WTTCMN said:BTW, look at this lovely house in Woodbury. 3,250sf for $1.45M. $450psf.http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/28-Fanpalm-92620/home/28931864
Not a single ceiling fan in the house. Not sure I even see Jboxes. Not a single chandelier. Two bedrooms (that I can see) doesn't have recessed lighting. The windows in the breakfast area have no window coverings. Guess they only did 5% (or less).
irvinehomeowner said:@IC:
Yeah... I don't consider any type of upgrade like Cali to conservatory as a "Design Center" option, so that would be part of the base price.
So does that 13% include the 8% for the conservatory?
Yeah... I covered that here:eyephone said:If you can't afford the "minimum upgrades" maybe you shouldn't be buying.
irvinehomeowner said:
Irvinecommuter said:Upgrade with the builder was about 8% not including the conservatory upgrade (which I consider to be a part of the home price).
Exactly... The Gold Toilet Effect.Bullsback said:Got to weigh things with the right balance. Focus on what you like, what works well and you'll get some benefit from if you exit the house, and then whatever the need to have's of the family are. Most anything else is probably excessive and something not needed or you just need to make sure you are okay with the cost and have plenty of extra money.
And nothing wrong with that.But maybe this is the talk of a 99%er and not a 1%er.
Agreed. I started my admittedly long posts from IHO's gold toilet comment and being ripped off. I'm not saying go with the design center for everything, that's silly. Most trim, window treatments, closet organizers, paint, possibly flooring can and should be done after COE. But, my point was that it's easy for upgrades to add up quickly even for items that are cheaper going through the design center and that doesn't mean the buyer got ripped off or is excessive. Everyone has different value systems and prioritize what they "need" or "want". The pot filler option is ~$1k, maybe really useful to someone that cooks a lot and has the sink on the other side of the kitchen, but maybe a huge waste of money and excessive to somebody else. I know this tho, adding a pot filler above a range is going to be way more expensive after COE and will definitely void the kitchen plumbing warranty. What about whole house central vacuum, those run over $4k easily. Some ppl swear by them and wouldn't wanna live without it, where another person thinks their $75 Kenmore vacuum is good enough. Again, this option has to be done during the build.WTTCMN said:I'm not sure what the point of this thread is but I basically started commenting when I read $50k in upgrades for a $1mm house. So far, everyone who commented is above that and i don't think these are the type of people who have gold toilets.
WTTCMN said:I'm not sure what the point of this thread is but I basically started commenting when I read $50k in upgrades for a $1mm house. So far, everyone who commented is above that and i don't think these are the type of people who have gold toilets.
That is a lot, no argument from me. Probably an extreme example of upgrading through the design center. But your 5% on a $1M house is the opposite extreme. Most ppl are somewhere in the middle.irvinehomeowner said:My Gold Toilet Effect was in response to anyone spending $300k on new $1.xm home.
You really can't come to any conclusion based on this thread because the spread of buyers is too broad. If you asked 100 buyers of a $500k condo, over 95% would say less than $50k at the design center. Ask 100 ppl of a $1.5M house and over 95% would say over $50k, prob well over.pricedoutJay said:My purpose of this thread was to gauge what new Irvine home buyers were spending money on upgrades and how much they spend/budget the cost. I never bought a new home and figured that new homes would result in more additional cost than resale homes for structural addition and landscaping are not really easy upgrades for resale houses. The poll actually is telling me that the distribution is not a normal curve so about a 2/3 of buyers spend $50k plus but there are 1/3 of buyers who try not to spend too much. So I think I got what I was looking for.