In all the excitement, we got keys on the same day that we closed. Our SR did a fantastic job in keeping tabs on the title company to inform her that the keys were ready to deliver. We appreciate that she understood how excited we were to get into our house and get things started.
Yesterday we rented a Uhaul and moved everything over from our temporary house. Today the moving van has come and is unloading everything else; furniture, beds, fridge, dining room, etc., Going to be another long day.
We Closed! Now Waiting On Keys
We closed this morning! Yay! Finally! Yay! Other than the appraisal debacle, this process has been a great. I would recommend our development, sales team and project manager in a heartbeat.
We also did our final walk through. Now our sales rep is waiting to hear from the title company that all is good (and it is as we wired our closing funds yesterday morning) and then she will notify us to get our keys. So hopefully later this afternoon or tomorrow morning we get our keys.
Pics of the final house will be taken. This time I will use my Sony A6000 to take the pics. Time for some good ones if I do say so myself!
We also did our final walk through. Now our sales rep is waiting to hear from the title company that all is good (and it is as we wired our closing funds yesterday morning) and then she will notify us to get our keys. So hopefully later this afternoon or tomorrow morning we get our keys.
Pics of the final house will be taken. This time I will use my Sony A6000 to take the pics. Time for some good ones if I do say so myself!
Ryan Homes & Using a Outside Lender: Some Advice
I know others have used outside lenders when choosing to build with Ryan Homes. From other various blogs I have read, typically there is an issue with financing that forces the buyer to go to what appears to be a lender that works with subprime mortgages. I've tried to search for those that opted out of NVR for other reasons and I can't say I found any.
Quick recap. We are corporate relocation and moved back to our hometown. We looked into the preexisting home market and found that Ryan Homes could deliver a home with more of what we wanted and still be in the home in a reasonable time frame and within our budget. So we made the decision.
If you have followed my blog, you will understand that our relocation company also serves as our mortgage provider. We have perks to stay with the relocation company, this is why we chose to stay with them and didn't opt for NVR. Part of me wonders what perks and incentives we could have had if we did go with NVR, but one of the problems was that if we did go with NVR, we would have then had to go through the entire approval process with NVR all over again. This would have delayed our move in, I am sure about it.
But I do have some advice and thoughts for you to consider if you are curious about choosing a lender other than NVR.
Quick recap. We are corporate relocation and moved back to our hometown. We looked into the preexisting home market and found that Ryan Homes could deliver a home with more of what we wanted and still be in the home in a reasonable time frame and within our budget. So we made the decision.
If you have followed my blog, you will understand that our relocation company also serves as our mortgage provider. We have perks to stay with the relocation company, this is why we chose to stay with them and didn't opt for NVR. Part of me wonders what perks and incentives we could have had if we did go with NVR, but one of the problems was that if we did go with NVR, we would have then had to go through the entire approval process with NVR all over again. This would have delayed our move in, I am sure about it.
But I do have some advice and thoughts for you to consider if you are curious about choosing a lender other than NVR.
- Get a Realtor! All you need to do is scour the internet and you will find blogs where buyers GFE (Good Faith Estimate - this gives an estimate of what you will need to pay at closing) increases thousands and thousands. A good realtor will help you avoid possible issues and should have a firm grasp on what to expect for closing costs.
- Make sure your lender has worked with Ryan Homes & NVR in the past. This is important as Ryan Homes does not require a traditional "new construction" loan.
- Make sure your lender, the Ryan Homes Sales Rep, and all responsible parties communicate what is expected for each step that they are involved. Make sure in this discussion that potential roadblocks are discovered, discussed, and resolved BEFORE they become a roadblock. This includes loan, appraisals, inspections, down payment, closing costs/GFE, etc.,
- Educate yourself on Ryan Homes build process and timeline (available on RH website)
- If this is your first home buying experience, educate yourself on the loan process. Too many people are surprised by the potential amount of paperwork, documents, letters that are needed, etc., etc., in the home buying process.
- As a home buyer, set expectations with your lender about communication and that it needs to be proactive, verses reactive. In other words, your lender should communicate to you first without you needing to reach out to them.
- If you use an outside lender, Ryan Homes & NVR will want confidence that you are a strong buyer and that there is very little chance that the mortgage will fall through. Your lender will need to put your application through underwriting first and provide to Ryan Homes a letter indicating what many would call a "Clear to Close" letter. Ryan Homes will NOT start construction until this letter is provided. Do not confuse this with a "Pre-Approval" letter that many buyers get in the initial phase of buying a home. Your loan will need to be almost completely underwritten and verified for Ryan Homes. That is why NVR takes 30 - 45 days to approve people as they are verifying and underwriting the loan before hand.
- If I would have thought about this before hand I would have a contingency based on the appraisal that said that if the appraisal comes back lower than the sell price of the house, than the buyer can withdraw from the contract and receive 100% of the down payment back. Why? NVR, more than likely has a list of appraisers in their little black book that has no problem appraising a house for the contracted sell price. However, when you finance outside of NVR, your mortgage company will order an appraisal and more than likely source an appraiser outside of the ones that NVR normally uses. This could potentially cause an issue if the appraisal comes back LOWER than the contracted price. When this happens you will have to negotiate with Ryan Homes to lower the sell price, or come up with the difference out of your pocket. Good luck with that. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, most of the time the buyer is having to come up with extra cash at closing. Why would you do this? Why buy a house that is not worth what you are paying. Again, another reason to have a realtor help with negotiating a buying price, especially if you add-on upgrades. An appraisal contingency will be a must the next time around.
- Get a quote from NVR. Compare it with the outside lender. I think we should have done this. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened.
