2024 New Home Construction Buying Guide – Step 4 of 5
We’re progressing through our five-step new home construction buying guide. So far, we have organized our finances, pre-qualified for a home loan, and considered our lifestyle choices. Now it is time to review move-in-ready, spec, and to-be-built home options. Holiday Builders offers a couple of ways to preview home choices. The first is visiting one of our model centers. The second is viewing floorplans and pricing online, and using Matterport Tours for walk-throughs. Visiting a model is optimal. Holiday Builders utilizes its model centers to showcase the many options available to homebuyers. Walking a model provides more than a chance to touch and feel countertops and cabinets. For example, seeing a King-sized bed with flanking nightstands in a room offers a spatial perspective. Even if a homebuyer doesn’t want every option, these well-designed model homes offer inspiration for future home projects.
Holiday Builders offers three floorplan collections – Inspire, Value, and Cornerstone. Inspire and Value collection homes have pre-selected standard options. Cornerstone homes allow a customer to select a homesite, floorplan, and the ability to select design options such as cabinets, countertops, and flooring. In some cities, Holiday Builders offers a “build on your lot” program allowing homebuyers to build a Cornerstone plan on their land.
Inspire and Value collection homes are built on lots selected by Holiday Builders in most markets. In some markets, a homebuyer may have the option of selecting a homesite, for a Value or Inspire plan. Be sure to ask one of our New Home Consultants about the protocol in your area of interest. Lot and land sizes vary which means that some floorplans may not be buildable on a particular lot. A homebuyer may also enter into a contract on a home that is slated to be built, already under construction, or already completed and move-in-ready. When viewing pricing on a Value or Inspire collection home, that price includes the home and the land.
Cornerstone homes come with all the bells and whistles. Homebuyers may find a Cornerstone plan that is already under construction, with design options that suit their tastes. If a home is already under construction, in nearly all cases, the homebuyer will NOT be able to change any of the selections. However, a homebuyer may start from the ground up, selecting everything including the homesite, the floorplan, and interior elements – the countertops, cabinets, flooring, and the paint color on the wall. Our New Home Consultants work closely with buyers on these selections to ensure a well-designed home. Most models offer a design selection showroom so buyers can see the various colors and styles of options. In cities where we build homes on scattered lots, our website will show base pricing for a floorplan only. That means the cost of the lot needs to be added. Scattered lot communities include Palm Bay, Sebastian, Port St Lucie, Palm Coast, Ocala, Navarre, Cape Coral, North Port, Port Charlotte, and Lehigh Acres. In these locations, a New Home Consultant will provide a homebuyer with a list of homesites. Lot prices vary by size and whether lots offer city water and sewer, or well and septic. On the Holiday Builders website, Move-in-ready homes in these areas are shown with full pricing – land/lot and home.
In addition to building in scattered lot areas, Holiday Builders also builds new homes in Master Planned communities. In these cases, builder and homebuyer work within a developer’s deed restrictions. Certain plans are only available on specific homesites to avoid the chance of having two identical homes side by side in a neighborhood. Holiday Builders may offer special plans that include brick or stone on the exterior of homes in keeping with developer specifications. These communities may include an HOA fee for the maintenance of common areas and amenities.
The overriding benefit of new construction home purchasing is the choices available to homebuyers. Holiday Builders’ three collections of floorplans meet the needs of a wide range of budgets and family sizes. Furthermore, new construction homes are less expensive to insure and come with a new home warranty. With a resale home, a homebuyer is always inheriting something a previous owner left behind – be it a purple-painted wall in a living room, a dirty oven, broken plumbing, or a leaky roof. With new construction homes, all of those pitfalls are avoided.
