Delays, Delays, Delays

I definitely did not start this blog with the purpose of becoming yet another dissatisfied Ryan Home buyer with a tale of woe on the internet, but I'm afraid that's how this might end up.

So my husband and I drove by the new home site - just to torture ourselves these days and we saw no signs of building of any kind.  There are 5 homes completed on the site and three of those homes were completed more than a year ago.  All of the lots have sold signs, but there is no construction equipment on the site and the road leading to our lot has not been cleared or paved and of course we are now heading into fall and cold weather.

My husband and I called our SR to find out if we were still on pace to have our house started at the end of September or early October although we already knew the answer.  But it was still deeply depressing to hear that there is no clear start date for our house now because the developer in charge of site acquisition and preparing the foundations has been delayed in obtaining permits and approvals to install gas and water lines and finish the road.  So now our start date has been pushed to at least November and probably even later in the year.

I just feel like we were basically lied to when we signed the contract.  Because while it's true we were told that the contract gave Ryan two years to build the house, we were also told that the provision was intended for condominium projects where a whole building needed to be pre-sold before construction can start and not single family homes.  And we were told our house would start in July.  And if we had been told the truth we would not have bought at this location because not getting to move in until Spring 2016 (a real possibility at this point) was outside of our timeframe.  So for now this will be my last update on this blog unless and until we have a start date.

Updates and An Approval

We sold our house this week and have now moved into an apartment not far from where our new house will be built one day.  Lol!

So after being alarmed at not hearing from NVR Mortgage for weeks and weeks and then getting a strange message from our new Loan Processor, I did contact my Sales Representative and she got to work.  And this week we got our approval from NVR Mortgage.  Yeah!  But I also learned that our house will not break ground until the end of September or early October and we will close in December or early January.  So we will be moving again in 6 months, but this time in the dead of winter.  That was not so great news.

But this was a big week for us.  We are back in the burbs and one step closer to getting our new house.  

No Home, No Loan But Selling My House Next Week

Well I have not written a post in awhile because my build seems to be more or less on hold.  My house sells next week and after that we will be in a two bedroom apartment near where our new house is supposed to be built.

But we have not gotten any word on our loan approval and no word on when construction for our house will start.  Back in May when we purchased the house we were told it would start in July so I rushed to put our house on the market so we would be ready.  But now that seems premature.

I have decided to wait until I have officially sold my house before I start having a real fit with NVR mortgage and our Sales Rep - but the time is near.  It just seems ridiculous for the price we are paying to have so little communication or regard for the upheaval of having to put the kids in new schools without knowing for sure that you are even going to be able to build the house you want - or that it will be ready sometime this year.  It seems I should have paid more attention to the endless criticisms of NVR mortgage and Ryan Homes on the internet.

I Have Sold My House! Yikes!

So we put our house on the market on Friday June 19 and we got a contract on Thursday June 25 - $11,000 over asking price after just 6 days on the market!  We are excited, but now I really need Ryan Homes to hurry up and give us a start date for the construction of our new house.  But I am happy that the house has sold and we will have the money to close on our new house if and when our house ever gets built.

House of Cards?!

So today is June 19 and we signed our purchase and sale agreement on May 1 and according to the agreement we should have had a loan approval decision within 45 days of signing the agreement.  We do not have a loan approval yet, in fact I'm not even sure if the loan has gone to underwriting.  We gave everything we were asked to give to the loan processor at the end of May, so at this point I do not know where things stand.  I am trying to go with a no news is good news mantra, but I'm getting a little concerned with the lack of information.

As I reported earlier we received a ratified contract from Ryan Homes in early June, and since then we received an addendum increasing the price after our Guardian appointment, but we have not received an addendum increasing the price after our selection appointment.  Our sales rep says she is waiting for it.  That was a week ago.  So I'm starting to get concerned about that.  But again, I guess no news is good news.

One thing is clear right now I don't think construction will start on our house in July as we were told back in May.  At this rate we'll be lucky if it starts before the end of the summer.  Meanwhile our house officially went on the market today.  I'm not sure if I hope it sells quickly, or if I hope it takes a little time given that we are looking at being in an apartment for several months while we wait for the house to be built.

So lots up in the air

Summer Sale

We met with a real estate agent to sign listing papers and talk about when we are putting our house on the market.  I have been working on getting our house in order to sell since May and coordinating contractors, decluttering and organizing feel like never-ending and overwhelming tasks.  But at this point I see the end in sight and a for-sale sign in front of the house in the next week.

I'm not worried about us being able to sell our house in DC.  It is the age old adage of location, location, location - and right now DC is a hot location.  That being said since we have signed our life away to Ryan Homes, so I am pretty anxious to get our house on the market and sold so that I can check that off of my to-do list and I can relax knowing that we will be ready to close.

We Have A Ratified Contract

Today we received our ratified purchase and sale contract from Ryan Homes.  We signed the purchase and sale contract on May 1, but until today we had not received the contract back signed by Ryan Homes.  In the e-mail that they sent they said we can expect to hear from the Project Manager soon.  I am really excited about that.  I am hopeful that they will start building our house in July, so this gets us one step closer.

