Builders Have New Ideas to Save Buyers Money

President of Bradenton's Neal Communities Pat Neal, has introduced a new "cottage series" to rave buyer reviews.

He offers fewer choices of cabinets, windows and countertops, shifted to cheaper door locks and replaced tile with carpet. He's reintroduced vinyl floors, largely banned from the builder toolkit during the housing boom.

M/I Homes hopes to do the market one better as mortgage rates are at historic lows. For some buyers and thousands of dollars in new home upgrades for every renter who produces a lease agreement, it's marketed sub-4% financing.

Taylor Morrison Homes slashed prices to $99,000 for 1,268-square-foot, single-family homes and mothballed a couple of unproductive communities.

Beazer Homes is offering free dryers, washers and refrigerators in some of its communities.

Before realizing buyers hankered for homes larger than 1,500 square feet, Beazer test-marketed an 1,100-square-foot home last year.

Two years ago, KB Home made a splash with the introduction of an apartment-sized two-bedroom house.

KB has shied from incentives, but drew 85 prospective customers this month to an instructional home-buying seminar. The builder supplied a free lunch of sandwiches.

He has more or less settled on a $208,000, 2,600-square-foot home offered by Home Dynamics.

Already offering to pay closing costs and donating $10,000 toward upgrades, he's expecting a more sacrifice from the builder.

Successfully selling the public on the notion that smaller is better, Neal is relieved by one change in the market: buyers have stopped treating home purchases as if they were chasing a hot stock tip.

Source: builderonline.com