Contract FINALLY ratified!

I believe the last time I posted I talked about how they were trying to take back some of their incentives ($5,000 back at closing) and we weren't having that.. so we basically continued the process including the per-construction meeting before the contract had even been signed by the regional manager.  We were about to pack our things and send our money elsewhere because it should not take someone 3 weeks to sign something that was promised...

About two weeks ago we heard that they had FINALLY decided to sign the original contract... so that was frustrating and of course pushed back all the expected dates.  

The new dates are:  

Start digging - April 3rd
Anticipated closing - June 20th

I'm not going to get my hopes up about the closing date.  Our current lease ends on May 31st so we're really hoping things will move along.  We are hoping that our current house will let us go "month to month" come June but again, we're not going to get our hopes up... especially since they didn't allow us to do that last year.

Anyway, we drove by our lot today and saw that they had put out posts marking where they will be digging.  Also, our PM sent us a picture of our lot :-)

Our lot is pretty much behind that fire hydrant.. so the first black tarp thingy you see is marking where our driveway will be.  I love that there is a farm behind our house :-)  I'm hoping they wont knock those trees down.

Updates/colors!

Well, It's happening.  They are "taking back" the $5,000 at closing that we originally signed on.  Our SR is fabulous and is doing the best he can to "fix it" though.  He gave us three options which were:

1. wait to ratify the contract until flooring and wiring upgrades...apparently it may fix everything and we wouldn't need to change anything.  Still not quite understanding this option though.

2. Lower the sales price by 5K and not take the 5K at closing.. which we need.

3. Do the financing through our outside mortgage company who came back with better numbers monthly and at closing than NVR and we still get all the other incentives such as the morning room, granite, and hardwood floors, etc. 

Obviously, the third option is what we want but the third option is also the last option that RH will most likely approve.  Our SR said he would have to go to bat to have them settle outside of NVR..  We met with our SR yesterday to compare NVR's numbers and our outside mortgage companies numbers and he kept saying that they were too close in comparison so that it wouldn't get approved.. until my husband explained to him that the numbers he was looking at included the 5K in closing that they WERE going to give us.. so in the end the different was 10K at closing.. which is SUBSTANTIAL (at least to middle income families -- like us).  He was going to get back with NVR's loan officer and they were going to try and work something out, if they can't then our SR is going to fight for us to keep the incentives and use our outside mortgage company.  I'm still not going to get my hopes up for this though.. 

After discussing that mess, we went ahead and chose our exterior colors.  We chose:

 

Siding: Irish Thistle 

 border: White (can't remember appropriate jargon for the border)

Shutters: Black

Door: Marooned
Brick: As shown, I can't remember the name

We're hoping the colors are the same as this house:

 

I'm really nervous about the Irish Thistle color!  I'm hoping it turns out dark like this.. It's just hard to compare it when your looking at a small color swatch. I'm fine if it turns out to be a gray color but I do NOT want it looking tan or white.. I want the darker gray / green.  Extremely nervous about this!

Do any of you know any bloggers who chose this color?  It would be awesome to see another house with the same siding color.

Contract Confusion

On top of receiving news that we owe $1400 in taxes (YUCK), we received a phone call today from our SR informing us that he is having trouble getting our contract approved because apparently they are selling more homes than originally anticipated or something.  To make a long story short, they are "taking back" some of their incentives because of this.. WHAT...??????????  How is this even possible or right?  My husband asked for all of this in writing and wanted to talk to our realtor to get more information.  It makes me weary to even continue this process with Ryan Homes.   From reading other RH blogs, our incentives were comparable or seemed almost standard.  Needless to say, it's been a bad week for news. 

Our meeting with NVR...

We met with our loan officer today for what seemed like five hours but in reality it was only two.  We figured out which loan would be best for us and we're happy with the numbers she came back with!  We thought we brought ALL the documents that we needed but of course she created a new list of things for us to gather... luckily they are all things that will be easy to locate and scan.  She did make us aware of the fact that it would likely be 35 to 40 days before we hear anything from her.  

I thought I'd hate this meeting more than I did but overall I feel relieved! :-) 

Up next, meeting with CTI and Gaurdian.

NVR Documents

We just set up an appointment with NVR for Wednesday.  She emailed us a list of all the documents required to apply for the loan.. the list is outrageous and it almost seems impossible to gather all of these items by Wednesday, or at all...  What were your experiences like with NVR?  Did you actually need your past two years of taxes, and ALL of the other 25 items on the list?  

We're really starting to consider just going with our other mortgage approval.. but that would mean putting down a lower down payment and paying for the morning room out of pocket.  The morning room is currently an incentive for using Ryan Homes mortgage company.. hmm.

Building a florence.. The beginning of our journey!

After reading a lot of other Ryan Homes blogs, I have decided to create one of my own to share the process of this journey we are about to endure! 

We visited Ryan Homes three times and stayed a minimum of FOUR hours each visit before deciding to go this route!  We felt better and better each time we left knowing that this was the best decision for us.  

My husband takes on change like it's nothing.  Me on the other hand,  I feel sick, nervous, anxious, and just flat out uncomfortable!  That probably explains the multiple visits to the area for four hours at a time.  Each time we left I would always ask the same question ten different ways.  Do you think this is the right decision?  Is this a good choice we're going to be making?  Do you think the lot is good?  Are you sure you want to do this?  I'm sure he wanted to pull the car over and tell me to walk the rest of the way home (I'm only kidding, he would never do that).  In the end, I knew that if Neil was on board to do this, then it probably was the best decision for us.  Although I hate to admit it, his instinct is usually right.. no matter how many times I try to question it.

So here we are, we signed our purchase agreement yesterday and our fabulous sales rep handed us a SOLD sticker to go put on our lot.  Neil gladly accepted the sticker and jokingly announced that he thought it was to put on his car.  We drove to our lot, put the sticker on, and posed for a picture.  As you can probably tell in the picture above, it was freezing AND windy but I adore this picture anyway because it symbolizes the start to our new journey.