New construction in El Dorado Hills. Before you walk into the model home.

There is one thing to do before you visit a new home community, and most people only learn about it afterwards, when it is too late to undo. It takes about thirty seconds and nobody at the sales office is going to warn you.

This page is about how to visit a new build. If you are still deciding between communities, the single story and 55+ page goes through what is actually here, what it costs to own, and where the figures came from.

Do this first

Your agent has to be named on the first visit.

Nearly every production builder runs a registration rule. Whoever is representing you has to be named when you first walk in, or at the latest during that first visit, and often it is a line on the sign-in card at the door.

If you tour on your own and talk to the sales team, the builder can decline to recognise an agent you bring in later. Not always, but often, and it is entirely their call. Once you have signed a purchase agreement, there is usually nothing left to do about it.

What makes this catch people is that nothing warns you. The sign-in card looks like a mailing list. You are being friendly, you give your name and email, and the decision is made before you knew there was one.

It is not the builder being underhanded. The rule exists so they know who introduced you, and every builder writes it a little differently. But the consequence lands on the buyer, which is why it is worth knowing on the way in rather than on the way out.

If you have already been

Tell me which one, and when.

Sometimes it is recoverable, if you have not signed anything and you have not got far with the sales team. Sometimes it is not. It depends on the builder and on how much has already happened.

I would rather look at it and tell you honestly which it is than have you find out at the contract table. And if it is not recoverable at that community, that is worth knowing too, because it changes nothing about the other three you are considering.

Worth saying out loud

The person in the model home works for the builder.

They are usually pleasant and often very good at the job. They also represent the seller, which is a perfectly normal arrangement and not a criticism of anybody. It is worth saying because a sales office feels like a shop rather than a negotiation, and people behave accordingly.

The lot is the part you cannot change later. Floor plans repeat down the street. Which lot you are standing on does not. Premiums vary a great deal and so does what you actually get for one.

Upgrades divide into two kinds. Some of them come back when you sell and some of them never do. The design centre, with a deadline and a long list in front of you, is not where you want to be working that out for the first time.

The contract is the builder’s paper. It is not the standard California purchase agreement most buyers have seen before, and the parts that matter are not the parts you expect. Read it before you are emotionally committed to the house.

You still want your own inspection. A new house is not automatically a finished house, and a municipal inspection is not the same thing as somebody in the crawl space on your side.

The one that costs real money here

Ask for the special tax in writing.

New construction in El Dorado County usually sits in a Community Facilities District, and the Mello-Roos special tax that comes with it runs for decades. Somebody buying new at Heritage in their sixties can be taking on a special tax with more than twenty years left on it, and the district a newer phase falls into is not always the one the older figures describe.

The sales office will give you the disclosure if you ask for it. Ask for the district, the current annual amount for that specific lot, and the year the bonds mature. Then hold it against what the established parts of El Dorado Hills actually cost, which I am happy to work through with you on any two addresses you are weighing.

Folsom is a different county and a different tax picture entirely, so nothing about El Dorado County special taxes applies to a home at Folsom Ranch. Same question though, and the same advice: get it in writing before you are attached to the house.

Where this comes up around here

The three I get asked about.

All three are age restricted, all three are still building, and I have no stake in which you choose. Figures below were read from the builder and from 55places on 12 October 2026, and they move, so treat them as a starting point rather than a quote.

Heritage El Dorado Hills. Lennar, building since 2015, around a thousand homes at completion, gated, detached single-family. Four collections: Reflections, the newest, with about 140 homes planned at 1,137 to 1,650 square feet; Mosaics at 1,230 to 1,784; Legends at 1,813 to 2,423; and Estates at 2,405 to 2,993. Two clubhouses, two outdoor pools, tennis, bocce and pickleball. 55places quotes the association dues at $230 to $260 a month, and says on the same page that it does not maintain HOA information and has not had it verified by the developer or the association. Get that figure in writing before it goes in your sums.

Heritage at Carson Creek. Lennar’s current one, gated, selling now, roughly four hundred homes planned and building since 2024. This is where the special tax question matters most, because two new districts were formed here in 2024 and the county has published no rates or maturity dates for them yet. In practice it means nobody can tell you yet what those two districts will charge, so treat any figure a sales office gives you for them as provisional and ask me to check it against the county roll once the rates are published.

Regency at Folsom Ranch. Toll Brothers, 55+, and the one people are most often surprised by. It is in Folsom, which puts it in Sacramento County, so nothing in my El Dorado Mello-Roos table applies to it and Folsom has districts of its own. Building since 2021, around 930 homes. The builder advertises duets and single-family homes from $525,000, with thirteen plans across five collections running 1,398 to 2,441 square feet, two to three bedrooms. Worth knowing before you drive out: the Sequoia collection is duets, which means attached, and plenty of people arrive assuming everything there is detached.

Those are the three. They are not the only ones I will walk, so if you are looking at something I have not named, send me the name. If you are weighing them against the older age-restricted communities here, Four Seasons and Versante are compared on the 55+ page, including which of them sit outside every Mello-Roos district.

Tell me where you are going before you go.

The community name in an email is enough, and there is no obligation in it. If you are visiting this weekend, send it this week. If you have already been, send it anyway.

Email me the community → Or call me, (916) 296-4953

What is on this page, and what is not

There are no prices, fees, lot counts or square footages anywhere on this page, and no description of any particular builder’s registration policy. Those vary by builder and by community and they change, so the only reliable source is the sales office and the disclosure they hand you. Ask for it in writing.

Builder registration practice is standard across production builders rather than unique to any one of them, and the detail differs every time. California has also required a written buyer representation agreement before an agent tours property with a buyer since 1 January 2025, so that paperwork happens either way.

The community figures above came from two places, both read on 12 October 2026. Heritage El Dorado Hills: the 55places listing service, which is an aggregator rather than the association, and which states on its own page that it does not maintain HOA information and that its data has not been verified by the developer or the association. Regency at Folsom Ranch: Toll Brothers’ own community page, which is the builder’s marketing and prices accordingly. Heritage at Carson Creek: Lennar, read 21 September 2026, and set out in more detail on the 55+ page. Builders change plans, prices and collections without notice, so confirm anything that matters to you with the sales office.

Mello-Roos amounts in El Dorado County come from the Auditor-Controller’s continuing disclosure filings, and the figure that counts is always the one on the parcel rather than a district average. Ask me and I will pull it. Community details for the age-restricted communities are on the single story and 55+ page, with their own sources listed.

Lets connect

Start with a conversation.

No contract, no obligation, and no pressure to be further along than you are. Plenty of people write to me a year before they are ready, and that is genuinely the right time to write.

(916) 296-4953 cheri@ckteamrealestate.com I read these myself

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Market notes, new listings, and what is actually moving in El Dorado Hills and Folsom. Sent when there is something worth saying, and not before.