This was a relatively busy week, full of frustration and some progress here and there. We finally got the revisions from John and we are happy. The size has ballooned to 1948 sq ft., something I was really hoping to avoid. With a two-story house, it's really difficult to get it at a particular size. There are certain things you want on the bottom floor, and you have that footprint to build on top of, no matter what you want upstairs.
I was hoping to have the final construction drawings done by the Friday, but John was just too busy to be able to finish them. One big surprise- he told us we would need to have structural drawings done by an engineer- something I wasn't aware of, and said they should be under $2000. That was a real shock. I think it was something that was just so common he assumed we would know about it. David James, one of the builders we are looking at is also an engineer and can do them himself. One of the other builders said the lumber supply company will draw them up for you if you agree to buy all your lumber from them. So evidently we probably won't have to pony up the $2000.
Wednesday we closed on our Raleigh house, after taking out the last remaining items- cleaning supplies, tools and a chair and a ladder. As much as we liked the house, it was easy to say goodbye. We've been moving out over the last 9 months and that made the parting much easier. The buyers were at the closing, which I wasn't expecting. It was nice to meet them and tell them how much we thought they would like the house. They (or their realtor) had caused us some last minute headaches complaining about the location of the radon mitigation system (in the master bedroom closet) but there was no other place to put it. We thought the closing might be delayed but everything ended up working fine.
The lender from BB&T finally wrote us back last night, 8 days after I asked her 4 simple questions. She answered one. Unbelievably bad service- I really don't want to give her my business anymore.
We met the builder David James over at the lot on Thursday and he said he didn't think we would have to have a crawlspace, but that it would probably be better. He also suggested we flip the house and put the house on the up-side of the lot, something that probably seems obvious now, but we had gotten so used to the plans as they were, we didn't think of flipping. It will also make the entrance side prettier, as the backside was going to be facing the entrance- the part you'd see every day when you drive in.
As of Wednesday night, I hadn't heard back from our lender at BB&T (after 6 days) so I decided to start talking to Jeff at Wrightsville Mortgage. He was very helpful and responsive. I wish that I had spoken to him first. I went over to his office on Friday afternoon and we went through everything. I'm much more confident we can pull this off by May 5 through his company. The terms are actually better as well. My Beacon score, something I never really thought about is causing a little bit of hassle. The middle score is 695, and a lot of terms get better when you're over 700. I'm not sure why my score isn't perfect- probably a couple of late payments because of our mail getting forwarded, or perhaps when we changed banks, but it was enough to cause me some headaches now. It has really pissed me off that it's not higher- my own fault. Construction loans are a real tricky puzzle to put together, based on the amount the lot and plans appraise for, but I think we're going to be able to borrow around $340,000. With the lot costing $122,00, that leaves us $218,000 for the house- which means we're probably not going to build a garage for starters, and may mean a couple of other sacrifices we have to make- mainly because the size as gotten up to 1948 sq ft.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Waiting on revisions
It was Easter Weekend and that helped pass the time, but it was murder this weekend waiting on the revisions from John. We had add 100 sq. ft to the top floor to make the back gable wall flush with the back, and I guess it's a significant amount of work.
I sent him the email at 11:00am Friday morning. It's Monday night and I haven't heard anything from him. In my profession, we usually respond to any email with something letting the sender know that we have received their email. I sent an email this afternoon at 4pm asking if he had gotten the Friday revision email and haven't heard anything. It seems like things are different in the real estate/construction industry. It seems totally acceptable not to respond to emails and to take 2 to 3 days to get back to someone on a pressing question. Our lender has so far been the most difficult to get a hold of. She seems really busy- it's not like I think she's out playing golf, it's just frustrating that it takes 4-5 days to get an answer from her.
We're still scheduled to close on May 5 and it's going to be really tight. I was hoping to have the construction drawings done by the end of this week but it's looking like that is not going to happen. Last night, I sent out an email to all of the prospective builders, asking them how long they would need to get an estimate together. Most of them said between 1-2 weeks, which seems reasonable to me.
