Back and Forth and Back Again

After dragging my husband to just about every model home in the county, we finally decided to build our beautiful home at a master planned community called Marlboro Ridge. This is a fantastic community with wonderful amenities, beautiful homes and an equestrian center. We wanted to purchase a home in a community where we can raise kids and ultimately spend the rest of our lives. I love that this community has community events for both kids and adults throughout the year. The community events are a very exciting feature that we were happy to hear about.

Major Key: Talk to people who live in the community. I found a few coworkers who lived in the community and talked to them about the home’s structural integrity, the construction/building process and other general questions. Most importantly I asked if they liked the house and if were they satisfied with the results.

My husband and I made an appointment in mid-April with the representative to pick our lot, put down a deposit and pick the elevation that we wanted.  Before we sat down we walked through the house and had the sales representative point out everything that came standard and what was an upgrade. I did this a few months ago but I wanted to know if they added new options to the standard list. I also wanted my husband to hear everything before we signed.

Major Key: Make sure you know what is standard and what an upgrade is. This will either save you or cost you more money in options at the design center. One of the most confusing things in buying new construction is looking at the model home and knowing what an add-on is and what is not. The agreement of sale will list out all of the standard options as $0 line items but it’s good to know them before that point. Also ask about incentives. Some builders offer monthly incentives. These often include structural options such as bump outs and finished recreation rooms or the upgrading of cabinetry, flooring or granite. The incentives and closing help sold me!

Surprise!! Honey I found a house...

On a typical Saturday visiting model homes with my best friend we stopped by the Marlboro Ridge Toll Brothers community.  We visited this community a few years back, way before the Woodstock model was introduced. The alluring estate homes started at $900k and over 6000k square feet. We imagined ourselves having huge gatherings while enjoying the bowling alley in the large basement (yes, they have a bowling alley in the basement of the model!!!). Anyway, we were dreaming to say the least.


As we drove into the community we saw signs for the new Woodstock model starting under our proposed budget…our antennas were on high alert.  As we drove up to the model the house seemed to be the perfect size, not too big, not too small and priced well below our budget. When we walked in we were greeted my sales agent. She asked the typical questions, “what brings you in”, “what are you looking for”, and “what’s your timeline”. We briefly answered “we are just looking”, as we have in all the other models homes we frequented.  I stated that I just got my husband on board with looking for homes but he said maybe this time next year. She said “oh, well we are at least a year out”.  SAY IT AINT SO!? A year out… that’s PERFECT. We proceeded to walk through the house. We were of course amazed by the interior design and home layout. I love how the stairs are positioned in the middle of the house off to the side (I have a pet peeve about steps meeting you at the front entry door "shrugs"). After we toured the house the sales agent pointed out everything that came standard with the house. I was shocked!!! Many of the homes we visited in the past did not come standard with half the things that were offered in the Woodstock.  I told her thanks and that I would have to talk to my husband. She replied “ok, talk to your husband and maybe you can come back to look at the numbers, and here are some brochures to show him”. I kind of brushed her off and said “ok!”… Not really thinking too much into it. Besides, we were just having fun riding around looking at models. We sure have not thoroughly discussed actually moving.

On the drive home so many thoughts were running through my head, “this may be a good idea…I mean he did say next year… And it is under budget…” When I got home of course I was excited, I ran upstairs and said “Honey, I found a house!”… I swiftly showed him the brochures and told him that they are a year out. He said “ok, cool” then turned back to the TV to watch the game. I continued to talk (to myself, lol). My husband is a numbers guy so he started asking questions that honestly I didn’t think to ask. You know women we get so excited and forget to ask the important stuff, besides we aren't really serious, right? I replied, “I don’t know”. He said “before you present something to me, you should at least know the basics”… ummm ok, you are right (eye roll, lol). A few days later I called the sales representative to schedule an appointment to work out the numbers so I could present my  “case”. My best friend accompanied me to the meeting because my husband insisted that he doesn’t need to go because he isn’t sure he’s ready to move yet. Ok, whatever (eye roll, again). The sales agent broke down the numbers and holy cow!!  Nearly $20k over budget… oh nooooo! My excitement again dwindled. I returned home, the  walk up the stairs was very sluggish... in slow motion. I said well it’s a little over budget.  He stopped in his tracks and said NOPE! It’s over budget… even a dollar over is over (haha, ok! I get it).