Thank you so much for watching! ☺️ Omg yes! When we heard 10% we were like “uhhh...😐” lol I think you have the right idea to save the money for future upgrades! The most important thing is to love the floor plan for sure. Good luck on your journey and thanks again for watching my videos! ☺️

Wow, thanks! This is definitely the best compliment ever - thank you! As a KZfaqr, I know you definitely understand the intricacies of shooting, editing, and trying to get your point across in an efficient way, so to receive a compliment like this...just wow, thank you! I'm sooo happy you found the information helpful! Good luck on your design center journey! I'm heading over to check out a few of your videos 😊 Thanks again so much for watching!

@@CatInMac LOL! I'm all over your channel now, and have sent my wife there as well. You've also inspired me to do a house tour when I get my keys because that was fun!

@@geektoolkit Lol thanks so much! That's great to hear! I LOVE empty house tours! ☺

Trying to get behind the basin to put a faucet in was THE WORST home experience EVER. NEVER, EVER again. My back hurt 3 days from lying in the cabinet. Nope, nope, nope.

@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 Oh yikes! I'm sorry to hear that! I guess there are perks to getting somethings at the design center instead of installing them later - good to know! Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thank you so much for watching! 😊

No problem! Good luck! :)

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching! 😊

Thanks for watching!

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks so much for watching!

No problem! I’m glad you found them helpful ☺️ Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you found it helpful! :)

Glad you found the video helpful! Thanks for watching!

Thanks so much for watching! I glad you found the video helpful! :)

Thanks so much for watching! I'm glad you found it helpful!

Glad you thought it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks so much for watching and good luck at your design center appointment! ☺️

Thank you for watching! I'm glad you found these tips helpful! :)

Exactly! Thanks for watching! :)

They're not made half as well as old buildings. Ours is 1912. Steps in snow state are still really good. Down the street, 3 million dollar houses are starting to crack and fall apart in under 5 years. Lol

Thank you so much for your comment! Great tip to go to the design center before your appointment just to look around, that is so clever - I wished we did that! Congrats on your new house 😊

Great advice!!!

Omg thank you! I’m really glad you found the tips helpful! ☺️

100% agreed. Best video. Personal suggestion: if you showed upgrades in the video while explaining like on the side it would be even more easy to relate (I’m more of a visual person) I got an idea on things when I saw your house tour. Thank you very much for the video.

Thank you for watching!!! It's so funny you mentioned that, I'm actually working on a vide now that will show pictures of the standard options and the upgrade options - hoping to have that video up by this weekend! Thanks again! :)

Great!@@CatInMac

I’m glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching ☺️

Yes! Talking to the lender before and after the appointment is definitely a major key 🗝️ Thanks for watching! Good luck at your appointment! ☺️

@@CatInMac thanks! And thanks again for the helpful tips, I'm researching like a crazy person!

Girl! I know the feeling! LOL

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks so much for watching!

Great, I'm glad the info was helpful! Thanks so much for watching! 😊

Thank you for watching!

Thanks for watching! And good luck with your new build! ☺️

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching! :)

Great, glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching! :)

I agree with everything you said! I still really enjoyed our home building experience, but there were definitely things I would have done differently - at least we know for next time. Thanks so much for watching my video!!! 😊

Great, I'm glad your finding it helpful! Thanks for watching ☺

I'm so glad you found the video helpful! Good luck at your appointment and congratulations on the new home! Thanks so much for watching ☺

@@CatInMac Just went in there today and picked exactly what we needed. Interestingly, the pricing was good and not extravagant as I thought it would be. Thankfully, it came to be around 5% overall and all came home happy. The major expense is the kitchen cabinet's white. Quatz top is reasonable. Upgraded all bathrooms with tiles. added memory foam to the carpet. I did not have to pay anything (you mentioned about 10% as some charge). It gets added to the loan. So all went well.

@@pvpixelarts That's great to hear! Thanks for sharing your experience. I always find it so interesting how builders differ in their processes and requirements. Quartz was sooo affordable, I was so surprised - I'm glad you were able to get what you wanted and left happy! Thanks for giving an update ☺

@@CatInMac yes. ours is an oversized island and the quartz upgrade is $1400. Faux wood blinds for 17 windows is $3400. Cabinets are $7800 (definitely on the higher side).

Thanks so much! Girl, I understand! I was so excited for our design center appointment, but during the appointment I was a little stressed and after the appointment, I kept thinking about all of our choices and if we made the right decisions! Luckily everything turned out great in the end! Thanks again for watching!