The Guardian Appointment

My husband met with Guardian last week.  I did not go, but we both looked at the electronic brochure that they sent and talked about what we might get.  We kept it pretty simple. We bought the Smart Connections package that gives you a multi-media outlet, 5 additional outlets for cable, phone or data,  "centralized" Wi-Fi, and a "Smartbox" in the basement.  With Ryan Homes only providing 2 phone and 2 cable outlets standard you are almost forced to buy this Smart Connections package - although you can buy individual additional cable and phone jacks from Guardian for about $95/ jack (that's the cost in our area).

We also bought the wall t.v. pre-wire package so we can put a television over the fireplace in the family room.  Finally my husband also got a two room audio package for the family room and the basement.  I'm not sold on this, because while I love to listen to music I know we don't all like the same music at the same time, so I'm not sure how much we will use it.  Plus with the availability of bluetooth and a Beats Pill I'm not sure hardwiring this type of stuff into the house is necessary.  And given the way technology changes it sort of feels like anything we choose may be obsolete by the time the house is built and we move in.  Lol!

The Design Center - Part 2

So after giving it some more thought and looking at lots and lots of pictures of master bathrooms, I decided that I needed to make some changes to our selections.  I know, kind of crazy - but since Ryan Homes allows us to make changes to interior selections until the end of the month I might as well make sure I'm happy before I make a final decision.

But with Ryan Homes you can not just show up to the flooring center on a weekend and revise your choices.  You must make a new inconvenient week day appointment.  So I had my appointment at M&R Flooring on Friday at 9:00 a.m.  I was the only one in the showroom in the morning so I could really concentrate and pull together different combinations.  I ended up upgrading the tile in our master bathroom to a nice stone without a border.  This took us from Level C to Level D.  I just don't like the border pieces and I know a cleaner look will look more classic and make me happier.

To make sure costs stayed around the same, I downgraded my sons' bathroom from level C to level B.  So they will have white 6x6 tile on the wall around the bathtub and a 6x12 stone floor on the floor.  I actually like this better because the white tile will match the white standard bathtub and look more natural.  I also saved $600 doing this.

We are also getting a special order to tile the shower floor.  My husband really hates the standard fiberglass shower floor so I'm excited about being able to do a mosaic tile in the shower.

Finally I picked out a kitchen backsplash.  I am doing a simple bone colored stone in subway tile size.  I love the way it looks but it costs $1800 so I will see if I need to remove it to save costs before it is all said and done.

But at this point I am happy with our selections.

Decisions, Decisions and the Illusion of Choice

Today we met with our SR to make any final structural changes and to pick out our exterior colors.  We learned we had to change our original elevation B to elevation C because the family who bought the lot across the street from our lot picked elevation B first.  We were kind of bummed about this because elevation B adds two feet to your foyer and really creates a grand entrance.  But elevation C is very nice and will include a porch.  In addition to changing our elevation we added some additional ceiling rough-ins in the second, third and fourth bedroom and added recess lights to the study.  So at this point I think we are all set with lighting, but my husband has not met with Guardian yet so there may be some more electrical changes.

Next we met with our design consultant at M&R Flooring to pick out our tile, flooring and carpet.  So I know this experience is meant to be fun, but personally I found it kind of nerve-wracking.  First, our design consultant was very nice, but was definitely pushing us towards upgrading almost everything.  And while I know that's her job, I found that sort of annoying.  Because let's face it when everything is "just $400 more" or "just $1000 more" - the final tally is a lot, lot more.  Lol!  Second, and this may just be me I generally did not find that Ryan Homes offered very much variety in either their standard options or upgrade options.  On the one hand I guess that's a good thing because you really can not go wrong, everything seems to work well and the palate is very neutral.  They definitely have a "formula" in terms of what customers want and what is cost-effective for Ryan to offer.  But at the same time I would have liked some more choices.  Now I may feel this way because this is my third house and I have renovated a house in the past so I know what I like and I know what's out there at boutique kitchen design showrooms and even Home Depot.

But starting with the cabinets - the cabinets I have now in my renovated kitchen are solid wood maple, dovetail construction, and soft-close.  None of this is available in either the standard cabinets or the upgrade cabinets Ryan offers.  Why not?  Second, Ryan offers about 8 granite choices all of which I'm sure you have seen a million times in standard variations of gray, tan or black.  But quartz, Corian, marble, or other colors of granite can not be obtained as an upgrade or even as a "special custom" order - and yet you can walk into any Home Depot and find these other solid counter surfaces - so they are clearly things that can be mass produced.  So again, why not?  We picked out a very nice traditional Gunstock wood floor for our house, but it would have been nice to have the choice to pick out bamboo or more exotic wood floor choices.  But that did not seem to be an option - the floors were either a choice of 4 traditional hardwood floors or 7 or 8 "engineered" hardwood floors.  And while I believe it is best to keep hardwood floors simple, it would have been nice to be offered Brazilian Cherry or something more exotic.

