NVR is at it again.....

To say that I can't wait to be "done" with NVR is an understatement.  I seriously hope our loan is bought out the hours after we sign our closing papers.

Let me tell you what's happened now:
Hubby calls earlier this week to talk to our loan officer about purchasing a refrigerator.  We really wanted to take advantage of the sales that were happening because of the Fourth of July.
Our loan officer said that it wouldn't be a problem as we had all of our "assets" for closing.

But. There's a catch.

They've pulled our credit again. Apparently my credit had gone down several points and was now below a number that meant we would have to PAY to lower the points on our loan and keep the rate at what we locked at.

What. The. Hell.

We rate locked in the beginning of June.  Doesn't this mean that it can't change?! It's locked.  That percentage is what we will be paying for our loan and that's that.

Apparently not.

Our loan officer said that we now have to come up with $1300+ in order to keep our rate at the points it was bought down at.  We have to do this so that the loan wouldn't have to go back through underwriting.

So now I'm panicking a bit. We have the money we need for closing and have also saved money to get a fridge before we even close, and now you're telling us that the money we've saved we have to PAY to you for something that's locked and in my eyes can't be changed!?!?!

We ask what's changed on our credit report that would make this happen.  Our loan officer "isn't sure" what caused my credit to drop, and said it "could be anything".  So you're telling me that he can't figure out why.  I asked hubby to get a copy of our credit report that they had pulled sent over to us because I was going to figure it out.

The other thing that bugs me: If we were teetering on a number that was going to potentially make something like this happen, why would you not inform us?  Make us aware so that we can work on that credit to make sure it goes UP and not down.  I would have very well paid more on the credit card every month to pay down the balance instead of saving extra money.  But, when we are told that paying off balances won't help with rates and whatnot, I am going to save my money and pay my credit card as I normally would.

Well, later on in the day, our loan officer gets back with hubby and tells us that NVR is just going to "eat" the cost of all this hooplah that's come up.  It's a weird situation and they want to make sure things aren't delayed and that everything goes smoothly and that we close on time.

I'm shocked.  They're actually doing something to help us.  So thank goodness for that.  And- Thank You NVR!  Because of that, we are back on track, we {obviously} bought our refrigerator and we are more than ready for these next 15 days to fly by so we can close on our house.

But that's not all. Our loan processor has me all sorts of frustrated too.  We get an email from her with a credit inquiry paper we need to sign, showing us when they've pulled our credit.  She leaves information out of one part of it that we have to sign, so I have to ask her to fix that.

And then she mentions that they're going to need one more pay stub from me because they need a certain amount within closing.  Well, we knew that.  But I can't very well give you a pay stub that hasn't even been given to me yet!

I know, I know. This seems silly.  But it's silly on both ends and seems common sense.  We've been given them document after document.  We had stopped giving paystubs because we were told we didn't have to until 30 days to closing.  Then, we were told they needed MORE paystubs because our loan had been open longer than 120 days or some crap like that.  Well-- it's THEIR fault our fricken loan has been open so long. But, we obliged and I caught them up on paystubs.  And I damn well had every intention of getting that last one to them.  Once I get it.

Sigh.

Like I said, I seriously can't wait to be done with NVR.  They're lucky I am over the moon excited to be getting into our home.

Pre-Drywall Meeting

Well... our pre-drywall meeting has come and gone.  It took about 45 minutes to walk through the entire house.  The main purpose of this meeting seemed to be pointing out all of our electrical stuff and what controlled what.

Insulation has been installed in about 98% of the house.  There's a small part of the unfinished basement that our PM pointed out still needed to be done.  Insulation inspections will be tomorrow and they'll start drywalling either Saturday or Monday, pending a passing inspection.

Our PM also went through and answered any questions that we had, as well as making sure all of our Guardian stuff was in the right place, and add-on stuff like ceiling fan rough ins.

So, the issues that we had were all addressed and easily answered, which made me happy!

We were "lucky" enough that we went out to the house last night and it was POURING down rain.  I really really hoped it would rain so we could see leaks in action and make sure they were addressed.

• The"leak" from the roof in the master closet because of what looked like a plumbing pipe-- that is most definitely a pipe connected to plumbing, and if I remember correctly, its basically a vent to make sure the plumbing pipes don't get backed up with pressure bc of toilets and such (use your imagination here-- and think gassy things, lol).  This was most definitely still leaking with the downpour last night.  Our PM says that they put a "boot" over it to prevent that from leaking.  We also noticed on EVERY house in the neighborhood, that they all have this pipe and all have the boot looking thing over it.  So I fully trust our PM saying this.

