I can't believe this piece of land will one day have our house on it!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
NVR Mortgage process
Today my husband and I received official approval from NVR mortgage. Yay!!!
I was a little nervous going through NVR due to some horror stories I read on other blogs.
We worked with Nick as our mortgage rep, and Jenna as our processor.
****Both Jenna and Nick are great people to work with. I am happy with everything to date. They know their stuff, and can be helpful****
I thought I would talk about the process with NVR. M (my husband) and I signed on January 26th for the Ryan home. Granted, at signing we were told we would officially have to apply with NVR within 7 days of signing with Ryan homes, but it really wasn't realistic. We had to wait for our rep to call as instructed by our sales rep. He called on Tuesday. I was off on Monday, and had to work the rest of the week. I work for a credit union and work from 8-6 typically, and 8-7 on Fridays. I also work Saturdays but NVR is not open on Saturday.
Here comes my issue. Nick insisted we had to apply before Sunday the 2nd to keep within requirements. NVR's hours...9-5 Monday through Friday. Knowing I will probably have to take time off at some point for all of these appointments involved with building a house, I just could not take time off that week. With little notice, and NVR's office being about 45 minutes away from where I work, I couldn't just up and leave work to go apply for a mortgage. Anyone that knows the banking world knows the end of the month and beginning of the month is a very busy time. The credit union I work for does not offer building home mortgages or I would have used them for convenience. We were not told the office hours of Nick until after we signed with our sales rep.
Nick gave me a little bit of a hard time about not being able to meet with him that week. I don't understand why their hours or so inflexible. Our mortgage reps meet outside hours at our client's convenience. Anyway, Nick and I compromised to do a telephone application which was not mentioned until I dug my heels in and said I could not meet with him in person by Friday. We scheduled a phone application that Friday on my lunch break. We then scheduled a follow up appointment to meet that following Monday the 3rd.
The timing still isn't bad. We met Nick officially on Monday the 3rd to apply, and today being the 19th when we received approval....16 days for approval for a mortgage is not bad at all.
Throughout this process, I have been a little irritated about some of the things NVR has done.
One example is when we applied Ryan never informed of us how the interest rate level was determined through NVR. So all of you know, NVR uses the second lowest score. Our second lowest score was a 725. Not a horrible score, but does not qualify us for the best rates out there. The financial institution my husband works for and the company I work for would use the highest score out there. Not the second lowest. Nick mentioned this is the way they have been doing business for years. Well...it is definitely not customer oriented. They will use the score to their best advantage. Although our other scores were 753, 765, 779, 796, NVR would not consider those scores.
Also, NVR used a third party company called CORE LOGIC to call me and then conference in Fed Loan servicing which is my student loan company. As I am currently pursuing my MBA my payments are deferred. Core logic called me. She was a lady with a heavy accent. I could understand what she was asking, but I cannot say the same for the lady at Fed Servicing. This was actually pretty comical. The core logic lady with the accent was probably based overseas, she was not listening at all to the fed loan servicing lady...the fed servicing lady was getting such an attitude with answering core logic. She would answer a question, and core logic would ask her the same question. Fed loan would say "I just gave the answer...what more do you want from me". "I asked you when the first loan payment for student loan repayment is due" "I just gave you that answer three times". OMG! Is all I can say. I did find humor in this situation, although I can say neither party was being professional at all. So hopefully if you are applying for a mortgage, your student loans are not in deferment mode.
Another example, Jenna would call us and say "I need this item or a copy of this by the end of the day, so I can submit to underwriting asap". A week later, I would get another call from Jenna saying that the file still had not been submitted to underwriting. We received a few of these calls. One time was Jenna wanted M and I to sign a letter stating that our current house was listed for sale, but we understand that if we do not sell our current house, we are responsible for both the current mortgage and NVR's mortgage. My husband who works by appointment managing investments, arranged his schedule so he could come to the credit union and sign this letter since Jenna needed it by the end of the day so Jenna could submit to underwriting. A week later, I get another call from Jenna saying she needed our employer plan summaries for both our 401(k)'s. At application they needed our 401k statements and now she was saying she needed this by the end of the day asap so she could submit to underwriting as she knew the underwriter would ask for this (well, why weren't we told this two weeks ago and we would have submitted it with everything). Both times she talked as if the file had yet to make it to an underwriter.
