November 30 - eek! Loan time...
Well, the not so fun meeting was this day...actually, I didn't think it was too bad. We met with the rep from NVR Mortgage. I was a little concerned, because we had a couple of friends that bought from Ryan and they said they were pestered by their loan rep to push going with the NVR rate (usually much higher than other rates). Beck and I had already decided that we'd go with Third Federal because their 15% requirement to skip the PMI charge...most companies require 20% down. Not only that, but Third fed had the lowest rates.
Well, our rep put our fears aside. We mentioned our intent to go with Third Fed and he said that made the best sense for us. He was very personable and didn't push anything that we didn't want. Beck and I came into the meeting prepared with everything but the kitchen sink. We had tax returns, pay stubs, account statements, and pretty much anything else that had a number and a dollar sign on it. The good thing was that both of us had a great credit. In fact, the loan rep seemed more ecstatic about it than we did. That pretty much put us at ease about getting the loan. I guess he was expecting a late night of figuring out how we can afford the payments... He was probably happy that we could end earlier...
We ran through about 25 sheets of paper signing and dating each and every one. NVR guy explained each one simply. As expected the closing costs were pretty high...but even with the higher closing and the higher rate, the monthly payments were definitely in our favor after the lot discount. He quoted us our estimated monthly payment, which was about the same as what I had calculated on
http://www.nationalcitymortgage.com Who woulda thunk it?
Anyways, the one thing that he needed that we didn't have was the 1% "good faith" payment to the loan. (Ugly story about that...I sent this on December 1st via the crappy US Postal Service. NVR got it on December 20th...I had to put a stop payment on the check which isn't cheap...ugh...)
November 29 - All the choices!
Actually, the name of this post isn't really accurate. There were a lot of choices, but when you break it down by upgrades, there were only a couple of choices in each category. For instance, we decided to upgrade to the maple cabinets. By going maple, we had only a couple of possibilities...um...the lighter maple and the darker maple.
Instead of giving you an allowance like some builders do, at Ryan they have their own design center. Basically, you go in and they have all the different selections available for you to look at and choose. I actually kinda like it better than the allowance. Maybe it's just me, but I shudder at the thought of having to run out to a bunch of stores and select from hundreds of different patterns and choices. blech!
Just give me 10 to pick from and I'll be happy. :)
I'll keep this post short and sweet...here's what we chose:
We also chose a darker carpet in the great room and the study, but couldn't find a good match online.
November 25 - Forking over the cash
We took the week to debate on what we want to do with the brick facing whether or not we wanted to take the plunge. Regarding the brick facing, we knew that this would have been pretty tough to do later. At the end of the day, it was aesthetics versus use...It was between the brick facing or the 4' extension, fireplace, 9' ceiling, and more... Both are nice to haves, but we decided that we can actually enjoy and use the inside upgrades. The brick facing was really nice, but we felt that the outside look was less important.
Soooo....we made the decision to take the plunge and go forward with the deal. We went into the meeting knowing this and it felt much better than making a rushed decision on Monday. We met with our sales associate and priced out the latest changes. We replaced the bricks with the upgraded structural features...the price actually turned out to be cheaper! She went through all the blueprints of the property and showed us the switch/eletrical diagrams. After that, we went through a stack of paperwork, signing or initializing our names on every sheet.
In terms of payment, in order to get the lot discount, we had go through Ryan's mortgage broker,
NVR Mortgage. Use their brokerage service, we decided to go through
Third Federal. Third Fed easily had the lowest rate, but more importantly, only required 15% down to remove the PMI. Our plan was the to eventually put 15% down...the 7% required now and then the rest at the close of the loan.
We forked over the 7%. It was by far the largest check that I've written. *cry* Ryan actually wanted us to pay the other 8% in 30 days! We had to push back on this because we asked this question before and they said it wasn't due until the May. Well, she was cool about it...and pushed the date out. Not quite to the close of the loan like she originally said, but a couple of weeks before, which worked for me.