• The "leak" from the kitchen/morning room.... with the downpour, this wasn't leaking at all.  I'm not sure if this is because of the insulation being put in, but it all looked good even this morning.  Our PM mentioned that it could have been from the leak above where the eventual "boot" will be.  It's also frustrating me to no end that I can't find the darn blog where the people had the leak in this spot that they've dealt with over and over again.  I really wanted to show it to hubby.  My fault for not bookmarking it.  So, if you happen to read this and that blog belongs to you, or you know which blog I'm talking about-- PLEASE let me know, haha!!! It's seriously driving me nuts.

• Rough-in for the fan/light fixture in the morning room- Our PM knows this hasn't been done and will be making sure it's installed.  Because it was a late change order for us is why it's not there but he's fully aware it needs to be.

• Plumbing lines for the ice maker:  They run this through the basement.  That way the line isn't coming up through the floor.  Essentially, there will be a hole in the wall going from the fridge down to the basement and you just connect the line to the plumbing pipe and VOILA! Ice maker should work.

• Our Guardian cable dilemma:  It's been fixed!! They came out and installed another cable line for us where we wanted it between the two windows!  I thought they just moved the cable to that location, but our PM pointed out that the original spot we picked still had cable lines there, so yay!

And- with our NVR stuff-- I had sent an email out over the weekend to the new point of contact that we have as our loan processor.  She replied on Tuesday and set up a time to talk to me.  The reasoning for NOT getting in contact with me was because our loan was back with the underwriter and she was waiting to hear back from the underwriter before she contacted us, so that she could go over things with us.  Legit excuse, I guess... but why not email me and let me know that's what you're waiting on???

Oh well.  Things are good with our loan, we've been discussing locking our rate but will still be waiting a little bit it sounds like.  Depends on those rates. LOL.

And, the not so great news... and not that it's bad news-- after our pre-drywall meeting, we talked about closing dates.  Our PM has us scheduled to close the very last week of July.  

Sigh.

I was secretly hoping it would be sooner, so this was a bit of a bummer.  It works out, and as long as we don't have to extend our lease with the apartment we are in, I'll be happy... but I was secretly hoping for a sooner date than that.  This isn't the "official" word on closing though, and he'll update us on that once the drywall goes up.  But I'm just telling myself now it'll be the end of July like he says.

PM says that up next will obviously be the drywall, and then they'll start siding.  They'll do the siding before the stone.  They'll also be pouring our front porch soon (yay!).  The front porch is currently a series of like, 3 holes filled with dirt.  I can't wait to actually be able to walk in the front door!!!

Now for a few questions for anyone that reads our blog:

Appliances and other things that need to be bought before or right at move in:  When were you all told you could purchase them?? We will definitely need a fridge when we move in.  

I asked our new loan processor about this, as the 4th of July should bring some good sales for buying stuff.  She told me that we should be "ok" to buy and/or open a credit card (like with Home Depot or someone, for example) as long as we have the money saved (and are able to show we have it) for our closing costs and such.

HOWEVER--

Our loan officer and my hubby had a chat and he told hubby that we should, under no circumstances, do this.

These stores normally do "same as cash" for so many months if you get a card from them, and that was our initial thought, but we don't want to do ANYTHING that's going to mess up closing and getting into our home.  But we don't wanna miss a good sale either.

So what were you told?

Also- we are taking recommendations on refrigerators.  Stainless steel and side-by-side are our requirements at this point.  We *think* we prefer the ice maker to be inside the door and not taking up shelf space.  

We are debating this one:

I love the little door that you can open up to grab stuff from the door shelves.  I've read some reviews that don't make me too happy-- about the door not closing properly and having to slam it shut, etc.  Not sure if I wanna deal with that just to have a fridge that looks cool. No pun intended.

Here's the link to the fridge if you're curious about it.  I pulled it from the Home Depot website, but it can be bought at almost any retailer that sells refrigerators.

Thoughts?  Ideas?  Any help given is appreciated, haha!!

More updates on the house progress on Sunday! Hoping to have drywall to show y'all!!!

Progress Report: Week 5- HVAC, Plumbing and Electric Complete!!!

Another week has come and gone with the home building and we are still loving our progress!  I seriously fall more and more in love with our house every time we go out to check things out!

This week, they finished up the HVAC and plumbing, and the electric and Guardian stuff was installed!   They also poured our garage, which was great!  Doors were installed as well as the basement window.

There seem to be a couple of issues, which we will bring up NEXT WEEK when we have our Pre-Drywall meeting!! It's scheduled for Thursday and we are thrilled to be this far along.  There is a leak in the roof where they have a plumbing pipe going out.  Gotta have that addressed.  There's also a leak by the roof where the kitchen and the morning room meet up.  Not sure what is causing this leak.  I'm a bit weary about this one as I read a blog this past week about a Ryan Homes home that has had a TON of issues with leaks in about this same spot.  Definitely wanna get that checked out.

It also appears like they haven't done the rough-in for the fan/light fixture in the morning room.  We added this on way late in the game, and had to pay a change order fee and such for it, so I wanna make sure this is getting done.  Not sure if it's just because of the slope of the roof there, and it'll be done later, or if it just got missed.

