It’s no secret that the Las Vegas Valley’s market is active. I use that term because it’s not “hot” in the traditional sense of lightning fast sales and meteoric price increases, but more in the sense of faster than normal sales and realistic 1-2% monthly price increases. Unfortunately, there are not quite enough 100% move-in ready homes as many buyers are wanting now. Sellers have finally recovered from being under water but not enough yet that they can re-invest in, and upgrade their homes. The alternative for buyers are new construction homes.
A new construction home will costs you anywhere from 15-25% more than a comparable resale in the same area but, like a new car, you get exactly what you want without doing it yourself and instead of the new car smell, its the fresh paint smell.
When you walk into a new construction community and are greeted by the sales agent, they are there to do one job…sell you their product. If you do decide a new home is the best option for you, you’ll even sign a disclosure stating that the sales agent has a duty to protect the sellers interests primarily, not yours.
I’m not saying a new home is a bad purchase. In fact, it is a great option for many buyers in todays market. What I am saying is that when you buy a home, you need someone to look out for your interests and go to bat for you. You need an advocate and that is why you should work with a REALTOR to represent you in the purchase. Oh, by the way… its free to you and we often have the ability to negotiate a lower price and better incentives.
“What could go wrong? It’s a brand new home.” Maybe you told the builder that you want the home situated closer to one side of the 1/3 acre lot than the other but instead, you were 10 feet from your neighbors house…maybe you requested 2 sinks in the master bathroom but the builder only installed one…maybe you were told its normal for cabinets to have dings at closing from installation. These aren’t random examples, these are issues our team has dealt with in the past year. In all these instances, our clients were originally told, by the builders sales agent, that nothing could be done. Fortunately though, they were working with REALTORS. They were working with us. We had all these issues resolved, and countless others, because of relationships we have with upper management at builders and because we do this daily and know what we can push back on and what is “normal.”
Before you visit a new home community, give us a call and we can meet you there or register you by phone to make sure we can represent you and protect your interests. Reach out to someone on the team if you have any other questions…we look forward to being on this journey with you.
