Model Walk Through #1

I scheduled a walk through the model for 11:30am this morning.

I cued up yesterday's 2 hour recording of our meeting so I could take notes. It is strictly for that purpose. So, there I was taking notes when in the recording it got to that part where we excused ourselves briefly from the sales rep's office.

While we were out, a contractor/builder came into her office and he asked her why her window was open because it was cold outside. She claimed she was so hot and referred to us as that couple with the noisy child and realtor who is giving out wrong information. Then she said, "I hate people." I couldn't believe my ears.

I can never do anything with this recording and I won't but anyone could have heard this from the hallway just outside her office. I was furious and only had 10 minutes before I had to go meet this lady to do the walk through.

I was pretty stern when I showed up. Not the normal cheerful person I normally am. I wanted to send a clear message that I was there to take care of business and I wasn't in the mood for whatever she wanted to dish out this time.

I followed her over to the 80% finished model. I couldn't find anything strange. I did make video for my wife since she was unable to make it out.
Model house #1

So, Monday the contract will be submitted to their corporate office.

Preliminary Documents, Contract and the Sales Rep from Hell

I spoke with the new lender early this morning. He said everything is looking awesome.

My wife and the realtor met me over at the builder's model home/office to go over the contract and all of that preliminary stuff you have to go through. I asked a couple of questions that really fired up the sales rep.

I don't know what her damn problem was. She was very short and it was escalating so I snapped her back into line with a simple statement, "Look, we're just asking some questions." We hadn't seen a model of our house yet, and wouldn't for a few more days. In fact all we had seen was the office we were in with her and a few brochures that she had emailed to me. With a sample question of would we be able to add things like an extra plug outlet, she snapped "NO!". She was very defensive, abrupt and just right out rude.

I figured out some of it later on. She was upset that we had brought the realtor with us, she was using a PC, and her printer was giving her fits. I didn't care what her reasons were but she didn't have to be so rude.

Anyway, she was super fussy and in a hurry for us to sign. I had to get assurances from her that I would have more than the time in her office to read everything in the contract. She was sort of resistant with comments like take it or leave it. The realtor was able to intervene and get an answer that the contract would not be submitted to corporate until next week.

I pulled my wife and realtor aside so we could talk in private about the sales rep's overall attitude and the bad impression that she was giving us. We were encouraged to look passed the attitude she was displaying.

The realtor had to leave early to honor an appointment and my wife needed to get our son home for lunch. I stayed to finish the paperwork and try to warm that old lady up. In the end she had lightened up quite a bit.

The sales rep gave me a sold sign to stick in the yard. Here's a photo of that.

Enough on that! We have to go to decide on all of our color options by February 1. I booked an appointment with the place that provides that service for January 27.

I spent the late evening going through every document to read all of the applicable fine print. Everything seems to be ok. I have a question about a couple of small things. I just have to wonder if my questions will bring out the fangs again. Time will tell. Time will tell.

The Fat Plat

I contacted the home builder this morning to let her know that we are interested in one of the lots and we want to secure it as soon as possible pending it is facing the correct direction and is as appealing in reality.

The realtor wanted to meet everyone at the builder's site in the afternoon but I didn't want to wait that long. Then, we found out our builder POC has the next two days off. She did get back with me to let us know that since it's a corner lot we can face either street North-West or North. One other thing the realtor told us about was that this particular builder will put 1% of our base cost towards closing charges. They have an additional incentive today to add another 2% off the base cost of the house.

I told her we could wait to meet in a few days but I want to secure the lot today. She confirmed that we could do that. So, I drove home to pick up the wife and kid and we drove over to see the lot. I had Fiona get out and put a compass on it to be sure she was happy with the direction.

Everything worked out. We drove around the corner and placed a deposit to hold the corner plat that we like so much.

While we were there, we were given their preferred lender contact details. When I got back to work, I called this new lender for instructions and did the online application.

So, that plat is being held for us. I'm going to try to get at very least a pre-qualification letter from this new lender so that we'll be ready should we decide to get a contract down.

Now let me talk about this fat plat. I'm calling it that because the lots in the same area and same price are skinny. I used two methods for measuring the difference. The first was Zillow and I don't know how reliable it is. They claim our plat is 155% larger when compared to the surrounding plats. I did my own measurements from satellite photos and some geometry. I cam up with 187% larger when compared to the surrounding plats.

In either case, the extra space and it being a corner lot will make this plat very desirable in decades to come.

I am eager to see what rate this new lender can get for us, because the first lender seems to be high for our situation when compared to the average market rate.

House Hunting - Day 4

I started today out by checking my emails from the realtor. We had her check on about 6 properties to see if they are available. All but 2 were already gone.

Fiona decided to meet up with the realtor to go view the other houses after lunch. Meanwhile, still fresh from looking at a new home over the weekend, I decided to look into building a new home. Surely builders have to build somewhere on a regular basis.

I came home for lunch and called one of the builders and requested some general information based on our search criteria. After lunch Fiona went one direction to meet with the realtor and go look at the two houses, while I went back to work and looked at the home info that I had just requested.

It turns out that one of the two houses was a short sale and no longer available. That left one house which was older than I like and needed a lot of upgrading. I told her to pass and that I am now more interested in building.

