Day 12 - Underground Plumbing & Backfill

Today we got underground plumbing.  I can't show you a picture of that, obviously! LOL.  I can show you the backfill/initial grading of the lot.  It's not as bad as it could be but it still doesn't satisfy me.  It's still pretty far from the expectation set when we moved forward with the Homesite Reservation and Purchase Agreement.  Lots of pictures to follow!

Location, Location, Location

For a while now I've battled internally over our lot location.  It's a corner lot, which is good, it offers a little more space than most of the lots that were left available, however it does mean that we will have a home behind us. 

When we initially looked into the community there were 21 of 60 lots remaining.  The community differs than most in many ways, but also it's unique in the sense that the streets are not lined up so, when you look down the street it's not like looking at house after house of the same thing.  That was the end of September 2012.  There would be no additional homes built in this area so if we wanted in at a price we could afford it would have had to be soon.  The land/community to the right are 700k to million dollar homes located on large lots.  The land/community/lots to the left are 300-600K homes on medium sized lots, although there are some left available it's with a different builder for those communities and outside of your budget. 

When we signed our Purchase agreement there were only 8 lots left (and that was including the lots on paid lot holds)  There wasn't much left to choose from.  Basically we could be smashed in-between homes, pay a lot premium, or take the remaining corner lot and have a home behind us, but on the other side of the walking path.  We opted for the lesser of evils and snatched up the corner.  It's not a bad spot.... really.  None of the spots are bad!  This is a very unique, small, tight-knit community that I believe we're going to absolutely love!  They've even sold 3 or 4 more since then. I'm learning a lot through this process and learning a lot about myself and it's only the beginning.

Our Ryan Homes - Homeowner's Guide Chapters 1 - 3 Overview

When we signed our Purchase Agreement, along with a HUGE pile of paperwork, we received a white binder homeowner's guide.  I immediately started reading it (I read everything, if not at the very moment of receipt then later when I have more time) and using postie notes for concerns and questions.  It's too bad it's standard size and all our paperwork is long, otherwise I would use this as our central document holder and information source.  We're actually in the midst of Chapters 2 and 3 at the same time - so by no means is this a chronological step by step.

 There's a nifty little Table of Content and introduction for every section.

1. Introduction
2. Purchasing Your Home
3. Arranging Your Loan with NVRM
4. Construction of Your Home
5. Closing on Your Home
6. Quality and Customer Care - What to Expect after Closing
7. Glossary of Terms
8. Appendix A - Homeowner's Maintenance Guide & Warranty

Considering Our Selectable Options

Today we sat down with the floor plan of our soon to be new home and the list of selectable options.  There were already a few things that we considered must haves:

• Upgraded Floors
• Gourmet Island
• Recessed Kitchen Lighting

We also marked out some additional selections and you can find those on Our Selections/Upgrades page.  These selections will be based on our final budget which we haven't yet established.  We've left this open  for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is because we haven't had our meeting with NVR and the consultations with the Guardian Home Technologies and Rite Rug.  Although I've done plenty of research on these, to be discussed later, I would like to go in with an open mind.

To prepare for these meetings we got an extra Florence floor plan from our SR and penciled in what we thought we needed.  We penciled in first the "must haves" for us, where those items would be, and the price of each.  We, then, penciled in the lines we would need for phone, cable tv, and network.  This gives us a graphic plan of what will be where in our home.  I also believe this will help us not go overboard with the things we really don't need.

Understanding Our Purchase Agreement

So, we did it.  We began the process to sign the next 30 years of our life over to our new home.  Now to re-read the documents.  I'm definitely not the smartest person in the world, but this is what I've read more or less on our agreement.  I've left out A LOT of the information in these documents for the sake of space and lack of just repeating the legal mumbojumbo.  Please feel free to skip this post.  I just wanted to share my first experience with these types of documents.  Plus, someone might be interested in what types of things they will be agreeing to and signing off on.

The Biggest Case of Buyers Remorse

I experience buyers remorse with any item over $100.  Why?  Because it's taken me a long time to get where I'm at now and I never want to be in a situation that I'm out of control of ever again.  Now imagine buying a house - that's not yet built.  The doubts creep in.  Logically, I know this is just a knee jerk reaction to this very huge commitment/change we signed up for but I seem to lose my grip on reality during my bouts of buyers remorse.  Change is not easy for me, even when it's a good change.

I did not expect to experience it so quickly.  Quite literally, I started sweating our decision the moment I started driving home from our Purchase Agreement Paperwork meeting.