I went over to the lot twice this weekend at two different times to see how the sun came into the site. It was really nice, especially the late afternoon sun. There's a stand of trees in the back corner that will give us a lot of shade on the back porch in the late afternoon. LeAnne went to Lowes and has already found a washer and dryer that's much nicer than I planned on us having. She realizes the battle you face when you build a new house: When you buy a used one, you just sort of accept much of what's there- it's just to much work to question every single detail (and too expensive anyway). When your building a house, every little decision has a thousand possible answers and it can really wear you down. What color is the counter? What kind of pulls? Meaning what shape? What finish? Nickel? Brushed Nickel? Brass? And wasn't the washer we had kind of inadequate? Don't you need the 5 cubic foot capacity? 4.5 wasn't quite enough, was it? I've already fought that battle (and lost) with the little details that I wanted. The bunkroom, the stair tread that wraps around and becomes a bench, etc. It's very difficult to strike a balance when there are so many sacrifices to make.
Anyway... the waiting is difficult. You want to feel like you're moving forward everyday, but at this early stage it's difficult.
I sent him the email at 11:00am Friday morning. It's Monday night and I haven't heard anything from him. In my profession, we usually respond to any email with something letting the sender know that we have received their email. I sent an email this afternoon at 4pm asking if he had gotten the Friday revision email and haven't heard anything. It seems like things are different in the real estate/construction industry. It seems totally acceptable not to respond to emails and to take 2 to 3 days to get back to someone on a pressing question. Our lender has so far been the most difficult to get a hold of. She seems really busy- it's not like I think she's out playing golf, it's just frustrating that it takes 4-5 days to get an answer from her.
We're still scheduled to close on May 5 and it's going to be really tight. I was hoping to have the construction drawings done by the end of this week but it's looking like that is not going to happen. Last night, I sent out an email to all of the prospective builders, asking them how long they would need to get an estimate together. Most of them said between 1-2 weeks, which seems reasonable to me.
I went over to the lot twice this weekend at two different times to see how the sun came into the site. It was really nice, especially the late afternoon sun. There's a stand of trees in the back corner that will give us a lot of shade on the back porch in the late afternoon. LeAnne went to Lowes and has already found a washer and dryer that's much nicer than I planned on us having. She realizes the battle you face when you build a new house: When you buy a used one, you just sort of accept much of what's there- it's just to much work to question every single detail (and too expensive anyway). When your building a house, every little decision has a thousand possible answers and it can really wear you down. What color is the counter? What kind of pulls? Meaning what shape? What finish? Nickel? Brushed Nickel? Brass? And wasn't the washer we had kind of inadequate? Don't you need the 5 cubic foot capacity? 4.5 wasn't quite enough, was it? I've already fought that battle (and lost) with the little details that I wanted. The bunkroom, the stair tread that wraps around and becomes a bench, etc. It's very difficult to strike a balance when there are so many sacrifices to make.
Anyway... the waiting is difficult. You want to feel like you're moving forward everyday, but at this early stage it's difficult.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Plans are evidently not perfect.
We had talked to John about building a screened in back porch, something that we thought would be a relatively simple affair. It has caused us to redesign the entire 2nd floor. Huh?
Just to show how much of a puzzle this thing is, adding a screened in porch on the back of the house has us scrambling to redesign everything upstairs. The roofline of the screened in porch was going to be so flat/low that we were going to have to use a metal roof, something that would have been really expensive. When John designed the upstairs, he didn't make the back gable wall go all the way to the back of the house (to save on square footage) and I think now that we got around to doing some side elevations we realized how much of a problem that was going to cause, especially with a porch (of any kind).
So LeAnne and I are trying to reach a consensus on the upstairs. Our square footage has again ballooned, and is now over 1900 sq. ft. So much for our humble 1300 sq. ft. cottage.
Just to show how much of a puzzle this thing is, adding a screened in porch on the back of the house has us scrambling to redesign everything upstairs. The roofline of the screened in porch was going to be so flat/low that we were going to have to use a metal roof, something that would have been really expensive. When John designed the upstairs, he didn't make the back gable wall go all the way to the back of the house (to save on square footage) and I think now that we got around to doing some side elevations we realized how much of a problem that was going to cause, especially with a porch (of any kind).
So LeAnne and I are trying to reach a consensus on the upstairs. Our square footage has again ballooned, and is now over 1900 sq. ft. So much for our humble 1300 sq. ft. cottage.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Houston, we have a lot!
Finally. Today we officially have struck a deal with the owners of the 1114 Upper Reach lot and are giving them the contract and earnest money tomorrow. It is a much better place for us, really. We've come to terms with the fact that the Master's Lane was probably wrong for us. This lot will age much better, the house should appreciate much better... yada yada yada.
We are so excited we can't stand it. We've been living with my parents since July of last year and are really ready to be back on our own again. My parents have been incredibly gracious lending us half their house and lives for the past 9 months. I can't wait to give it back to them.
