The Builders...

When buying a home from a builder they make a profit in 4 areas.
1. The basic home
2. The structural options
3. Non structural options
4. The mortgage

Builders try to lure buyers in by building a "model"home near the sales office that has hundreds of thousands of dollars in options. When I asked a salesperson (not at Meritage) if he could point out what the options were, his reply was:"Everything you see is option..."

1. The basic home is sold with a very low margin. But when you buy that home, you are in the net of the builder's monopoly.

2. Most builders don't give you an option price sheet when you are considering to buy a home. They don't want you to see the out of the ordinary expensive options. But as a customer and if you are budgetting your home, you definitely NEED that option list. We got it from Meritage, no option list in advance meant no budgetting which implies no homebuying for us. Structural options include, lot premium, extra garages, gate, deck, fireplace, sliding doors, and so on...

3. When you have bought your home you have to make an appointment with the "Design Center". As you would expect: no prices are given in advance... The design studio of Meritage homes: Studio M is only open during the week from 9-5pm. Go figure, you have to take a half day off to visit the design studio. Most people spend a lot of money on upgrades for flooring, blinds, countertops, and appliances.
You have to make your decisions AT the design center, so we went to Lowe's (the local Gamma lol) to check out prices on their tile/countertops/flooring/appliances collection. We took pictures from their price sheets. We'll have something to compare the builder's prices and that will give us some bargaining power. You have to pay 10% of the options in advance. We have an appointment on Monday the 25th of February.

4. If you take you mortgage with the "preferred" mortgage company you receive a discount on the house (+/-3%). Normally they give you a rate that is significantly higher than the rate on the market. Somebody has to pay for the 3% discount AND they want to make a profit too. Negotiating with the mortgage "arm" of Meritage we were able to get the lowest rate on the market 5.5% + 3% off the base price. Boom Shakalaka!
Weird "regulated" industry...

As of yesterday morning 9 homes were sold at the lakes. 7 lake lots(lotpremium at least 35000), 2 inland lots(no lakeview, no lotpremium)