Alas....we received great news today that we are approved. Nick called to tell me the great news. Although he mentioned Jenna would be calling me with the commitment letter and conditions going forward. Items such as bank statements from now until closing will be needed.
So that is the long version. We are approved and looking forward to closing in a few months. Our house was officially ordered (the materials) this past Sunday. Can't wait! Now on to focusing on getting this house sold!
I was a little nervous going through NVR due to some horror stories I read on other blogs.
We worked with Nick as our mortgage rep, and Jenna as our processor.
****Both Jenna and Nick are great people to work with. I am happy with everything to date. They know their stuff, and can be helpful****
I thought I would talk about the process with NVR. M (my husband) and I signed on January 26th for the Ryan home. Granted, at signing we were told we would officially have to apply with NVR within 7 days of signing with Ryan homes, but it really wasn't realistic. We had to wait for our rep to call as instructed by our sales rep. He called on Tuesday. I was off on Monday, and had to work the rest of the week. I work for a credit union and work from 8-6 typically, and 8-7 on Fridays. I also work Saturdays but NVR is not open on Saturday.
Here comes my issue. Nick insisted we had to apply before Sunday the 2nd to keep within requirements. NVR's hours...9-5 Monday through Friday. Knowing I will probably have to take time off at some point for all of these appointments involved with building a house, I just could not take time off that week. With little notice, and NVR's office being about 45 minutes away from where I work, I couldn't just up and leave work to go apply for a mortgage. Anyone that knows the banking world knows the end of the month and beginning of the month is a very busy time. The credit union I work for does not offer building home mortgages or I would have used them for convenience. We were not told the office hours of Nick until after we signed with our sales rep.
Nick gave me a little bit of a hard time about not being able to meet with him that week. I don't understand why their hours or so inflexible. Our mortgage reps meet outside hours at our client's convenience. Anyway, Nick and I compromised to do a telephone application which was not mentioned until I dug my heels in and said I could not meet with him in person by Friday. We scheduled a phone application that Friday on my lunch break. We then scheduled a follow up appointment to meet that following Monday the 3rd.
The timing still isn't bad. We met Nick officially on Monday the 3rd to apply, and today being the 19th when we received approval....16 days for approval for a mortgage is not bad at all.
Throughout this process, I have been a little irritated about some of the things NVR has done.
One example is when we applied Ryan never informed of us how the interest rate level was determined through NVR. So all of you know, NVR uses the second lowest score. Our second lowest score was a 725. Not a horrible score, but does not qualify us for the best rates out there. The financial institution my husband works for and the company I work for would use the highest score out there. Not the second lowest. Nick mentioned this is the way they have been doing business for years. Well...it is definitely not customer oriented. They will use the score to their best advantage. Although our other scores were 753, 765, 779, 796, NVR would not consider those scores.
Also, NVR used a third party company called CORE LOGIC to call me and then conference in Fed Loan servicing which is my student loan company. As I am currently pursuing my MBA my payments are deferred. Core logic called me. She was a lady with a heavy accent. I could understand what she was asking, but I cannot say the same for the lady at Fed Servicing. This was actually pretty comical. The core logic lady with the accent was probably based overseas, she was not listening at all to the fed loan servicing lady...the fed servicing lady was getting such an attitude with answering core logic. She would answer a question, and core logic would ask her the same question. Fed loan would say "I just gave the answer...what more do you want from me". "I asked you when the first loan payment for student loan repayment is due" "I just gave you that answer three times". OMG! Is all I can say. I did find humor in this situation, although I can say neither party was being professional at all. So hopefully if you are applying for a mortgage, your student loans are not in deferment mode.
Another example, Jenna would call us and say "I need this item or a copy of this by the end of the day, so I can submit to underwriting asap". A week later, I would get another call from Jenna saying that the file still had not been submitted to underwriting. We received a few of these calls. One time was Jenna wanted M and I to sign a letter stating that our current house was listed for sale, but we understand that if we do not sell our current house, we are responsible for both the current mortgage and NVR's mortgage. My husband who works by appointment managing investments, arranged his schedule so he could come to the credit union and sign this letter since Jenna needed it by the end of the day so Jenna could submit to underwriting. A week later, I get another call from Jenna saying she needed our employer plan summaries for both our 401(k)'s. At application they needed our 401k statements and now she was saying she needed this by the end of the day asap so she could submit to underwriting as she knew the underwriter would ask for this (well, why weren't we told this two weeks ago and we would have submitted it with everything). Both times she talked as if the file had yet to make it to an underwriter.
