The person who greets you in the model home is lovely, knows the floor plans cold, and is being paid by the builder to represent the builder. None of that is a scandal. It becomes a problem only when a buyer walks in on a Saturday assuming that person is on their side.
The on-site sales agent works for the builder. Their job is to sell the builder’s homes at the builder’s terms. In Texas, a license holder is required to give you the Information About Brokerage Services form at first substantive communication about a specific property — that is the document that tells you, in writing, who represents whom. Read it. Most people sign it without looking, and it is the one page that answers the question.
They will be honest with you. They will answer your questions. They will not tell you the community two miles over is a better value, they will not tell you which incentive is negotiable, and they will not tell you the lot you are standing on is going to back onto a future road.
This is the practical thing that costs people money, so it goes near the top.
Most builders will happily work with your own agent — new construction commissions are built into their budget and using an agent generally does not raise your price. But nearly every builder requires that your agent be registered with you on your very first visit, often physically present or named on the sign-in sheet that day.
Tour alone one Saturday out of curiosity, come back two weeks later with an agent, and the builder can and often will refuse to recognize them. You have not saved anything. You have simply given up representation for free. If you are even mildly curious about a community, tell me before you go and I will register you, which takes about a minute.
On a resale in Texas you are almost certainly signing a promulgated TREC contract — standardized, familiar, with a well-understood option period.
Builders write their own contracts, drafted by their own attorneys, and they are allowed to. They are longer, they are not standardized, and they are written to protect the builder. What changes, commonly:
You do not need to be afraid of any of this — people close on builder contracts happily every day. You need to read it before you sign it, and you need someone reading it whose income does not depend on you signing it.
Ask for $15,000 off the price and you will usually be told no. Ask for $15,000 toward closing costs, a rate buydown, or upgrades, and the conversation gets a lot friendlier.
That is not the sales agent being difficult. A recorded price cut damages the comparable sales for every remaining home in the community and for every buyer who already closed. An incentive does not. So point your negotiation at incentives, not the sticker — and understand that a rate buydown is usually worth more to you than the same dollars in upgrades, because it lowers your payment for years while a nicer backsplash does not.
Most builder incentives are conditioned on using the builder’s affiliated lender. That is legal and it is often genuinely a good deal, because the builder is subsidizing your rate.
The move is not to refuse. The move is to get a written quote from one outside lender and compare the whole cost — rate, points, lender fees, everything — against the builder’s quote with the incentive included. Sometimes the incentive wins by a mile. Sometimes the in-house rate is high enough to eat it. Twenty minutes tells you which.
The number on the sign is the base plan on a base lot with base finishes. The house in the model home you fell in love with is frequently $60,000 to $100,000 above it. Lot premiums, elevation upgrades, and the design center are where budgets quietly die.
Go into the design center with a written number you will not exceed, and know which upgrades are hard to add later — structural changes, plumbing rough-ins, extra outlets, upgraded insulation — versus things you can absolutely do yourself in year three for less, like light fixtures, mirrors, blinds and landscaping. Spend at the design center on what is inside the walls.
New does not mean flawless, and the city inspector is checking code compliance, not workmanship. Hire your own inspector, ideally twice: once at the pre-drywall stage, when framing, plumbing and electrical are still visible, and again before closing. Pre-drywall is the single highest-value inspection in all of real estate, because for a few weeks you can see everything, and after that you never can again.
Then put a reminder in your phone for eleven months after closing. Most builder warranties have a one-year mark, and a walkthrough at month eleven catches the settling cracks and sticking doors while they are still someone else’s problem.
Touring new construction this weekend? Tell me which community before you go. Registering you takes a minute and it is the difference between having representation and not.
Register me before I tour
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers in Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.