Digging this up. For a new custom build (from lot purchase, design to build) why would a realtor help past the lot purchase? Not really seeing why they would work with a custom home builder or why a true custom home builder would even pay them that percentage.
It's construction. Wtf would a real estate agent know about that? (btw, 'Realtor' is an association of real estate agents that you pay a membership to be part of)
With custom homes, a buyer may have a realtor for several reasons: 1. They may be purchasing a "spec" house from a custom builder. This would be like any new construction purchase. 2. They may, in fact, only need help purchasing the lot. 3. Many people have a realtor helping them "house hunt." If that person then decides to build, the realtor may help pick the lot and negotiate the contract to build the house. In that case, the realtor will want their commission. Because of this, most builders have an idea they are going to pay a realtor...if you don't have one, you can negotiate for that.
My parents are looking to build(they have been looking for 10yrs) but I am now getting involved since they have had trouble managing expectations with budget and a trusted builder. Any recommendations on builders yall have used before? Thanks!
There is a choice in tank vs tankless. Think of it as depth vs breadth. Tankless produce infinite hot water for a finite amount of fixtures. So a shower or two at once will be fine, but if you add in another shower and the dishwasher, etc. you start to lose hot water. This can be a problem with big families with multiple bathrooms. Adding multiple tankless gets expensive fast. Tank water heaters are the opposite. They have finite water for infinite fixtures. You could have hot water to 6 showers, but for a limited time. They tend to be much cheaper so you can add multiple tank heaters for less money. Many larger homes may have both. A tankless for the master bath and tanks for everything else.
When researching Photovoltaic hot water, I realized that using a thermostatic mixing valve would greatly improve the efficiency of the whole system. Even without solar, there are some advantages of going with a thermo valve. The gist is, you set your water heater to a much higher temp... say, 140-150 deg. The valve then mixes cold water with the really hot water to bring it back down to 120 or whatever. For every 10 degrees above your usage temp you set the water heater, your tank acts like it has 10 gallons larger capacity. Your 50 gallon tank at 150deg acts like an 80 gallon tank at 120 etc... Also, keeping those higher temps is slightly less efficient in terms of conventional power/gas consumption but for solar it works as a thermal battery. The efficiency loss can be reduced by conventional thermal blankets. Legionnaires disease isn't a worry at these elevated temps and If the valve fails, all you get is cold water. They were available for around $60-100 back before prices on everything went nuts. Dunno what they run these days.
We built through Pulte and it was generally a positive experience. Some minor gripes, but overall a good experience.
they have gotten quotes building off current structure or tearing down house and building off foundation from there...would prefer custom unless there are prior builds that fit their needs
