I just looked at some models today from another builder and they seemed to have matched lennar’s strategy of building everything with granite, stainless steel, outlets everywhere, etc. and not having many options other than flooring. I wonder if that is a marketing shift (like cars used to charge for air conditioning and power locks, now they come in all but the low end). From what the salesperson told me today, standing inventory (finished homes with no buyer) is an increasing reality and it gets harder to sell houses that are stripped when the cost to make them more marketable is not that much higher at the time of construction. I’ve never built homes but I would think that ordering a hundred granite counters of exactly the same size is cheaper than ordering one and not that much more than tile for the builder. I think that 90k in upgrades probably cost the builder less than half that and is probably more effective marketing than lowering the price of a stripped home by 40k.
