New house construction
 

Hi,
We bought a lot and now we are in the process of designing our new home with the Villages. What would you suggest to be the best way to compare prices between the villages and outside contractors not connected to the villages? Do you recommend the Villages or the outside contractors to do non structural work such as solar tubes, molding, recess lighting etc if we have a budget? Any outside contractors you recommend?

I'm not sure what you are asking, but I think The Villages will have to do most of the construction work to include everything needed for a complete, occupiable house. There are a lot of non structional items, but most of them are going to need to be constructed by The Villages builder.

You can't have an outside contractor build your home here in The Villages. As far a the extras go The Villages is very competitive and competent with all of the "extras" and non-structural items. There is no fair way to compare the actual home pricing for a house in The Villages to other communities. You will pay more for the house itself but the true and extra value here is in the community and amenities that are a part of living in The Villages. There is a huge difference between shopping for price and shopping for value, the value shopper will find what they are looking for here in The Villages for an incredible retirement lifestyle and know they've come out a winner, the price shopper will leave disappointed.

A couple of items to consider:
1) warranty, if TV does it when they build the house, you have one number to call with any warranty issue and there is no finger pointing or "not my responsibility", it gets fixed if there is an issue, you done have to call each individual contractor who put in the extra feature.
2) convenience, it's one stop shopping with TV and it will be done when the house is completed and on time, in some cases they also use the same contractors you would use but you don't have to do all the leg work and contract it after the fact. Do you really want to spend the first 6 months in your new home making changes to something you just paid for when it could be done once and ready when you move in.
3) cost, in general it will cost you less overall to have it done at the time of construction instead of after you move in, you don't have to pay the electrician to come out twice to put in light switches if they do it all while the walls are all still open. Yes, the price sheet may say $500 for putting in an extra _______, and you can find company "x" to do it for $400 or bargain with them to get the price down a little, but what's your time worth to you and is it really worth the extra effort? And will they respond quickly on a warranty issue.
4) Taxes, this is the loser for you, the value of the home will be higher when you have the builder put everything in so you property taxes will be higher on closing day. The county will catch up with it all in short order, every time a contractor pulls a permit with the county to do "extra" work on your house that becomes a tickler for the property appraiser at reassessment time that your home value has gone up and it's time to raise your taxes. You my dodge the bullet for a year or two but they will catch up eventually and it may be a bigger hit if your improvement adds substantially more value than it cost. Depending what you are adding you may save a at most couple of hundred dollars until the tax collector catches up.

For the stuff you know your are going to do or want, let The Villages do it for you and save yourself the headache and enjoy it from day 1 after moving in. You will find plenty of other things you want to do to your home after you get settled in and see what your new neighbors and friends are doing.

Most importantly, WELCOME TO THE VILLAGES, you're going to LOVE it here.

Something isn't quite right here.

Are you saying that it wasn't explained to you when you bought your lot, that The Developer...is the only one who can build your house?


On Edit: I think I misread your post. Since you're "in a process of designing our new home with the Villeages," I think you're asking about having an outside contractor vs. The Villages performing work other than the actual house itself.

My bad. :ho:

:shrug: Where is the lot? Is it south of SR44 or on the "Old Side" ?

I think your issue is this;

You are having a home built here in The Villages and wonder what additions to include or do later; such as pool, additional footage etc.

We had the pool added later, not sure if we wanted one. Most people add attic stairs, downspouts on sides and back of house later. And some add solar tubes.

Get as much garage space as you can when building, it's your extra storage. Ditto with additional square footage. Much cheaper now than to add it later.

Take your time after you move in to think what you want to add and there will be neigbors adding things too and you can compare notes. Almost everyone uses and likes Solar guys for tubes. We haven't added any.

I think her post is pretty clear - She is not asking about someone else building the house. She is asking if she should have peripheral items like Solar Tubes, a pool, etc done by the villages when she builds the house, or is it cheaper to do these things later with an outside contractor. In other words she is asking if the Villages prices for add on's are fair and reasonable, or should she build a bare bones house and upgrade stuff later.

It is a good question. How reasonable are the villages prices when building a home?

Thank you so much for your input. It was very helpful.

