In today’s tough economy we are forced to sticker shop for savings every day.  Do I buy the Fresh Empire apples that I hand pick for a $1.69 per pound, or do I buy the 3lb bag of prepackaged Empire apples for $3.99?  Seems like a pretty straight forward answer, right?  Well maybe not.  Even though you are seeing a savings of $1.08 for equal weights you may not be seeing equal quality.

When you hand pick your apples, you take your time and are very thorough to make sure they are not bruised, rotting, and have that texture you want.  When you buy the pre-packaged apples you don’t get the chance to be thorough in the products quality.  You typically get your lower quality apples (i.e. Bruised, soft, and rotted) that would just go to waste sitting in the open on your grocers’ shelves.  In the end you may get 1Lb of quality apples from the 3Lbs you bought.  So that will add up to paying $11.97 in order to get the 3Lbs of quality apples that you originally wanted.  If you would have instead handpicked the apples and paid the $5.07 you would have saved $6.90 for a better quality product.

So when you start looking at “Sticker Prices” to build your new home, why wouldn’t you be as thorough shopping these prices?  History has shown that many builders may exclude some important things from their pricing such as:

  • Are there Television Jacks in all bedrooms and how many are truly through the entire house?
  • How many phone jacks do we have in the house?  Are there 3 through the entire house or do I have one in every bedroom along with multiple jacks on the first floor?
  • Does this price include a foundation?
  • What type of Warranty is offered with my home and how reputable is the company that provides the warranty?
  • Does the builder use local labor or is the primary labor coming from 2-3hrs away?
  • When it comes to service, if I have an emergency will I have a local service crew that can come out and take care of my problem promptly or will I be placed on a waiting list for this crew or will I have to wait for them to travel 3hrs to rectify the emergency?