is probably better to fuss with the punch list (and refuse to accept the house until it is right) if you can afford new. Massachusetts law seems to favour the buyer, pretty much, so you won't have much difficulty.
The thing is to go see finished houses by that builder, and assess whether they are using cheap materials, sloppy workmen, and/or crappy house designs.
A bargain can be had if you find a builder who went bankrupt and the house isn't finished. You buy the house as is, and hire a contractor to complete it. Alas, that requires finding a reliable contractor, and you are already having problems with that.