New Construction

What You Need to Know About New Homes

If you’re buying a brand new home, you likely fall into one of these three categories:

• Custom home
• Developer-built home
• Spec or model home

Custom home
With a custom home, you’ll have as much freedom with the types of products and materials you use as you do in a remodeling job. You’ll have even more flexibility than the remodeler when it comes to the kitchen layout and its door and window locations.

Developer-built home
Developers will typically put some limits on your choices, though how many and on what will vary by project. The choices are usually limited because they’ve made arrangements with suppliers for quantity discounts.

A development might have a “selection center” on site where you can view the products and materials included in a standard package and any upgrades. You may be able to pay extra, for example, to have maple instead of oak cabinets, or granite instead of laminate countertops. Some may even allow changes to the kitchen layout—added island storage or an extended cabinet run perhaps. Some will send you to an affiliated kitchen designer for an expanded selection.

Other developers may offer little or no flexibility, even if you are willing to pay a premium. If you have to have the home but hate the developer’s kitchen, you can always buy it and then replace the features you don’t like.

Spec or model home
For homes built on spec or those that serve as a developer’s model, your chances for making changes to the kitchen will largely depend on how far along the project is. For most, you will get what you see.