Pre- Construction Meeting!

So we had our pre-construction meeting yesterday, April 11th.
We FINALLY got to meet our PM, Russ and discuss OUR home.  Our SR, Shelli, was supposed to be there but was out sick, so it was just us, Russ and a new guy named Greg.

I know I've been waiting SO SO SO long for this meeting.

Our meeting took about an hour and a half.. Two hours if you count going out to the lot in the pouring rain to check out our layout and how everything will look.
So worth it.

I had a TON of questions.  I waited until we were finished with the meeting to ask anything I had, just in case they were already answered along the way.  I scoured the internet for any question I could think possible to ask.  Experiences from my fellow bloggers, and photos I have found for things that I had questions for.

Russ was great during our meeting.  Went over lots of stuff, gave us some good news for some of the questions I had, and we are SO excited to start this building process {finally}!  We went over our plans for each floor of the home, made sure our selections were all "right", and then went over the plot plan showing how our home will sit on the lot, elevation stuff and size of the lot.

It was a ton of information, but I feel like I  learned a lot.

Gonna list out questions and answers so I can reference them later, and so this little corner of the world can check out potential questions for pre-construction meetings if ya want :-)


THINGS TO DOUBLE CHECK:
We asked these just to make sure we are getting them with the house.  These are things that came up looking at floor plans and such.

• Double vanity in the hall bathroom.-- YEP! It's on the plans!
• Door for morning room and walk out door. NOT sliding doors.-- YEP! No screen door on the door for the morning room and only one side opens, but it's an actual door for both.
• Grout colors for the master bath.-- I saw this on another blog and realized that we never chose our grout colors.  I forgot to ask this at our meeting and will ask our SR about it.

KITCHEN ISLAND QUESTIONS:

So, I have fallen in love with a kitchen island that we can't get in our home.  Read all about it here and then the disappointing news that we can't build it here.  Silly silly rules that say it can't be done. *sigh*.  Anyways-- I asked a few questions about it to try and start making a game plan for a potential build after we move in...

• Design (layout) of island-- saw this on the floorplans when going over them.  We got the "smaller" kitchen island, not the gourmet.  The cabinets will face the stove. Outlet on the other side of the cabinet openings.
• Will there be flooring under the island?-- didn't ask this, basically because this is seeming like more and more of a feat that isn't going to happen with the island that I want.
• Can we get information for cabinet and granite companies to hopefully obtain the same materials to make the island that I "want"?-- this was a bit more difficult than I though.  The answer was "maybe".  I think because I originally asked about potentially getting a separate piece of granite cut that will match the rest- that threw this question off-- but essentially, we will get the information anyways for the cabinet and granite companies.  So if we want to work with them to build the island I want, then we can do it from that point.

BASEMENT QUESTIONS:
Pretty cut and dry here... just a few questions in this "category"

• Do we get balusters in the basement?- YES.  We upgraded the balusters in the main part of the house to the white spindles and stained rails, and they will be the same in the basement.
• Will there be a window in the exercise room?- YES!  This one was a surprise as I have seen different answers from different people on their blogs.  We do get a small window in the exercise room, even though that room is to be unfinished.
• What type of lighting do we have in the basement?-  recessed lighting.  In the exercise room you get a pull chain and in the media room it's a switched light (not recessed)
• Is there a concrete slab at the walkout?- yes.  a 3x3 concrete slab at the walk out door.  There will also be a 3x3 slab at the foot of the deck stairs.
• Is it possible to have the basement finished with the hallway at the exercise room for a future finishing of the exercise room?-- I know this sounds confusing.  And I didn't even bother asking in the meeting.  I was getting too many "that would have to be a change order" answers that this one just didn't seem relevant anymore.  But basically, I wanted to have the wall wrap around to a small hallway that went to the door of the exercise room so that it was all the same when we went to finish the exercise room.  I'm sure that'll all just happen once we decide to finish that part of the basement anyways.

PM QUESTIONS:

Researching brought up a few questions to ask the PM.  I'm glad we did this because it let us learn a little bit more about him and he liked these questions a lot.