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

That's a great tip! Thanks so for sharing and thanks for watching!

OMG yes, I completely agree! It doesn't make sense! Also, feel free to check out our empty house tour here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d5-od7Jn0Kywcac.html it has all of the options we ended up picking! :)

@@CatInMac Thank you so much for sharing the link **Going to watch now!!

Of course! Thank you for watching! ☺️

I definitely understand! Thanks for watching! 😊

Thanks so much for watching! Wow - 50% is major!!!

Oh nice! That's great to hear, I heard of some builders setting budgets and giving money towards the design center - that's a great perk! I definitely agree with the washer and dryer - and tbh actually you made a great point I never thought about, the warranty! Thanks so much for sharing and watching the video 😊

Thank you so much! Our builder is K. Hovnanian Homes

LOL Good luck! There are a few things I wish we didn't get from the design center at all like the hardware for the cabinets

@@CatInMac please elaborate. We were planning to do the same since my husband is very handy. What was the downside?

@@keishapuryear8180 Hi there! There's not really many downside tbh, but for example, I wish we did not get the hardware on the cabinets. Because we went with the knobs, there will be more work for us to change them out especially if we wanted to replace the knobs on the drawers with pull handles - it would be a bit difficult because of the placement of the hole. I also wish we could have bought our own kitchen faucet, but I believe someone else in the comments mentioned that you aren't allowed to pass on pluming fixtures. Every builder is different, so my best advice would be to ask your builder or design center consultant what is mandatory and what are things you can skip. I also just put out another video a few days ago showing the different upgrade levels and prices. It may help give you an idea of what may be offered before going to the design center! I hope this helps! Thanks for watching! :)

@@CatInMac yes very helpful thank you

After the cheapo modern cabinets that won't sit straight. I'll have metal ones made like the 40s-50s.

Oh for sure, every builder is definitely different! I 100% agree that asking questions is the number best tip! Thanks so much for adding that and for watching! 😊

Thanks for adding that tip!! Saving is definitely key! 😊

Omg yes! I was really nervous too! The design consultant will definitely be a big help in selecting affordable options that still look great! Thanks so much for watching! 😊

Oh wow 50% is a lot! I've heard some places require 50%, I'm glad we were only required the 10%! Thanks so much for watching!

Hi, thanks for watching my video! We did receive a basic price sheet a few days before our appointment, but the design center had waaaay more options than the prices sheet listed lol! The prices sheet was helpful to know the structural upgrades, but it didn't include a lot of the design center upgrades

Thank so much for watching! We set our budget at $10,000, but were prepared to go up to 12 for the things we wanted, however, we ended up spending a little under $10,000 by the end of our appointment. I personally think $12-15,000 is reasonable if you keep in mind your non-negotiables, which for us were the floors and the countertops - we were definitely prepared to spend most of the budget on those upgrades. I hope this helps - thanks again for watching, and good luck at your appointment!

@@CatInMac thanks so much for you reply.An yes the things I want most are nice Countertops and cabinets and also my floors .so I can totally relate!!if I can have those then I’m fine..I would love a farmhouse sink but if it doesn’t fit in my budget after the floors and countertops and cabinets then I’ll just settle for something else lo Thanks again I’m so nervous about this appointment my anxiety is through the roof..

@@kariplacide3190 That's great you know the things you definitely want to upgrade! If it helps, I have another video on my channel where I go over some of the price for the options our design center had - it might help give you an idea of pricing to ease a bit of the anxiety! Our design appointment was pretty fun looking at the different options - I hope you're appointment goes well! :)

Hi thanks for watching! No, the 10% I mentioned in this video is strictly for the design center costs. So for example let’s say the house costs $100,000 and you spend if you spend $10,000 at the design center, you would pay 10% or $1,000 up front at the design center. That $1,000 goes towards the design center cost bringing it down to $9,000 and that $9,000 will get added on to the final total of your house to make it $109,000. I hope that makes sense, that was a lot of numbers lol! Let me know if you have any questions - I’m happy to explain further! Thanks again for watching ☺️

Hello, thanks for watching. Our builder was K. Hovnanian Homes and yes, I have an empty house tour video on my channel: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d5-od7Jn0Kywcac.html

IKR! 🙃 Our realtor was present and super helpful in helping us pick out our options, but nope, we were never asked for our budget 🙃 It was still a really great and fun experience though! ☺️

Ahhh ok good to know! I definitely was not trying to pay for that upgrade kitchen faucet LOL but good to know we would have had to regardless. Thanks for watching!