Also, with all the plumbing that's been installed, I don't see lines for the fridge for the ice maker and such.  Gotta check on that.

Other than that, the only other issue we have right now is something that we did ourselves with our Guardian picks and such.  We realize now after seeing the layout of the house and how we want to do our furniture in the family room once we get in that it's not going to be a good spot where we opted for the cable in that room.  Luckily {keep your fingers crossed for this} we were able to get in touch with Guardian and they're gonna send a tech out on Tuesday to either move the existing cable they installed, or just put a whole new cable in (and we pay for another line).  So, we just need to hope they get this done for us.  

We went out with Jason's parents and sister today to see the house and show them how amazing everything looks.  We got to see that all of our drywall has been delivered and is scattered throughout the house, ready to be hung.

Per our PM, the plan for next week-- Tuesday there will be framing inspections, Wednesday they've scheduled insulation installation, and then we have our pre-drywall meeting on Thursday morning!!

Here are some progress photos:  Stay tuned after the photos for a fun story!!

Garage with the beautiful floor!  So glad this has been poured

This bothered me for a few days, haha! Before this "note" was on there, I had gone through plans and was frustrated bc I couldn't remember where the door was for the powder room off of the family entry.  It seemed weird that it was RIGHT next to the toilet.  Well, this explains it!  They put this piece of framing on wrong.  It has since been fixed and all is right in the world of powder rooms.

Excited for plumbing!  Noticed that there are several spots where the hole is way bigger than the pipe that has been placed there.  Gonna just ask about these, but figure it won't even matter once flooring and all is in.

Washer hook-ups!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful bathroom tub and shower! I love both of these so much!

Hall bathroom!  Part of me wishes we upgraded the tile around the shower instead of this surround, but I do like the spots where the shelves are and I know I can decorate this bathroom and be perfectly okay with it.

One of our ceiling fan rough-ins

Can lights!! Home of our future recessed lighting :-)

Electric stuff all throughout the house now <3

This piece of pipe goes out of the ROOF.  Not sure what it's for.  It caused a HUGE leak when we had storms roll through earlier in the week.  Gonna ask about this one.

These just amused me.  They looked like giant ole caterpillars or something.  And they were ALL over the house when we visited on Thursday.

Electric panel in the basement :-)

This is where it was leaking in the morning room/kitchen.  Not sure why, and it's not anywhere near the leak from the pipe upstairs in the master closet.  Gonna DEFINITELY make sure this is taken care of and looked into.  Hoping for more storms too so we can make sure everything is okay.

All of our doors were installed!! This is the door going from the morning room and will eventually take us to our deck.  Right now, it's a straight shot down to the ground.

They dug up a bunch of earth to put in some of these pipes and such.  Cables, electric, etc are running through there {I think}.

DRYWALL!!! This was the stack in the morning room, and it's stacked like this throughout the house, basement and garage!

Gorgeous walk out basement door. I love it so much

Last window to be installed, haha!! The itty bitty one in the basement {this is under the morning room}

Front view.  You can see drywall stacks in the garage!  Gorgeous blue skies too.  I just adore our future home.

And now story time!!

So, I am sure a lot of y'all know about the headache we have had with NVR.  We had a helluva time getting our information for all we needed for our mortgage, a less than stellar loan processor, and just an overall hard time with NVR in the beginning.  Need a refresher?  Catch it all in my NVR blog post.  

Caught up?  Okay.

Well, I get a call on Tuesday from our loan processor, Rebecca.  She was calling to inform me that she is stepping back from work for more time with her family.  We will be getting a new loan processor, who is all caught up on our loan and the information we still need to provide (bank statements each month), and will be contacting us within the next couple of days to introduce herself and to go over any questions we may have.  This was said to me both over the phone and in an email that was copied to this new loan processor.

Take note:  This happened Tuesday.  Today is Sunday.  We still haven't heard from this new loan processor.  If you can't gather it- I am not too happy about this.  I know it's the weekend, and a holiday weekend at that, and I don't expect to hear anything now until next week.... but when someone tells me and sends an email saying that we would hear from her... and we haven't yet?? Yeah. I'm not happy. Not at all.  I've sent an email already letting them know this and hope that we hear from them within a day or two after the holiday and get back on track with the better communication we were having.

All in all, we are thrilled with where we are at this point, minus a hiccup or two.  And hopefully after our pre-drywall, we are even more happy with everything.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! And for some of you-- I hope you're enjoying your new homes since you've closed on your homes!!

We might have to pitch a tent.....

Boy oh boy what a stressful week this has been.

We got the notice from our apartment complex this week about lease renewal.  We have to let them know by April 13th whether or not we will be renewing the lease with them.  Our lease ends on June 13th, 2016.