• How long have you been doing this?-- Russ has been doing this about 19 years.  He started out with Drees, came over to Ryan Homes, left to start up his own business and has been back with Ryan Homes since November (I might be wrong on the coming back part. I don't remember for sure).   The part about his own business, he liked it, but he was basically doing twice as much work and making the same amount of money.  I totally get that.  He is local to our area, told us about his college and bragged on himself for a few minutes, which was fun.
• When can we visit?-- pretty much whenever we want, as long as we let him know we are coming so that he can be there with us.  No shenanigans of visiting when he's not there as it's a liability if we step on a nail or fall two floors to the basement floor if there's temporary railing and it's not secured right or something like that.  Who wants to start their new home with memories like that?  Agreed.
• What's the best way to get in touch with you?-- He gave us email, cell phone and said the best way is to call.  If it's a few words, just shoot an email or text but if it's paragraphs, phone calls are best. Easy enough.
• When/how will we get updates?-- as anything big happens, he will contact us to let us know. He said that it's a fun process and the more involved you are the more fun it is, but on that same note he's had folks that have come to the pre-construction meeting and then not see them again til the pre-drywall meeting and then the final walkthrough.  That's craziness.  And I told him that we would definitely be visiting as much as we could.  We are too excited about this to miss anything.
• Do you have any planned vacation during our building process??  -- He does.  The beginning of July.  But he was confident that Greg, the guy that was at the meeting with us, will help us if we have any questions or anything while he's away.

Other things I liked:  He said that he always wants our satisfaction to be at a 10.  If at any time he's not meeting that, to let him know.  If we see something while visiting that's bothering us, mention it then.  Don't brood on it and let it bother us.  In some instances, it might not get fixed right away, but he promises it'll all be fixed by the time we are ready to close.  He really seems like a great guy and we are excited to work with him.  The smart ass in me wanted to tell him then that he was only performing at a 9 1/2 because we were standing in the rain talking (we had just finished our lot walk through) and he didn't have an umbrella.  But who am I kidding? I was really happy we were out there talking about our lot and what everything is gonna look like.

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS:
This is just a hodge podge of questions that I collected from internet research, curiosity and blog reading.  Some I ended up not asking and some really don't make sense, but I figured I should ask just in case it does come up later or make sense later on. haha! But rest assured- the majority of these are legit questions that I wanted to know the answer to!