@@CatInMac We are building our third house currently and sometimes it's the most frustrating thing in the whole world lol hopefully our house will be done in March/April of next year

@@AprilLBolton Wow congrats! I'm sure everything will come out great!

I'll never EVER change out a kitchen faucet myself again. It was awful. Back hurt 3 days trying to grab it on my back in the cabinet.

Hmmm that's a great question! I'm actually not sure. Our builder required a check for 10% down, but I believe you may be able to pay more, I'm just not 100% sure. Definitely a good question to ask the builder! Thanks again for watching!

Hi! I would definitely recommend bringing your realtor with you to any appointments you have or at least have them on a call if they can't make it in person. Since we bought during the peek of COVID, we technically weren't supposed to have our realtor with us at the design center appointment, but she INSISTED lol and I'm so glad she came because she gave us advice we would have never known about and helped us save money in the long run. Thanks for watching! 😊

Hi! Standard options are the "free" options that come with the house so you don't have to pay for those. Basically, I guess they are already wrapped up in the cost of the home. Thanks for watching! :)

Oh wow! That is definitely at big difference! Thanks for letting us know!

Good question! Yes! For example, if you spend $10,000 at the design center, you have to pay 10% up front to $1,000. That means the left over $9,000 gets added to the final cost of your house/the loan amount. Thanks for watching! 😊

@@CatInMac No problem, thank you. Do you have any advice on how much to really save before starting the house hunting process?

@@SHEbrewLionessthat's another good question and hard to answer! I think it really depends on your budget for your house overall. I would say definitely factor in the following: Closing costs (which could be around $10,000), down payment (a lot of people think you must put 25% down, but that's not true - I believe we put maybe 3-5% of the cost of our house as the down payment), how much you would like to spend at the design center if you're going new construction (the 10% was a cost, I didn't know about until we started the process), and moving expenses. Those are all things you will need to pay immediately or upon closing your house. I personally like to plan ahead, so I would recommend factoring in possibly anywhere from 3-6 months worth of mortgage payments. So to give you an idea of numbers, for example if the house is $250,000 - I would recommend saving up the $10,000 for closing costs; 5% for down payment which is $12,500; a couple thousand for design center payment so let's say $2,000, and let's say $1,500 for possible personal moving expenses for a total of $26,000. Possible monthly mortgage payments for a house that price might be $1500 times 6 months is $9,000. I would be comfortable saving $35,000 to buy a $250,000 house. Just things to take into consideration, but I think it would be doable with less! A realtor will become your best friend lol and will be able to help with all of the numbers and such, even if you are not ready to start looking! I hope this helps! :)

@@CatInMac Omg, thank you so much for the details. I have learned so much from you in such a short period of time. I am finally starting to understand the process. I had no idea until today lol

@@SHEbrewLioness Of course, no problem! I was super lost at the beginning of this process and I don't want anyone to feel like I did lol let me know if you have anymore questions! :)

Omg! I’m sorry to hear about your mother. My deepest condolences to you and your family ❤️ and I’m sorry to hear about your floors - I definitely understand what you mean about noticing things months later. It’s something I don’t think people really understand. You see stuff in person one or two times and that’s it. Other than pictures, it’s hard to remember exactly what things looked like months later or until they start putting the finishing in your home and for you to deal with that also during a stressful time is definitely a lot! 😔 Do you have a realtor? If so have you tried getting them involved to help fix the issue?

@@CatInMac Thank you for your reply and condolences. I do have a realtor who hasn't been of much help. I will reach out to her to work on this issue.

@@aiem7813 That's great! I'm curious to know how it goes!

Yeeeaaaahh...a bit lol but everything turned out great in the end! We definitely know what to do next time we buy a house!

Thanks for watching! It sounds like the 10% of the home price you mentioned might have been the down payment or the deposit. The 10% I mentioned in this video is strictly for what you spend at the design center. so for example if our design center choices cost a total of $10,000, for our builder, we had to pay $1,000 that day. Every builder is different, so I would definitely recommend checking with your builder! I believe someone else in the comments said they had to pay 50% of their design center choices! I also have another video where I talk about some of our builder's design center prices that might be helpful to get an idea of what prices you may come across at the design center. Thanks so much for watching!