Let me tell you about these options:

For 6 months we can renew at a rate of $1740.00 per month.
For  a year we can renew at a rate of $1325.00 per month {what we pay now}.

Holy freaking moly.  They want $415 more a month just because (and this is their reasoning) they don't want to turn our townhome over in the middle of winter?!?!  When our original renewal came up, they gave us the same options, but the option for a year, which would have had us moving out in December, was only $100 more a month.

So, I emailed one of the gals that works the front desk to inquire about month-to-month rates.  Just in case we need to go another month.  I'll explain all that jazz in a few.....

Her email back??

"The month to month rate is pretty high.  When do you need your lease to end?  I can check another lease term to see if the pricing is better?....."

You wanna know how high???  $2100.00 PER MONTH!

After I digest that ridiculous amount of money for the rental of a 3 bedroom 2 bath townhome, I emailed her back.  I asked what the rate would be if we needed to stay just through the end of June, but also through the end of July just in case.  I also threw in there the tid-bit that we are building a house, hoping that that might play into things.

I hope you're sitting down as you read this...

If we want to extend just through the end of June, our rent for the 1st-13th will be pro-rated at our current rate, and then we would pay the month to month rate for the remainder of the month.
That would be roughly $1700.00 total for a month.

If we want to extend through July, it's the month to month rate of $2100.00

For 3 more months (through September):  $2389.00
For 4 months (through October):  $1562.00

Wow, right?

So, we have pretty much decided that we will be out of that place by the 13th of June.  There is A LOT going on during that time, but we don't want to have to pay a bajillion dollars just to have a roof over our heads.

We have plans that exact week of June to go to Atlanta for a Reds baseball series.  This is the last year the Braves will be playing at Turner Field, so we wanna check that ballpark off of our list before it's gone.

This plays a part in the whole getting out of the townhome thing because why pay for that AND a hotel if we aren't even gonna be there for a weekend?!?!

And now about our house.  It's March 24th today.  We STILL haven't heard when we will have our pre construction meeting or when we will have our house even started.  I emailed our SR today just to get an idea, because I am pretty much panicking at this situation.  We FULLY thought that we would be in our new home by the end of June.  Which was perfect with our lease.

But, seeing as how it takes 13-ish weeks to build a home with Ryan Homes, that's no longer a feasible time table.  In fact- we are looking at the end of July based on the time table that our SR gave me today.  Our start date is 4/19 as of right now.  That could change slightly based on other developments and the schedule of our PM.

Wanna know what's going on at the end of July?  A family reunion.  One that my dad and granny fly up for EVERY year.  They already have their plane tickets bought for it.  Yet as it's looking-- we aren't gonna have a place for them to stay!!!

And the kicker to all of this...

Wait for it......
.....
.....
.....
.....

Because our mortgage took so long, that's what has bumped us back so far in the building process.  We started this whole process way back mid-December!!!
So, thanks so much for that NVR.  You're again on the top of my "favorite" list.

If I knew the house wouldn't have been built til JULY {and I knew what I know now}-- I would have flippin waited so I can at least get the island that I want in the house!!!!!!!!!

I'm angry.  I'm frustrated.  I'm freaking out. Panicking.  Worried.

We will be living in a hotel for about a month an a half.  Being the planner that I am, I have made a calendar from June 13th through August so I can figure out a bunch of things.  We have so much planned and so much going on.... And now we have to worry about where we are going to live.  One thing I was pretty much counting on not having to worry about.

And this also means we have to find movers to move us TWICE, and a storage unit... and a quadrillion other things between now and then.

Everything will work out though, I know that.  And eventually, we will be in our own home and hopefully looking back on this and just shaking our heads at how ridiculous it all "was", and enjoying a beer on our front porch.

Building Our {ALMOST} Dream Home

Well, we enjoyed a great time away for a long weekend over in Eastern Pennsylvania/Baltimore/DC visiting my baby brother and his family.  I haven't seen my niece for about 6 months, and her and her mommy are about to move to Hawaii.  Long story short: they're in the military and that's where she is being stationed next.
My brother on the other hand... he won't be going to Hawaii. He is heading overseas to do another tour in Afghanistan.
So, a trip was needed to visit everyone before they leave for all different corners of the world.

On Thursday, when we left for our little excursion, we got an email from our SR.  She was super apologetic, but let us know that we wouldn't be able to do a change order to get the kitchen island we wanted in our home.
Cue the tears.
I did good reading the email, but as soon as I opened my mouth to talk about it, I was crying.  I haven't wanted something for the house this badly til I saw this island.

But, because all of our permits and prints have been launched, we can't change anything unless they are part of the proper print.  Essentially, our floor plan for our Milan is an "06" version.  The floor plan with the kitchen island I am in love with is the "07" version.

I'm frustrated.  I know they consider this a "structural" change... but seriously... it's a couple table legs and some extra granite.  How that's a structural change that requires our blueprints to be redrawn AND new permits is beyond me.  It's so silly.

