How To Save A Bundle Buying Or Building Your Dream Place In The Carolinas

Whether you’re buying or building your Dream Home in the Carolinas, there’s several ways I’ve found to save tens-of-thousands of dollars!

When a developer is developing a new community, there are several times they’re willing to give you deep discounts on pricing. It’s when they are first getting started and when they’re almost all sold out.

At the beginning of a project, before a shovel has even gone into the ground, the developer will sell houses to be built at “pre-construction” prices. These prices can easily be discounted 5%, which on a $300 – $400,000 house is a $15 – $20,000 savings! The developer is willing to do this for several reasons. One is because he wants to cover some of his upfront costs, another is he wants to make sure he has a viable project before building houses without any buyers, and lastly he wants to show prospective buyers that other people are actually interested.

The other time during the development cycle when you can get substantial discounts is when the project is almost complete. The last thing the developer wants to do is keep a team of people at a project that has only 2 or 3 houses left to sell. He wants to move all his equipment and employees over to the next project and get started there.

Last year, there were Carolina developers who reduced their prices by $30,000, just to sell their few remaining houses so they could move on and begin their new project.

The time of year also makes a big difference in pricing. In the Fall, the home buying season slows down, most people have already purchased their homes and gotten settled in, especially if they have school age children. It gets much quieter as the holiday season approaches. I start to see a lot of special offers being made by developers. In researching retirement communities in the Carolinas for my subscribers, I’ve found discounted offers ranging from up to $10,000 off the purchase price to free golf memberships worth $15,000.

There are substantial savings, if you buy at the right time!

And speaking of the right time…
The real estate market is cyclical, as we all know from the boom we saw in the beginning of 2000 to the current downturn. If you can time your purchase properly, there’s great savings to be had, just by keeping an eye on the market itself.

If you’re building your Dream Home, there are many towns in North and South Carolina that don’t require building plans from a licensed architect. There are companies that sell sets of pre-drawn plans for $500 per set. A licensed architect will charge 5 – 10% of the construction price just for the building plans. A friend of mine is building his own home and the plans alone cost him $35,000.

If you have patience and fortitude, you can save a lot of money by building your home yourself in the Carolinas. The general contractors profit can be as high as 25% of the construction cost. On a $300 - $400,000 home, that’s $75 - $100,000! Building your own home yourself is not for everyone, but it’s a way to make your Dream Home in the Carolinas more affordable! (I’m going to do a separate blog post just on, “How to Build Your Own Affordable House in the Carolinas”.)

Another great way to be able to afford your retirement in the Carolinas is by buying a piece of land and subdividing it. I know most people will think this is far fetched and beyond their ability, but I’m telling you it's very doable. Many of the planning and building departments in the Carolinas are very helpful. Basically, you buy a bigger piece of land than you need, divide it into 2 pieces, wait for it to increase in value (hopefully not too long), and sell off one piece to cover some of the cost of the piece you keep.

Now, this won’t cover the entire cost of the piece you keep (unless you find an incredible deal, which is possible), but you could end up with your Dream Place in the Carolinas at a great price, just for doing a bit of work and taking the time and effort to learn how to do it. After doing it once, you can do it over again.

Many people overlook foreclosures as a way to find great deals on houses in the Carolinas. I believe most people don’t bother with foreclosures because they feel it’s taking advantage of someone else’s bad luck, or because it’s difficult to do or hard to understand. Nothing is farther from the truth! When a person is going to be foreclosed upon, it’s a saving grace if someone will by that home before the actual event takes place. It saves that person’s credit, which is very important!

Buying foreclosures is not a difficult process. There are many well written books on the subject, and if you go to www.foreclosures.com, or www.realtytrac.com ,you can find the foreclosures available in North and South Carolina. (I’m going to do a separate blog post just on, “How To Easily Buy Foreclosures in the Carolinas.”)

As always, this is not to be taken as investment advice. You must do your own due diligence with all real estate you are considering purchasing, and hire competent professionals.

Whether you’re retiring or relocating to North or South Carolina, feel free to contact me to discuss towns, communities and lifestyles in the Carolinas!