Hi, thanks for watching and thanks for your question! For new build houses, builders usually provide you with basic options, typically 2 to 3 different options, but if you don't want to go with those basic options, you'll have an opportunity to go to the design center and choose other options. These options are normally on a "level" system and have price points to go with each level, the prices increasing at the higher levels. The design center is where you can personalize your house to your liking. I hope this helps answer your question, thank you again for watching! 😊

@@CatInMac thanks for that info but I was referring to the statement when you said you can say no if you find it cheaper can you bring what you want in your home and they install it ? Do you have to use their design center options or it depends ?

@@Classy_Lady23 Ahhh I see what you mean - yes so, I believe it depends on the items. For example, if you want to get your own knobs/pull handles, you will have to buy those yourself, but I know every builder is different - I believe we would have to install them ourselves, but I've see videos from other people where the builders agreed to do custom installs on certain items. I would definitely recommend asking your builder, they might agree to install the items you buy! Thanks!

@@CatInMac yes ok thanks

Hi! So builders usually offer the standard options which don't cost anything extra, however, options at the design center are all mostly an additional cost. The design center typically has different levels and sometimes, levels 1 and 2 (sometimes 3) could be "free" but they will typically be an additional cost. I have another video showing some of the design center prices that our builder had if you're interested in learning more about what type of things are offered at each level and the price for those options: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/itKKa9agmp2Wf2w.html I hope this helps - thanks for watching! 😊

Sure! I don't remember exact prices, but I believe the kitchen faucet was around $400-$500 which I thought was kinda ridiculous for such a simple style. I thought the floors were a pretty reasonable price - I don't remember price per square foot, but I believe it was around $4000 for LVP through out the whole house minus the bedrooms (carpet) and master bathroom (tile). We were able to get the laundry room, upstairs hall bathroom, and the extra guest suite bathroom with LVP for free! So we saved a lot of money on tile. I believe the tile in our master bath alone was around $2100. I believe the kitchen counter tops were a level 3 quartz and were around maybe $2000 - which I thought was a good price for level 3 options - levels 4 and 5 jumped to $4000 and up - it was kinda crazy! lol I believe that was most of the major choices we made, most other things we kept at the standard option to save money and change over time. I hope this helps! If you haven't already, feel free to check out our empty house tour video to see all of the options we selected! Thanks so much for watching :)

@@CatInMac Thank you for that information. I saw your 'new home tour" video too. Your home is gorgeous...and BIG. ♥ Congrats

Thank you so much! 😊

@@CatInMac 500 for a faucet? Costco with a sprayer. 250.00. Works well, even tho the weight won't stay on the hose. I got in the habit of just putting it back myself. It's not a necessary part to me. I would have liked black, but this was chrome and cheaper. Never ever do another kitchen faucet myself again. It was horrible. Just grabbing the bolts with that stupid faucet wrench...

@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 Yes, I wish we could have had the option to get a cheaper faucet somewhere else, but as you mentioned, it might have been tough installing it ourselves - definitely something I didn't think about until now!

Hi! No, we did not negotiate prices - they give you a price sheet of the set prices of things. TBH I'm not sure there was room for negotiations 🤔, however, it never hurts to try!

Our builder was K. Hovnanian Homes

@@CatInMac what city and do you like the home quality?

@@africaoriginalvlogs6140 I'm in northern VA and yes we love the quality of our home! I have another video talking about some of the issues we had with our house, but the builder came out and fixed everything! After being the house for a year, we are still extremely happy with how everything came out! Thanks for watching!

Hey hey! I think you technically could, however, our relator explained to us that you can add an extra $1,000 to the down payment and it will only effect your monthly payment by decreasing like $5 (I don't remember the exact numbers, but using this as an example) - so the down payments don't offset as much as we would hope. I hope that makes sense - I'd recommend consulting with a relator! Thanks for watching! ☺️

At the design center? Oh wow, that's quite a bit!

IKR! I really wish we said no to a few things, but it's all good! We love how everything came out! :)

Hello and thanks for watching! We actually set our own initial budget before going to the design center. We knew we didn't want to spend more than $10,000 at the design center so we kept that number in mind during the appointment and we were prepared to make changes to our choices if we came in over budget. After we finished at the design center, we reached out to our lender to get a new estimate of what our monthly payments would look like after selecting our options at the design center. I hope this helps! Thanks again and let me know if you have any other questions! :)

Hmmm, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your comment, but thanks for the feedback and the view! 😊

I’m going through the beginning stages now of buying a brand new build and this video is great because I didn’t know what to expect when I have my design center appointment.

@@tiaunajonline Thanks so much! I'm glad you found it helpful! :)

@@tiaunajonline Have to go watch what they're doing and ask questions at ALL TIMES unless you know them extremely well. They WILL half-a** it if you don't.