Residential Sales · the broker's view
New Construction: Know Who Represents You and What the Contract Delivers
The model home shows the finish. Your purchase also depends on deposit deadlines, what is included, change orders, financing, the completion timeline and what happens if the plans change. A buyer needs those terms read from the buyer's side of the table. Builders face a separate challenge: positioning inventory, opening a project and pacing releases. This page takes each in turn.
Review My New Construction Purchase · Discuss My Development Sales Strategy
The Short Answer
In a new-construction purchase the on-site sales staff represent the builder or developer. A buyer may bring an agent of their own, and the contract, not the model, defines what will be delivered. Builders, for their part, need a sales plan before the first release. A licensed BreakThru Realty agent can represent a buyer, and the brokerage separately offers sales services to builders, each under Tyson E. Sam, the broker of record.
The Model Is Not the Contract
A model home is a marketing tool, built to show the plan at its best. It may include flooring, cabinetry, lighting and landscaping that the base price does not. The home you are buying is described somewhere else: in the purchase agreement, its specifications and its addenda.
Developer contracts are written by the developer's attorneys. Compared with the resale forms most buyers have seen, they often give the seller more room on completion dates, substitutions of materials and changes to the plans, and they set their own deposit schedule. None of that is improper. It does mean the buyer's protection comes from reading the document before signing it, ideally with an attorney.
The person in the sales office is usually courteous, well informed and working for the seller. A buyer who wants advice from their own side has to arrange it, and some builders require a buyer's agent to be registered at the first visit. Ask about that policy before you tour.
Buyer Representation and Builder Sales Are Different Work
Two kinds of client and two kinds of assignment. BreakThru Realty offers both, and which one applies is put in writing at the start.
Representing a buyer
The client is the purchaser.
- Compare communities, plans and lots against the buyer's budget and timing
- Set out what the base price includes and what is an upgrade
- Track deposit dates, selection deadlines and the completion estimate
- Coordinate the buyer's attorney, lender and inspector
Selling for a builder or developer
The client is the seller of the homes.
- Segment the product by plan, price band and likely purchaser
- Recommend launch pricing and the order of releases from comparable evidence
- Route and follow up inquiries so that each one is answered
- Report inventory, reservations and contracts so pricing decisions rest on data
A Buyer's Contract Checklist
Six areas to work through before a deposit is paid. An attorney reads the contract and a lender answers the loan questions.
Contract rights
- What the builder may change or substitute without your consent
- How the completion date is defined and what follows if it is missed
- Whether you may assign the contract or resell before closing
- Any period in which you may cancel, which an attorney confirms
Deposits
- The amount and due date of each deposit
- Where deposits are held and whether they may be used for construction
- What is refundable, and in which circumstances
Association documents
- The proposed declaration, rules and budget
- Estimated fees, and who controls the association until owners take over
Warranties
- What the builder warrants, for how long, and how a claim is made
- Manufacturer warranties on appliances, roofing and equipment
Loan and appraisal
- How long a rate can be held against the completion estimate
- What happens if the home appraises below the contract price: consult a lender
- Whether an incentive is tied to using the builder's preferred lender, and what it is worth to you
Inspections
- Whether your own inspector may attend before the walls are closed and again before closing
- How walk-through items are recorded and by when they are completed
What the Sales Center Shows and Where the Answer Is Written
| In the sales center | Ask | Where it is settled |
|---|---|---|
| Finishes in the model | Which are standard and which are upgrades? | The specifications and the options price list |
| The lot or the view | Is there a premium, and what may be built nearby later? | The lot addendum and the recorded site plan |
| A completion estimate | Is it a commitment or a target? | The completion clause of the purchase agreement |
| Changes after signing | What does a change order cost, and until when is one accepted? | The change-order terms and the selections deadline |
| Monthly fees | Are the figures estimates, and who sets them after turnover? | The proposed association budget |
| Incentives | What conditions attach to them? | The incentive addendum |
A spoken answer in a sales center is helpful. The written document is what binds both sides.
What a Builder's Sales Launch Plan Contains
For a builder or developer the questions run the other way: how to bring homes to market in an order, and at prices, the evidence supports.
- Product segmentation. Group the homes by plan, size, position and price band, and name the purchaser each group suits.
- Launch pricing. Set opening prices from closed and competing new-home sales, with a documented reason for each premium.
- Release pacing. Decide which homes are offered first and what would trigger the next release or a price change.
- Lead routing. Define who answers each inquiry, how follow-up is recorded and how visiting agents are registered.
