Making Reduced Offer to Builder?

Question: We are about to buy our first home from a particular builder. All homes in the community (about 92) vary in price from $960,000 to $1.3 million. So far about 35 have been sold and the builder is offering options at half price. Do you think it's reasonable to take the asking price, add all the options we want, and then reduce the total by 20 percent. Answer: You have a builder with 92 lots and 35 sales. That may be a good result if the project just opened, or it may be terrible if the community has been selling for a few years. Depending on the builder and your local market, a 20-percent discount may be reasonable, too little or too high. Without knowing more about the market it's not possible to say. The problem here is that "20 percent" is a nice round number. In some markets, a 20 percent discount would mean that you're grossly over-paying for a property, in others the builder can sell for more and will have no interest in your offer. This is your first home purchase and you're looking at properties in the million-dollar range. A huge amount of money is at stake, therefore you need to retain an experienced buyer broker before going further.