Our journey began in March 2014. We were just out Jeepin' in my Wrangler top off and all! I'm referring to the Jeep's top for all of your dirty minds out there! My sweet ride and I in a little bit of snow!
Ok keep in mind we originally wanted to try to stay as low as possible with me mainly setting a maximum budget at $150,000. Did I think we would be able to find that there? Absolutely not! And I was absolutely right! Yet and still we decided to give the benefit of the doubt and let her run some numbers so we could see exactly what type of monthly payment we were looking at. And much to my surprise, the numbers were really close to what we were renting at!
Our main reason for wanting to stay under $150K was because due to renting and a long list of just plain bad luck, we didn't have anything saved up for down payments. We tried to check into rural housing programs and down payment assistance programs, but because the government claims we make too much money, we were not eligible for said programs. Though, I don't know how the government comes across their income limitations...but that's a totally separate subject and I could go on that ALL day!
With all that was discussed with the sales agent, my husband and I decided to go home and really think about everything on the table and decide if this was something that we thought we wanted to move forward with. Once we decided, that we were ready to commit, then there was the decision of which model was the right fit for us. And oh let the fun begin! My husband had this model that he absolutely loved all because of the vaulted ceiling. Yes, I said it although I told myself I never wanted to hear those words again! But if you could have seen this model, it had a tiny living room(huge ceiling, but I couldn't put the couch up there now could I?!), a tiny kitchen(and that's sugar-coating it), and the master was down stairs with the other two bedrooms upstairs. It's just a safety concern for me. I have a small child and I plan to have more. I just don't want to sleep on a different level than my children.
After much deliberation, I won! We went with the Venice. I mean did you see the kitchen plan and they really had me at laundry room upstairs on the same level as the living quarters. With 9 foot ceilings, who needs a vaulted ceiling with all of that extra wasted energy space? So we went back and decided to draw up the contract. We selected all of the options we wanted and left off the options we decided we could live without due the cost of options being outrageous!
After the building contract was signed, it was time to set up the appointment with NVR Mortgage, the mortgage company affiliated with the builder, Ryan Homes. I will go ahead and add that we will never use this mortgage company again due to their lack of communication skills! We had no choice with Ryan Homes due to the incentives and we were not really capable of getting too much better of an offer. Anyway, that is another topic that I could go all day on! I gathered all of the documents needed for the loan application and once we signed a hundred papers, it was a waiting game. And I mean WAITING game!
From this moment, we finished paying the Ernest money to the builder and they were given the green light to move forward with construction. Shortly after our Pre-Construction Meeting, I received the call from NVR that we were approved! Now the lady that I received the call from was the processor from their main office not the loan manager I have been dealing with locally. I would love to give recognition to that sweet lady for calling me directly as soon as she found out. The loan manager has not been the best in communication but the processor was wonderful! It's too bad they don't have a full staff of individuals like her!
Stay tuned! Our adventure in building continues...