I'll post some pictures of the place tomorrow, but we've been sitting around like giddy school girls talking about what we're most excited about... Our own kitchen? Sitting on the back porch? Leaving the living room messy? We just can't decide where to start.
Anyhoos... We're finally on our way. It's scheduled to close on May 5 I believe. We'll have to get our house plans turned into final construction drawings (about a week I think), and have a couple of builders bid them out (3 weeks I think) and have the bank do an appraisal on the lot and house (who knows???) before then. Should be fun.
We are so excited we can't stand it. We've been living with my parents since July of last year and are really ready to be back on our own again. My parents have been incredibly gracious lending us half their house and lives for the past 9 months. I can't wait to give it back to them.
I'll post some pictures of the place tomorrow, but we've been sitting around like giddy school girls talking about what we're most excited about... Our own kitchen? Sitting on the back porch? Leaving the living room messy? We just can't decide where to start.
Anyhoos... We're finally on our way. It's scheduled to close on May 5 I believe. We'll have to get our house plans turned into final construction drawings (about a week I think), and have a couple of builders bid them out (3 weeks I think) and have the bank do an appraisal on the lot and house (who knows???) before then. Should be fun.
House with Shakes
I've always liked those Martha's Vineyard/Nantucket style coastal cottages with cedar shakes and thought I'd give our elevation a try with that look. It makes the window trim look too small, but I do like the way it looks. It's not as whimsical as the other version, but it does have some charm. Not sure what LeAnne will think.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Offer in on Upper Reach
We submitted an offer yesterday afternoon on the Upper Reach lot, but haven't yet heard back from the realtor. We're beginning to see why building houses takes so long. I'm not sure if it's a Wilmington thing, or just a builder/realtor/banker thing, but everything takes 2 days here. LeAnne got the first offer on our house while she was in the dressing room at Kohl's. We were finished, 2 counter offers later before the end of the day- our house sold, 15 days on the market.
We started thinking about the Master's Lane lot in terms of Halloween and Christmas... It would not be a very pretty street to live on during those times. There are 3 houses there, and I don't get the feeling they would really go nuts for either of those holidays. At least Upper Reach is a real neighborhood and should be some fun for the kids and tacky dads like me during Christmas. I'm really convinced we made the right decision pulling out of the Master's Lane deal.
Hopefully we'll know something by tomorrow about the Upper Reach offer- I'm really getting sick of waiting for everyone all the time.
We started thinking about the Master's Lane lot in terms of Halloween and Christmas... It would not be a very pretty street to live on during those times. There are 3 houses there, and I don't get the feeling they would really go nuts for either of those holidays. At least Upper Reach is a real neighborhood and should be some fun for the kids and tacky dads like me during Christmas. I'm really convinced we made the right decision pulling out of the Master's Lane deal.
Hopefully we'll know something by tomorrow about the Upper Reach offer- I'm really getting sick of waiting for everyone all the time.
Monday, April 6, 2009
The lot thickens.
We were really having an incredibly difficult time getting any response from the Master's Lane owner. We sent him our final counter offer Saturday night, something we thought he couldn't refuse and as of lunch today (1 and a half days later) we still hadn't heard anything.
Meanwhile, LeAnne was visiting her sister in Concord, N.C. I got an email that a lot I had taken a look at 2 weeks ago had dropped in price from $153,000 to $125,000. That's a $28,000 drop. I drove back over to the lot, walked the lot, spoke to one of the neighbors, and really liked the lot a bunch. The one biggie (or so I thought)- it's in the wrong school district. A school that is ranked 10 out of 10 on greatschools.net, but for some reason LeAnne didn't like because the playground didn't have any shade. No comment. We went over there this evening and I did everything in my power to convince her this was a better lot for us: Good neigborhood (which the Master's Lane doesn't have), a kid from Maverick's class lives on the same street, about 8 houses away, and the lot has plenty of woods around for our kid(s) to play in.
We drove to the school and looked in all the classroom windows. Everything seemed to be OK. We walked all the way around the school and saw a shaded playground in the back. That made LeAnne feel better. We then drove back to the new lot and talked about being able to walk in a neighborhood and let Maverick run wild.
As of now, I had our realtor withdraw our offer from the Master's Lane lot. I just can't the thought of paying that much for a lot with no neighborhood. LeAnne's still mulling it over, probably secretly hating me for complicating our life. The lot will require a crawlspace- which will cause some plan changes. The cheaper lot will probably allow us to build a detached garage and studio for me, which will mean some additional time.