All for a kitchen island change.

And I was SO ready to wait longer to make sure we got this island.  We were made aware that the permits and prints might need to be "redone" because of this change, which means waiting even LONGER for our home.  But seriously?  If it means we are getting exactly what we want, we were willing to do it.  Change order charges (of $1,000) and all.

So our "dream home" has become and "almost" dream home.  I'm definitely okay with this now, because at this point I am MORE than ready to just have our lot staked, and then holes in the ground, and then a home we can call our own.  Especially because the fiasco we have had to deal with with NVR has pushed our build date back because all of that took so long.

And, we have already discussed it, and since it can't happen, we will just look into having a contractor come in and build onto the island and make me the kitchen island I want {and hopefully for less money too}.  This option stinks since we are already paying for the island to begin with and will just rip it out......

Here's that photo of the kitchen island I can't have.....  All because we have an older version of the floor plan {which- now that I think about it.... the Milan is a brand-spanking-new floor plan to Cincinnati... .so HOW is it possible that we DONT have the newest version?!?!!?!?  The brand new model home that has been built before we even break ground? IT is the 07 version.....  Sigh.  So much stress and headache over one silly island that I can't have.}

Oh well.

Like I said, I guess we just have to build it after we get into the home. It is what it is, right?

Now- y'all keep your fingers crossed that we actually hear this week about our pre-construction meeting!  The wait is driving me nuts!

Oh man.

What a week it's been.  Things got pretty stinkin' interesting on Friday this week.  More on that in a second though.

On Saturday we went out to the brand new finished Milan model to check it out and see it in all its beauty.  It was also furnished, haha!  Let me tell you... what a huge relief I felt after seeing it all furnished and complete.  I seriously love EVERYTHING about this house and can't wait to be in our very own.
Well. All but one thing.  I'm not thrilled with the size of the pantry.  I really do wish it were a bit larger than what it is.

And then there's this:

I originally thought I would not like the style of this island.  I wasn't sure that the table thingy at the end was something I wanted.  Boy, was I wrong.  Seeing it all complete in the house, I am IN LOOOOOOOOOVE with it.  So much that we have inquired about adding it into our home. 

There are a couple of things that can hinder this though.
For one- it's a structural change.  That means it's gonna cost us if we do upgrade it.

Second- This style island is available with the"07 floorplan".  After some research and questions, we found out that our floor plan for our house is the "06 floorplan".  So essentially, this table is a part of a new version of the floorplan and we can't get it.

Sigh.

But- cue the awesomeness of our SR.  She is going to ask to see if it can be an option that we add on. 

 So, fingers crossed that she asks and that she gets a good answer.  haha!  It could be a possibility for us to find something after we move in and add it on, but I am not sure that I am gonna want to do that as the granite won't match all the way through.  This looks so stinkin awesome in the kitchen and fills the space so well.

I want it.

So.

Bad.

Fingers crossed!!

And now let me tell you about Friday.

I got a call Friday from a manager at NVR named Donna.  She wanted to apologize for our bad experience that we have been having with getting our mortgage squared away.  We got to chat for a few minutes and I explained how I was feeling about our whole experience.
At that point in time, we still hadn't heard back from our loan processor about our approval letter.  Over a week since we securely FAXED and emailed a copy of our signed letter to them.  All we asked was for confirmation that they had gotten the letter.  And nothing.

So, I got to tell this Donna all about how I felt like we've been ignored for a lot of the process and how a lot of it has been so stressful.  She asked if we had been over our contingencies for our approval with our loan processor, Rebecca.  I had to let her know that we hadn't heard from her at all.

We now have a plan of sorts.  I will be talking with Rebecca on Monday {this will be my first time talking to her as Jason has handled all of this NVR stuff first hand and I've just stressed the whole time}.. I will go over the contingencies with her and ask any questions that I have.

Now, I have this feeling that NVR contacted me because of my last blog post.  Some of the little details that Donna, the manager, had mentioned while we were talking were things that at this point in time are minute and that happened way back at the beginning.  And now, when we email Rebecca, we actually get an automated response if she is out of the office {something we didn't get before, which coincidentally I had mentioned in the last blog post}.

So I'm pretty certain that I was contacted because of that blog post.  I am happy our issues are being addressed and I hope that for the remaining time we have to deal with NVR that we can have a bit of a better experience.

We go out of town at the end of this week to go visit my brother and his family in Pennsylvania. Hopefully when we get back we will be scheduling our preconstruction meeting and getting the ball rolling for our home.  It seems like it's been SO long since anything has happened as far as the house is concerned.  

Our NVR Mortgage Experience....

