Hi, my name is Lance Mohr and I’m a Tampa luxury homes real estate agent and I wanted to do this video to give you some tips if you are thinking about buying a luxury home in Tampa or really anywhere for that matter and it more has to do with the new homes not necessarily the pre-owned but of course whether you’re buying a luxury home that is new or pre-owned make sure you do your due diligence when it comes to hiring a real estate agent, just don’t take any real estate agent. Get their website, read their bio, because there are a lot of things to know about real estate in general but certainly luxury homes. So a lot of times people come to me and they say,” Hey, Lance I’m looking at getting a luxury home and I want to build.” So maybe they need to find a lot first and we start looking at the lots. Now obviously you need to find out looking at lots are the utilities hooked up and if they are not hooked up you need to budget for that. I’m not going to get into the lots too much. I'm going to give you the necessary tips for buyers.
Finding a builder
If you are looking at building a luxury home, a lot of times the easiest thing to do and by far the least expensive thing to do is find a reputable builder, which is not always easy to do that is why you need a good real estate agent to help you but find a reputable builder and someone who has been building for a number of years, not someone who just bills one or two homes a year and they have been building for the past six years but someone who has been in the business for a long time and sit down with them and meet them and talk to them and tell them about what type of home you want because they are probably going to have a floor plan that they have built in the past that might be very similar to what you want.
Instead of going to an architect and paying who knows it could be $25,000, $50,000, or even $100,000 depending on the home you buy for the architectural plan. You can just have changes made to the builders plan. Now the other thing to do if you’re not really sure about the builder; don’t be intimidated and I know most people at the luxury price level don’t really get intimidated by much but make sure you do your due diligence in finances and you might want to ask them for references of people who have purchased from them and get the references and go talk to the people; knock on the door, call them on the telephone. These tips for buyers are a must when building Tampa luxury homes.
Ask about the past
I always liked doing face-to-face and find out how the experience was seeing what areas they built before so you can just knock on the door cold and say hey did this builder build your home etc. Also get a list of some of their vendors and make sure, I know this sounds weird, but they should not mind and say hey are they paying you on time because of they are not paying their vendors on time and they are buying concrete or wood or fixtures or whatever and they are not paying their vendors you have to really wonder what is going to happen with your money if they close the doors. There are a lot of builders in that situation it is not like they are going to tell you they are virtually bankrupt and they’re going to close their doors and they’re going to keep your money so you really need to do your due diligence and find a custom builder that is going to be around today, tomorrow, and five years from now.
I know a lot of people really don’t think about these kind of things or some people feel really weird about grilling the builders but you have to because you don’t want to be in a construction loan and I’ve had this happen to people not that I’ve worked with, but I’ve seen it where they were in the process of building a home, a $2 million home and all of a sudden the builder went belly up so now they have this half built home with a bunch of money they gave to the builder and the builder declared bankruptcy and they are basically out of luck so do your due diligence whether you are looking at buying a luxury home in Tampa or anywhere for that matter.
Conclusion
I hope this helps you, I have a lot of these different videos on my website video page and on my Youtube channel. I have one’s on waterfront, luxury homes, different communities in Tampa, different cities in Tampa, and more, so please keep tuned to my channel so you can keep up to date in the real estate industry. Give me a call on my call phone at 813-317-4009 if you have any questions at all. I would love to answer them and I would love to help you. Please check out my Facebook and my website Tampa2Enjoy. Have a great day and I wish you the best of luck.