I spoke at length with one of the builders we've been considering, David James. He's a real easy going guy who has built a lot of nice houses. I quizzed him a little about how he builds rafter tails and if he knew about SIP's and how one might use them to show the rafters in a 2nd story room. He knew about the technique and that made me feel like he knows what he's doing.
Meanwhile, LeAnne was visiting her sister in Concord, N.C. I got an email that a lot I had taken a look at 2 weeks ago had dropped in price from $153,000 to $125,000. That's a $28,000 drop. I drove back over to the lot, walked the lot, spoke to one of the neighbors, and really liked the lot a bunch. The one biggie (or so I thought)- it's in the wrong school district. A school that is ranked 10 out of 10 on greatschools.net, but for some reason LeAnne didn't like because the playground didn't have any shade. No comment. We went over there this evening and I did everything in my power to convince her this was a better lot for us: Good neigborhood (which the Master's Lane doesn't have), a kid from Maverick's class lives on the same street, about 8 houses away, and the lot has plenty of woods around for our kid(s) to play in.
We drove to the school and looked in all the classroom windows. Everything seemed to be OK. We walked all the way around the school and saw a shaded playground in the back. That made LeAnne feel better. We then drove back to the new lot and talked about being able to walk in a neighborhood and let Maverick run wild.
As of now, I had our realtor withdraw our offer from the Master's Lane lot. I just can't the thought of paying that much for a lot with no neighborhood. LeAnne's still mulling it over, probably secretly hating me for complicating our life. The lot will require a crawlspace- which will cause some plan changes. The cheaper lot will probably allow us to build a detached garage and studio for me, which will mean some additional time.
I spoke at length with one of the builders we've been considering, David James. He's a real easy going guy who has built a lot of nice houses. I quizzed him a little about how he builds rafter tails and if he knew about SIP's and how one might use them to show the rafters in a 2nd story room. He knew about the technique and that made me feel like he knows what he's doing.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Landscape ideas
Among the many things I am not, one of them is a landscape architect. Regardless, I couldn't help but to do a preliminary plot of how the house might sit on the Masters Lane lot (should we end up with it). There is a really pretty live oak towards the left side of the lot that we can do something behind.
One of things I'm thinking of planting is a couple of rows of peanuts. I grew about 5 peanut plants a few years ago. LeAnne and I love boiled peanuts and they were out of the ground, salted, boiled and in our bellies within 3 hours. They were delicious but it was too much work on our .08 acres to grow 5 peanut plants out of buckets.
This is what I call "low yield farming". That is a very happy man who grew about 12 peanuts for about 6 months of work. LeAnne's dad, farms in town on a much larger scale. He's my hero:
One of things I'm thinking of planting is a couple of rows of peanuts. I grew about 5 peanut plants a few years ago. LeAnne and I love boiled peanuts and they were out of the ground, salted, boiled and in our bellies within 3 hours. They were delicious but it was too much work on our .08 acres to grow 5 peanut plants out of buckets.
This is what I call "low yield farming". That is a very happy man who grew about 12 peanuts for about 6 months of work. LeAnne's dad, farms in town on a much larger scale. He's my hero:
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Final offer put in on Masters Lane
We've come up again on our offer for Masters Lane. We searched and searched and couldn't find anything that we thought would be somewhere we could live forever. I'm 37 years old and have never thought about living anywhere for more than 5 years, but we like the lot enough that I could see hanging out there for good long while.
We dropped $200 on a land appraisal, which came in at $150,000. Our offer is really close to that now, and who know where the bank's appraiser will come in. The owner of the land is difficult to get in touch with (no cel phone, no email, and I don't think he has an answering machine), but I'm hoping to have it under contract by the middle of the week.
We're going to go ahead and get our final construction drawings done, which will cost another $1500 I believe. I'm wishing I would have gone ahead and finished our 2008 tax returns at this point- I know we're do some money that would have helped pay for that.
We dropped $200 on a land appraisal, which came in at $150,000. Our offer is really close to that now, and who know where the bank's appraiser will come in. The owner of the land is difficult to get in touch with (no cel phone, no email, and I don't think he has an answering machine), but I'm hoping to have it under contract by the middle of the week.
