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The building industry in the USA is increasingly being dominated by the largest builders in the country. About 70% of the new houses are build by about 7% of the new builders. American West Homes, Fieldstone Communities, Sivage Thomas and ICJ are all examples of some of the largest builders in the country.

Whether you are thinking about buying from American West Homes, Fieldstone Communities, Sivage Thomas or ICJ, you have heard it a thousand times: your house will be the largest single investment you will ever make. So it stands to reason that the builders sales person will give you a huge sales pitch. Having a good understanding of this process before you go into a model and talk to a sales person will give you an advantage. Good salespeople are savvy enough to judge your experience and knowledge related to buying a new house and look for weaknesses to exploit. They will sound like they are your friend and advocate. They are not. They are there to sell houses, period.

Production builders are good at luring you in with models. If you have been to a few models, you know what I mean. Most builders convert the garage of the model into a sales center and make you walk through that sales center before you can get inside the house instead of letting you go through the front door. It is in that sales center where you will most likely be introduced to the salesperson for the community or one of their assistants.

Model homes are decorated in a way that demonstrates the benefits of the floor plan but mask the home's imperfections. What you see in a model is a house that is much more expensive than the base price of the house because the model has every possible upgrade. To confuse things further, some builders use high-end "designer options" unique to the model and not even offered by the builder on a standard production house. Most buyers would not "deck out" their house in the same way that builders do in their model. The price of a "loaded" model is not only too high for many customers, but impractical. As a rule, it is never a good idea to have the most expensive home in the neighborhood, as the models tend to be. This is because it is harder to maintain its value and resell. If the builder displayed the house with the options that most people really purchase, the house would seem common or boring and would not be as enticing to the customer.

At this point, collect as much info about the building company as you can. Use the included features sheet to ensure that items are included and to create a baseline when doing comparative analysis with similar houses ("comps"). For example, one builder may include a concrete back porch. Another builder may not even mention the porch because it is not included in the purchase price. This way you can compare "apples to apples" when looking at the price.

Make sure the salesperson tells you the major differences between the model house and the standard plan. The salesperson who hesitates in answering this question is trying to hide the fact that the model has many upgrades.