- Don't be afraid to be a bother. There are "Those People", you know, the ones that constantly have to be asking this or that, demanding this or that, changing this or that, or the ones that are never satisfied. I never want to come across that way, but we should also understand that building a home is a big investment and with that is what I would call the "buyer privilege". This privilege affords you the right to ask questions, even maybe dumb ones. This privilege allows you to go to the home, see it, ask questions that come up about issues, or something that you don't like. However, this does not allow you to talk to someone like an entitled douche bag either. Be sure to choose your words wisely, spoken with grace and mercy. It will go a long way.
5 Days Till Closing - We Can Finally Relax
Two days ago I told my wife that we should be in excitement mode, but because the appraisal had been seriously delayed, we were in this limbo status. When it finally came through and appraised for the right amount we finally could relax and start thinking about the house and finally getting in there.
We are now 5 days till closing. The house should be technically done with nothing to stop us from closing.
This morning I stopped and grabbed a Dunkin Donuts large dark roast coffee, one of my favs. So I decided to drive by the house since it was only 2 minutes away. I grabbed a couple of pics.
You might be a little confused when you see the pictures, but yes, that white stuff, frickin' snow.... in April! However, the house was lit up from the inside. Not every light appeared to be on and the garage lights were not on, but it still looked very nice. I love the lamp post, and can't wait till it is actually permanently set and plumb.
We are now 5 days till closing. The house should be technically done with nothing to stop us from closing.
This morning I stopped and grabbed a Dunkin Donuts large dark roast coffee, one of my favs. So I decided to drive by the house since it was only 2 minutes away. I grabbed a couple of pics.
You might be a little confused when you see the pictures, but yes, that white stuff, frickin' snow.... in April! However, the house was lit up from the inside. Not every light appeared to be on and the garage lights were not on, but it still looked very nice. I love the lamp post, and can't wait till it is actually permanently set and plumb.
Appraisal Finally Came In.....
And were good to go! This entire appraisal process was a hot mess. Our mortgage provider is giving us a $500.00 credit to compensate for the cost of the appraisal.
6 Days till Closing, We Have Dirt and Still No Results on the Appraisal!
Frustrating and nerve racking is an understatement. We have been told multiple times this week that the appraisal was coming in Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It is now Thursday morning and no appraisal results (the appraisal was done last Friday). We are now, and maybe a bit too late, in getting the on-site representative for the company we work for involved. (Yes, this company has to have a relocation specialist onsite due to the amount of relocations) We are asking that we do not pay the $550.00 fee for the appraisal.
We have had to ask multiple times for updates and information when the mortgage team has said they will provide updates. They don't act no communicate that there is a sense of urgency. The appraisal is close to being 4 weeks overdue from the original order date. The mortgage company failed to make a decision to change appraisers in a timely manner. In fact, we have had to suggest and demand that certain actions be taken to get the appraisal done. We almost feel that if we hadn't been involved, we would still be sitting with NO appraisal at all.
Drove by last night. The painters are done, the appliances are all in and they moved dirt for a preliminary grading. There will be a final grading done at a later date.
Looks like they have a little bit of siding around the front door to be done, a corner siding piece and the exterior will be finished.
Oh and the granite is all done and looks really good.
We have had to ask multiple times for updates and information when the mortgage team has said they will provide updates. They don't act no communicate that there is a sense of urgency. The appraisal is close to being 4 weeks overdue from the original order date. The mortgage company failed to make a decision to change appraisers in a timely manner. In fact, we have had to suggest and demand that certain actions be taken to get the appraisal done. We almost feel that if we hadn't been involved, we would still be sitting with NO appraisal at all.
Drove by last night. The painters are done, the appliances are all in and they moved dirt for a preliminary grading. There will be a final grading done at a later date.
Looks like they have a little bit of siding around the front door to be done, a corner siding piece and the exterior will be finished.
Oh and the granite is all done and looks really good.
Stone Exterior and Front Door Painted & Still Waiting on the Results of the Appraisal!
Drove by yesterday real quick and they were about 85% done with the stone exterior. Once the stone is complete, piece of vinyl trim will go the edge of the stone and vinyl siding on the side that we can see in the pics below. Then shutters will go on the first floor window. The front door had also been painted which will match the shutters.
As a reminder this is Elevation K, or the Cottage Elevation.
As for the appraisal, it has been done. The appraisal results were suppose to go back to mortgage company on Monday, however, it was not. My wife actually talked to the appraiser yesterday morning who said the information will be sent in yesterday morning, it was not. Our mortgage provider said that they were supposed to get it by end of day yesterday, but they did not contact us either way. So we are now one week away from closing and still don't know the results of the appraisal.
Think about this for a moment. If the for some reason the appraisal comes back lower than the sell price of the house, we are then going to be in a battle between RH and ourselves on who adjusts what with only a week before we are suppose to close and our rate lock expires. Also keep in mind that our appraisal was suppose to take place over three weeks ago. Let's just say that the last three weeks have been a bit stressful. We are this far along in the process and still don't have the results of the appraisal.
As a reminder this is Elevation K, or the Cottage Elevation.
As for the appraisal, it has been done. The appraisal results were suppose to go back to mortgage company on Monday, however, it was not. My wife actually talked to the appraiser yesterday morning who said the information will be sent in yesterday morning, it was not. Our mortgage provider said that they were supposed to get it by end of day yesterday, but they did not contact us either way. So we are now one week away from closing and still don't know the results of the appraisal.
Think about this for a moment. If the for some reason the appraisal comes back lower than the sell price of the house, we are then going to be in a battle between RH and ourselves on who adjusts what with only a week before we are suppose to close and our rate lock expires. Also keep in mind that our appraisal was suppose to take place over three weeks ago. Let's just say that the last three weeks have been a bit stressful. We are this far along in the process and still don't have the results of the appraisal.
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