Alas....we received great news today that we are approved. Nick called to tell me the great news. Although he mentioned Jenna would be calling me with the commitment letter and conditions going forward. Items such as bank statements from now until closing will be needed.
So that is the long version. We are approved and looking forward to closing in a few months. Our house was officially ordered (the materials) this past Sunday. Can't wait! Now on to focusing on getting this house sold!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Features and "nickel and diming"
Recently, I went to a book party. The home it was in was a friend of a friends. Coincidentally, it was a Ryan home! I was very excited as I got to talk to real people about the building of their home. The husband said they had absolutely no issues with Ryan homes, YAY! Be prepared though, any time you tell someone you are building, all the building horror stories start coming out. Every builder has their horror stories. Period. It is not just Ryan homes.
Anyway, the conversation arose around the room about building. It seemed everyone in that room had built their home (not only Ryan homes). All except two people. All started with their stories. One person felt they were nickel an dimed to death, another felt they couldn't use their yard for a good three years, another felt building was the only way to go. So I thought I would write about what to expect.
I don't want to come across as bragging. My husband and I went into the contract knowing there would be additional costs to "upgrade". We feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and know ourselves. We know we will not do upgrades after the fact. We are lucky if we ever get anything done around our house due to our on-the-go lifestyle. Thanks to Danielle, our sales rep. she was very informative, and very very happy we used her. We knew basically everything came at an additional cost. I want to inform all of the readers about the additional costs of building. So here are the features we added and the cost. Of course this may be different for the area you live in.
Features to our new home:
Elevation B: $3,495
Egress window in the basement: $1,495 (incented because of code)
Finished basement: $9,995
2 piece rough in (for a future powder room in basement...hopefully): $1,195
Morning room: $13,995 (incented)
Gourmet island in the kitchen: $2,195
Gas range: $275
Microwave/range: $325
Fireplace: $3,395
Upgraded owners suite bathroom (soaking tub, shower, ceramic tiles): $4,095
Double vanity in owners bathroom: $995
Pine stair with oak handrail with base plate balusters: $1,695
Central air installed: $3,595
Recessed lights in kitchen: $695
Laminate foyer and living room: $225 & 1,995
Laminate in hallway (we did not want carpet in the hallway): $900
Service door in the garage: $995
Recessed lighting in the finished basement: $995
We also upgraded at our flooring appointment:
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in kitchen: $895
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in owners bathroom: $125
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in second bathroom: $75
Upgrade to best carpet pad, basement: $595
Upgrade to best carpet pad stairs, and second floor: $995
Upgrade to best carpet pad family room: $275
This does not include the electrical upgrades we made. That was another appointment that cost us $2,000!
I don't have the specifics with me as I probably subconsciously wanted to forget it, but here are some of the prices:
Any additional cable jacks: $60 each
Future tube: $275
Ceiling fan: $400 (yes, I know, super expensive, but we upgraded the fan).
I can't remember all of the prices. We upgraded some of our light fixtures, added a recessed light in the kitchen, and upgraded some above lights in the second bedroom and the master suite which cost us some additional funds. I wanted to add the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I think it was like $300 to do that. Our electric company also offered a fire ladder that we could throw out the window in case of emergency but I figured I could buy and install one cheaper. It was about $475 for the electric company to do this.
The electric company reviews all of your options...remember, everything comes with its price such as flood lights, adding another carriage light on the garage, any extra outlets, etc. We figured we would add a bar to our finished basement in the future....yep, you guessed it. To put cable jacks and additional outlets equaled more $$$
By the way...if you change anything, you have to sign a change order. Be prepared to drive and sign anytime you change your mind about something. Some other things which I am irritated I did not know about until now, because I wish I could have upgraded:
Vaulted ceiling in the morning room
faucets throughout the house
door handles throughout the house
back splash in the kitchen
building a deck off the morning room
at your flooring appointment look at all the options. they can make any carpet into an area rug at a lower cost than a TJ Max
Other items I thought I would talk about but not items I wished for:
$200 to put knobs on your kitchen cabinets! Standard comes with nothing!
