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| - What you must be aware of before you move forward with your American West Home
So here's a brief synopsis of my situation. My husband and I are moving from Orlando, FL to Las Vegas. We have been searching for homes for months and there was nothing that fit our taste. Finally, we decided to look at new home options and fell in love with the first one we saw. American West - Plan 4154, a 3-story beauty. We paid our earnest money of $5K a few days after seeing the home. Initially, we were excited but as our buying experience progeressed, our excitement diminished. Here are a couple of things that you should know before you make your big jump into new home ownership with American West:
*AMERICAN WEST DOES NOT BUILD CUSTOM HOMES
Though you do have quite a few options, you are only limited to what they will provide (i.e. their selection of granite countertops, paint colors, etc. etc). That was a bit understandable as new home builders have to purchase in masses and can only offer certain options. What I did not expect was being told that I cannot have my levels painted in different colors. I wanted my first and third stories cream/tan and my second story white. They said, "No, that is too much customizing of the home and we are not custom home builders." How hard is it to change paint from their own selection?
*AMERICAN WEST DOES NOT INCLUDE UPGRADED FLOORING AND HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMS INTO THE FINAL HOME PRICING
Now this was the circumstance that upset us the most. During our selection of our upgrades, we were told that we had the option of going to 2 flooring companies to select our upgraded floors (the standard flooring is inexpensive carpet and linoleum floors for the wet areas). We were told that though the flooring was not included in the final pricing, we could still roll up the flooring into our mortgage. So, we went to the flooring companies and picked out our floors, a nice ceramic tile that were shaped in planks to give the look of hardwood, absolutely remarkable! We signed all of our paperwork then the flooring sales rep asks, "How would you like to make your payment?" Our jaws dropped because we were told that we can include the pricing into our mortgage. That was true but what our sales rep failed to mention was that we would have to pay for the full pricing of the floors and then include it into the mortgage and possibly get all of your money back. Our floors were $18K. At this point, we already gave our $5K earnest money and began making payments for our upgrades.
*PLEASE DO NOT LOOK AT THIS BUILDER IF YOU ARE EXPECTING TO PUT NO MONEY DOWN
My husband is a retired military captain and we were getting a VA Loan. If you are expecting to put no money down then this is not the home for you. You have to put a deposit of $5K for them to start building the home. You have to pay a deposit of approximately 25-30% of your upgrades upfront (for us it was about $9,500 that we were scheduled to pay). This payment can be made in monthly installments. You have to pay the full amount of all home entertainment options and all flooring options. In our case it was $18K on floors and $1500 on home entertainment options (you only get 4 cable outlet plugs for a 5 bedroom house with game rooms, living rooms and family rooms...4!). So if you are expecting to put no money down as we did with our VA loan, please do not look at this home! No money down turned into $34K, what a difference! Though most of the funds are deposits that can be used for your closing costs, the flooring and home entertainment can be rolled into your mortgage and you may or may not get the funds back. In our case, the VA loan only allows $417K for Las Vegas homes and you can only get a loan for the amount that the home appraises for. With that said, my final home price is exactly $417K and if it does not appraise for the full value, I will NOT see my funds back from the flooring and home entertainment purchases.
I am still in the process of building my new home and should have my keys next month but had I known all of this information, I would not have moved forward with American West. I voiced my complaints to their manager, Kate Jacobs and she did nothing, very sympathetic, but nothing was done. Our sales rep, Jeremy Chyle, was respectful and courteous but please ASK QUESTIONS! He was not forthcoming with all of the information and when confronted, he became very condescending and unpleasant.
This is simply what I went through, I can't imagine what others have gone through. I hope you found this useful as I sure would have if I read this prior to buying!
Thank you,
Elizabeth
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