We're going to go ahead and get our final construction drawings done, which will cost another $1500 I believe. I'm wishing I would have gone ahead and finished our 2008 tax returns at this point- I know we're do some money that would have helped pay for that.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Final Elevation Rendering
I spent some time this evening and worked up a rendering of our elevation. I'm really excited at this point. It feels so real I can almost touch it. I added the street number of the Master Lane lot just for some added realism. LeAnne got mad at me because she's afraid that something is going to fall through and we're not going to be able to make this happen. I tried to assure her that I think it's going to happen and that we really will be able to live in this house:
I love the Port de Cochere or whatever it's called on the side. We're probably not going to have enough money to build the detached garage and studio at this point so we'll be happy to have something to park under.
Anyway, it's over. I finally know now what our house is going to look at. We're halfway there (yeah right).
I love the Port de Cochere or whatever it's called on the side. We're probably not going to have enough money to build the detached garage and studio at this point so we'll be happy to have something to park under.
Anyway, it's over. I finally know now what our house is going to look at. We're halfway there (yeah right).
Plans received and are perfect.
We got the plans from John this morning and they are perfect. It is so strange for the phase of this to finally be over. We are happy beyond belief to have them done. LeAnne is really pissed at me for asking for more room on the second floor for some reason- she thought it was fine as is, but the space is so cheap up there now that we're going to rafter the roof.
Here they are in all there glory:
And the elevation:
I'm going to work on the elevation tonight. Our previous house had clapboard siding and shakes on the top so I'll probably want to do something different. I'm real partial to board and batten siding now.
This afternoon, I took one more look at a couple of our 3 favorite lots, and think I've decided to press on with the Masters Lane lot, no matter the price. The Warlick lot is actually more expensive per acre than the Masters Lane so that made me decide to go ahead an try to make something work on the Masters Lane property.
Here they are in all there glory:
And the elevation:
I'm going to work on the elevation tonight. Our previous house had clapboard siding and shakes on the top so I'll probably want to do something different. I'm real partial to board and batten siding now.This afternoon, I took one more look at a couple of our 3 favorite lots, and think I've decided to press on with the Masters Lane lot, no matter the price. The Warlick lot is actually more expensive per acre than the Masters Lane so that made me decide to go ahead an try to make something work on the Masters Lane property.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Plans nearly done
We met with John Croom, the designer, today and made a couple of tiny changes to the plans. We didn't really like the bump out on the front because we felt like it made the front look to fancy. We decided to go ahead and make the plans with a rafter'ed roof for a couple of reasons- more room, more storage, and perhaps even a little bit cheaper than trussed. I talked to a builder today and he told me on a simple gabled roof like ours that it make come out cheaper to cut the rafters because it is basically the same cut over and over.
He's supposed to give us our new drawings in the morning and I hope that we will be done after that. This afternoon, I drove around and looked at the "not for sale" lot on Warlick and discovered that the front is about an 8 foot dropoff to the road. We would have to clearcut the land to be able to grade it down to a more gently slope on the front.
I made a call to the owner in hopes of talking him into selling the lot... the call went well. As it turns out, he knows my parents and we are hopeful that might get him to sell us the lot. It is definitely an inferior lot to the Masters Lane lot, but could be significantly cheaper (probably around $125,000).
He's supposed to give us our new drawings in the morning and I hope that we will be done after that. This afternoon, I drove around and looked at the "not for sale" lot on Warlick and discovered that the front is about an 8 foot dropoff to the road. We would have to clearcut the land to be able to grade it down to a more gently slope on the front.
I made a call to the owner in hopes of talking him into selling the lot... the call went well. As it turns out, he knows my parents and we are hopeful that might get him to sell us the lot. It is definitely an inferior lot to the Masters Lane lot, but could be significantly cheaper (probably around $125,000).
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Lender bad. Designer good.
Still no word from the lender today- email or phone call. Amazing someone can be that busy. I'm working on three separate projects today (a new logo for Coldwell Banker, some tags for a Travelocity spot, and a new Qwest spot) and can find time to play with my son. What's up with that lender?
Anyways, the bright spot for today: We got plans from the designer based on our meeting and they are completely awesome! LeAnne and I can't stop looking at them. Every little detail is there and it came in under 1700 sq. ft. I can't believe he was able to figure out the puzze of how to make it work but somehow he did. My absolute favorite detail is there- the stairs with the wraparound return that becomes a bench in a mudroom kind of thing:
It's funny... Designing this whole house for me has started from this picture. I wanted a side door that looked exactly like this picture. I didn't care about much else, as long as I could get this one detail in there. John Croom is the man, though- somehow he was able to get every single thing in there- We are in awe right now.