I've been sitting on this post for a while. For a couple of reasons:

1. I wanted to make sure we got our approval.  I didn't want to jinx anything, or give us bad luck by saying what I am going to say, and not officially have our mortgage approved yet
2.  I have a lot to say, and I needed to make sure that I wrote it all out and don't go completely crazy, because let's face it:  this process has made me crazy.

And I'm going to tell you-- this whole process has just made me feel vulnerable, like I'm not a good person, like I am stupid for trying to get my own home.... it's been horrible for the most part. And let me tell you why.

So, let's go back... alllll the way back to December 30, 2015.
This was our initial meeting with NVR.  We had done the whole pre-approval thing before we even moved forward with THINKING we could get a brand-spanking new house.  And we were quickly approved for WAY more than we would ever want to spend. Yay.

On December 30, we met with a rep of NVR mortgage to go over our information.  A different person from NVR had sent over a list of stuff that we should bring to the meeting with us...

• 2 years of employment history
• dependent information
• bank statements
• tax information from the past 2 years
• 2 most recent paychecks

I know there was more, but I can't find the email or paper list that they had given us.

Anyways.

We meet with the loan officer, Steve {this is now the THIRD person from NVR that we have dealt with since we decided to build our own home.  Within one month.} to go over our loan application.  

It seemed very cut and dry.  We need to work on our credit.  A credit specialist will be in contact with us probably right after the holiday to tell us what would be best with tackling this.  Besides that, we MAY need to give more documentation before everything goes to underwriting, but it should be pretty easy.  {As of March 4th, 2016-- still no call from a "credit specialist".}

I'm feeling pretty okay at this point.  This should be easy.  And, I honestly HATE anything that has to do with money.  It does nothing but stress me out and it's unnecessary stress, but it still gets to me. 

January 18th.  We are asked by our loan officer to fill out a budget letter.  It's basically a work sheet and we need to show the mortgage company WHERE we are getting the money for our 3.5% down payment, as well as additional costs for closing.
Well, we did something that apparently we probably should not have done.  We got a loan for some money to help us out with the down payment.  Essentially, we wanna do this NOW. To do it now, we need more money than we can generate on our own in a short 6-ish months.  So, we contacted our bank and talked about a loan.  No problem they say.  We are outstanding members at our bank, and people do this "all the time" for down payments on a home.
We were told by NVR and our loan officer, Steve, that this MIGHT be a problem, but we should be able to handle it and make it not a problem.  The problem being that we can't technically take money out for a loan for a down payment.  Loop hole was that we had gotten the loan before we signed anything for building a home of our own. But what if we can't use it?!

Now I start to freak out a little bit. We had money for our down payment, and we were being told that we might not be able to use it as our down payment.  Time to start freaking out and panicking.

 If we can't use this money towards our down payment, what in the hell are we going to do?! We've done EVERYTHING for this house so far.  All of our appointments are taken care of, everything is picked out for our home, and we are just dreaming of the day we get the keys and it becomes our own.  We even take dates to Home Depot and Lowes and pick out colors and accessories for each room.  It all seemed so easy and now you're giving me this. Crap.

Heart-to-heart talks were had between hubby and me.  Tears were shed {by me}.  This is what we want.  Sure, we could wait, but there's no reason why we can't do this now.  Why one person tells us that the money we have will be okay and the next person says no way??  That sucks.  But, we are gonna figure it out so that THIS home is ours.  Even if we have to eat Ramen for the next six months to save every penny we make.  So be it.

The solution:  We had to have that down payment money "gifted" to us.  Against my pride. And believe me-- I am a stubborn and proud person that HATES asking for any kind of help. 

 Thankfully we had someone who was willing and able to "gift" us what we needed to avoid all this baloney that NVR was giving us about the down payment we already had. Whew.

January 28th.  We now have a new NVR person we are working with.  Rebecca.  She's a SENIOR loan processor. She was going to be helping us get all of the paperwork we needed in order to get the loan into underwriting. She sent us an email with a list of what we needed.
Let me also say that her communication is below sub-par.  She originally emailed us to say "hello" and to set up a time to chat about what we need to do to get our loan to underwriting.  Well, I had Jason taking care of this part.  He understands it all way more than I do.  So, he set up a time to chat with Rebecca about everything we needed.  This was scheduled for like, 2 in the afternoon one day. During the week. While at work.  Jason took time out of his work day to go and have this conversation with her.  Well, she never called him.  He tried calling her and no answer.

In short, she pretty much had to reschedule another time to talk with him because a meeting ran over or some nonsense like that. Very irritating, and very unprofessional in my opinion.  Shoot him an email from your meeting, or call as soon as your meeting is over.  Don't wait for us to be hounding you so that we can talk.

Anyways, they did finally get that phone call taken care of, and afterwards she emailed over a list of things we needed to send over to get our loan into underwriting.  