Increasing the size of the kitchen cabinets
Increasing ceiling height
And the fun part...here are our color selections from our flooring appointment! We went back and forth between vinyl, laminate, and hardwood but decided with vinyl in the mudroom, morning room, and kitchen, carpet in the family room, and laminate in the front of the house. Ok, ok, here are the color combinations:
First is the master bath. Color choice: HL02 with mocha grout
Carpets will be the same throughout the house: baseline wool skin 143. Ignore the big yellow spot...flipping camera phone! :)
Kitchen colors!! So exciting:
Cabinets: Fairfield square maple honey
counter top: Jamocha granite 773458
The vinyl below the cabinet sample is initiator 66205
the laminate next to that is for our guest bathroom upstairs, initiator 66202
All of our appointments are over. Now we play the waiting game. We break ground in about six weeks. We have been told from this point forward we just need to be patient and they haven't forgotten about us.
Anyway, the conversation arose around the room about building. It seemed everyone in that room had built their home (not only Ryan homes). All except two people. All started with their stories. One person felt they were nickel an dimed to death, another felt they couldn't use their yard for a good three years, another felt building was the only way to go. So I thought I would write about what to expect.
I don't want to come across as bragging. My husband and I went into the contract knowing there would be additional costs to "upgrade". We feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and know ourselves. We know we will not do upgrades after the fact. We are lucky if we ever get anything done around our house due to our on-the-go lifestyle. Thanks to Danielle, our sales rep. she was very informative, and very very happy we used her. We knew basically everything came at an additional cost. I want to inform all of the readers about the additional costs of building. So here are the features we added and the cost. Of course this may be different for the area you live in.
Features to our new home:
Elevation B: $3,495
Egress window in the basement: $1,495 (incented because of code)
Finished basement: $9,995
2 piece rough in (for a future powder room in basement...hopefully): $1,195
Morning room: $13,995 (incented)
Gourmet island in the kitchen: $2,195
Gas range: $275
Microwave/range: $325
Fireplace: $3,395
Upgraded owners suite bathroom (soaking tub, shower, ceramic tiles): $4,095
Double vanity in owners bathroom: $995
Pine stair with oak handrail with base plate balusters: $1,695
Central air installed: $3,595
Recessed lights in kitchen: $695
Laminate foyer and living room: $225 & 1,995
Laminate in hallway (we did not want carpet in the hallway): $900
Service door in the garage: $995
Recessed lighting in the finished basement: $995
We also upgraded at our flooring appointment:
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in kitchen: $895
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in owners bathroom: $125
Fairfield Square maple honey cabinets in second bathroom: $75
Upgrade to best carpet pad, basement: $595
Upgrade to best carpet pad stairs, and second floor: $995
Upgrade to best carpet pad family room: $275
This does not include the electrical upgrades we made. That was another appointment that cost us $2,000!
I don't have the specifics with me as I probably subconsciously wanted to forget it, but here are some of the prices:
Any additional cable jacks: $60 each
Future tube: $275
Ceiling fan: $400 (yes, I know, super expensive, but we upgraded the fan).
I can't remember all of the prices. We upgraded some of our light fixtures, added a recessed light in the kitchen, and upgraded some above lights in the second bedroom and the master suite which cost us some additional funds. I wanted to add the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I think it was like $300 to do that. Our electric company also offered a fire ladder that we could throw out the window in case of emergency but I figured I could buy and install one cheaper. It was about $475 for the electric company to do this.
The electric company reviews all of your options...remember, everything comes with its price such as flood lights, adding another carriage light on the garage, any extra outlets, etc. We figured we would add a bar to our finished basement in the future....yep, you guessed it. To put cable jacks and additional outlets equaled more $$$
By the way...if you change anything, you have to sign a change order. Be prepared to drive and sign anytime you change your mind about something. Some other things which I am irritated I did not know about until now, because I wish I could have upgraded:
Vaulted ceiling in the morning room
faucets throughout the house
door handles throughout the house
back splash in the kitchen
building a deck off the morning room
at your flooring appointment look at all the options. they can make any carpet into an area rug at a lower cost than a TJ Max
Other items I thought I would talk about but not items I wished for:
$200 to put knobs on your kitchen cabinets! Standard comes with nothing!
