Style Upgrades vs. Safety Upgrades
Rob King: You'd be bill, I see all these great things, I got my loan, I know how much money I can have, now I look at the upgrades that you offer are tremendous.
Matt Groff: Absolutely!
Rob King: What upgrades are actually worth the money, like I don't want to put a bunch of money into something that really-- I don't even like, just I thought it was going to get me some return on my investment and really got me nothing.
Matt Groff: Correct!
Rob King: Where do I go, what do I do, what's my next step, how do I figure it out?
Matt Groff: How we kind of work our upgrades is; we've always prided ourselves as a builder that does not nickel and dime our clients. So, our homes do come completely turnkey, every feature you could want, but there's always additional items that someone may wish to upgrade to or not add into a home. One in particular is to the new building codes, we must provide hurricane shutters for all the windows, we use a company-- I had a Miami Dade, that's a loss in window, it is Dade rated, so, that the codes are very strong, but we provide the shutters.
If someone were to elect to go with the impact windows and glass throughout the home, then you would never need shutters, but the perk to that is it does help you with your insurance breaks, insurance companies will-- they do appeal to that and you can get a discount on your insurance by making the home impact throughout. So, that is one of the main big features that we see, another one is a pool package for instance, its Southwest Florida, a lot of folks like to entertain outside, whether it's adding an outdoor kitchen or a pool package, but as far as values to home, you get-- the value on a home when you add a pool package, you're always paying on your under air square footage, that is how they appraise, assess your home and that's what your taxes are based on.
But I always tell my clients, if you are someone that likes to entertain and likes to spend a lot of time on your lanai and pool deck, sometimes you might want to extend that pool deck, maybe the full length of the home and have extra space for a tiki hut or whatever may you know tickle your fancy and those are always a cost that it is a little bit more up front, however it's not something you will be paying in on the long run over your tax bill and over your assessments.
Rob King: Yes, I love to spend time outside in Florida, I mean that's why I'm here, now, does that increase value to my home if I have more space out there, or if I-- for example like the windows you said, that sounds like it saved me money probably in air conditioning costs also over the course of time, but does it make my home worth more?
Matt Groff: It does, the impact windows will add value to your home, extended pool decks, larger decks, adds total square footage to the home, so, yes, those will add additional value to your home at the end of the day.
Rob King: But the bottom line is neighborhood and square feet are really the…
Matt Groff: Absolutely, basically as the comps and resale values, whether you bought something existing or whether you built new and the bank is doing a loan for your new construction loan, they pull values based on your under air square footage and then of course, some of the amenities that are in the home, but for the most part you do pay per square foot for the cost and then elective features, say you upgrade granite or you want wine racks or anything that you may want to do, those are things that we love adding to the home. We offer our homes at a model price, but anything you may wish to upgrade, if we don't have it in our showroom, will send you to the suppliers and you would simply pay the difference from what we have accounted into the price points and then you will basically get the home that you want design to your specifications.
Rob King: I really love some of the indoor/outdoor living that's available here, I mean it's seamless in most cases and I can feel like I'm outside all the time.
Matt Groff: Absolutely, I would honestly venture to say of the last 50 homes or so we've built, probably 15 to 20 of them always elected to use an outdoor kitchen, they're not bringing things inside, they get to grill outside in the evenings, put the fan on and you enjoy yourself as Florida living which is…
Rob King: Get off the boat with the fish you cut, throw it on the grill outside and enjoy a dinner when watch the sunset, I guess if somebody has to do it…
Matt Groff: Tough living here.
Rob King: … I'll sign up.
Matt Groff: Absolutely!
Rob King: Alright, I appreciate your time, we'll do it again.
Matt Groff: Thank you Rob.