The bathroom tile options were also fairly unimaginative - everything involved a 12in tile and decorative tile border or the standard 6 in. white tile.  We did find something we liked, but it was kind of hard.  We decided not to pick out a kitchen backsplash and do that after the house is built.  All in all I am happy with our choices and we didn't go to overboard with upgrades - the biggest upgrade for us is getting hardwood floors throughout the first floor.  This is costing us about $8,000 - but it really is a non-negotiable for me.  Sigh!  I guess I should be grateful for these "problems".

QA Backlog

We signed our purchase agreement with Ryan Homes on May 1 and per the contract we were required to apply for a mortgage loan within seven days.  We applied for a loan with NVR mortgage last week.  Before the appointment I sent over most of the required documents and after our appointment we had a few additional documents to send over.  Our LO (Loan Officer) asked us to send the documents over as soon as possible so that our file could go to the Quality Assurance department and then on to underwriting.  I sent over everything on Friday, but as of the close of business today our loan application has not gone to the Quality Assurance department.  Our LO says there is a backlog because of the number of loans going to underwriting right now.  Apparently the real estate market has really picked up in Maryland and lots of people are buying houses.  I guess that's a good thing, but I'm anxious to get the loan approval process started so that construction can start on our house in July as currently scheduled.  But for now we are waiting.

NVR Mortgage Approval and the Paper Trail

Today we met with our loan officer (LO) at NVR Mortgage.  To get the process rolling on buying a new house you need to get a loan approval - presumably from NVR Mortgage.  Of course when it gets closer to the time you actually close on the house you can try to obtain financing from another lender, but I think at this stage of the game it makes the most sense to go through NVR Mortgage.  Our new community is not offering much in the way of incentives, in fact Ryan Homes recently raised the prices of the homes.  But they are giving $10,000 towards closing costs if you close with NVR Mortgage so that is nice.

Before our appointment I e-mailed most of our documents to our LO in advance so that made our appointment go very smoothly.  I thought our LO did a good job explaining all of the documents and walking us through the process.

At this stage of the game the most nerve-wracking thing about buying this house with Ryan Homes is that they do not allow contingent contracts, but we have not sold our current house.  And we plan to use the proceeds from the sale to pay the down payment and closing costs.  But since Ryan Homes does not allow contingent contracts we need to show on paper at least that we can buy the new house even if our house does not sell.  A classic chicken and egg problem - I'm sure made more serious by the recent housing bust.  So to show you have enough money you basically need to agree to empty every savings account you've ever had and then some - but make sure you can track those funds.  Because while it would be great to get that money from a money tree - Ryan Homes won't accept it without a paper trail.  So not that much fun.  But we got through it.  So at this point I think I can safely say we are buying a new house.  Yeah us!

The Journey Begins - A Contract with Ryan Homes

Last Friday my husband and I took a leap of faith and signed a contract to buy a new home in Howard County.  I grew up in Columbia, Maryland and I loved it.  I always thought it was the prefect place to raise kids, but my career has always caused us to live in or near cities and that has been fun too.  But as my kids have gotten older, I have decided that I would like to move out of the city.

So we have decided to sell our house in the city and move to Howard County.  We have decided to build a new house because we have never done that before and my husband has always wanted to live a new house.  It sounds kind of corny (and is definitely expensive), but hey you only live once so you might as well do a few things that make you happy.

Once I decided that we wanted to build a new house I did some research on new home developments in Howard County with home prices in our price range.  There was not much.  Lol!  But that's ok - sometimes having a limited choice makes it easier to make a decision.

But a few observations about Howard County after being away from the area for almost 20 years.  Today if you want a single family house in Howard County you will need to look outside of Columbia.  The only new housing being built in Columbia are townhouses or condominiums.  I think townhouses are great, but at this stage of life for my family we need more space than that.  If you want a single family house then you are looking at Laurel, Clarksville, Mt. Airy, Elkridge, and maybe Ellicott City.  Also, get ready for some real sticker shock.  It is amazing how little house you get for half a million dollars these days.  And even $1 million does not buy anywhere near what you think it would buy.

So given all of that I was thrilled to find that Ryan Homes was building a small community of homes in Howard County close to shopping and 95 on decent sized lots and in our price range.  My husband and I have actually been looking at new houses for a long time - it has sort of been a hobby for us.  Over the last 10 or 15 years we have looked at Ryan Homes communities in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Montgomery County and Prince Georges County.  So we had a sense of their product.  My favorite Ryan Home model has always been the Avalon so I was thrilled that they were offering that model.  Now in the past I have always felt that Ryan Homes nickels and dimes its customers with a seemingly low initial price for a bare bones house that by the time you add necessary options the price is just as high as other developers.  I was pleasantly surprised that this development offered lots of nice standard options like stainless steel appliances, granite countertops in the kitchen and master bathroom, oak stair and metal balusters, and hardwood floors on most of the first floor.  We looked at the community one time and immediately asked to put down a deposit.  They made us wait until May 1 to put in a contract.  Our journey has started.