Monday, September 14, 2015

Spin around right round, You spin me right round

What a busy weekend for us in the process of selling our home and buying a Landon.  Here is an update on the three components of this massive project.

Sale of the Current Home

I instructed my agent to set up an open house each Sunday for the month of September.  I figured it would slow down, but we have been getting 7 groups of people coming through each Sunday which normally results in 1 very interested buyer.  Interest in my house is still high and we are the cheapest 3 bedroom house to get into Peters Township.  Again Coldwell Banker failed to produce an agent to sit at my house so we had to do it.  (I’m sure this violates their contract with me as we have worked 4 of the 5 open houses and the majority of interest is from open houses)

A couple who was supposed to put an offer on the house last week came back with family.  The father picked at everything and I think they are getting hung up on stuff and backing out.  As of last night, my Agent hasn’t heard from them.  They did speak to my neighbor who told them the driveway is not an issue for a small car and the stream has never flooded.  They also spent a lot of time at the spot we had some water/termite damage but the house was treated.  They were concerned that section of the basement felt damp. I honestly don’t know many old home basements that don’t have some dampness after a very, very hard rain.  Hopefully they will realize it’s an old house, not perfect, but not a horrible investment.

The open house left me exhausted from walking around in heels.  Each open house costs us money as we have to kennel our dogs.  (I think Coldwell Banker should reimburse me for since their agents aren’t doing them)  I had just changed and sat down to relax when the Agent texted me that a couple who has been in the house already twice wanted in to see it again.  This is a couple who originally said the house was too small but then beat me up on price over a nicer smaller house further away.  I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of leaving my house at 6:30 but figured, we’ll start dinner in a crock pot and give them another 30 minutes in the house……it shouldn’t take long right?  The agent showed pretty much on time.  Her clients did not show up until 7:00.  We drove past a few times because we were hungry, not able to use our home all day and really wanted to spend time as a family.  This buyer, who was in for the third, time stayed for about an hour and left at 8pm.  We promptly went in and unloaded the dogs and checked on things.  We found a lot of our stuff moved.  Apparently while the husband was snooping in the basement and attic with the agent, his wife and daughter were moving our stuff.   They had opened our crock pot and put the cover on the counter top which left a messy ring for us to clean.  They broke one of our pumpkins, and broke a wax hand we made together on one of our first dates.  This couple also opened our dresser drawers, moved jewelry boxes and perfume bottles.  We complained to our agent.  It’s rude for them to be late, but it’s totally unacceptable for them to touch our personal stuff.  This couple has been looking for a home since March and doesn’t realize for what they can afford they can’t get a fancy big like new house.  We included them in with the last counter offer but they passed on the house.

Here we are the middle of September and about 45 days from closing on the Landon.  My stress levels is hitting a new high.

NVR and Mortgages

I’ve decided to press on the loan approval because I figured out I was doing what I could to lock in a rack and NVR/Ryan Homes dropped the ball.  I received a call last week from the regional sales manager and on Friday the regional NVR manager called with our loan officer.   The short of the situation was 1) I was discussing how to lock in a rate with the NVR loan Officer who told me I have to be in the 90 day window 2) I explained we just started framing and should have about 60 days to go so we have a grace window of 30 days 3) I emailed the PM, the NVR Loan Officer, and both sales reps to get the closing date for the NVR loan officer.  I couldn’t lock in a rate because I had no confirmation of a closing date.  NVR and Ryan Homes didn’t communicate so the low rate I was trying to lock in went away.  Now I can buy that rate for 2kto4k which is a new fridge and unacceptable specially when I started a dialog between NVR and Ryan Homes and everyone ignored the email.  The Regional Manager finally saw my point….yeah, it’s my responsibility…..so I emailed all parties……and then communication between NVR and Ryan broke down and I got penalized for it.   He said they will look into what they can do.  This continues to linger on and now I am in a hard position as I need to start the process with another bank as I need 45 days to get a loan, but without my current home until contract, it’s pretty impossible.

Pre-Drywall

Our pre-drywall was rushed and not how it should have been.  Our PM was going on vacation this entire week and wanted to have this meeting before he left so drywall could be going on while he was gone.  Sadly, the house wasn’t even ready and this meeting should have been pushed back.  The electricians were still on site putting in outlets and lights.  The plumbers were doing a water backfill test, and the framers have not been back.  Everything basically got pushed back an entire week.  Our PM said this is how things will most likely happen 1) Electric and plumbers back in to finish/fix/ or move things on Monday 2) Tuesday should be the framers, 3) insulation installed Wednesday, 4) Thursday touch up and 5) Friday is inspection day.  Our PM feels unlikely we will be in the house before the end of October.  He feels first week in November is more realistic at this time.

During the meeting, the first thing I noticed was the garage sink had not been put in the correct place.  It was the first thing we had to sign and place so I found it odd that they had it wrong.  They said it would be moved.  We had cracks in our basement floor which they said happens and they’ll put some silicon in it.  Our PM had the electricians give us extra three way switches on the master bedroom lights/fan.  I am pretty sure he did that because it was confusing which lights we wanted on the three way switch so I think he just put them all on a switch.  We talked about things that still need to happen such as moving the drop down attic ladder so it doesn’t hit the washer/dryer.  There is also some dead space between the master bath and a closet.  We also went over the location of the circuit break box, various shut off values, etc.  We discussed the suggested height of the ground level when it is graded and how our garage floor was lowered so our driveway isn’t as steep.



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