Let me give you this list:

1. Gift Letter explaining where our "gift" money was coming from.
2. Dates of MY employment for the past 2 years {remember: we gave this to them WAY back at our application meeting}
3. "Brief" letter explaining derogatory credit on credit report {this becomes comical by the middle of February}
4. Budget letter needs to state more than what we gave them {what?}
5. Short sale information- because the credit report with the settlement date listed there isn't good enough
6. Bank Statements for December and January {already gave them current bank statements}
7. 401K Statements
8. W2's for 2015 {the past 2 weren't good enough? I get that the newest ones will be better, but geez.}
9. last paystub of 2015 for me {because the three I gave your previously aren't good enough?  Really?!}

Half of this stuff was frustrating because we have already given it. How does Nov/Dec paychecks differ from Dec/Jan?  I really don't know.

And by this time, we had conflicting things going on, with one loan person telling us we needed this, this and this, and the other loan person telling us we needed twelve different things.

We submitted everything to Rebecca, our SENIOR loan processor on February 5th.
I had everything organized, with a cover letter, and IN ORDER from the email that Rebecca had sent us.  I wanted no excuses or questions as to what something was, or any other kind of nonsense they  might try to feed us.

On February 8th we find out that they need to verify Jason's employment at his current job.
Say WHAT?!?!?
Yes. Something they should have done how long ago?!?!  Apparently they had GOOGLED the number for his company and it was a dead end.  So, he had to get in contact with them and get them to fill out paperwork for them.  This took two days.
Which means that our files weren't submitted to underwriting until February 10th!!!  But hey, at least they're finally in underwriting, right?


Fast-forward to February 19th-- It has been TWO WEEKS since we gave the information to NVR for underwriting.. TWO WEEKS. Yeah, I know only one week that it's been in underwriting, but still.

Jason emailed them to find out what the situation was.  Our loan processor, Rebecca, emailed back quickly saying that she was looking through information from the underwriter and would get back to him shortly.
Here's the great part.  Rebecca has been OUT because she broke her foot. Now, we have emailed a couple of times regarding a few things, and have gotten no response.  So naturally, the feeling of being ignored sets in.  And then frustration. Why weren't they getting back to us?
And then we find out that she broke her foot.  A simple auto-reply email stating you were out of the office would have been SO GREAT and a much more professional approach then just not having anything set up and making your clients feel neglected.  Again. So unprofessional.
So, like I said.  Jason had emailed her that morning.  She emailed back that she was going through the underwriter's notes and she would call.
Wouldn't you know it...... They have MORE documentation that they need.
MORE.


This time, they wanted:

1.   Short Sale LETTER explaining why I had a short sale
2.  Bankruptcy LETTER explaining a bankruptcy for Jason from years ago.
3.  EXACT employment dates for my time at one job several years ago.  Again, in a LETTER form, and also explaining why I left that job. {apparently the resume with my months of employment listed on it wasn't good enough}
4. ANOTHER letter, this time explaining a gap in employment {when hubby lost his job due to downsizing}

And remember that money that I mentioned we had for a down payment?? It might not even be OK to have that at all at this point and we might have to "get rid of it" before we close {read: we have to pay off the loan before we close. No problem because we were gifted that money at this point, but our loan is going to be used for moving expenses and buying essentials for when we get in the house-- like a fridge and a fence for our dogs}.

Tears are shed. Again.  Lots of them.  This is beyond ridiculous.  We make way more than enough money for this house.  We have things in the "past"-- but let's face it.  That's all the past, and we have made ourselves way better since then and have learned from mistakes.

This is way too much stress. Way too much.  I know I am about at a breaking point by now.  Jason told them that our loan was a deal breaker.  If we can't keep it, we can't sign for a mortgage with NVR.  We had plans to do things with that money after we closed, and why is this such a big deal anyways?! We replaced the money with gift money, it has been sourced and accounted for and we should have NO PROBLEMS as of this point.

February 22-- Jason finally gets a call! Our loan processor, Rebecca, had to talk to her boss's boss, but we can keep our loan money! Thank goodness.  We have to put it into a separate bank account so it doesn't "mix" with our Ryan Homes monies {down payments, closing costs, etc}. So yay to that.  And we were told that we should hear the final decision from the underwriter by the end of the next day.

February 25- Jason emailed to find out what was going on. Sent the email to the loan processor, Rebecca, as well as our loan officer, Steve.  We figured emailing both of them was best just in case Rebecca was out because of her broken leg, or something along those lines.
Well, Rebecca emailed back nearly immediately telling us that there was no news yet.  She was waiting for a response and will let us know as soon as she has word. She also apologized, saying she realized this was a stressful time.
Not long after that, Steve called.  He relayed the same information that Rebecca had.  He mentioned that they were both "watching it like a hawk" so that they could let us know as soon as they knew.
Fast-forward a few hours later.  Rebecca now calls.  She went through our stuff, just to see if she could be proactive in bringing anything up that the underwriters might still want {WHAT?!}. The "only" thing she could find was that they might want to have a copy of my divorce decree showing that I don't owe any alimony or anything fun like that.
Ugh. More.Fricken.Papers.
So, it's been twenty days by this point. And we still don't have an approval {or denial, or whatever you might want to call being turned down}.

