Last night after work V and I scurried over to a meeting with the developer of the subdivision where we plan to build our home. Our realtor is out of town so one of his associates went with us, unfortunately we arrived before her. BUT fortunately the developer was waiting for us and one of the nicest people I have ever encountered! He even shared with us a story about how he came up with the names of a few of the floor plans, the cheapest one was for his father and when he told his father about that he said "that was alright" with a smile....the floor plan we like is after his mother because she would have liked all the storage and the vaulted ceilings!
Once our stand-in-realtor arrived we began discussing all of our options. V and I already knew what floor plan we want because it's the same as the home we made the unaccepted offer on. We will make a few changes to differentiate our home from that one. Then we reviewed the upgrade options and were given a list of options for our lot. We all agreed that V and I would drive out over the weekend and select our lot then we'd write up our buy-sell with a closing date roughly 120 days out.
This morning V let me sneak away for a workout, I got home just in time for Liam to snuggle and go down for a 3hr nap. Once Liam finally woke up we all ate lunch and headed out to look at lots. Since we had reviewed them the night before I *thought* I knew which one I liked but we both wanted to look and make sure. I am SO glad we did! We drove up and down the street, through the ally, parked and looked at the homes surrounding each lot and took into consideration distance to the park.....and we BOTH agreed on one. Can we just take a minute to soak up the fact that we both agreed on something with ease?! Whew! I have a lot of peace about it, I really (REALLY) like our lot.
So now we just need our realtor to get home and write up our buy-sell agreement so they can break land! Good thing he gets home tomorrow because it's snowing as we speak!
After that we'll have a million decisions to make on decor, so far V says it's all in my hands but I don't buy that for a minute, he's too opinionated!
Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts
November 10, 2012
November 5, 2012
On House Hunting and {Potentially} Building
The house hunt has been.....interesting. A few weeks ago we went out with our realtor and saw four homes, three of which were foreclosures. It was slightly depressing to see these homes and know that someone had lived in them, loved them and lost them. But if we found the right one we were ready to do some work and love it ourselves.
Unfortunately we didn't find one that was love worthy. I must admit there was one I really wanted V to love, the backyard was to die for! This was nearly twice the size we'd get with any new(er) construction and backed to undevelopable property (simply because of location). But the house needed more love than either V or I was really willing to give. The other homes weren't really worth mentioning here.
So a few weeks have gone on, V and I have been doing a lot of research and have been looking at every real estate site under the sun. But nothing new popped up, nothing worth looking at anyway. There are only a couple of subdivision here, one of which that you can build in....but V and I are using his Veteran loan and bank in our area aren't doing VA construction loans. We felt stuck, at least for the Winter, maybe something would come on the market in the Spring? We hoped. On a whim V emailed the developer of the subdivision where we put an offer in on a house that wasn't accepted, he explained our situation and asked simply if they planned to build any more houses of the layout we liked. One hour later the developer emailed us back to tell us that they have worked with VA loan people before and will carry all the building cost until the house is built then we can buy it! We can even pick out several variables, we'd sign a contract before they break ground with a closing date of about 120 days out. V and I spoke with our realtor to make sure he'd be paid (yes, through the developer like the sale of a already built home) and discusses some other concerns and everything came up roses! It's almost too good to be true!
So that is where we are, we meet with the builder this week. It's pretty likely that we will sign our contract this week and break ground next week. It's hard to believe that we will likely be building our first home, the home Liam will grow up in. I'm totally in shock!
Has anyone else out there built? Advice?!
Unfortunately we didn't find one that was love worthy. I must admit there was one I really wanted V to love, the backyard was to die for! This was nearly twice the size we'd get with any new(er) construction and backed to undevelopable property (simply because of location). But the house needed more love than either V or I was really willing to give. The other homes weren't really worth mentioning here.
