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.