February 29- We get an email from our SALES REP, Shelli, telling us that she just got the word that our loan was APPROVED!!! And this email came through after 8 pm at night!!

March 1-  Around 2pm, Jason FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY gets the call from the loan processor, Rebecca.  So much for watching the progress of our loan "like a hawk" if it takes nearly a half business day to get back to us {and this is only irritating because we heard the night before that we had finally gotten our approval}.

We have contingencies, little ones that we have nearly taken care of at this point... and paperwork. MORE paperwork, but nothing bogus that they don't already have.

HUGE sighs of relief have been had.  It feels so incredibly different now to FINALLY have our approval.

Like, now-- this house really CAN be ours.  It feels different than going through all of these motions to "potentially" have our house being built for us.

End point:  I am not happy with NVR.  To go through all of this, and have it all be considered a "seamless" process, and to have it be easier for paperwork and blah blah because they are sister company-- load of baloney.  And, we still have months to deal with them til our home is complete and we close.

I can make excuses if I want to about them to make myself feel better-- but honestly? I fell like the majority of this could have been handled a lot better and more professional than what it was.

I will say that I know their underwriters have been really busy in our area with lots of new home loans and such, but still-- we are just as important as that next stack of papers on your desk and I don't feel like we were treated that way.

I fully anticipate more headaches and more stress.  But, that approval makes it all worth it, right?

And, a quick update before I do post:  It's March 4 now..... we faxed AND emailed our approval letter earlier in the day. No response to it yet.  It would be great to have confirmation from ONE of the two people we sent the email to that they received the fax we sent..... or even the attachment to the email we also sent.
Le sigh.
It's worth it, right?

And, if you made it to the end of this one, props to you. Go have a beer or something.  This was a damn long post, haha!

Long Waits, Home and Garden Shows and Approvals!

It seems like it's been waaaaaaay too long since I have posted anything.
We signed and started this whole process back in December and here it is MARCH already!! How is that even possible?!?!!

We have definitely been keeping busy.  Doing lots of things on the weekends to keep ourselves busy as we wait and wait and wait for NVR to get back with us about our mortgage.  We LEGIT gave them all the things they needed for the underwriter on February 5th.

We have been taking "dates" to Home Depot, Lowes, Menards and IKEA to get ideas and just browse all the different things we could want to do once we get into our new home.  Plus, we will need to have things like ceiling fans, a fridge, and a few other little things.  So, how adult are we to hang out at the hardware stores.

This past weekend we spent some time at the Cincinnati Home and Garden show.  I thank Facebook for that ad. I had NO clue it was going on, but Facebook kindly let me know and we went!  It was neat, but I think NEXT year we will have more fun.  They gear a lot towards home improvement projects, or adding things to your home that doesn't exist.  Well, we are already getting a finished basement.   Same with a deck.  So, we had fun, walked around and saw the things.... Decided we want a hot tub.... and got some free swag.  We even grabbed stuff for our sales rep, Shelli.  She said she was bummed she couldn't go, so I just had to get her some goodies.

Quick pic from my phone from the show.  It was gigantic and takes up all of the Duke Energy Center.  Totally different experience from being at RedsFest and celebrating my most favorite sport in the entire world, along with my favorite team.

And how about that last word in the title.... APPROVAL!!!!

We found out last night that we had officially been approved for our mortgage with NVR.  Our SALES REP emailed us {around 8pm} to let us know that we had been approved!! She knew how long we had been waiting, and as soon as she saw it come across, she knew she HAD to let us know!!!

I have a post I have been saving about our NVR experience, and after some tweaking I will be posting that.   It's been a rough experience-- that's what I will say for now.

So hopefully within the next couple of weeks, we get some fun stuff scheduled and get this wonderful house we have been dreaming about built!!!

It is a whole different kind of awesome KNOWING you've been approved and can officially build your dream home!

Instagram Fun!

So, there's not too much going on for us lately that is house related.  I swear I stalk blogs WAY too much and can't wait to finally be starting on our own.

We have been having one helluva time with that lovely mortgage company, NVR.  No worries, I will eventually be telling y'all all about it.  I just don't want to jinx anything on that end.  We did give them ALL of the paperwork they asked us for today, so let's just hope the next week flies!!

In the meantime, I thought I would show you a sign, haha!

This photo was posted on Ryan Homes Instagram account yesterday....

A sheltie!!!



That's a total sign that we definitely went with the right builder and that we SHOULD be building, even with the headaches we have to endure.

So, you guys keep your fingers crossed for our underwriting process, and hopefully we can get this ball rolling!!!

Have a great weekend!!