We build and sell new homes, which means our sales team works for the builder, and we would rather tell you that on the first handshake than let you figure it out at the design center. So here is how we run the model homes: every upgrade you can see is tagged with what it actually costs, the base price and the typical as-built price are printed side by side on the same sheet, lot premiums are posted on the community map instead of appearing later, the included features list is published so you know exactly what the base home comes with, your own agent is welcome and gets paid without any fuss, and your own independent inspector is welcome at the foundation, the frame, and the finish. Buying new should feel like the house smells: fresh, clean, and honest.
Three of our most walked-through plans, shown with the base price and what the decorated model actually costs as it stands, because those are two different houses and you deserve to know both numbers.
The base home comes with a printed, published included features list: the flooring, the counters, the appliances, the garage door opener, all of it in black and white before you sign anything. If it is not on the list, it is an upgrade, and every upgrade has a posted price. Nobody should tour a model with granite and a wall of windows and then discover the house they can afford has neither. What you walk through is labeled so the house you buy is the house you pictured.
We give you a build calendar with real dates and we update it every two weeks, including the honest news when weather or a materials delay moves things. You get invited to the pre-drywall walk and the final walk, and your own inspector is welcome at both, plus the foundation pour if they want it. A punch list item gets a date, a name, and a follow-up call, not a shrug. If we would not accept the answer as a buyer, we do not give it as a builder.
The person who sold you the home does not evaporate at the closing table. Warranty requests go to a person with a name you know, the first year checkups happen on schedule, and the little stuff, the door that swells in August, the nail pop in the hallway, gets fixed without a filibuster. One fair price up front, no nickel-and-diming at the design center or after it, and a real person who answers. That is the whole pitch, and we put it in writing.
The gap between a base price and a real price is where new construction gets its bad reputation. We close that gap the boring way: with arithmetic, printed early.
Structural choices are the ones you truly cannot add later: the third bay garage, the extra bedroom over the garage, the taller basement pour, the extended great room, the rough-in plumbing for the future bath. These are worth paying the builder for because the alternative is a jackhammer. We will tell you plainly which options on our own sheet belong in this category and which ones only look like they do.
Ceiling fans, backsplashes, closet systems, window treatments, most lighting, and yes, sometimes the fancier appliance package: a local tradesperson can often do these after closing for less than our option sheet charges. We say so out loud, on a printed page in the design center, because a buyer who trusts the sheet buys the right things from it. The upgrades we sell should win on convenience and warranty, never on your not knowing.
Lot premiums are posted on the community map from day one. The HOA dues and what they cover, and any special district assessment that rides on the tax bill, are disclosed in the first meeting, in numbers, with the years they run. If we offer a lender incentive, we show the math with our lender and with any outside lender side by side, and you pick. An incentive that only survives in the dark is not an incentive, it is a toll.
Here is the sheet we hand every Rowan buyer on the first visit, using the middle-of-the-road choices most families actually make. Your numbers will differ with your lot and your picks, and that is the point of showing the skeleton:
If a plan only works for your budget at base price with the cheapest lot, we will say that gently and early, and help you look at the Meadowline plans that fit with room to breathe. A house payment should leave space for the furniture, the tree in the backyard, and a life.
Every community we build has a personality and a fine print. Here are both, side by side, the way it should be done.
Here is the whole journey, with the parts other sales offices skip printed in the same size type as the parts they love.
Pick the plan, pick the lot with the premiums already posted, and leave the first meeting holding the base price, the included list, and the typical as-built range on one page.
You set an upgrade budget before you walk in, we flag which options are structural and which are buy-it-later, and nobody upsells you past the number you brought.
Foundation, pre-drywall, and final walks on the calendar, your independent inspector welcome at each, and a build update every two weeks that tells the truth even when the truth is a delay.
The final walk generates a punch list with names and dates, the keys come with the warranty book and a human phone number, and we schedule the eleven month checkup before you can forget it.
If this is your first new build, the words come fast: earnest money on a home that does not exist yet, option deposits, cutoff dates for changes, appraisal on a house the appraiser cannot walk yet, and a contract written by the builder's lawyers. We slow all of it down. Our contract comes with a plain-language summary of every clause that costs money, our change cutoff dates are printed on your build calendar, and we will tell you exactly which deposits are refundable, when, and in what circumstances, before you write the first check.
We will also tell you the things a builder is not supposed to say out loud: that you should get your own independent inspections even on a brand-new house, because good builders welcome them and the other kind is why the advice exists. That resale in a community where we are still building takes patience, since a buyer can walk into our office and order a fresh one. And that our warranty covers what it covers, in writing, and the writing is short enough to actually read. Ask us anything. The question is free and the answer is straight.
Get the Plain-Language Buyer PacketTour a model with every upgrade tagged, take home the one-page sheet with the base price and the real range, and bring your agent, your inspector, your uncle who knows construction, whoever helps you decide well. A home this big a deal should be bought with your whole team in the room, and we will have the coffee on.
Book a Model Home Tour