New Construction Buyer Tips: Builder Rate Buy-Downs, Pre-Drywall Inspections & Recalls

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It's Wednesday and that means it's time for the punch list, the midweek edition of around the house.

Every good job has a punch list.

The last few things you check before you call it done.

This is ours, the stuff you need to know about your home, straight up and no fluff.

Here's your host, Eric Goranson.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining me.

I'm Eric G. I am having a great time here.

I am in a hotel room in Minnesota.

I am over here by the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota.

I've got a family member having some procedures done over here.

So I wanted to come over here.

It was a last minute trip, but I wanted to get this out to you today and talk more about what's going on.

So I am not in the studio today, but I wanted to talk about a few things and in the housing market.

I've been watching this going across the country right now and it's interesting.

Interest rates are way too high right now.

So for all of you people out there looking to buy a home, this can get pretty interesting.

When we're talking seven and a quarter percent, it's going to be expensive.

So it's one of those things that we're playing with.

It's a great time to buy a house right now because prices are pushing down.

The problem we see though is that a lot of people look at that seven and a quarter percent and go, man, that's not the 3% that we used to have.

And quite frankly, I don't think we'll see 3% in the next 20, 30, 40 years on the interest rates and something unless something happens.

So where are we going to be at?

I think our comfort level is going to be in the 5% thing.

Here's what we're seeing.

We're seeing home builders are going to be in trouble here, I think in the next year.

This is my guess because we have a ton of homes on the market right now.

Now you're going to see that price come down.

You're going to see home builders looking at this going, how do we do this?

The only way that I'm seeing home builders in most markets across the country work is we're starting to see them buy down points.

So this is what happened to Elise's kid.

They bought down two points on the loan.

So when you're in the 5%, it's pretty good.

But now here's what the builders do by doing that.

If you're a homeowner or want to be homeowner.

And you're out looking around and you're like, I'm looking at this new construction build, and then I'm taking a look at three other homes.

It's a big deal when you've got 2 percentage points between those.

So there's the issue, right?

So you'll go look at this house and go, these are all in the price, same price range, but two points is a big deal on a monthly payment.

So it steers you towards those new builders.

But here's, I think, where the issue is going to be with the market pushing down home prices.

Where most markets, as we've talked about in the past, we're seeing those numbers get pushed way down.

Now all of a sudden, can you build the home for that and can you build it right now we're seeing those same home builders taking a lot of shortcuts out there.

And I think that's an issue.

So make sure that if you're buying a new home out there, especially from one of these national builders, this is the big issue.

I would have them done, have a pre construction contract with a local home inspector.

So somebody that's certified for new construction, I want them to go in when they're pouring the concrete, inspect it.

I want them in framing inspected.

I want a pre drywall to be inspected.

See those along the way to see where things are.

Because you're going to catch a lot of issues and if you do that through the process, you're going to be good.

Now here's what the other issue is too.

You're starting to see these new home builders cheap out with realtors.

So instead of giving them one and a half percent, you're seeing them going, oh, we're not going to pay more than 1%.

So when they're cheaping out on these new builders, you're going to see realtors not pushing those houses.

So you're going to see homeowners go in there and just start working with those guys directly.

The issue I have with that is you don't really have anybody, that's what I would say on your side that's going to push back.

You're on your own.

So I would not deal just directly with those home builders.

You want to have an agent that's on your side.

So make sure you work through that.

Because I think it's an issue if you go out and make that mistake and it can be a really big one.

So be really careful with that out there.

Have a good agent, sit down and follow the new rules.

So you'll have to sign a contract probably with them before you go out.

So you're going to negotiate that out.

And this is not where you want to be cheap, I'll be honest.

You want to pay them market rate, you want them to do their best for you.

If you go in and talk them down, you want these people fighting for you.

And the more you pay them, as far as the going rate, I think the better service you're going to get.

This is no different than going someplace else and dealing with businesses.

So you want to get the best you can get someone that's going to fight for you because there are things you need to fight for.

And how that works out is going to be how it's going to cost you down the road.

It might not cost you at five years, it could cost you at 10 years.

But when those things get called out, you're going to be better off.

So spend your time.

Now is a good time to buy a house as long as you can stomach the 7% interest rates.

Now here's the good news.

If you can afford to do that for a few years, I honestly think we're going to see it go down in time.

Because the economy out there right now is not really awesome.

This isn't a political thing, guys.

It's not awesome.

Things got expensive five years ago and got worse and of course with fuel prices and everything else now, one thing I want to say with elections coming up and this is something that you need to figure out, I'm not going to tell you how to vote on this, but it is amazing.

When I fly from state to state, travel around and look at what fuel prices are and what people in states are putting up with there, you can change states and have a $50 or 2 gallons, $2 a gallon difference between what you're paying for diesel and what some places paying across the country.

