Buying a New Home From a Builder

The new housing market rose 4.8 percent in 2006. Sales of new single-family homes finished out the year at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.12 million units, according to figures released in a joint report by the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Compared to numbers released by The National Association of Realtors, existing home sales for 2006 finished at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million units -- the third highest year since NAR began tracking home sales in 1968 -- you can see that new home sales accounted for about 15% of all home purchases in 2006.

So, if you are in the market to buy a new home, you probably have dozens of questions. The ones I most often hear are: Do you need to hire your own agent or should you use the builder's sales agent? Will the builder's preferred lender give you the best loan or can you negotiate your own financing? Because buying a brand new home is a lot more complex than buying an existing home. It pays to do your homework and get the answers.

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_{©Elizabeth Weintraub}

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_{At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.}