Wife and I might be close to being able to buy/build a new home. Is a realtor needed vs just working directly with the builder?
I have a realtor in the family I would use if need be, just not sure if it’s needed.
No realtor involved when I did it.
No realtor other than possibly land purchase. 
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No realtor other than possibly land purchase.
What he said!!!
Mark
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No realtor other than possibly land purchase.
Is the land a separate purchase from the building? Is it’s the builder’s land+design build?
Most building contracts are very straight forward. In most cases, is a straight deal between the builder and buyer. If your not familiar with terminology, you may want your family member to independently review the terms of the building contract.
FYI – Specifications and Schedules are key to making sure you get what your thinking your getting. Beware of “or equivalent” There is a lot of lattitude and and grey area for the builder. Also, define “industry standards” Most Building Associations will have this available for buyers. Keep in mind, industry standards and “per code” are MINIMAL standards. Not best practice! I’m a custom home builder and would be happy to give you some time on the phone to give you some suggestions on other things to just be aware of. Assuming this is your first building experience on a home? if interested in talking about it, shoot me a pm with your contact info.
One thing to consider, when you are the buyer, the realtor isn’t going to generally cost you anything, and will be looking out for your best interest. Realtor fees are covered by the seller. So unless you are getting a discount for not having a realtor, why wouldn’t you use one?
talking with Randy would be very smart…
Thanks for the info guys! Yes, this would be our first building experience. We are meeting with the builder tomorrow just to see what the whole process involves and what their pricing is like on their homes, and see some of the floor plans they have….to get a better idea on what we could expect. They are a custom builder so they will build what we want. At this point we have not decided to build for sure.
The builder has the contract for the properties, so we would not be buying the land separately.
The lady at the office said that it would be cheaper for us to not use a realtor…otherwise we would pay for it. Although, I am not sure if she exactly knew……
She knew, and its most likely very accurate. In the land+design build contract, they are fixing the cost/price of the sale. With the introduction of a 3rd party, they would put the cost onto you to pay for it. Its not currently under a realtor’s contract, so not much you can negotiate with if they don’t want to eat it.
I would say use one. When I built my house in 2006 I didn’t even really think about it. After I found out if I had one the developer/builder would have to pay something like 3% realtor fees I wish I would have used one. The developer ended up making another several thousand dollars because I didn’t have one. I tried to get them to give me some of that money back since they didn’t have to spend it and they wouldn’t do it. They build paying Realtor commission into their pricing so either get one or make them discount the current going percentage for one.
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talking with Randy would be very smart…
Yep it would…..
IF you can to get him to quit talking about fishing 
Talking to randy makes a lot of sense. It’s a very generous offer!
But before you sign with the builder have a real estate attorney look at your contract. It will cost you 300-1000 but is far to large of a purchase not to have representation. .
Ive talked to Randy and I know from personal experience hes an upfront guy with nothing in between the lines. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to him for any imput.
311Hemi, nice chatting with you. Building a home certainly can be a lot of fun and an exciting time. I really understand your thoughts on that initial meeting. Its a relationship, that goes well beyond just building a box. Good Luck!
Thanks for the compliments guys, very much appreciated. Mud, only talked fishing for about a minute – proud of myself 
Thanks again Randy! I appreciate you taking the time to discuss this process with me, it helped a lot (although I am sure I didn’t remember everything we discussed!!).
We met with the builder and so far so good. We are waiting on some info from them and then have to decide what we want to do.
I’m pretty sure I took enough of Randy’s time last night just talking building to even touch the fishing subject….maybe another day!
If we go ahead with this I may be in contact again.
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