Tonight was paperwork night! We really didn't have as much to do with it as I previously thought. Fortunately, most of it was already filled out from the information that we had provided through the online preapproval form. The only thing that was remotely confusing was a form about a tax escrow account. Evidently, the first year that we live in our house (June-December '08) we're only going to be taxed for the land value because they don't reappraise the lot to include the value of the house until the 2009 tax year. That's good news for us (b/c the land sans house is worth significantly less), but it gave us this confusing form. They wanted to know if we wanted them to escrow more money in 2007 to help "ease" the stress of our tax escrow payments from "significantly increasing" once the actual appraisal happens. We decided that we're just going to save the difference on our own now and make interest on the money and then have it in reserve if we need it.
While on the subject, I really hate escrow accounts and I'm planning to get out of ours as soon as USAA will let us! I'd much rather just save the money myself and pay taxes and insurance premiums on our own when they become due!! If you're "worthy" enough to qualify for a mortgage, you should be smart enough to pay your own damn taxes. If you can't, then you probably shouldn't be buying a house!! Oh well. I guess there are some things that you just can't worry about...but it's still irks my nerves.
The good thing is that we shouldn't have too much more paperwork to deal with until closing!
I'm also really starting to get excited about looking for furniture and other accessories. I'm just glad that Rooms to Go has no-interest financing until the second coming! We're also planning to get these super sweet blinds. We got a catalog from one company over the weekend and I think I've already picked out what I want. I am so excited to see it all come together!!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
LAND!
Today we had a lot of fun! We went out to the neighborhood to take a look at our lot and we also had to stop by the office. We went with Brian's parents and grandma, but, unfortunately, my only brother Kevin couldn't go with us! :-(
We first stopped by the office as I wanted to walk through the model house another time and we wanted to show our cabinets, floors, and siding colors to Mike and Barb. We also had to verify our carpet color suite because Stephanie forgot to write it down when we were there last Tuesday. We thought that we had picked Color Suite D, but we wanted to go by there to verify to make sure that we told her the right letter. The more I walk through that house the more I love it!! It's really soooo exciting!!! I'll probably drag Brian though the model a billion times before ours is built. It also helps me to think about furniture placement. They have a really awesome breakfast-type table in the breakfast nook that I really like. Unfortunately, the office people have no idea where it's from. The one cool thing about visiting the model today was seeing a little red Monopoly house on our lot!! (Red means that the lot is unavailable.)
There's a good virtual tour of our floor plan in the model house on Centex's Web site:
http://www.obeo.com/Public/Viewer/Default.aspx?ID=288073&refurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.centexhomes.com%2fRaleigh%2fN46305.asp
After the office, we went out to the lot to walk around and take some pictures. I'm really happy with the lot. It's up on a mini-hill with good drainage on the sides and back of the lot so we shouldn't have any issues with flooding. (Of course, it may never rain again, so it might be a moot point.) They had a SOLD sign out by the lot, which was really cool. So we got a picture by the sign and I took some photos from various places on the property. We're going to have a street light (that looks like a carriage light) to the right of our house. The only thing that sorta sucks is that we'll have an electrical box off to the left side of the front yard, but we should be able to hide it with some cute bushes.
Coming Soon: I really am going to write about the mortgage paperwork at some point, but I can't comment yet because I need to do a more thorough reading! :-)
Here are a few of the pictures that we took this afternoon:
We first stopped by the office as I wanted to walk through the model house another time and we wanted to show our cabinets, floors, and siding colors to Mike and Barb. We also had to verify our carpet color suite because Stephanie forgot to write it down when we were there last Tuesday. We thought that we had picked Color Suite D, but we wanted to go by there to verify to make sure that we told her the right letter. The more I walk through that house the more I love it!! It's really soooo exciting!!! I'll probably drag Brian though the model a billion times before ours is built. It also helps me to think about furniture placement. They have a really awesome breakfast-type table in the breakfast nook that I really like. Unfortunately, the office people have no idea where it's from. The one cool thing about visiting the model today was seeing a little red Monopoly house on our lot!! (Red means that the lot is unavailable.)