We bought a lot and built. We used the villages builder(s), as far as I know there are no other options. We already knew to basic house we wanted (Gardenia) so we discussed options for this design, in the end we got 3 of the 4 stretches we wanted, hit the build lines on the 4th. 36 other minor changes and the major birdcage addition were done after we moved in and got settled, and figured out what we wanted.
The only items that you really want done before you move in are items that affect the floors, upgraded rugs, changes in tile, coating the garage floor, etc. NOTE: you will need to wait at least one month for the concrete to fully cure before applying any coating.
You can ask about the cost of upgrades (like crown molding, back splashes, under counter lighting) and get the costs of the villages builders then compare to doing this later. In the case of under counter lighting, we were quoted $2000, we declined this option, I installed my own, both under counter and over head cabinet lighting for less than $300. IMHO there are several of these upgrades that are better done after moving in.
hope this helps.

The advise we received and knew in advance was to put your $$ into Structural changes now. You can swap counter top, pool, solar tubes, molding later on. We got all the stretches we wanted, we kis the build lines in several spots.
After closing we added attic stairs and epoxy coated the garage floor. Good luck with your choices.
We knew what model we were interested in before coming down. WE had scoured the homes for sale in the villages app and listing from a non villages agent (for existing homes). We didn't see any existing resales that fit our criteria so we decided to build. We are very pleased so far with the house.

If you are used to having a basement, build a 4 bedroom home and designate one of those bedrooms to be your basement. You will find no matter what you build, there will not be enough storage. The storage locker business is booming down here. If we would not have bought a 4 bedroom home we would have moved into one within a year.

Thank you for your very helpful information. We appreciate it very much.

Thank you so much for your information. They are all helpful. We are excited about our new house.

We have been here 10 years and have had multiple projects completed by 1ST IN HOME REMODELING,
They are fair priced, excellent quality, on time, Craig Northover is their
superintendent. Tel#352 255 9898.

What is fairly annoying to me is that you can't design your house BEFORE you buy the lot. That way you would know exactly what it cost, and how big a lot you would need. In my case, I would want to do this in anticipation of when the lots open up just south of Brownwood. However, I have been told you have to buy the lot first. Kind of stupid if you ask me. It sounds like several of you have bought a lot slightly smaller than you actually needed to get all the bumpouts.

If you work with a really good salesperson you can find out how much your home will cost with the upgrades you desire. All you need to do is make an appointment with your salesperson and he/she can give you an estimate (really close) of everything you want. He/she can tell you the size of the lot you would need with the stretches of the home you want. I know because I am in the process of doing it now.

Packer fan, sorry for your experience, we had the opposite experience. Our sales agent knew the style house we wanted, found a suitable lot, then we built the largest version of that house we could, hit the build lines in 2 opposing corners. We did try to have the house rotated 5 degrees to get the last stretch, but that was refused.

Thank you for your recommendation and the contact information. We really appreciate it.

Our agent had a overlay of the model we were interested in so we could fit the house to the lot. The only thing we could do was have the driveway/garage on the left. Everything else was possible. Our agent was able to build out the model get a price, then remove a stretch so we would have a sense of the the costs involved. No disappointments at all.

That is great that your sales agent is knowledgeable about upgrade costs. It certainly gives you a peace of mind if he/she can give you a sense of what your dream house will cost in advance. We are still in the process of choosing all the materials and hoping that we won’t get a heartattack when we get the estimate.

Wow, thanks for the advice, when we are about a year out I will do that. I had no idea they would. I had never asked Michael about that! I am sure it will be 2 years before they will be in the area we are thinking about....

Are you coming here from Maui?

The Villages will not put in solar tubes for new construction homes. We asked. Anything structural, let TV do it. Expand garage length and width if you can. The way TV build the garage, you cannot get standard, free standing shelves against the walls without it encroaching into the garage space. We put in the cheapest carpet (must have some type of flooring. TV will not let it stay as concrete) and then we ripped it out and put in Luxury Vinyl Plank . TV wanted a lot more for this. We put in our own back splash into kitchen, under cabinet lights. We expanded the house so we could have a walk in pantry in the kitchen. We left the closets bare because we didn't want to pull out the cheap wire shelving and have to repair/paint the walls again. Put in custom closets. We added his/her closets in master bedroom. Who wants to share a clothes closet! Didn't want an outdoor lanai so expanded back and enclosed as a Florida room under air. This all adds to the cost of the house and thus your property taxes too so be aware of that. We just put caps on every room that had a ceiling fan and since my husband is handy, we were able to get the ceiling fans we wanted and he installed them. Much less expensive doing it this way if you are handy. Had TV make a recess area into wall in laundry room and then added a fold out ironing board in that spot ourselves.

Yes, we moved from Maui. It was a hard decision to make to leave Maui after living there so long but we feel good about our move so far as we feel being welcomed at the Villages.

Thank you for the very useful information. If you don’t mind me asking how much you saved when you put the floor in by yourselves after the house was built? Any custom closet company you recommend?

