House of Blues
Well, we got good news and bad news on the new house front last week, and the bad news seems to be the dominating factor right now.
First, the positive. Our builder, Reeves-Williams, likes to have pre-construction meetings before things get started. Up until now, everything's been a waiting game. We basically put a contract down long before building could ever get started--curbs were still being installed, MLGW had not yet done their thing, there were no addresses assigned to the lots, etc. So when the Realtor's assistant called wanting to set up a meeting, we were pretty excited. I kind of envisioned 2 or 3 builder's reps, seated at a conference room table type of thing--all introducing themselves and telling us how much they looked forward to a lasting client/builder relationship. In reality, it was one guy--the "foreman" of the job, who walked into the model home and unrolled a copy of the floorplan. He went over his copy of the selections we had made (countertop style, hardwood color, linoleum choice (as if we could remember what SC 834903 was!), and asked if we had any questions. No big deal. We also found out that our new address will be 11618 Milton Meadows Dr. So now we have a "real" identity instead of "lot 310." On Saturday, we drove out there and realized that our neighbor to the left is building a privacy fence, which means that it's less fencing that I have to put up. Hey, at probably something like 7 or 8 bucks per linear foot (to do it ourselves), any amount of fencing that we can utilize for free is worth it.
Now, on to the bad. When the prospect of moving began getting a bit more realistic, we obviously had to entertain the thought of selling our house. We have a listing agent (see also: ME), but we also brainstormed for ideas. My step-brother Tony was coming home from Iraq, so we mentioned the possibility to him. He was all for it--he gets a 1-owner house that's practically brand new, sold by sellers whom he knows and can count on the credibility of the info. We get to sell the house in a private deal, and everybody's a winner. Although we weren't looking for a commitment at the time, it was a "preliminary" commitment and started the ball rolling. Then we wrote up the contract, with the obvious "we must sell our house first" contingency. We had yet another discussion with Tony. Yep, he's absolutely on board--as soon as he gets his V.A. loan certificate from his base, we'd go ahead and proceed. We told him that if he wanted to go ahead and get an apartment, we'd pay the penalty to break the lease, since we wouldn't expect him to wait until July or later to get his own place. In March, he said, "I'm going up in April to get my stuff, and to help my buddy move down here. I'll have it all when I get back."
So after the meeting with the builder, I called Tony to let him know what the time scale was. They will most likely start the initial work in a week or two, and the house should be finished in 90-100 days. Tony is now in an apartment, and has a list of excuses a mile long as to why he doesn't want to buy the house. Keep in mind that for the last 3 months, our house could've been on the market (our contract was written 12/30/05). Tony's loan would be guaranteed as a veteran. So there are no credit issues or nothing at all about the house that caused Tony to change his mind--only flimsy excuses and our speculation as to the real reasons.
So now we have clean, paint, fix, scrub, replace, etc. to the point of making a listed house virtually perfect, something we hadn't planned on doing on such a short timeframe. It's not the work, mind you, it's just the time element. So my sign goes in the yard. And we have to pay a buyer's agent 3% commission--probably a little more than $3,000. And we have to deal with "We wanna show your house in 30 minutes" and "We want help with closing" and "We want the outside painted" and stuff like that.
Of course, the worst possible scenario in all of this is not being able to sell our house in time. After the new house is completed, the builder will probably give us 2 or 3 months after that to tie things up. After that, we'd probably have to forfeit the house. So the lot we picked out, the floorplan that we love, the measurements we've done, and the selections we've made would all be a waste of time. And our disappointment would be huge. So it's time to get to work, and hope for the best. Stay tuned.
First, the positive. Our builder, Reeves-Williams, likes to have pre-construction meetings before things get started. Up until now, everything's been a waiting game. We basically put a contract down long before building could ever get started--curbs were still being installed, MLGW had not yet done their thing, there were no addresses assigned to the lots, etc. So when the Realtor's assistant called wanting to set up a meeting, we were pretty excited. I kind of envisioned 2 or 3 builder's reps, seated at a conference room table type of thing--all introducing themselves and telling us how much they looked forward to a lasting client/builder relationship. In reality, it was one guy--the "foreman" of the job, who walked into the model home and unrolled a copy of the floorplan. He went over his copy of the selections we had made (countertop style, hardwood color, linoleum choice (as if we could remember what SC 834903 was!), and asked if we had any questions. No big deal. We also found out that our new address will be 11618 Milton Meadows Dr. So now we have a "real" identity instead of "lot 310." On Saturday, we drove out there and realized that our neighbor to the left is building a privacy fence, which means that it's less fencing that I have to put up. Hey, at probably something like 7 or 8 bucks per linear foot (to do it ourselves), any amount of fencing that we can utilize for free is worth it.
Now, on to the bad. When the prospect of moving began getting a bit more realistic, we obviously had to entertain the thought of selling our house. We have a listing agent (see also: ME), but we also brainstormed for ideas. My step-brother Tony was coming home from Iraq, so we mentioned the possibility to him. He was all for it--he gets a 1-owner house that's practically brand new, sold by sellers whom he knows and can count on the credibility of the info. We get to sell the house in a private deal, and everybody's a winner. Although we weren't looking for a commitment at the time, it was a "preliminary" commitment and started the ball rolling. Then we wrote up the contract, with the obvious "we must sell our house first" contingency. We had yet another discussion with Tony. Yep, he's absolutely on board--as soon as he gets his V.A. loan certificate from his base, we'd go ahead and proceed. We told him that if he wanted to go ahead and get an apartment, we'd pay the penalty to break the lease, since we wouldn't expect him to wait until July or later to get his own place. In March, he said, "I'm going up in April to get my stuff, and to help my buddy move down here. I'll have it all when I get back."
So after the meeting with the builder, I called Tony to let him know what the time scale was. They will most likely start the initial work in a week or two, and the house should be finished in 90-100 days. Tony is now in an apartment, and has a list of excuses a mile long as to why he doesn't want to buy the house. Keep in mind that for the last 3 months, our house could've been on the market (our contract was written 12/30/05). Tony's loan would be guaranteed as a veteran. So there are no credit issues or nothing at all about the house that caused Tony to change his mind--only flimsy excuses and our speculation as to the real reasons.
So now we have clean, paint, fix, scrub, replace, etc. to the point of making a listed house virtually perfect, something we hadn't planned on doing on such a short timeframe. It's not the work, mind you, it's just the time element. So my sign goes in the yard. And we have to pay a buyer's agent 3% commission--probably a little more than $3,000. And we have to deal with "We wanna show your house in 30 minutes" and "We want help with closing" and "We want the outside painted" and stuff like that.
Of course, the worst possible scenario in all of this is not being able to sell our house in time. After the new house is completed, the builder will probably give us 2 or 3 months after that to tie things up. After that, we'd probably have to forfeit the house. So the lot we picked out, the floorplan that we love, the measurements we've done, and the selections we've made would all be a waste of time. And our disappointment would be huge. So it's time to get to work, and hope for the best. Stay tuned.
posted by Eric C at 4:30 PM
1 Comments:
That just sucks.
Hopefully things work out.
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