At the end of the meeting, we got our "SOLD" sign. Beck and I went to our lot and stuck it on our lot number. Our next meeting would be to pick out the colors and options...and no checks due. yay!
November 21st - Repricing
Well, after the last meeting, we did much more research. We found that there were a few more places in the area than we originally expected. We also realized that the development was pretty close to a major mall and shopping center making it pretty easy to pick thing up. There were a lot of conversations between Beck and myself...not to mention getting advice from our parents. My mom and dad visited the prior Friday and they absolutely loved the place. They did have a good amount of advice in terms of what else to ask...and what might be nice upgrades.
We schedule today's meeting to walk through the lots and area homes in development. We also had a few changes to our estimated pricing sheet. Becky's dad joined us for this meeting. It sounded like he liked the model and brought up some good questions too. Gotta love having the experience of parents on your side...makes like easier (though, don't ask me that 10 years ago).
One of the nice things about today was being able to go through one of the same models in development. This house didn't have very many upgrades, which was good to give us an idea of what we wanted to do. I'm sure they take you through this on purpose, because every room looked a lot smaller without the upgrades. I think also without finished flooring or painted walls, everything looks cramped.
We came back and repriced a bunch of things... Our underlying rules for picking things were
- Necessities - lights, plumbing rough-ins, stain master carpets, garage door opener, outlets, laundry tub, etc.
- Structural Items (thing you can't easily upgrade later) - 4' extensions, 9' ceiling, Morning room, sitting room, fireplace, windows
- Upgraded items (upgrade the rest, based on price) - upgraded lighting fixtures, ceiling fans, etc.
We made the definite decision to drop the finished basement, which was a tough choice. This was hard to let go, just 'cuz it'll be a bit of a pain to do later. It would have been nice to have this wrapped up in the mortgage and not have to worry about it later. The bottom line was that we could finish it later...while other options would have been difficult. We just agreed that we'd make it a priority to complete.
The other thing we're consider of dropping is the brick facing on the front side of the house. There's a huge difference in the look of the house between the brick and the vinyl siding...it definitely looks nicer with the bricks and it wouldn't be something that we can do easily later. With the extra money saved from this we could add some of the more aesthetic/structural options.
Before making the decision to do this, we decided that we needed a bit more time to let the choices settle. I wanted to go in to a meeting
knowing that I'm gonna purchase a home rather than being convinced to buy. What we found out was that we could "reserve" the lot for a few days by giving them a $1000 check. The check was completely refundable one way or the other, so no harm done to do so...and we did.
We scheduled another meeting for Friday, November 25th. If we wanted to move forward, we'd have to come up with 7% down...fun!
November 16th - Curiosity
Well from our last meeting, we realized that Pulte was a definite no just because of the space-to-price ratio. We did a bit of research and the development where Garland Griffin was a nice, built-up city with a nice, built-up city tax. The Ryan Homes had a high space-to-price ratio in an underdeveloped city with a low city tax.
One of the lessons that we learned from our friends who previously built (and picketed) Ryan was that the base price was just that...base. If you want anything, you'd have to ask for it and how much it costs. The base price was pretty nice, but that might not mean too much if you have to add $100,000 worth of upgrades. Sooo we decided to schedule another meeting to run through some of the features and get a realistic idea of what it would all cost. This was actually a helpful meeting.
What we basically walked through the entire model. Our saleswoman identified all the major upgrades that were made to the model while we asked a ton of questions. The one thing that I do have to point out is that we were notified of the nice, big features that we could add...like a 4' extension here and a 9' ceiling there. However, when it came to some of the more common necessities (umm...i want a light bulb) we had to make sure to ask. We went through every room, and asked a number of different things. How much for a ceiling fan? light? upgrading kitchen cabinets? extra cable outlets? ceramic tile? stain master carpets? ugh...
Anyways, long story short...we sat down with her and priced out room by room, all the things that were needs...and all the the we weren't sure of went onto a wishlist.
