Did anyone here buy a showhome or know someone that did?

[meggmoo]

We're moving and have been considering some local new builds. Most of the houses we dismissed but today we stumbled upon a really small development, we saw the showhome and fell in love with the style of house. When we went to the sales office the smarmy old trout behind the counter informed us that the only house available in that particular style was the show home and how much extra would we be prepared to pay for it.

Well for starters the decor was hideous to put it mildly the extras would be carpets and curtains which we wouldn't want anyway but it was the garden that was amazing - very low maintenance and landscaped to a very high standard.

Is it a bit of a bluff to get you to pay through the nose for something like this or do people really pay through the nose for ex showhomes?

We'd have to redecorate through out, rip out carpets and get new curtains and blinds if we were to buy it??? It doesn't seem worth it for just a garden but dh seems really smitten and reckons that there's at least 12 thousand paounds worth of garden in the showhouse alone not sure about that myself!

Just me then?

I could ask one of my mindees mums tomorrow (she works for xxxx homes so will know about this sort of stuff).

Oh Helly that would be great. The sales lady was so smarmy it would be fab to have a heads up on it.

meg, i know someone who did and it prob was ana extra 30/40 on top of the basic house price.
she got kitchen , all bathrooms done, and all the curtains/rails and some bits of furniture.

carpets too, light fittings

on the estate I live on the show house was the same type as my house. When the show house was built, the houses the same went for £123000. By the time we bought ours in a later phase we paid £128500. The show house sold for £137000. It doesn't have as nice a plot as ours. They got to keep carpets, curtains and electrical items like washing machine etc in the price.

The only extras as far as she has told us.
The carpets, curtains and or blinds and the garden.

I'm a mortage advisor working for a company that has a lot of links with new home builders.

The show homes are definitely sold at a premium. I've known houses be sold completely as seen - including furniture!

If you don't like it though, don't pay over the odds - will there be a further build phase after this one? Or can you wait until the builders financial year end/half year end when they are desparate to sell and sometime do huge discounts?

one of my best pals bought the show house (only cos it was the only one left) and they got it lock stock and barrel, curtains, carpets, all the furniture etc even down to the flannels and soap dispenser in the bathroom. They didn't particularly want all the contents but the building company didn't want them either it seemed.
They didn't pay any extra though I dont think but that might have been because it was the last one left.

Orinoco, no more buildings to complete. Everything is finished now and there are a few houses left to sell. The type that we like and that is suitable for us is the same style of the show home.

Mckenzie, do you know if she went on some kind of waiting list for it? The woman made it clear that the only thing included would be the carpets and blinds/curtains. She also implied that it would be similar to sealed bids - for anyone interested. Just can't tell whether she's trying it on

bumping for today,

Thanks.

meggmoo, I'm pretty sure that with my friend it was that all the other houses had sold, the showhouse buyers had just pulled out, they turn up, want to buy a house and like the showhouse location etc. They definiely didn't pay any extra for the contents, I'm absolutely sure of that. Much as they were all rather nice some of the bits were decidely wacky!! And as they were going from 2 properties down to one (setting up home together for the first time) they had 2 of everything anyway so no way would they have paid more to get a third toaster!