We had been saying that we would sacrifice parts of the house so that we could have the lot on Master's Lane, but now after looking at this plan and seeing how perfect it is- I think we're going to reconsider the lot. This is a delicate puzzle, and I feel like the whole thing will come crashing down if you move but one little piece. We're having a meeting with him tomorrow to discuss the plans- there's one little elevation thing I want to change, but overall we are so happy. It's so odd to look at a plan and not have little things here and there that you want to move and flip.
Because of the slowness today on the lender side of things, I drove around Wilmington and looked at some lots that we had considered out of our price range the first time around. There are some really beautiful lots around and I think we might be able to find something cheaper after all. I drove down a little gravel street off Masonboro Sound Road and it opened up into one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen in Wilmington. HUGE live oaks everywhere... A beautiful view of Masonboro Island (I think). It literally took my breath away. I got back and checked out the lot on line. $1,079,000. I'm really curious what the $79,000 is for, but I suppose it's to give some haggle room to keep the price high. I'm going to drive LeAnne down there to take some pictures to show how incredible this place is.
Anyway, here are our plans for now (check out those stairs/mudroom):
Anyways, the bright spot for today: We got plans from the designer based on our meeting and they are completely awesome! LeAnne and I can't stop looking at them. Every little detail is there and it came in under 1700 sq. ft. I can't believe he was able to figure out the puzze of how to make it work but somehow he did. My absolute favorite detail is there- the stairs with the wraparound return that becomes a bench in a mudroom kind of thing:
It's funny... Designing this whole house for me has started from this picture. I wanted a side door that looked exactly like this picture. I didn't care about much else, as long as I could get this one detail in there. John Croom is the man, though- somehow he was able to get every single thing in there- We are in awe right now.We had been saying that we would sacrifice parts of the house so that we could have the lot on Master's Lane, but now after looking at this plan and seeing how perfect it is- I think we're going to reconsider the lot. This is a delicate puzzle, and I feel like the whole thing will come crashing down if you move but one little piece. We're having a meeting with him tomorrow to discuss the plans- there's one little elevation thing I want to change, but overall we are so happy. It's so odd to look at a plan and not have little things here and there that you want to move and flip.
Because of the slowness today on the lender side of things, I drove around Wilmington and looked at some lots that we had considered out of our price range the first time around. There are some really beautiful lots around and I think we might be able to find something cheaper after all. I drove down a little gravel street off Masonboro Sound Road and it opened up into one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen in Wilmington. HUGE live oaks everywhere... A beautiful view of Masonboro Island (I think). It literally took my breath away. I got back and checked out the lot on line. $1,079,000. I'm really curious what the $79,000 is for, but I suppose it's to give some haggle room to keep the price high. I'm going to drive LeAnne down there to take some pictures to show how incredible this place is.
Anyway, here are our plans for now (check out those stairs/mudroom):
Counter comes back at the same price
Rats! The counter came back and he wouldn't budge on the price. Still stuck at $158,000. Kind of disheartening at this point. That means a really not so small house... perhaps more than we would like, but who knows. We're trying to get in touch with our lender at BB&T to ask her what the implications are of a $158,000 lot- We had planned on $125,000 and ran some worst case scenario numbers at $145,000.
I'm trying to understand how construction loan appraisals work when there is no house yet to appraise. We're really not interested in a lot of the high dollar items like Granite countertops and Tile floors- I'm curious as to how they will affect our appraisal. Also, there's a bunch of money going towards landscaping and irrigation that I'd like to cut out for now and do myself as we have time and money, but I'm not sure the land/home will aprraise high enough without those things.
We're anxious to get something definite going on the lot but are going to have to sit on it for now until we can get in touch with the lender. Evidently, BB&T is very popular right now. They are giving out the best rates around and are slammed with refinances. The first slow-down is evidenced. Things aren't moving as fast as we would like and we haven't even bought a lot or finished the plans yet.
I'm trying to understand how construction loan appraisals work when there is no house yet to appraise. We're really not interested in a lot of the high dollar items like Granite countertops and Tile floors- I'm curious as to how they will affect our appraisal. Also, there's a bunch of money going towards landscaping and irrigation that I'd like to cut out for now and do myself as we have time and money, but I'm not sure the land/home will aprraise high enough without those things.
We're anxious to get something definite going on the lot but are going to have to sit on it for now until we can get in touch with the lender. Evidently, BB&T is very popular right now. They are giving out the best rates around and are slammed with refinances. The first slow-down is evidenced. Things aren't moving as fast as we would like and we haven't even bought a lot or finished the plans yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)