Increasing the size of the kitchen cabinets
Increasing ceiling height
And the fun part...here are our color selections from our flooring appointment! We went back and forth between vinyl, laminate, and hardwood but decided with vinyl in the mudroom, morning room, and kitchen, carpet in the family room, and laminate in the front of the house. Ok, ok, here are the color combinations:
First is the master bath. Color choice: HL02 with mocha grout
Carpets will be the same throughout the house: baseline wool skin 143. Ignore the big yellow spot...flipping camera phone! :)
Cabinets: Fairfield square maple honey
counter top: Jamocha granite 773458
The vinyl below the cabinet sample is initiator 66205
the laminate next to that is for our guest bathroom upstairs, initiator 66202
Laminate choice. The big square below (the one with the flash spot): American cherry. The skinny piece on the American cherry is our handrail. That color is traditional cherry.
All of our appointments are over. Now we play the waiting game. We break ground in about six weeks. We have been told from this point forward we just need to be patient and they haven't forgotten about us.
The beginning stages to building a florence
Today, I decided to start a blog...for the first time ever!
I recently read a blog that was tremendously helpful when thinking about and deciding on what features to focus on for the home my family is building. I thought I would create one as well to help other people out there also considering building a home. Lets start at the beginning.....
Twelve years ago, when I was 21 and single, I bought a ranch style home. 1111 square feet, and it was perfect for my dog and I. Moving from an apartment, this house seemed perfect and just the right size.
Fast forward twelve years to 2014: I am married, have a fifteen year old step-son, have a five year old son, and still have my dog and a cat. A 3 bedroom ranch without any type of dining area just is not cutting it. My five year old actually eats his dinner at a coffee table as we have no dining area, and our kitchen is super small. It does not fit anything, especially not a table.
On December 28, 2013 my husband and I took the plunge and visited Ryan Homes. This is after two or three years of browsing builder's models but never feeling it was the right time to invest. On top of this we never found the right builder.
We visited the Auburn Meadows community in Farmington, NY where we met Danielle Smith. Danielle is a very friendly sales rep with Ryan Homes. Ok, well, Danielle wasn't the official sales rep, she was covering for Nadia who was on vacation for the Holidays. Danielle had yet to pass her certifications. At our second or third meeting, Danielle had passed her exams!!
So we met with Danielle, explained our situation, and knew from visiting some websites that the Florence model seemed the perfect size for our family.
***Also before get too far into it, I wanted to mention, we absolutely love working with both Danielle and Nadia. They have been so great to work with. We cannot say enough how lucky we are to end up with such fabulous sales reps****
The Florence home is 1952 square feet standard (no additional options) has three bedrooms, a loft area upstairs that can be upgraded to a 4th bedroom. It also has a family room, formal living/dining area on the first floor, kitchen, mud room, and optional morning room. Of course this is placed on a full basement. Yay!
This sounded perfect to my family.
We were not prepared to discuss actually buying a home that day. We have a house to sell, we hadn't even visited the community we were interested in building. Danielle wanted to run some preliminary numbers and we had the time so we stayed at the model home.
We actually decided on the above elevation. It will look exactly like this, but without the brick. Instead we will have siding. My husband was very adamant that we should spend money upgrading the inside of the house versus the outside.
Here are some pictures of the Florence model that convinced us this is the home for us:
Family room. We will have the fireplace which is a $3,995 value, but was an incentive for signing in January so we will get this at no charge.
A view from the family room looking at the kitchen. And the kitchen below:
And the formal dining/living room
Master bathroom. My husband and I have upgraded to the options in this pic
Master bedroom
And the floor plan
We signed on January 26th after getting the incentives we were asking. If I had to give advice to anyone considering building, here are the tips:
That's it for today. More to come. We have chosen our land plot for our home, did our electric appointment, and chosen our flooring.
I recently read a blog that was tremendously helpful when thinking about and deciding on what features to focus on for the home my family is building. I thought I would create one as well to help other people out there also considering building a home. Lets start at the beginning.....
Twelve years ago, when I was 21 and single, I bought a ranch style home. 1111 square feet, and it was perfect for my dog and I. Moving from an apartment, this house seemed perfect and just the right size.
Fast forward twelve years to 2014: I am married, have a fifteen year old step-son, have a five year old son, and still have my dog and a cat. A 3 bedroom ranch without any type of dining area just is not cutting it. My five year old actually eats his dinner at a coffee table as we have no dining area, and our kitchen is super small. It does not fit anything, especially not a table.
On December 28, 2013 my husband and I took the plunge and visited Ryan Homes. This is after two or three years of browsing builder's models but never feeling it was the right time to invest. On top of this we never found the right builder.
