Preamble

Welcome to our new home blog as we document our experience with building a Ryan Homes Landon in Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA).

As I started the process of getting to know the market for a potential move to a bigger house when we get married, we decided to compare new construction verses resale homes in our immediate area.  It became pretty clear the differences.  I spent a month looking at resale homes trying to find a location we would like, a floor plan that addressed our current problems, and a price we could actually afford.  I then decided to take a look at a local builder and compare.  Here is what I found:

1      New Homes were priced similar or slightly less per square foot than new construction.  In Western PA it was roughly 120 to 130ish per square.   The difference between the price per square foot of resale and new wasn’t that large considering the life of the mortgage.

2      No resale properties had double walk in closets which was a requirement for us.  The two of us have tons of clothing and we desperately need closet space.

3      Resale properties seldom had an open floor plan.

4      Most resale properties seemed constructed well, all brick outsides, sturdy wood frame windows, separate air intake/outflow per room, etc.

5      Resale properties in locations we wanted had increased prices with less features compared to new construction and other houses further away.

6      Buying a new constructed house often comes with a new community and neighbors with similar goals. (Raising a family)

7      New community development was further out and in weird places.

We first saw a heartland homes model and loved it.  We also liked the community and the lots they had to offer.  What we hated was the excessive lot fee for an end lot.  This motivated us to look around.  We started to look at all of the local builders with communities.  We spent a month looking at their communities and models.  I must have built a dozen or so spreadsheets pricing out communities and models and comparing the pros and cons.  We felt the Ryan Homes Landon was the best model for the two of us.  It came standard with 2 walk in closets in the master which was an upgrade for many models.  It also came with a three car garage which would allow us to store all three of our vehicles.  It was 4 bedrooms which should be enough for the kids we either adopt or birth.  The main level was totally open with a huge kitchen.  The only downside I saw was that most models offered a dining room/living room/family room, and the Landon doesn’t include a space for a formal living room.  It’s as if the third car spot in the garage took the space of the living room.  Regardless, we felt like this was the model for us.  Now came the struggle of where to build.

We visited a mature Ryan Homes development just south of Pittsburgh.  It was only 10 minutes from where we lived and we already knew we loved the area.  Since it was a mature community, they were in their final phase and only had a few lots left.  Out of the roughly dozen lots left, none of them were big enough to fit a Landon with a morning room.  Apparently the land developer didn’t grade a hill enough and the back of the morning room would be under the standard 10 foot back yard.  While it is nice that Ryan Homes has a policy of at least 10 feet of a back yard, the lots of extremely small.  Since the community was in a location we currently lived, we felt it only fair to reconsider the models we could build on the lots available.  In comes the Jefferson Square.  We liked the open floor plan and found it close to Heartland Oberlin floorplan, but didn’t have all the standard features the Landon had.  We figured out to get the upgraded bathroom, walk in closets, three car garage, it would cost nearly 30k more to switch from the Landon to the Jefferson Square.  We surely felt Ryan Homes would lower the price since we couldn’t build the model we wanted.  Ironically they didn’t really do much at all on the price and the lot to fit it wasn’t that nice.  We decided to wait on maybe a lot freeing up which happened.  We had a lot free up that could fit a Landon and morning room.  It was a 10,000 square foot lot, close to the end of a dead end street.  We decided to price it out again and were considering buying it.  We then got a huge surprise………the Landon we wanted we couldn’t build the elevation we wanted.  Our only option was a more expensive elevation.  Ryan Homes did discount it a little, but it still would have us paying 10 to 15k more.  We were still looking and felt we could find better and not settle.

We have been also looking at Ryan Homes Competitors.  I also considered getting a construction loan and building my own since I had connection into construction.  We opted to use a builder in a community because we wanted to be part of a community and not a lone house on a road.  Ryan Homes had another community up north who said if I was serious, they would push to get the Landon model at their community.  They had two more phases open and the lots were bigger and could take a Landon.  It was a shared community with two builders and we had first pick on some really nice lots.  We really wanted to be in the dead end area and have a wooded back yard for privacy, but we were shown a 14,000 square foot lot  on the inside of a horsehoe with a hill in the back to offer some privacy from the other houses.  The lot was nearly flat on a dead end street.  Instead of 10 feet from the morning room to the hill, we would have double that.  This really felt like a great lot to live on.  It had a drain on one side which is why the lot was wider than most.  We placed a hold on the lot and asked for our sale rep to get approval to allow us to build a Landon there.

While we were waiting, we continued to look at other lots.  We really had another we liked in a community shared by Ryan Homes and Heartland Homes.  The two of them are owned by the same parent company.  The Oberlin house which is beautiful just was too expensive compared to the Landon.  Heartland Homes included a lot of standard cosmetic features such as granite countertops and hardwood floors.  We wanted structure items and we’d do the cosmetic enhancements later and cheaper than Heartland Homes.  If NVR would have allowed us to build a Landon on one of their lots, we might have gone that route.

Our lot deposit showed we were serious and the North Pittsburgh community added the Landon to their list of models for us.  We already had tons of spreadsheets with our options.  The problem was it was a more expensive community and higher school taxes.  We tried to get some discounts from Ryan Homes but we got the standard local discounts…….7k in closing costs……….waved lot fee…….discounted morning room.  While some Ryan Communities (Carolina’s) offer 50% off options, western PA Ryan Homes doesn’t offer many discounts.

When we started down this path, our goal was to start watching the market and learn what we can get in the resale market and for how much.  We never expected or planned to buy until after we were married in early 2016.  We had a wedding to save for and wanted to save up more for an upgraded home.  It all happened so fast that we fell in love with a Landon model and we found a lot in a community we felt was us.  Our financial ratios and our budget was enough, and as scary as this is…..we signed up to build a Landon at the end of May 2015 to move in the end of October.