I spent the afternoon comparing three floor plans in our budget. I will say small medium and large. The smaller one is actually the best deal in regards to the way the space is used. The medium sized house has a hallway to the rooms that cuts right through the center of the house wasting all of the space gained by upgrading from the smaller house. Then, the large one has a master closet the size of a room. Though nice for my wife's wardrobe, it isn't high enough on the list to justify so much space. Then, there is the issue with the 4th bedroom not having a closet at all. Finally, the large house has a dining room large enough to seat maybe ten people. Again, it would be nice but it's too much space in the wrong places.

There was one other plan in our budget but the layout would not work within my requirement for a recording studio. All of the walls were shared.

With a floor plan sorted out, it was time to find a plat. I was given a map of three phases. Two are inside our desired school district even if they do come with a $10,000 more price tag. Of the two, only one fits our budget.

My wife wants a house facing specific direction(s) for philosophical reasons as I mentioned before. The map showed what lots were available. The first thing I did from our lesson learned last weekend, was cross off every lot facing the wrong direction. This leaves us about 18 lots to choose from.

Really, from this we are able to estimate the cost plus a few extras like having the garage extended an extra 4 feet. I took all of this home and presented it to Fiona and she is favoring the only remaining corner lot. If they can build the preferred floor plan, we may have a good match.

The realtor wants us to meet with the builder Sunday. Though I initially agreed to a 2pm meeting, I think this is stupid. That lot could disappear in the next 6 days. So, we will talk them into meeting sooner.

House Hunting - Day 3

Today we decided to drive to a town that has been on and off of our list of places to live. The location is not good and that makes it more affordable and everything is new.

It wasn't all that bad. Only 10 minutes away. I thought it would be much further.

We drove to a specific neighborhood and looked at a few houses. There was one that was a pretty good deal for us. We thought about it for a bit and decided to tell the builder that we were interested. While we were waiting to talk again, another person was coming in and about to steal it from us. It was a race to get a check into the builder's hands to secure the house. The other man was coming back the following day.

We decided to drive back home to get my checkbook when we suddenly realized that the house is facing the wrong direction. We confirmed the direction with the builder and had to explain to him that it was a deal breaker unfortunately. It's an important factor to my wife, so it's important to me.

Lessons learned are keep the checkbook ready when you are house hunting, driving to the location is a good indicator of how far it is in minutes.

We have put that city back into our searches and the results coming back are grand.

Now what can we do about realtors? We have the original that wasn't very aggressive. Then there is the new lady I talked to who just had a baby 2 months ago and is at home taking it easy. Don't know. I sent over a list of places to the original realtor for her to check on. We'll wait and see.

This deal's getting worse all the time - We're out

We agreed to meet with the realtor this morning at her office to discuss details for the contract to put forward to the seller.

Before going over there, the lender called me to get a copy of our most recent bank statement. I got it all together and sent it over. Upon looking at everything she said it was looking lighter than we had told her. I explained the balance would be where we said at the end of this month when it comes time to pay the closing costs. She explained to me that it needs to be at the target balance a few weeks prior in order to get everything approved. I told her I could deposit some additional savings in cash. She said that would not benefit us in this case at this time.

Confused, I looked around online and found out that we were about to make a huge mistake adding cash to our account. It must be verified and bunch of legal stuff like that. I found this article. Check it out here.

I took this new information to the realtor. She said she would see if the seller could delay the closing cost a few extra weeks. The response came about a half hour later that the seller will not budge.

The seller is completely inflexible on all accounts. First, we offered over $4k more than the listed price. Second, they wanted to cut our option period in half. Third, they wanted to have all closing costs paid for in full 3 weeks. Fourth, they don't want to move out of the house for another 2 months from now. Last, they don't want to give us a solid date in which they would move out and don't agree to pay for lease back.

As Lando says, "This deal's getting worse all the time."

Maybe they have good reasons. But enough of this. We're out and moving on.


Additionally, we are looking for a new realtor. One who is more aggressive in helping us find something. But now after learning all of this, I kind of want to wait another month before getting into another one of these multi-offer scenarios.

UPDATE:

My supervisor recommended a realtor. I called her tonight and she has already sent a list of houses to browse.

The Chosen - The Sweet and Sour Deal

I took over checks to the realtor for the Option Money and Earnest Money today at lunchtime. Throughout the day, I received emails with copies of our offer, sellers disclosure of house condition etc...


The realtor called me shortly after lunch to tell us that there were offers higher than ours and wanted to know if we wanted to raise our offer. I gave her a big NO! She said she was glad that I stayed firm on our offer as she knows increasing will only make appraising even more difficult.


Then, the lender called me to tell me that there is pending disputes on my credit history against a zero balance that I opened a few months ago (see previous blog entry.) She basically needed me to sign a form allowing her to go in and have the dispute removed. I complied.


I got a call from the realtor later in the evening. She told us that the seller has chosen us. The higher offers would not appraise. We came in just under the threshold.


All is not so sweet and we have much to sort out before we can come to agreement.


The seller wants us to pay all closing costs in 3 weeks, which is a bunch of crap in my opinion. We will do it if it means making the deal happen but I'm not happy about it. The reason it pisses me off is that the seller still wants to stay in the house through March 5, well over a month after we have paid closing costs. It forces us into a situation where we may get stuck paying rent on our apartment and a mortgage payment.


So, tomorrow we have to put the ball back in their court and put the pressure back on the seller. If we can't agree, we'll pull the plug without another thought.