Usually, when you want to buy a new home, you have to apply in their sales office to be pre-qualified. It takes only a few days to find out if you are or not. In this case, we were pre-qualified and you then get invited into what is called a release meeting/day. This meeting is comprised of sales reps and snobby pre-qualified homebuyers. The reps will go through a list of homebuyers or do a lottery over which homebuyer gets to choose a lot: the place where the house will be built.
However, you cannot choose which model home you want to place in that lot.
Why? Because whenever you buy a new home from a community-based homebuilder such as Shea, Morton, Meritage, or Standard Pacific, the homebuilder wants the neighborhood to appear uniform. They do not want to have one street containing the same type of model or have a street where there is a stocatto of six model A's and one model B's, thus lowering the value of the homes.
So basically, when the reps call your name out, you get to see a map of lots and the models that will be built on top of those lots along with what the color and style of the house will be (which is also called elevation).
When you do actually choose a lot, you will have to pay the deposit for it. This is typically in the thousands. In our case, we had to front $10,000 for this lot. This $10,000 is added to the actual purchase price of the house and is usually a safeguard for the homebuilders. This separates serious homebuyers from the BS'ers. You can take your deposit elsewhere but only within a given timeframe. So yes, you typically have the option to change your mind just as long as you don't take too long making your big decision.
You need to understand that not all lots are created equal. Some are bigger than others. Some have nearby power lines (NOTE: By law, power lines cannot be suspended over homes). Others have backyard neighbors and some lots have it where the house is positioned in a weird way (i.e. driveway combined with neighbor).
After further research and discussion, Odessi and I decided to go for the lot with no backyard neighbor. We were concerned of the power lines but after serious research and finding out the actual distance of the lines from our home (which is visible but very very far), we decided to go for the lot. Unless you're just a property investor, don't just choose any lot. Each lot has its quirks. When choosing, think of curb appeal, safety, lot size, backyard size, and elevation (house style), noise factor (i.e. nearby school), position of the sun, included house options, street name and house number. Yeah. Call me anal.
