The nervous wait to exchange....

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Is no one worried about the whole management fee noncense with new builds? One of the main reasons I stopped looking at new builds past a certain date as its just a recipe for abuse.

Think it was 2018 when councils just flat stopped adopting new builds.
 
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Yes, it’s a complete joke. Full council tax, less services.

I suppose the flip side is the estate may actually been maintained unlike council adopted areas.
 
LiE said:
:D

We've decided to pull out for now. It's all looking rather expensive when you factor in the cost of the extras. To get the kitchen spec we want is about £10,000 of extras, a few more extras around the house is about £2,000. When I originally spoke to the sales person they reassured me that Redrow would help with some of the cost of the extras. Now they have changed their tune as they probably consider the sale in the bag during the reservation phase.

I need to keep hold of some savings to pay for all the flooring and window dressings which will likely cost £10-12k. I was hoping Redrow would help us here, but as they aren't the overall cost to move + the extra is just too much.

There's also the principle of it, that fact that they class a dishwasher as an extra really rubs me the wrong way.

Then there is the news of the train station moving to the west of the development and the main access to that train station being the development.. nope!



I'm speaking to an estate agent today about a property that has been on the market since September, it's over budget and has already been dropped £25,000, but it could be possible with a bit of price flexibility.
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Near a train station is good but people will park their cars on the estate to save train parking costs for sure :D
 
MatsyLR said:
Is no one worried about the whole management fee noncense with new builds? One of the main reasons I stopped looking at new builds past a certain date as its just a recipe for abuse.

Think it was 2018 when councils just flat stopped adopting new builds.
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I noticed It when I was looking at new builds out of interest while looking for my current home. I would never buy one, they are all terrible.

The craziest part about a lot of them now, is they don't register the roads with the council, so they don't get looked after by the council and become the owners of the houses problem when they end up riddled with pot holes too!
 
LiE said:
First hurdle has arrived. From reservation (which I have until Monday to complete), Redrow want to exchanged contracts within 6 weeks along with the 10% deposit. I don't feel comfortable handing over £68,000 in 6 weeks when the completion date is October!
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Just a heads up. We are in the process of buying a redrow home. We're currently 3 weeks overdue their exchange deadline on the portal and no one is worried.

Think it's just to keep you moving things forward. As long as your solicitors are aware of progression, you'll be fine

Edit: Ignore. I see you've pulled out! We almost backed out as the house we really wanted got reserved a day before we were abe to. They wouldn't talk to us until our house was STC. Was gutted but there was another we liked but just not as perfect.

Though my partner did a really good job negotiating with them. We got dishwasher, changed from gas to induction hob, garden lawn and tap and the flooring throughout the house as well as a bit of stamp duty contribution. Quite happy with our lot
 
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Got a viewing booked for this other place on Monday. They have 2 offers but both aren’t in a proceedable position. We are, but it’s a bit over budget, but doable. The sellers have already moved out and are renting the house they will ultimately buy, so they probably want a quick turn around which we should be able to offer.
 
Good luck! I hate the entire process, so hard to not to get emotionally involved.

We weren't planning of doing this until the end of next year. Thought we had our fantastic 1.7% rate ending in October 2025 but it ends on February 1st. There was a few plots left in an area we've liked for ages so made sense to just go for it whilst we could
 
LiE said:
@Junglist did Redrow offer any incentives on your plot?
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Not outright but my partner argued for a few.

We have their parquet flooring all throughout the ground floor apart from living room
Carpets all upstairs
Upgraded to their Induction Hob
Upgraded to the Siemens dishwasher
Garden patio, lawn and tap
£2000 added to our stamp duty

They kept saying they couldn't offer anything else so we (or rather she) squeezed the last bit of cash from them.

Their flooring costs are laughable though. It's what almost put us off the site, then we decided to get a separate company before ultimately getting them to do it for us

Edit:

We were one of the last 3 plots remaining so not sure if they did that just to get it gone. I recall reading they usually have ~5% margin of the house value to negotiate with
 
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Yea we are getting a hard no on any incentives, most likely because we were super keen to get the "best plot". With us pulling out now I bet they magically find some extras they can include.

The flooring prices are a joke which is annoying because ideally you'd want it done before the skirting goes on (for hard floor). Also it boggles my mind that a dishwasher isn't included as standard and they want to charge £740!

So yea you have the ticket price, but by the time you've factored in the extras and kitting the house out with flooring and window dressing is another £30k. House is not worth £710k, no chance. The one we are looking at on Monday is priced at £725k but it 2,038sqft and has a 92ft garden.
 
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Your budget is way higher than ours so it's like we are comparing your M&S house to my Home Bargains Abode :cry:

But yeah, that was my hang up with the flooring. Moving in and getting it done after the fact just means more work and more nuisance so it was super important to have that chucked in. Some of the other choices were a hard no, though. We're going to do the windows ourselves because it added on several thousand. While it would be lovely to move in and ready to go. I'd rather save the money and have a few days work myself.

To their credit though. The houses are lovely. We're currently in a Liden home which we bought from new but the difference in quality between the two is quite stark. We certainly could've got more for our money elsewhere but this house ticks all of our current boxes

Still, we're just waiting to exchange before we fully lean into all the excitement. We're ready to go, our buyer is ready to go but their buyer is selling a flat so lots of paperwork for them to do. Supposedly on time for April completion. My partner did the hard hat visit last week as I was unable to go
 
Exciting times :D I do like buying a new house and speccing it all up. Ethernet ports all over the place!

I've just sent the email to the sales office to say we are withdrawing, lets see if they come back with some incentives they can now magically do.
 
MatsyLR said:
Is no one worried about the whole management fee noncense with new builds?
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Absolutely. We were looking at a new build recently and it was £480 a year. There's very little you can do if they put their prices up.

My mate just had his increased from £300 to £350 and says as time goes on they do less work.

We decided against the property as the plot size was small despite it being a lovely layout. The actual builders are a local firm and not one of the national ones, high ceilings and pretty much everything is included as standard including flooring, top spec appliances/kitchen, bathrooms etc. We're instead going to go for an older larger property with a decent plot.
 
LiE said:
This is the way.
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We have been looking at this:
www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 4 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom detached house for sale in Shurdington, Cheltenham, GL51 for £1,100,000. Marketed by Hamptons, Cheltenham
www.rightmove.co.uk www.rightmove.co.uk

Just the wrong time. The boy is in nursery full time and that's nearly £1400 a month. Once he's in school something like this should be possible, depending on what the wife does work wise. We could technically pass the affordability tests at the moment, but we'd have no money to do anything else. No holidays, no meals out, eating beans on toast. And living on the edge if I were made redundant. Not something I want to put my family through. :cry:

Versus the plot we were looking at:
www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 4 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom detached house for sale in Plot 19, Leckhampton Lane, Shurdington GL51 4GW, GL51 for £785,000. Marketed by Michael Tuck Land and New Homes, Gloucester
www.rightmove.co.uk www.rightmove.co.uk

£325k difference is a lot I know, but there have been a few houses that have gone in between and it's when I saw this one that is STC I said to the wife I can't do it, the plot size is nowhere near big enough for the amount of money despite how lovely and new it might be inside:
www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 4 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

4 bedroom detached house for sale in Badgeworth Lane, Badgeworth, GL51 for £800,000. Marketed by Thomas and Thomas Property, Gloucester
www.rightmove.co.uk www.rightmove.co.uk

For now just sit on our money and keep an eye on the market.
 
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