All Forum Posts by: Emilio Ramirez

It depends. On the contract and jurisdiction. There is what the parties agreed to in the contract and there is what is required by law. If you don't know what is in the contract or the laws of your jurisdiction I would contact a real estate attorney. 

no. for the same reasons they don't work for residential. go down to the yard where the boxes are and walk around inside one. Try setting up a desk or a chair. Waste of time and money... of course with the price of lumber... who knows... ?

I would get it inspected. A brand new home is amazing but it is also brand new. No one is perfect and sometimes everyone, including the builder and the inspector miss something. There are a million things that could go wrong from a drywall screw penetrating a plumbing line to improper site grading, missing screens, doors/windows not opening correctly and on and on and on. Just count the number of items in a house from foundation to shower glass. Was everyone of these things installed with best practices... you hope so and you'd like to think so, but get an inspection. Won't catch everything and maybe just confirms that everything that is visible was done correctly. 

I would make sure the builder has the Certificate of Occupancy (meaning the permit has been finaled) and ask them for an Owner training. (how and when to change filters, how to run the sprinkler system (if there is one), where is the water shut off? where is the sump? does the water heater need regular maintanence, what is unfinished that the home owner needs to take care of (grout/concrete sealing, fence stain/protection, etc.)  

Maybe you've already done this but  I would print out a set of the plans. schedule a meeting with the decision makers. show them the discrepancies. Explain you've paid 75% of their fee im good faith and just want the corrections made for the agreed upon fee. 

In Denver, right now, price appreciation is absorbing the cost increase. no one cares about alternatives, build as fast as you can. Cost of lumber is up across all materials and products. Steel still isn't cheaper nor masonry or concrete... so??? 

My crystal ball is a bit cloudly but if I were a betting man I would say there is almost zero chance of lumber or other materials/labor being cheaper in a year... unless... virus, war, etc... As far as handling costs. I pass it all on. Don't know of any other way to do it. This is with a huge bias from the Denver Market... no idea about other places... That being said... most of my clients are build and sell... I do have relationships with some bigger developers who are still very keen on the denver market even with increasing costs and are breaking ground on new construction 60 and 90 unit build to rent developments. 

This is brilliant... I wonder how many on here touting the benefits of government overreach in Denver and other places build new construction? My guess is most make a great profit off of rentals from 1969 that have single pane windows,  2" of insulation full of formaldehyde and rat droppings, leaky water fixtures with 10 gallons per flush, asbestos, radon, 80% furnaces and water heaters and windows with lead paint on them... oh but I gave the tenant the brochure so they're good... plus I put in an ikea kitchen in the unit so it looks cool. Want air conditioning... open the window...

New construction already has to build to a 1000 plus page code book that references 10 plus other 1000 page code books plus the mandates of individual states and juristrictions that feel the book isn't enough. New construction is already installing at a minimum 93% efficient furnaces, seer 13 air conditioners, R-49 insulation on the roofs, R-20 in the walls... R-16 in basements, (requirements by location vary)New construction has to pass air tightness tests to make sure your heat or AC is not escaping into the atmosphere.  New construction requires energy modeling and sizing for all new hvac equipment.  New construction requires all materials to be formaldehyde free and low VOC. 

Gas powered instant hot water heaters are the most efficient use of water heating energy there is. Electrical heat will require a tank that will need to constantly run every hour or so in order to maintain hot water relatively on demand. 

New construction already is very high in efficiency... why not focus on the existing stock that is in dire need of updating... because it would effect everyone who voted for these policy makers.... and this change would mostly effect those greedy developers anyways... 

And for those of you touting heat pumps... install one in your house first.... especially if you live in Colorado... let me know how its going when we hit 0 degress for a week.

rant over... flame away...

Happy to send you mine, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words... Better to have them tab a bunch of design magazines or save pictures from the internet or houzz... etc... 

I would assume nothing. Get you GC License. Develop or get a house plan. Then price and schedule the entire thing down to the last tile. Then you will know what you have. 

If you own the land free and clear or have significant equity in the land many times the banks will use that value in lieu of down payment. All depends on the bank or lender. I would start there and check the zoning of your land to see what the city, county, state will allow AND require for new construction. Modular construction is great, but in my experience the biggest benefit is speed of construction (if modular company doesn't have a huge backlog) not cost savings when compared to site built. There is much more than the house that will be required to make this work, meaning more costs than just the price of the module that the factory sends you.