The facts - Buyer's remorse is very common.  Everyone talks about having it and it's nothing to be ashamed of.  Nothing in life is certain and sometimes it feeds an irrational fear.  There will always be other possibilities, more opportunities, or better deals if you keep looking for them.

The goal - Reassure ourselves with the pros.  Review the research that lead us to our decision.  Don't get bogged down by the negatives.  Ignore others opinions when they really don't matter.  Keep in mind that this feeling will go away and soon we'll be in our very own home, finally doing all of the things we've been talking about.

I know that I have many sleepless nights ahead of me because of my nature, but one day soon I hope to go to sleep satisfied with our decision and hopeful of our days ahead.  This is an exciting, yet scary process but I know that there's no better time than now to go through it.

We Signed The Purchase Agreement!!!!!

I've had several sleepless nights lately.  I roll the pros and cons around in my head.  I ask myself if the lot we've selected/that's available is right for us?  Is the price reasonable?  Is this something we can take on?  Will we be happy in 10 years in our location/home?

It's hard to predict what life is going to hand you and after much discussion with my mother, who will be sharing our home with us - we decided we were going to move forward with building our home with Ryan Homes, NVR, in the community of Stone Lake.  Let the OCD and worry begin!

Our Purchase Agreement paperwork is somewhat of a blur to me.  I didn't sleep at all the night before, worrying about money, financing, the HUGE decision of buying a home.  We didn't start this journey without some initial disappointments.  I don't want to discuss them too publicly, but we're lucky enough (I hope - we haven't gotten the final approval as of yet) that we had a work around.

Our SR learned my characteristics very quickly and had a "Notes Copy" of the Cost Estimate for my notes and comments.

First Stop - Master Selection Sheet. 

Good Faith Deposit

A good faith deposit is nothing more than an amount of money that indicates our seriousness in buying the property/house.  It's the step after the reserving the lot.

I researched it a bit and it differs in amounts based on a number of factors, including but not limited to location, builder, and amount of loan estimate.  Typically the amount of your good faith deposit will roll into your down payment, closing costs, or fees.  Fortunately, in most cases, if the deal falls through or the contract is cancelled and as long as the parties are all acting in good faith the money will be refunded.

I've read several blogs and I haven't come across any in which the good faith wasn't refunded or even the original check returned.  What I found a little humorous even is that some of those people even went back to Ryan Homes and resigned for either another neighborhood or even the same lot!

I think I've found a new best friend in our SR.  She's been great with explaining what these new financial words and phrases mean... but this hasn't stopped me from searching out a "financial dictionary"  I'm OCD like that.  I'm a sponge and I want to know more and more about everything.  I've called her quite a few times with questions concerning the expectations of our good faith deposit and the payment plan of it.

Good faith deposits are on the up and up and it protects the parties involved in this process.  I understand it's not only for our sake but that of Ryan Homes.  If we decide to purchase this home we'll have to have partial payment of the good faith deposit on Tuesday.  We have a meeting with the SR then to either proceed or withdraw from this process.  It looks like we may be moving forward.  We like the neighborhood.  We like the home we've selected (although it wasn't the one we initially decided we liked more last year) and my children seem to like it and have already selected their bedrooms.

This is all so fast...

So, over these last few days, before our scheduled meeting with Elizabeth, the Ryan Homes sales representative today, I had been doing a lot of research on Ryan Homes, quality of homes built by Ryan Homes, and customer service satisfaction.  I spent a lot of time on their website, on blogs, on home building sites, and customer complaint websites.  Some of the information I found was very scary.  There was also an overwhelming amount of positive information as well.

To be honest, the negative reviews are scary to me.  I'm a limited income single mom with the hopes of finding a good quality home that will last the years for myself, my mother, and my children.  Money doesn't grow on trees around us.  I've always been a person to read reviews and to do my research, but I also to go to the horses mouth.  I knew that no matter what I learned that we planned to attend the appointment, if only for informational purposes.  Let's compare our process.  I found this on the Ryan Homes website:

RYAN SIMPLIFIES HOMEOWNERSHIP

1. Reserve a Homesite
2. Personalize Your Home
3. Make a Purchase Agreement
4. Apply for a Mortgage Loan
5. Complete Your Down Payment
6. Construction Begins
7. Go to Closing and Move in

When I walked through the model home's door I saw a very smiley face.  I introduced myself and my mother to the SR and peeked a little at the framed site map and model home floor plans, but it took 45 seconds for us to walk into the office and get right down to business.  Sometimes you just have to skip the fluff.  I didn't want to get too hopeful and wander too much around a model that may not even be within our reach.

Our Process