- Inventory tracking. Keep one record of every home: available, reserved, under contract or closed, with dates.
- Reporting. Review traffic, reservations and cancellations on a set schedule, so adjustments are made from numbers.
Questions Worth Asking First
- Should a new-construction buyer have independent representation?
- It is the buyer's choice, and the reason to consider it is simple: the sales staff at a new community work for the builder. An agent engaged by the buyer can compare communities, set out what the base price includes, keep track of the deposit and selection deadlines and coordinate the attorney, lender and inspector. Because some builders want that agent registered on the first visit, decide before you tour. How the agent is paid is agreed in writing before any work begins. Legal questions about the contract belong to an attorney.
- What is different about developer contracts?
- They are the developer's own documents, not the standard resale forms, and they are drafted to give the seller flexibility. Common differences are a staged deposit schedule, a completion date expressed as an estimate, the right to substitute materials or adjust plans, limits on assigning the contract, and warranty terms in place of an inspection-and-repair negotiation. Florida law gives buyers certain protections in some new-home and condominium purchases, and which ones depends on the property type. Have an attorney read the agreement and tell you which apply, what is negotiable and what your remedies are before you sign.
- What does a builder sales launch plan contain?
- A written answer to five questions. Which homes are being sold, grouped by plan and price band, and to whom? At what opening prices, supported by which comparable sales? In what order are homes released, and what triggers the next phase? Who receives each inquiry, and how is follow-up tracked? And how is inventory recorded, so everyone works from the same status for every home? A plan also sets a reporting rhythm, so pricing and pacing are adjusted from reservations and traffic instead of impressions. The builder services page describes how an engagement is set up.
Who Does What
- A licensed BreakThru Realty agent does the day-to-day work and is your main point of contact.
- Tyson is the broker of record: the licensed Florida broker accountable for the brokerage and every agent under it. He reviews the offers, contracts and closing statements that move through the company.
- Which agent works with you, and how the brokerage will represent you, is set out in writing before any work begins.
| Broker of record | Tyson E. Sam, Founder and Broker of Record, BreakThru Realty |
|---|---|
| Florida real estate license | 3565210 |
| Also listed as | Tyson Sam, the spelling in MLS records and on the listing sites they feed |
| Brokerage | BreakThru Realty LLC, a licensed Florida real estate brokerage |
Brokerage compensation is negotiable and is agreed in writing before any work is marketed. No fee or rate on this page is a standard one.
BreakThru Realty is a real estate brokerage. It does not give legal, tax, lending, engineering or appraisal advice: an attorney, a CPA, a lender, an inspector or an appraiser answers those questions, and a broker's opinion of value is not an appraisal.
BreakThru Realty supports the Fair Housing Act and Equal Housing Opportunity. Homes are marketed, shown and leased without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin or any other protected class.
This Page Explains the Thinking. The Service Page Does the Work.
What the brokerage does for you, step by step, and how to start is on its own page: New construction homes.
Every figure on this page is an illustration: arithmetic on assumed inputs, shown so the reasoning can be followed. None is market data, a comparable sale, an appraisal, a forecast or the result of a BreakThru Realty transaction.
Review Your Home Selling Options
Tell us about the property and what matters most to you. A licensed BreakThru Realty broker replies within one business day to go through the comparable sales that apply, the pricing questions they raise and the ways you could sell. It is a conversation, not an automated valuation.
The form asks for: I am; Property type; City or neighborhood; Approximate value, as you see it; Timing; What matters most; then your name, an email address or a phone number, and your consent to be contacted about the request. It asks for no documents.
Your request is with BreakThru Realty. A licensed broker replies within one business day to talk through the comparable sales, the pricing questions and your options. Nothing is listed or signed unless you decide to go ahead.
Prefer to talk? (786) 914-1017 · sales@breakthrurealty.com
Related on BreakThru Realty
More in Residential Sales
- Residential Sales: the division page: Price attracts attention; terms decide whether an offer works. How a home sale is weighed from the first number to the closing.
- Single-Family Home Sales: Four numbers decide a house sale: the list price, the supported price, the net and the odds of closing. How each is worked out.
- Townhouse Sales: Two matching townhouses can be owned in two different ways. The deed, the documents and the insurance decide how each is priced.
- Condominium Sales: A condo buyer prices the unit and the building together. Prepare the association's answers before the first showing.
- Luxury & Waterfront Home Sales: On the water, the dock, the bridges and the seawall are priced before the kitchen. Match the evidence to the buyer.
Every Area of Practice
The full directory · About Tyson E. Sam · Market insights · Residential Sales