If I go from Oregon to Washington, there's usually a dollar difference.

And here's the crazy part, Washington is always more expensive than Oregon.

But what's funny is Oregon has had such wild pushback on manufacturing of petroleum products.

So we don't even have an Oregon, we don't even have a refinery.

Washington has to ship it.

Those fuel producers have to ship it all the way down into Oregon from almost the Canadian border.

But because of the taxes, I'm a dollar less a gallon.

And when I'm driving my Ford Raptor around and I got a 34 gallon tank that pays, that's a big difference when you do that.

So look at what your taxes are.

You can't just blame this just on international stuff going on.

It's as much as what's going on in your state as it is another.

So pay attention to that election time out there.

What's costing you more.

And I'm going to give you one position of mine.

All fraud is bad, no matter who's doing it.

So my hot take on that is, if there's fraud out there and we're seeing a lot of it, and there has been fraud for a long time and we're starting to see it pop out, I think we need to really focus on that and get that dialed in, because that's stuff that us as taxpayers are paying for and as homeowners and the people that need it aren't getting it.

And that's important.

Now, I do have one other thing I want to talk about because it's something I'm a little bit of an expert in and it's driving me absolutely nuts on social media.

When I get back in town, I'm going to do a video on this.

But there are some people out there that are going after our local cheese company, which is Tillamook cheese, and it's for an absolutely stupid reason.

There are people on social media out there, they're freaking out because it says that it's Halal certified on the package.

How dare they do that now?

How dare they.

Oh, my gosh.

People do 2 cents of research.

Here's the thing.

High quality cheese is what that is.

There's no doubt it wins cheese awards internationally every year.

They used to use pork and beef products in aging and making that cheese.

I'm not going to get into the weeds on this, but they were using beef and pork products.

They decided if they didn't use that, it made for a higher quality cheese.

And there are some dumb people out there that are saying stuff that.

Oh, yeah, they've turned Muslim.

They've.

Oh, my gosh, you kidding me?

They're talking about how they have to have these prayers over the cows.

Look, guys, these are a bunch.

Let me tell you something about Tillamook cheese here real quick.

That is a bunch of coastal conservative dairymen.

Could be women.

They call them dairymen.

It's just the term.

Don't get on me on that one.

These people are the last to go politically correct on stuff.

They just saw that they made the cheese Better by not using these cheap products to make a higher quality cheese.

And in doing so, it's Halal certified.

They're not doing all this stuff with the cows.

Come on, these guys are feeding cows.

They're treating them right.

Because guess what, they're their money makers.

That's their investment.

They're following all the rules of not using all the drugs on the cows and stuff like that that that affect the milk that go into the cheese.

It's really simple.

So don't get all on the news and all the social media stuff on that where people that have no idea what they're talking about are taking pictures and doing videos.

So just a little bit of consumer information out there for that.

A lot of cheese companies, higher end cheeses have that automatically because they're just making good cheese and it automatically meets that.

It's like saying that oh yeah, that corn syrup is gluten free.

It's made out of freaking corn.

It's not because all of a sudden somebody got on the gluten free bandwagon.

It's not made with meat wheat.

So a little bit information there.

One other thing, let's go into our real quick here.

Before we get into the next subject, let's get into the recalls for the day.

There is not a lot out there.

Some baby products, some swings, more dressers.

There is a snow peak propane fireplace insert with lava rocks.

There's a hazard the fireplace lava rocks can ignite and explode when heated in the propane insert, posing a risk of fire death.

There's only 100 of these things so it's not a big deal.

Next up, Dr. Power Equipment recalls pilot and premier trimmer mowers due to risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.

So grass and debris can accumulate in the trimmer mowers and ignite, posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.

Consumers should stop using the recalled trimmer mower.

This is the one that has the big kind of weed eater on the bottom.

And immediately contact Dr. Power Equipment for a free repair kit.

There's about 42,860 those and about 340 were sold in Canada.

And then there's a bicycle decathlon America, recalls Van Rysel Grvl AF bicycles due to risk of serious injury from a crash hazard.

So there's a front nut lock that can loosen during use.

It's an REI thing.

So get a hold REI and they'll take care of it.

Everything else is stuff we talked about last week so that's what we're working with this week.

I'll be back in town later this week.

Guys.

We will have a best of show this weekend that we pulled together just because guess what?

I really needed to get out here for family this week.

So it was quick unplanned trip on short notice so I didn't have a chance to put together a show a new show together.

So I apologize to all you.

But we do have some shows coming up this weekend that you probably haven't heard so you want to check that out.

And of course we'll see you next week with a brand new show.

We'll be working those out.

We've got some great stuff coming up on the radio and the podcast, so make sure you hit the subscribe button.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthe house online.com I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in to around the House today.

And of course this is our punch list that show we do on Wednesdays.

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