Thank you for explaining my questions. You made it easier for everyone to understand what I wanted to ask.

I understand what you are asking. We went through the same process.

In general, all upgrades you do with TV will be at full retail price. You never pay full retail when you shop around with multiple contractors. You also have to consider convenience and what that is worth to you.

Personally, I would do the following non structural upgrades with TV and everything else after closing:
base boards upgrade width, possibly cabinets, recessed lighting (you don’t need as many as you might think)

Thank you for your helpful inputs. We really appreciate it. Are you going to get your own appliances and install them after market? If so, what appliances (brand and model) are you getting?

???? I don't understand what you mean by full retail price. It is cheaper to add square footage when building. We have done this many times with many different builders over the course of our lifetime.

Did you check.............My understanding (which means nothing) Is TV will not sell a new home without an appliance package. Maybe it has changed.

Great topic....as others have said, in The Villages, their builders build your home. The better question to ask perhaps is...."What options should I add during the build by the builder, and what improvements should I add aftermarket?"

Things you may want to have your builder do;

Things like extra receptacles, (like one near the storage waster heater for a possible recirculating pump, gfci receptacles near toilets if adding an aftermarket bidet, receptacle in the master closet on some models if you iron in there, extra receptacle under the kitchen sink if you plan on adding a point of use water heater. Soffit receptacles for Christmas lights. Jamb switches for the master closet(s). Extra Can Lights if needed. LED fixture upgrades. Extra Insulation. Upgrade to insulated sandwich garage doors. Upgrade to Liftmaster garage door openers. Cabinet and countertop choices. Driveway and patio slab extensions. Extra hosebibs. Bathroom venting upgrades. Extra shower heads, like ceiling rain shower, etc. Upgrade to solid core interior doors. On large homes an extra doorbell chime in the Lanai.

Things perhaps better left aftermarket;

Interior paint upgrades (cheaper if done before moving in). Crown Molding. Solar Tubes. Whole house Surge protection. Hardscaping...(make sure they do Not compromise zones). Attic stairs. Gutters. Epoxy garage floors. Driveway painting, etc. Fancier ceiling fans.

This is just a partial list....I am sure I am forgetting some....this is just off the top of my head.

Hope this helps...

Frank D.

I will double check on the appliance package with TV. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the very helpful information. Wow, your answer is exactly what we looking for. Thank you again.

One more item to consider, if you are planning on a security system, have the wiring for door and window alarms and cameras installed when the house is being built. We did this and it completely eliminated the need for wiring. This also allowed us to install our own security system, completely eliminating the very high cost some companies charge. It also eliminates the need for battery operated systems.
If you do this, also specify where you want all the cable run to. We did do this, all the wiring for the hard wired door and window contacts went to the master closet, while the Siamese cable for the powered cameras went to the den, not a major problem but controls are in 2 different rooms.

Also to add to the "have the builder do" list.....if you are considering a whole house central Vac system, it is easier to install BEFORE drywall is up.

I am sure there are other things I am forgetting. The thing is, a few years ago you have pretty much NO options...this is what you get, take it or leave it. Now it is different. Sometimes however, the designer you get may tell you "No, that is not an option" , only to find later that your neighbor was able to have it no problem. Sometimes it is easier to say No than to go the extra mile.

I would also add, in some models, make sure you place your kitchen island EXACTLY where you want it, and have it documented. We see poorly chosen island placement quite often.

Frank

Have the builder run some speaker wires across the living room (or other room) for surround sound speakers.

Hi Dangeloinspections,
Thank you for your great input. We chose Laerul Oak 10 and it has one large inslad parallel to a main kitchen cabinet. What should we be aware of regards to the island?

That is a good suggestion, retiredguy123. Thank you.

Laurel Oak is a nice floor plan! You have some room there to adjust exactly where you want that big island. I have seen it installed too close to the main counter and suddenly you have a galley kitchen that is tight. I have also seen it installed too close to the garage entry hallway.....your main everyday entrance. I was in one last week that the homeowners moved it out quite a bit to allow for future wheelchair access around the island. This MUST be decided early on, as plumbing and electrical is brought up for the island in the slab...so it cannot be moved. Double check many times and MAKE SURE the builder plans accordingly and that it is clearly in the blueprints.

We do over 600 one year warranty inspections in The Villages every year, so we know the models and see plenty of great ideas...and some things the homeowners wished they did different. Hope that helps!!

Frank

Good addition.

We did this as well.
TV suggested Galaxy do pre-wire during construction.
Been very happy with Galaxy.