This topic is in the realm of how much energy and investigation would you need to perform to even approach an answer with any degree of confidence? In general, the new house shopper visits a bunch of show homes and likely chooses the combination of location, price and attractiveness of the house best suited. Each house is different, regardless of the veneer of homogeneity created by the newness factor and that each house has a ‘warranty’. Each builder has incorporated into the house an endless variety of feature and upgraded components. I’ve seen the inner city projects now in an apparent arms race of how many costly luxury products can be incorporated and how high the asking price can be pushed. Contrast this with show homes I’ve seen in sprawl areas where the builder hardly wraps the bathtub with more than a single row of cheap tile. Some standalone items can be really expensive like a tub filler, or a light fixture. Others are layered in and installed in a way that cannot be changed. For example house with multiple sinks for the kitchen, bar, laundry and prep room. Those sinks can be 3/4/5 hundred or even 1000 dollars each. And they are under mounted in a polished quartz slab, not changeable at all. These components really increase the cost to construct, and can be cut from a budget to make the price of the house more attainable. Does the buyer who shops these houses notice, appreciate and add up the different specifications in the houses they visit in a way that differentiates certain homes over others?
I’d like to think the house shopper is pretty savvy, but I suspect they may often like what they see, but not be really aware of the cost of the components. It needs to be the job of the agents involved to highlight these items, often the selling agent is not on site, or the buying agent has no knowledge of material costs. Does the builder need to put a price tag on the show home to show how all the individual bits add up to the asking price in a seven figure spec home ?
