okiepolkie
07-08-2005, 10:44 AM
I've noticed over the past few months that a lot of people, including me, have moved into brand new homes. I know it has been much easier to afford homes with interest rates as low as they are. Some are still as low as 5.0% for first time home buyers.
We picked out our first house on July 5 and we will close on the 18th.
Up until last week, we were planning on having a house built(one of the reasons I have not been visiting the forum as much).
We spent a little bit of money on some well designed plans, an appraisal, and a builder consultation. After a nice visit with the bank about the construction loan, we learned that the developer had sold our lot out from under us to another builder. It was on hold unless someone else was interested, then we would have a couple of days to put down some earnest money. Well, we never got contacted, so we didn't even had the opportunity to put the $$ down. Anyway, we could have bought the lot back from the new builder, but it would have cost us another $3000(he paid $1000 more than we had been told + he wanted $2000 commission).
After all that happened, we just decided to buy a house that is already finished. Our finances were already in order for building, so we just picked out a house three doors down from where we were going to build. It is a nice little subdivision that should hold its value to some degree. Actually, we are hoping it increasing pretty rapidly. We are getting a Hino(sp?) small truck plant within a year, so it will bring in a few more people needing homes.
The only complaint I have is there is no place to set up a nice HT or 2 channel area. The house we were going to build had an expandable place upstairs that was at least 15 x 20 space(ideal for a good HT). This one has a corner fireplace that takes up any good setup walls. I might have to resort to putting the TV 4ft off the ground to have any usable space in the living room(I'll post pics later when I look for suggestions on placement).
Well, I'm done with my ranting, raving, and words of delight.
So how do you like your "new" home?
We picked out our first house on July 5 and we will close on the 18th.
Up until last week, we were planning on having a house built(one of the reasons I have not been visiting the forum as much).
We spent a little bit of money on some well designed plans, an appraisal, and a builder consultation. After a nice visit with the bank about the construction loan, we learned that the developer had sold our lot out from under us to another builder. It was on hold unless someone else was interested, then we would have a couple of days to put down some earnest money. Well, we never got contacted, so we didn't even had the opportunity to put the $$ down. Anyway, we could have bought the lot back from the new builder, but it would have cost us another $3000(he paid $1000 more than we had been told + he wanted $2000 commission).
After all that happened, we just decided to buy a house that is already finished. Our finances were already in order for building, so we just picked out a house three doors down from where we were going to build. It is a nice little subdivision that should hold its value to some degree. Actually, we are hoping it increasing pretty rapidly. We are getting a Hino(sp?) small truck plant within a year, so it will bring in a few more people needing homes.
The only complaint I have is there is no place to set up a nice HT or 2 channel area. The house we were going to build had an expandable place upstairs that was at least 15 x 20 space(ideal for a good HT). This one has a corner fireplace that takes up any good setup walls. I might have to resort to putting the TV 4ft off the ground to have any usable space in the living room(I'll post pics later when I look for suggestions on placement).
Well, I'm done with my ranting, raving, and words of delight.
So how do you like your "new" home?