Best Buys: New Homes ~ Builders offering deals

New homes are selling better than resale homes on the Grand Strand - as builders advertise nationally and offer incentives that individual sellers can’t.

• Builder incentives include such things as low interest rates, free homeowners association dues and home upgrades.

• Builders can advertise through national Web sites and developers use target marketing and invitation-only events to sell homes in certain areas of the Northeast.

• Real estate agents list their properties on their company’s Web sites, but analysts say that’s not as visible as the builders’ advertising reach.

• It’s also more complicated to buy a resale home because builders have financing on-site at the sales office. Plus, 60 percent of customers want a new home.

Mark Vitner, economist with Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C., said builders are discounting because of the volume of buyers walking away from contracts.

• Because builders can easily cut prices, new home prices are falling more in line with resale prices throughout the country, he said.

• “Existing homeowners are more reluctant to cut asking prices,” he said.

And for sellers, that means putting their home on the market at the right price - and fixing up their home to be attractive to buyers.

• The biggest thing is to make sure when you put your property on the market, you are at the lowest level in your area.

Overall Statistics: Sales Down over last year

• New Condo Sales - dropped 2%
• Condo Re-Sales – dropped 105%

• New Home Sales – dropped 8%
• Home Re-Sales – dropped 24%

Source: Jenny Burns, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, SC

For more information on New Home Incentives, contact Barbara Chartier at 843-902-0204.