Friday, May 30, 2014

Our Journey Begins!

So I am a little late in starting this but better late than never!

   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!
   We have been juggling the idea of buying a new home for quite some time now so we decided to go for a drive just scope out the area. My husband and I thought 'Oh, just for grins, let's stop in the new construction and see what type of pricing and options they have'.

   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!
   We have been renting for so long now and we just moved to a new state three years ago. So we are so happy that we are finally buying a home again. I can finally feel like I can really unpack our things and create a home for us!

   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!
   A couple of days after the appointment with NVR, I started to have a little 'contract remorse' if you will which later turned into severe 'contract remorse'. Mainly because I felt we were jumping into this too quickly and the amounts were higher than we originally wanted. Also because I realized that this model fit most of my every needs the only downfall being that it was not all one level. I started to think that my husband was really just giving in. Which let's face it ladies, most of the time we would be thrilled at that. But me knowing my husband, I did not want our every future argument to end in 'well I hope you're happy because I didn't get my vaulted ceiling'.
   We talked with our sales agent to discuss all of the options from switching to a different model, to switching to a different neighborhood, you name it! After a severe anxiety meltdown, I decided it was best to just move forward in canceling the contract. I thought maybe we just needed some time to make sure that we were really ready for this leap and also to check around and make sure that we were not just settling for the best model that Ryan Homes had to offer us when there are so many other builders out there. Of course a cancellation meeting was called and once we got in there, there were some curveballs thrown. At this moment, my husband I realized that really it was an offer that we would probably not get anywhere else and we just couldn't refuse! So the deal was back on!

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!
   Soon after, the lot was cleared! Once that was complete, it didn't take anytime at all! Now we are at week 5 and the second floor including the roof is complete and the windows are installed! We have scheduled our Pre-Drywall Meeting for next week and we also decided to lock the interest rate since it is fairly low currently. Now I am dealing with NVR again due to discrepancies in amount due at closing. We have been given three different amounts! It is a never-ending cycle with them. I will be happy once we get to move into our new home but I think I will be even more happy when we are done dealing with NVR!

Stay tuned! Our adventure in building continues...

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