We visited the Auburn Meadows community in Farmington, NY where we met Danielle Smith. Danielle is a very friendly sales rep with Ryan Homes. Ok, well, Danielle wasn't the official sales rep, she was covering for Nadia who was on vacation for the Holidays. Danielle had yet to pass her certifications. At our second or third meeting, Danielle had passed her exams!!
So we met with Danielle, explained our situation, and knew from visiting some websites that the Florence model seemed the perfect size for our family.
***Also before get too far into it, I wanted to mention, we absolutely love working with both Danielle and Nadia. They have been so great to work with. We cannot say enough how lucky we are to end up with such fabulous sales reps****
The Florence home is 1952 square feet standard (no additional options) has three bedrooms, a loft area upstairs that can be upgraded to a 4th bedroom. It also has a family room, formal living/dining area on the first floor, kitchen, mud room, and optional morning room. Of course this is placed on a full basement. Yay!
This sounded perfect to my family.
We were not prepared to discuss actually buying a home that day. We have a house to sell, we hadn't even visited the community we were interested in building. Danielle wanted to run some preliminary numbers and we had the time so we stayed at the model home.
We actually decided on the above elevation. It will look exactly like this, but without the brick. Instead we will have siding. My husband was very adamant that we should spend money upgrading the inside of the house versus the outside.
Here are some pictures of the Florence model that convinced us this is the home for us:
Family room. We will have the fireplace which is a $3,995 value, but was an incentive for signing in January so we will get this at no charge.
A view from the family room looking at the kitchen. And the kitchen below:
And the formal dining/living room
Master bathroom. My husband and I have upgraded to the options in this pic
Master bedroom
And the floor plan
We signed on January 26th after getting the incentives we were asking. If I had to give advice to anyone considering building, here are the tips:
- Ask you realtor to go with you. Everything is negotiable and is much easier when you have a professional on your side. We did not know we had an option to take a realtor with us. However, after speaking to a few people we knew what we could negotiate.
- You need at least 5% down payment at bare minimum with 10% being ideal. This does not include about $10K in closing costs here in New York.
- Don't take no for an answer. We asked to have a free morning room or some other equal value item such as a new driveway as our driveway paved was not part of the package or landscaping credit. I remember I kept saying to Danielle, I know there has to be some sort of incentive, just taking the house at face value is not realistic, there has to be some sort of "deal". Danielle said we would get the free fireplace if we used NVR mortgage, but there were absolutely no other incentives. We left. I said we already had a house and felt no need to sign. I asked Danielle to follow up with me if and when there were any incentives. Nadia was helping Danielle that day and also stated incentives were a thing of the past. Three days later, Danielle called me. She had spoken to her manager and there were some vendor sales in January. They were offering my husband and I a free morning room and fireplace. Of course we said we would be in to sign soon!
- If you sign contingent if you have a home to sell, you lose your incentives. After meeting with several realtors, we felt comfortable enough to sign non-contingent. If you sign contingent, you have seven days to list your house after signing....so be prepared! Although it takes five to six months to build your new home, you have to have yours listed within the week.
- Read the literature given to you before signing and at signing. If you are particular like myself sign your signature with the clause, "Upon attorney approval", then really have your lawyer look over your contract and let you know if there are any areas to be concerned about.
- Visit a model of the home you are looking to build when it is furnished. We visited a house that another couple just built, and they were closing in three days. The house looked sooooo tiny! I started having second thoughts about moving forward. It is odd that rooms look smaller unfurnished. Maybe my head just can't contemplate how everything is going to fit. Seeing a room with furniture eased my mind. The Florence is still perfect! Yay!
- Research the community in which you are purchasing. Due to fair lending laws, the builder is unable to tell you what the community make-up includes. I get it. A concern for us is that my step son is not around all of the time, he will after all, be 16 in April. Teenagers! Kidding! My five year old is pretty much siblingless.....I know it sounds harsh, but remember when you were 16, were you interested in playing with 5 year olds? I understand my step-son's lack of interest in playing with his brother. So, we wanted to know if the community had any families like us. Would both our sons have other kids their age to hang out with/play with, and get to know.They were unable to answer that question. They were unable to answer that question due to fair lending laws, and there is no model in the community we are building so the sales reps said they hadn't even visited that area. For all we knew, we were building in an area that wanted peaceful, quiet neighbors and no rambunctious 5 year old running around.
That's it for today. More to come. We have chosen our land plot for our home, did our electric appointment, and chosen our flooring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)