YES!!!
They worked with us.
We will owe a small-ish amount at closing, and still have some left over to do landscaping and possibly even countertop upgrades ourselves. :) These things are important, because there is one more appraisal we have to go through when the house is actually finished. The bank appraiser will come look over the house & grounds and tell us how much it's worth, and how much of a MORTGAGE we will qualify for. Hopefully, the market will improve even by a little in the next months while we're building, and we'll owe not a penny more "down" before we "refinance" our construction loan into a mortgage.
Incidentally, the finance people, the counselor, and the realtor all told us this is pretty much one of the closest deals they'd ever experienced. Way too close to being workable, but a large enough gap not to just ignore. They usually have people either plenty within the safe zone, or way outside enough that they have to start over with a new floor plan, or a sizeable chunk of money down.
Joe did speak to our financial people, and though he wasn't as "right" as we thought he was, it helped us get some things rolling with negotiating....and we ended up trimming down our Project Lists, such as doing the exterior painting ourselves (saves $2500), and not having money in the loan for "drying"(should it pour rain into the framework before the roof is on).
*WHEW*
I hope that was the hardest, most tedious part of this process. We should be closing sometime after July 13, and possibly break ground by August 1st. Possibly sooner.
By the way, if any of you ever want to build......don't hesitate to quiz us on our experiences. It's a HUGE learning curve trying to figure out this incredibly detailed process. We'd be more than happy to help break it down for you. I wish it were like, a college course you could take: Home-Buying 101 or Build-A-Home 101. :) Now, THAT would be useful information!
They worked with us.
We will owe a small-ish amount at closing, and still have some left over to do landscaping and possibly even countertop upgrades ourselves. :) These things are important, because there is one more appraisal we have to go through when the house is actually finished. The bank appraiser will come look over the house & grounds and tell us how much it's worth, and how much of a MORTGAGE we will qualify for. Hopefully, the market will improve even by a little in the next months while we're building, and we'll owe not a penny more "down" before we "refinance" our construction loan into a mortgage.
Incidentally, the finance people, the counselor, and the realtor all told us this is pretty much one of the closest deals they'd ever experienced. Way too close to being workable, but a large enough gap not to just ignore. They usually have people either plenty within the safe zone, or way outside enough that they have to start over with a new floor plan, or a sizeable chunk of money down.
Joe did speak to our financial people, and though he wasn't as "right" as we thought he was, it helped us get some things rolling with negotiating....and we ended up trimming down our Project Lists, such as doing the exterior painting ourselves (saves $2500), and not having money in the loan for "drying"(should it pour rain into the framework before the roof is on).
*WHEW*
I hope that was the hardest, most tedious part of this process. We should be closing sometime after July 13, and possibly break ground by August 1st. Possibly sooner.
By the way, if any of you ever want to build......don't hesitate to quiz us on our experiences. It's a HUGE learning curve trying to figure out this incredibly detailed process. We'd be more than happy to help break it down for you. I wish it were like, a college course you could take: Home-Buying 101 or Build-A-Home 101. :) Now, THAT would be useful information!
I'm packing my bags.... :-)
ReplyDeleteSeriously...it takes an advanced degres to deal with all the red tape, contracts, and of course, the contractors themselves (as you will hopefully NOT find out in the next 6 months!). Hoping you get dried in before the rains start! When it comes time to paint the exterior, we have a paint sprayer that works great if you want to borrow it:) Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteSo happy for you!
ReplyDelete