On major bonus that we found out in this meeting was that Ryan was offering this HUGE discount on two of their lots in the development.
The discount could buy us a few more upgrades while keeping the total price down. The reason she gave for the discount was that most of the areas were already built on, but one of the lots was still empty and they wanted to finish it off...she also said this was their competitive time of season, though I'm not sure what that actually means... (my pal, joe, later informed me that sometimes the city requires a builder to finish off a development before they allow the builder to develop in other areas...)
Well...just a little more to take home with us and think about...
November 6th - Ryan Visit
Today we actually decided to quickly check out another Ryan homes development with a few larger models and development. Again, going in cautiously...
The model house in the development was the
Jefferson. 
It was both pretty spacious (though, i would have like a slightly larger living and dining room)...overall, it was about the same size as the one at Garland Griffin. The salesperson was friendly and didn't push too hard...which was nice. She was pretty anxious to schedule another meeting, which Beck and I promptly put off. To our surprise, the Jefferson's base price easily beat out the model at GG.
There were a couple of concerns regarding Ryan. 1. Obviously the sewer assessment/picketing thing that our friends experienced in the past. 2. The drive on the way to the development revealed very little... It looked like it was a pretty quiet area with nothing around it... 3. Most importantly, you had to drive past a small cemetary to get to and from the highway. This is definitely not conducive to an impending zombie attack. Granted the houses on the way, were few and far between, thus negating the exponential growth of the zombie population as it hits the development...but nonetheless it was pretty close.
At first glance, we weren't really fans of the area, especially in comparison to the nice and built up area that GG was in...but the house was much cheaper. More research to be done I guess...
October 29th, 2005 - Initial Shopping
I'm back dating these first few posts since I'm starting this blog a little late. We started our search many months ago, hopping around to different developments here and there. Beck and I actually decided to plan a full afternoon's worth of looking at different models and builders. I had brought a camera in plans to take pictures and videos through the models.
We started out at a model at
Pulte Homes. I can't remember the exact model that we looked at...I think it was the
Windsor. 
No matter. We walked into the model and was immediated approached by a salesperson. She didn't have alot of answers to our questions, nor did she have any floorplans to give us. Perhaps it was because we told her our price range. We walked through the model, which was nice, but not overly impressive. Granted, I hear good things about Pulte as a builder all the time, but it just didn't seem like you get a whole lot for what you pay for (though, quality might be the advantage there!) ohwell....Scratch that...
Next up we went to
Garland Griffin Homes. Now this was a builder that we actually liked. Both Beck and I know a couple that just moved into one of these babies and they seem to love it. The prices were reasonable and you definitely get a decent amount of house for the money. The model was a higher-end model (as they usually are), so it was a little difficult to envision a smaller version that was closer to our price range. Unfortunately, their website is pretty crappy, so I can't link a good picture. I do have to say that the salesman was definitely very friendly and didn't push us at all...which was rather nice. They actually just opened a few premium lots that were quite nice...though, premium comes with a +$7000 price... Overall, the model was gorgeous (and expensive) but it would have been nice to see what a smaller house would have looked like.
Garland Griffin pretty topped our list from the builders that we had seen in the past month...but there was just one major drawbacks. The city that the development was in had mucho taxes... Definitely worth considering.
After GG, we decided to hit a
Ryan Homes development that was nearby. Now, just a little backstory... We have friends that have purchased through Ryan just last year. Those same friends picketed Ryan homes because of a surprise sewer assessment that would have cost them $6000. So we went into the development a little suspicious. The development was a bit on the smaller, side and looked a bit crowded for my taste. We decided to move on from there...
We hit a couple of other developments, including Premiere Homes and some other one that I can't remember. None of these other offered sizes that we were looking for...
Anyways, that was pretty much it for our initial shopping trip. The frontrunner so far was Garland Griffin... But first, off to a Halloween Party.
