These days my "in-box" fills up every day with "Special Offers" from builders and developers giving away freebies, increased commissions and buyer incentives. Some are offering to pay closing costs, upgrades, extra rooms, etc. Others are thinking a little outside the box: One recently offered a 2-year membership to Freedom Boat Club to whomever bought one of their new townhomes in Johns Island!
Although these incentives may work to lure home buyers, I always recommend to my clients that they view them with some skepticism. It is also important to find out:
- Have the developers increased their prices recently, just before "giving away" the discounts? (i.e. is it a "perceived" sale and not a real one)
- Have they been successful selling the subdivision, or are there any other issues that are important to know? (i.e. are there any widespread construction quality problems, problems with utilities or pending assessments on the HOA, etc.)
- Is the developer is a publicly traded company (these companies are driven by quarterly results and are able to effect larger discounts to get inventory off their books just in time for reporting to shareholders)
- Are the offers "gimmicks" or items of real value?
- At the nominal contract price, is it likely that the home will appraise given recent comparable sales activity? Is it good value?
- Is it a "spec" home - is it already completed or about to be completed? Builders are more negotiable on "spec" homes than on new construction, given they need to reduce their carrying costs and want to get them off their books.
Don't get me wrong, there are REAL BARGAINS out there (just recently a 2,600 sq. ft. brand new home in Summerville was being offered for $72 per square foot - you probably could not BUILD it for that price, without even counting the cost of the land!
Many national and local builders want to see their inventory homes off their books before the end of the year. Smart buyers are jumping at this chance!
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• Nov. 10, 2008 - RE: New Home Builders Giving Great Incentives in Charleston. SC
After the long weekend to hear the news who is won to the presidential election hear now comes the biggest deal if the promises of the Presidential candidates barrack Obama shall have the word of Honor to granted their promises through the uplifted of the economic state.
The people have pointed America’s next President of the United States. “Change” is what the U.S. has chosen by electing Barack Obama. There is no doubt that change is in store for us. Whether this change is for the better or for the worse is yet to be seen. It’s obvious that Americans believe Obama will bring a positive change to our country. He spoke promising words to restore confidence in the hearts of the unsure with plans to lower taxes for the middle class, put a timeline on the war in Iraq, and cut the federal budget “line by line.” However, what many Americans fail to realize is the fact that Obama also supports the elimination of payday lending industries. He thinks demolishing the payday loan industry will protect low-income families from being victimized by predatory lenders. However, this will be a threat to our financial freedom. Maybe Obama will bring positive change to the United States, but taking away one of the most reliable resource many people have come to depend on during financial fallbacks is not only a risk to our rights to financial freedom, but it is clearly NOT a great start to create the positive change we all desperately need.
Click to read more on <a title="Payday Loans" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/11/06/obama-to-bring-change-how-will-payday-loans-change/">Payday Loans</a>