As I Lay Reading

As with most homeowners, much of our equity was tied up in our current home. It was not equity we could tap into until we sold the home. Fortunate for us, Allen Edwin partnered with MarketPlace Homes and offered a program that allowed us to build our home with no money down, other than a small earnest deposit and then later, the lot transfer fee. The program also lessened the overall risk, since MarketPlace will buy your home for 90% of market value if they cannot sell it. They also take a reduced 1% commission to help you sell — instead of the standard real estate commission.

We were introduced to and signed up with MarketPlace at the very beginning of the Allen Edwin new-home-build process. I spoke to our MarketPlace rep at length about the process and she was fantastic in answering any and all of the questions I had in a very clear manner to start.

First, MarketPlace does NOT want to buy your home. This means, that they will put you in the best position they can to sell it. They sent a photographer to our home to take professional photos. We followed their advice on staging and made the house as presentable as possible. In the end, the listing was beautiful, down to the photographs.

They also gave advice for “when” to list the home, which is so critical. If you list too early, you risk not having enough overlap and if you risk to late, you risk having too much overlap. Our main contact at MarketPlace Homes was great at setting a timetable for this. MarketPlace and Allen Edwin kept in communication during the whole process to get the timetable as on-point as possible.

Once the house is listed, MarketPlace Homes representatives will call to schedule showings of your home with different realtors. We were fortunate to have a great amount of interest and got smart about setting a time-range for showings. Initially, we would schedule them as they came in but reality set in very fast and moving a family of 5, plus 3 dogs out the door at a moments notice proved to be unrealistic. So, we started blocking off great chunks of time to make sure that whoever wanted to see the house, could.

Huge thanks and a shoutout to the MarketPlace Homes call-center! Y’all rock!! They kept everything running super smooth with the scheduled showings and were so pleasant to work with.

The Downside to MarketPlace Homes

One of the most stressful parts of the process for us was the lack of communication with our listing agent (not the main MarketPlace Homes contact). She was professional on the phone, which was to be expected but there was a lack of communication overall. We were not at all in control of the process, down to the bids. She picked the offer that she felt was best and didn’t consult with my husband or me on any of the other offers. She also didn’t give us a whole lot of information about the closing process. There were some key pieces of information we needed to know before closing, that was not communicated to us until the very last second. Like for instance, the buyer’s title agency had reached out several times to get some paperwork and information from our listing agent without any response, so it was something we had to take care of ourselves at the closing table.

At the end of the day, we had to remind ourselves that MarketPlace was only taking a 1% commission to sell our home, so perhaps that meant we had to sacrifice some control and good customer service from the listing agent in the process.

Final Thoughts on MarketPlace Homes

Despite our listing agent experience, the overall experience with MarketPlace Homes was positive. They did what was needed to help us sell our home and it sold very fast. The professional photos helped immensely. The timeline was darn near perfect and we were able to obtain occupancy for 30 days, while our new home was being finished. In the end, it worked out very well.

However, if I had to offer any piece of constructive criticism to the MarketPlace Homes program process I would say that because they also get a commission on the home that you are building with Allen Edwin, some parts of the process could be a little friendlier and more communicative. When you sell your home and have no control over a process that is in and of itself anxiety-inducing, good communication and inclusiveness in the process can work wonders to ease that.

 

Allen Edwin’s New Home Showroom is massive. The major rooms (the kitchen and bathroom) are represented nicely. The rest of the showroom is sectioned off into areas like – Outside elements (garage, siding, outside lighting, outside doors, roofing), Interior elements – doors, flooring/carpeting, molding, and door hardware, and lighting.

I went into the experience without prior knowledge of anything – pricing, showroom layout, options, etc. Before you get to the big day, someone from Allen Edwin will send you a list of what comes standard in your home. Standard doors, cabinets, countertop choice, etc. I’m not going to lie… the standard stuff is very basic.

Before receiving this list, you schedule your first and second selections appointment, which takes place in the New Home Showroom.

The New Home Showroom was the part of this beginning build process that I was most excited for! Before going to our first selections appointment, my husband and I had an honest talk about expectations. We didn’t want it to be like Disney Land, where anything and everything could come to fruition.

We wanted to keep our feet planted firmly on the ground and work within a budget. So, we focused on what was most important for us and what would work best for our family overall. When it seems like the sky is the limit, it is very easy to get lost in that. Especially, at your first selections appointment. While, it would have been fun to just let go and choose the best of everything, in the end, I knew it would suck to have to remove those “dream home” items from the list. So, we started basic and worked upward.

We spent most of our budget on the kitchen and adding a finished rec room in the basement. Having more space overall was one of the most important things on our wishlist. Having a nice kitchen was the next thing. Basically, we wanted the big stuff to be taken care of.

Allen Edwin had SO many options! We were presented with the base options initially. “This is what your home comes with” our design consultant would say. If we were interested in upgrading from the base, then we were presented with options. They have 3 levels of upgrades and depending upon the area that you are looking at – like flooring, for instance. Depending on the type of flooring you choose, you have additional options. So, 3 levels of wood flooring, 3 levels of vinyl flooring, 3 levels of carpeting and so on. It is both fun and madness!

I will say that the 3-4 hour initial appointment though awesome, is pretty overwhelming overall. There are many things to think about apart from the flooring, cabinets, lighting, and paint. You also have to think about the garage, siding, doors (inside and out), hardware for the doors, how many cable boxes, cat 6 boxes, the size of your water heater, etc.

If I could change anything about my experience at the New Home Showroom it would be that I would have taken more time to look at the options for the bathroom. Once we were done picking out the kitchen stuff and the flooring, it felt like we didn’t have much budget left to work with to upgrade other things like the bathroom.

Overall, I am really happy with our selections and it’s so exciting to see these choices come together in our new home! 🙂