There's a good virtual tour of our floor plan in the model house on Centex's Web site:
http://www.obeo.com/Public/Viewer/Default.aspx?ID=288073&refurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.centexhomes.com%2fRaleigh%2fN46305.asp
After the office, we went out to the lot to walk around and take some pictures. I'm really happy with the lot. It's up on a mini-hill with good drainage on the sides and back of the lot so we shouldn't have any issues with flooding. (Of course, it may never rain again, so it might be a moot point.) They had a SOLD sign out by the lot, which was really cool. So we got a picture by the sign and I took some photos from various places on the property. We're going to have a street light (that looks like a carriage light) to the right of our house. The only thing that sorta sucks is that we'll have an electrical box off to the left side of the front yard, but we should be able to hide it with some cute bushes.
Coming Soon: I really am going to write about the mortgage paperwork at some point, but I can't comment yet because I need to do a more thorough reading! :-)
Here are a few of the pictures that we took this afternoon:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
William Shatner (aka PRICELINE NEGOTIATOR!)
So, Tuesday (Jan. 22) was the day that we went over to Centex to pick out our options. We had our REALTOR with us and the plan was to go meet with the Centex lady (Stephanie), pick out the options, make our offer, and then leave. Our realtor would then coordinate the rest of the negotiations with us via phone. (Brian and I were a little uncomfortable with sitting through a negotiation process in the office, as we were worried that we might feel pressured to pay more than we wanted.) If you've never dealt with a builder before, let me explain the process a bit. They have a standard package, which is called the base price of the house and then there are various options (or upgrades) that you can purchase to add on to the base price.
When we arrived, we found out that base price of the house had actually increased some because they had made a former option (two sinks in the master bath) a part of the standard package. It was a little scary that the price had already risen before we got started(!), but we had planned to add the second sink in the master, so it wasn't the end of the world. So, we had a super time picking out our options and choices!! We had already picked out our options before we arrived, but we still had a great time doing it and picking out our color scheme. We decided to get the following:
When we arrived, we found out that base price of the house had actually increased some because they had made a former option (two sinks in the master bath) a part of the standard package. It was a little scary that the price had already risen before we got started(!), but we had planned to add the second sink in the master, so it wasn't the end of the world. So, we had a super time picking out our options and choices!! We had already picked out our options before we arrived, but we still had a great time doing it and picking out our color scheme. We decided to get the following:
- Gas log fireplace in the Great Room
- Separate garden tub and shower in the Master Bath
- Kitchen island
- Faux-wood floors (laminate) in the dining room and front foyer
- Garage door opener (isn't it lame that you have to pay for the opener and motor?!) What's the point of having a garage!
- Fluorescent light in the kitchen
- Two exterior lights on each side of the garage door
- An elongated toilet seat in the Master Bath (Brian INSISTED!)
- Super quiet Whirlpool dishwasher (black)
- Whirlpool microwave hood over the stove (black)
- Smoothtop Whirlpool Stove (black)
- Side-by-side Whirlpool fridge (black)
We also had them put ceiling fan wiring in all four bedrooms, the great room, and the loft and overhead lighting wires in the hall bathroom and living room. We also put cable hookups in all four bedrooms, the loft, great room, and living room (which we're going to make an office).
After we decided on all our options, we got to pick our exterior colors (light brown tones with dark brown shutters) and the color of the cabinets, hardwood floor, carpet, counter tops, and vinyl. So now, all that stuff is completely done and we won't make any changes (it costs a FORTUNE if you make any changes after the contract day).
Another important decision we had to make was to pick a lot. We wanted a decent sized lot, but we didn't want to have to pay a huge lot premium. The direction of the house is also pretty critical for us because Brian takes naps between radio shifts during the day, so we wanted to make sure that the master bedroom was on the dark side of the house in the afternoon. We didn't like any of the lots that they had available, so we were able to convince them to open up a new lot for us on a cul-de-sac.
After all the options were picked, Stephanie printed out the details and gave us the final price. We crossed out her price and listed our initial offer. Stephanie faxed the offer to her manager and then suggested that we ride out to our lot to make sure it was exactly what we wanted. So we did that and it's a very nice lot with a slight hill in the backyard. Since they had to open the lot for us, there are no houses on the cul-de-sac yet, so we'll be the only people out there for a little while. When we got back to the office, the manager had faxed back our offer and countered. Her offer was still a little above what we wanted, so we countered her counter and our realtor told them that if it wasn't accepted, that we'd probably leave with their response and sleep on it. They absolutely didn't want us to do that!!! So they came back and accepted our offer!!! When it was all said and done, we got our cul-de-sac lot and all our options for a little over the base price, which was EXCELLENT. We learned later that we got them to come down the lowest they've ever come down before, which means that we were SUPER PRICELINE NEGOTIATORS!!!!! We were quite pleased!