So a few weeks have gone on, V and I have been doing a lot of research and have been looking at every real estate site under the sun. But nothing new popped up, nothing worth looking at anyway. There are only a couple of subdivision here, one of which that you can build in....but V and I are using his Veteran loan and bank in our area aren't doing VA construction loans. We felt stuck, at least for the Winter, maybe something would come on the market in the Spring? We hoped. On a whim V emailed the developer of the subdivision where we put an offer in on a house that wasn't accepted, he explained our situation and asked simply if they planned to build any more houses of the layout we liked. One hour later the developer emailed us back to tell us that they have worked with VA loan people before and will carry all the building cost until the house is built then we can buy it! We can even pick out several variables, we'd sign a contract before they break ground with a closing date of about 120 days out. V and I spoke with our realtor to make sure he'd be paid (yes, through the developer like the sale of a already built home) and discusses some other concerns and everything came up roses! It's almost too good to be true!
So that is where we are, we meet with the builder this week. It's pretty likely that we will sign our contract this week and break ground next week. It's hard to believe that we will likely be building our first home, the home Liam will grow up in. I'm totally in shock!
Has anyone else out there built? Advice?!
October 4, 2012
We Didn't Get the House
So we submitted an offer on Tuesday evening with the parameters that we would hear back in 24 hours or our offer would become null and void. 24 hours came and went, our realtor tried reaching the seller's realtor over and over saying this was "very odd". I knew we had gone in low but expected a counter, that was the advice we were given so I was confused when we simple got no response. Frankly I'd never heard of someone just ignoring an offer (especially when I know we are the only activity on the house).
This morning (Thursday) our realtor awake to a email from 1:30am from the sellers agent, odd indeed. The seller is choosing to ingore our offer entirely, they gave us an itemized list of "updates/upgrades" the home has and informed us that they value the house $10k above the list price. WTF? I could list several reasons why that simply isn't true but the most important one is that our market simply won't command such a price for a home with only a few upgrades (some of which aren't included in the sale of the home). And apparently the seller got the $8k first time home buyer credit 3 years ago, the rules of that credit say you have to live in the house 3 fill years or repay the $8k, so he's factored that into the price of the house.....yeah we aren't going to pay for your decision to sell.
So V and I are walking away. I'm sad because we do really like the house but like I've said before it's not even worth the list price and certainly not worth $10k over that (at least not in it's current state with an unfinished basement, no a/c etc etc etc). That house will set the standard for others we look at and I feel like our journey to home ownership is going to be much longer now but it is what it is. The chances of us being in a new home before the end of the year at super slim. But the silver lining is that we will continue to build up our savings and pay down my student loans and everything will work out in God's perfect timing.
Much Love,
Jen
This morning (Thursday) our realtor awake to a email from 1:30am from the sellers agent, odd indeed. The seller is choosing to ingore our offer entirely, they gave us an itemized list of "updates/upgrades" the home has and informed us that they value the house $10k above the list price. WTF? I could list several reasons why that simply isn't true but the most important one is that our market simply won't command such a price for a home with only a few upgrades (some of which aren't included in the sale of the home). And apparently the seller got the $8k first time home buyer credit 3 years ago, the rules of that credit say you have to live in the house 3 fill years or repay the $8k, so he's factored that into the price of the house.....yeah we aren't going to pay for your decision to sell.
So V and I are walking away. I'm sad because we do really like the house but like I've said before it's not even worth the list price and certainly not worth $10k over that (at least not in it's current state with an unfinished basement, no a/c etc etc etc). That house will set the standard for others we look at and I feel like our journey to home ownership is going to be much longer now but it is what it is. The chances of us being in a new home before the end of the year at super slim. But the silver lining is that we will continue to build up our savings and pay down my student loans and everything will work out in God's perfect timing.
Much Love,
Jen
September 16, 2012
We're Buying Our First Home!
Well, soon we will be! V and I were just pre-qualified for our first ever home loan! I couldn't be happier! We are in a really good, stable place where home ownership is within our reach, I never thought we'd get here. We live in a area where incomes are lower and the cost of living is high, but the recession and current low interest rates have given us an amazing opportunity!
I've been looking at homes online for well over a year, it was my hobby and just a daydream. This weekend we went to a few open houses, looked at the newspaper and had some really great talks. It's so exciting! V's cousin is a realtor so he'll be helping us on this journey. Ideally we'd like a three bedroom, two bath single-family home.....by the end of this year. We'll see!
Homeowners, past and present, advice PLEASE!
Much Love, Jen
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| via google images |
Homeowners, past and present, advice PLEASE!
Much Love, Jen
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