• Hose bib placement-- we have one on the side of the house (non-garage side) and then one on the back of the house.  The back of the house makes me happy.  We do have a TON of yard to water and try to make grow.
• Light switch locations
• porch lights-- switch in the foyer hall.  I also like that our porch lights are recessed.  Fancy.
• garage lights--controlled by the switch in the family entry.  Kinda wanted this to be controlled by the same switch as the porch lights, but it's not a huge deal.
• Thermostat location-- in the dining room
• Can the thermostat be controlled by floor?-- forgot to ask about this, but figure our house probably isn't "big enough" to warrant this.  Would be cool, but that's okay
• Outside lighting- what's included?- Garage coach lights, recessed porch lights, light at the door of the walk out and light at the door to the morning room on the deck.  We might explore the option of a flood light later to light up the back yard, but we'll see. 
• Deck- do we have options for what type of deck?--no options on this.  You basically pick your deck size and you get the pretreated deck wood.  Was hoping this was an option and we could do a super bad ass looking deck.... but no such luck.  However, I am loving the size and layout of our deck.  It's gigantic.
• Layout and stair location?-- comes off the morning room.  The stairs will parallel the morning room and the ground will kinda slope to meet the stairs at a point.  There will also be a 3x3 concrete slab at the base of the stairs.  The walkout door is below the deck.
• Garage- is it pitched for drainage?-- didn't ask.  But I feel pretty confident that it'll all be good after talking about drainage and all they do for the  home as its being built either on the lot or the home itself.
• Painting- if we paint before our 10 month inspection, does it void the drywall warranty?-- nope. It pretty much works like this:  you paint when you want.  Just realize during the 10 month drywall inspection, they'll repair any part of the drywall that needs fixed which means you'll have to paint back over it after they repair it.  Still on the fence whether or not I want to wait or start painting as soon as we are in.
• Fixtures- are we getting brushed nickel?- brushed nickel fixtures and door handles.  Chrome for the bathroom faucets and kitchen sink faucets.
• Attic access location?-- it's in Bedroom #2.  This pretty much can't be changed.  It's decently out of sight, but I was hoping it could go somewhere more discreet.  It can't be done like that because you need to allow access if WE ever need it, but also if there's ever an emergency and firefighters or someone need to get up there.
• Are there sidewalks on our streets?- yes
• Termite treatment done during the build?-- didn't ask.  This question was at the bottom of my page and I just forgot.
• Locations of outlets?  If we need one where one isn't placed, or if we want one moved, how does that work?-- I'm pleased with the amount of outlets we get.  I don't THINK we will need to move or add any, and really- I don't know that it's an option without it being a change order.
• Are there outside outlets?-- yep.  We have one outside outlet on the front porch and one on the deck.
• Are dimmer switches an option?- negative Ghost Rider.  We can, however, "easily" install them ourselves once we move in.
• Is the garage dry-walled?-  didn't ask.  I personally HATE the way garages look that aren't finished.  I'll probably want to finish this once we move in just because I'm like that.
• Epoxy- is it okay to do right away?-- forgot to ask this one too.  We want to epoxy and figure it's best to do it once we first get in that way the garage is clean and we actually tackle this project.  
• Can we run a pipe under the driveway for a future lamp post?-- the location of our electric box kinda gave this one a "no".  It would be easier to just trench a hole and put it there yourself.  Are solar lights an option for this?  We might go that way.  And I really am not 100% sure that I want a lamp post, but figured I would ask anyways.
• Morning room-- does it come with the light in the ceiling?- nope. It does not.  This was a huge deal for us.  I just assumed it did.  I THINK we will probably make the morning room the room where we do most of our dining.  I don't want to dine with just a table lamp or something of that sort.  So, Russ told us that this would have to be a change order.  I told him we absolutely HAD to have this one.  He added it onto our plans so the electrician would see it, and made a note to talk to our SR, Shelli about it.  I was able to chat with Shelli and we got it taken care of so that we can add it on.  Change order complete and ceiling fan rough-in added.  We went with the ceiling fan rough-in because if we want to hang a chandelier, it'll need the added support.  Yay for getting this taken care of and added!!  And props to our SR for being on top of it after being out sick.
• Ceilings- are the smooth or textured?-- didn't ask.  Being observant, my guess is textured.  This is one of those questions I saw on EVERY blog I read.  I don't really understand the purpose of it, so I'm not concerned that I didn't ask.. And besides, if it is textured, can they change it?  Probably has to be a change order {haha}
• Is there lighting over the shower?-- There is!  and it's recessed lighting.  There is one in the hall bath over the shower and then in the master, there's a recessed light over the shower and over the tub.  I like this a lot and glad it's not an added extra we have to purchase.
• Is there tile above the showerhead?--  Yep.  I've seen Ryan Homes where the tile stops before the showerhead, and I've seen Ryan Homes where the tile goes above the showerhead.  I prefer the latter.  And I was prepared to argue to get that my way so it looks nicer.
• Dryer vent hookup- can it be placed higher or flush with the wall so the dryer backs all the way up to the wall?-- Nope.  There's a 4 inch "pipe" for your vent to go.  In the future we can do one of those magic box things or whatever if we want it flush with the wall.  Interesting though, our PM mentioned that when we move in we may have to buy a 4-prong plug for the dryer and that we should also buy new hoses for the washer.  Wrote those notes down so we can remember that months from now.
• Are there screens on all the windows?- There are.  Glad for this as I've noticed in the model homes we've visited, there are NOT.  I love to open the windows when it is cooler outside.   There will not be a screen on the morning room door or front door.  I might explore the option of a screen contraption for the morning room door at some point.  Maybe.
• Vent fan in the master bath-- location, and can it be moved?- nope.  The vent fan in the master bath is in the water closet.  I get this, but I really wish we could add one inside the bathroom itself.  Not an option.  Well. Wait.  Yes it is.  With a change order.
• Can we keep all the leftover materials?-- Yes.  There won't be "tons", but any leftover hardwood, tile, paint, etc, they'll leave for us.
• Sump pump- do we have one?-- We do not have a sump pump.  I like this.  Know why?? Because I have no flippin' idea what a sump pump is.  This girl is born and raised from Florida.  We don't have basements.  Our lot will have a gravity drain that will take water from the home to the slope of the back yard.  I am pretty sure this also has to do with the fact that we have a walkout.  But yay.  We don't have to spend several hundred dollars on a sump pump backup battery. 
• Is there a weight limit on the driveway when its first poured?-- they say not to park anything over XXX pounds or tons or something like that for 28 days.  We asked this just because we heard about the whole don't park the moving truck on the driveway.  Our PM also mentioned that we would want to seal our driveway as well.  He also said that we would go over all this again at our final walkthrough stuff.  But, I had no idea you should seal a driveway.
• Granite "lip"-- is it possible to not have this installed?-- yes and no.  I don't want the "lip" of the granite there so that there's a smooth transition for backsplash later on down the line.  Apparently, it's removable if we don't want it there.  He advised to keep that "lip" because there's a chance that if we remove it that there might be a gap in between the wall and the counter and it won't look right.  It makes sense, and we'll probably just leave it there.. I just hope it looks good with backsplash.
• Polar bear and/or cheetah enclosure- what's your experience with building one of these along with the house?-- I ended my questions on this.  It was a total joke and after they realized I wasn't serious, I got some laughs.  Let me explain.....  The Columbus Zoo currently has a sweet little polar bear:
  