With the price finalized, we went through signing the paperwork. It took FOREVER! There were so many things to sign and fill out and we hadn't even planned to be there for longer than an hour because our realtor didn't think they'd accept our offer that day. All-in-all, we were there for FOUR HOURS. Poor Brian was even late to his afternoon shift, but we are so relieved that it's all done now and that we're moving forward.
The first 30-45 days after the contract is finalized, Centex is getting building permits and buying our building materials, so it will be a while before there's any actual building!
We're planning to go out to our lot this weekend and take some pictures, so we'll post those a bit later!
Coming Soon: AHHHHHHH!!! MORTGAGE PAPERWORK!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
And so it begins!
In the beginning, there was man and wife. Man and wife moved into a LUXURIOUS North Raleigh apartment and all was wonderful. Or so they thought. A mere two hours after getting the keys to their new apartment, man's XM Radio was stolen out of his lovely little Honda. A few months later, wife was told that her lovely bird feeder was a nuisance to the people on the first floor. And so began discussions to find and purchase a house! While renter's insurance is a good deal, renting itself is not.
Brian began seriously looking at MLS listings around October 2007 and we decided that our goal was to move when our lease expired at the end of May 2008. The original plan was to make an offer on a house in mid-March and to close in mid-May. We were mainly looking in the Wake Forest/Rolesville area, as N. Raleigh was too expensive, Cary too Yankeeish, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs too far away, and Durham too ghetto. We met our REALTOR (TM), Sharon, right before Christmas and planned to do some preliminary house visiting one weekend in January. After we survived all the Christmas cookies, we found three neighborhoods that we wanted to visit--one in Wake Forest, one in N. Raleigh, and one in Knightdale. The two former neighborhoods sucked, but we fell in love with the neighborhood in Knightdale, which we have determined is the new RED of Wake County (mark our words!). The lots were a decent size and the house sizes were very generous in comparison to cost. The neighborhood is named Churchill and it's a new home community. The houses we visited that weekend were spec. houses that were on the market in our price range. In fact, we absolutely fell in love with one house--the Bayfield.
What we quickly learned was that the current real estate market is, indeed, the suck, and that builders were willing to offer many incentives to entice buyers to build new homes. After much angst, thought, and number-checking, we decided to build the floor plan that we love in this neighborhood. The plan is to close on June 4.
Coming Soon: Priceline NEGOTIATOR!
And with that, I leave y'all with four lovely pictures:
Brian began seriously looking at MLS listings around October 2007 and we decided that our goal was to move when our lease expired at the end of May 2008. The original plan was to make an offer on a house in mid-March and to close in mid-May. We were mainly looking in the Wake Forest/Rolesville area, as N. Raleigh was too expensive, Cary too Yankeeish, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs too far away, and Durham too ghetto. We met our REALTOR (TM), Sharon, right before Christmas and planned to do some preliminary house visiting one weekend in January. After we survived all the Christmas cookies, we found three neighborhoods that we wanted to visit--one in Wake Forest, one in N. Raleigh, and one in Knightdale. The two former neighborhoods sucked, but we fell in love with the neighborhood in Knightdale, which we have determined is the new RED of Wake County (mark our words!). The lots were a decent size and the house sizes were very generous in comparison to cost. The neighborhood is named Churchill and it's a new home community. The houses we visited that weekend were spec. houses that were on the market in our price range. In fact, we absolutely fell in love with one house--the Bayfield.
What we quickly learned was that the current real estate market is, indeed, the suck, and that builders were willing to offer many incentives to entice buyers to build new homes. After much angst, thought, and number-checking, we decided to build the floor plan that we love in this neighborhood. The plan is to close on June 4.
Coming Soon: Priceline NEGOTIATOR!
And with that, I leave y'all with four lovely pictures:
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