M/I homes?

[SusanBAnthony]

Has anyone used them? Opinions?

If we open our house search up to a new town, we may have the option of building, but the only builder choice is M/I homes. the downside of the neighborhood is tiny lots.

Also, having never considered new construction before, I don't know much. How concerned should I be about resale? This is the second phase of the neighborhood, so hopefully it will be all built in a few years and we wouldn't have to compete with new builds if we were to need to sell. We would be building one of the smaller models with mostly builder-basic and not many upgrades if that matters. We would upgrade some stuff on our own over time but not right away.

[SusanBAnthony]

Also, can you negotiate down on price? Or negotiate that they include upgrades for free of something?

[katecoop]

We live in an MI home but we didn't build it. We did look into building with Arbor so this is only my experience there but this is what we learned:
1) Be wary if they throw in MAJOR freebie upgrades. They mentioned that to close out a neighborhood they were throwing in free basements and things that significantly increased the value of the house and then it came back to bite a lot of the owners who didn't get freebies when they attempted to sell due to comps.
2) They negotiated a little with us but there wasn't a lot of room for it. We attended our pricing with our realtor (they tell you that you won't need one but I absolutely recommend having someone else who is experienced with new builds and not connected to the company).
3) Builder basic is fine but make sure you do any upgrades you won't be able to do later. For instance, our previous owners cheaped out on all the fixtures, flooring, appliances, etc., but they sprung for major upgrades such as an unfinished basement and 9' ceilings. This made the house much more desirable to a future buyer and you can always replace the finishes later.

[SusanBAnthony]

Good point. For example I think we would go ahead and add the bonus room, but not have them do the closet and door since that is easy to add later. We would add the bow window in the kitchen too since that is structural.

I need to figure out exactly what stage of building they are in. I know it is the second half but I dont know how close they are to the end. I would love to get in right at the end.

I love having lots of neighborhood choices, but it also makes it really hard to decide!

[SusanBAnthony]

Katie, if you bring a realtor to negotiate, does M/I have to pay them a commission? How does that work?

[katecoop]

I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I would assume that MI then does pay them a commission as long as you "register" that you have a realtor--so when you go into the showroom, make it clear that you are working with a realtor.

[katecoop]

I think your upgrade plans sound good. Also be prepared for things you never thought would be "upgrades" such as certain elevations, stair banisters (open railing vs. drywall), carpet pads, electrical outlet/light box placement, fireplaces, etc. I would be prepared for a significant amount in upgrades... for instance our base price was $163,000 and we included upgrades that brought it up to $213k.

[boiler717]

We looked at them and felt like they didn't offer what we were looking for, but I can't remember why. It will be very difficult to make structural changes to a house that has already began construction.

I definitely recommend having a Realtor. Our builder pays them out of a national account. They were super helpful as things went wrong.

Upgrades are pricey. We also spent about 1/3 of the price of the house (not including lot, 1/4 if including lot) on upgrades. Structural changes were about 25% of that, flooring was about 20% and then other stuff (electrical, moulding, etc).

Everything is negotiable. We got $35k off the base price and about $15k in free options.

[boiler717]

Some builder basic non-structural things I would upgrade would be the carpet pad, potentially flooring, moulding, kitchen cabinets / counters, and electrical. I would also delete the big bathroom mirror and try to get rid of builder light fixtures ASAP.