• And then the Cincinnati Zoo has this sweet little set of Cheetah cubs:

I frequently joke that I "need" these cute little furry things.  And of course, they'll just always stay this small.  So I figured I'd let our PM know that we are easy going and hopefully easy to deal with by making a cute little joke at the end of our meeting...  The new guy that was with our PM, Greg.. he laughed and said we might not be able to get the right permits for them.

All joking aside-- our meeting went well.  We went over our plot plans after I asked all of my questions.  Our PM made copies of everything we signed from the plans and gave them to us.  Is it weird that I really love the electrical plans?  I'm not into any of that stuff, but it's so neat seeing all the squiggly lines and know where your lights are going to be, where your light switches are and what they control and where your outlets are going to be. And just having all those plans and know they're for YOUR house.  It's kinda cool.

Our plot plans were pretty easy to go over.  We were shown where our house would sit on the lot, how much yard we have on each side, where the deck sits, and where things like water and gas will come in.

Then, we braved the weather and went out in the chilly-ness and pouring down rain to see our lot.  It was muddy and pouring, but it was really nice.  To know where everything sits, the elevation our house will be on.... it's getting real.

OHHH!!! And one more exciting thing that we found out.. because of our elevation and where the porch is, we will be getting porch railing!  I had never thought about it, kinda wanted it, but knew it wasn't gonna happen if I asked.  But- because we will have a "drop off", essentially, from where the front porch is to the yard (it's like 30 inches or so) we will have porch railing!  It makes the porch look so nice and I am soooo excited for it!

And, if you've made it to the end of this post, you get a bit more fun news.  The plan is to break ground next week.  I know the dates could change, and things will probably happen... BUT-- one of the first things that our PM mentioned, was that on paper, and based on our start date and timeline, our house should be finished by mid-July!!!!!  Yes!! MID JULY!  I wanted to get up and hug him right then and there!  I've been so stressed about our rent with our apartment complex and how things are going to work out when we are nearly finished with the house and with everything else that will be going on during that time.  But just the possibility that we could be finished and closed before the end of July-- I'm ecstatic!

And finally, a photo of our lot all staked out!  We actually visited it on Saturday evening after our Reds game.  We also stopped by the model that day just to get a refresher on things and to help out with any questions I potentially wanted to ask.  I gotta tell you... seeing OUR lot with stakes on it- it was such a great feeling.  Like, brought tears to my eyes.   And then, after we officially figured out what our stakes were on the day of our pre-construction meeting, we went to Logan's Roadhouse and had us a steak "lunch" to celebrate our stakes.  

Steak dinner.  Just a side note-- I'm not much of a steak eater.  But, this was delicious and a great way to celebrate our stakes!!

So there ya have it!  Our pre-construction meeting is done and it was good.  Everything is so real and exciting and we are anxious to get a hole in the ground!!!

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!