The sold sticker was placed on our lot's sign today!

Signed the purchase agreement!!

It's official.  Last night we signed the purchase agreement and got the red SOLD sticker.  We're going to go back this weekend so we can put the sticker on with the kids...photos to follow.   We chose the Florence model, per plan.  Here's a list of options:

1. Premium lot
2. Morning room
3. Side windows in morning room
4. Gourmet kitchen with pennisula
5. Granite counter tops
6. 42" kitchen cabinets
7. Maple spice cabinets
8. Recessed lighting package in kitchen
9. Ceiling fan rough in for morning room
10. Laminate flooring in kitchen, morning room, laundry room and powder room
11. Olive siding with black shutters
12. Loft
13. Spindles on stairs
14. Upgraded owner's bath
15. Recessed lights in bedrooms
16. Vinyl flooring in upstairs bathrooms
17. Fireplace

I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking of.  Next week we're scheduled to meet with NVR Mortgage and after that to the design center to choose all our colors.

Picked out our lot

We walked the lots yesterday and put down our deposit to hold our first choice.  It's perfect, some lake behind it, some woods behind it.  Nobody has choosen either lot next to us or directly across from us, so we get first shot at model, elevation and exterior colors!  No having to chance because our neighbor beat us to it.  Saw a family of geese walking around, deer prints and a couple trees cut down by beavers.  Our current home, the only wildlife we see are squirrels and crows.  So, it'll be a wonderful change.  I included a panorama of the lot.  Our next appointment is this Thursday to sign a contract.  Moving along.....

Moving up the timeline....

We met with our sales rep Sarah today at the model to go through the first cost estimate and understanding deposits and timeframes.  We walked out moving our timeline up by 3 months.  The plan was to close in January because of bonuses from work coming at Christmas time to use for closing.  Ryan doesn't own the land, some developer does and Ryan Homes has to sell a certain number of lots by a certain time to be guaranteed exclusive rights to the next phase.  So, because of that Ryan is being very aggressive in their pricing and incentives.  The Florence starts at $183,000 with a free morning room if you go with NVR mortgage.  That plus 3.875% interest rate, how can I not?  The free morning room offer ends after April, plus our rep said prices are going up about $3,000 a month.  7 lots were sold in March, 2 were sold this month already, leaving only 17 left.  We really, really, really want one of the wooded lots and I'm afraid holding out will cause us to lose a wooded lot, lose the free morning room, lose the low price or lose all of those.  So, we talked it over, did the math and found we can shuffle money around and make it really happen now!  We're supposed to have an appointment next week to walk through the lots and pick one.  Who knows, we may be putting down our first deposit in a week.  I figured next spring we'll be in our new home, but now it looks like we'll be trick or treating in our new home!!  It's an exciting and nervous time.  Stay tuned.....

Getting nervous

I'm getting nervous about losing out on a decent lot.  We're meeting with the site sales rep Sarah this weekend to talk about reserving a lot, putting down a deposit and getting a cost estimate.  I'm worried that if we put down a deposit to hold a lot and wait a few months to continue with deposits to start construction, they'll sell it out from under our feet and hand us our deposit back, or bump us to a lot we don't want.  As of last week there were only 18 lots left, and they sold 7 in March.  With their aggressive pricing and heavy advertising for the free morning room, I can see those lots going really fast as we get closer to summer.  Fingers crossed.

Visit to the model

Over the weekend we went to visit the Florence model in the development we have decided on.  Counting up the available lots, there are 18 left.  Bad news, they sold 7 last month!  At that rate, they'll all be gone before we're ready to put down our deposit.  Ryan was heavily advertising the free morning room last month, it was tax return season, so hoping that was an atypical month.  If it goes down to 3-4 a month on average, we'll be ok.  I'm just going to have to watch how things are progressing and shift around money if needed to put down a deposit.
The street is kind of a loop.  We learned there are three types of lots available.  The inner lots on the loop, which has a pond in the back, are the standard lots.  They're alright, but because of the curvature of the road, the houses are pretty close together and there isn't a whole lot of yard due to the pond.  The outer lots are much better: there's lakefront and wooded.  The lakefront is amazing, right on a large lake, with an $8,000 premium.  The wooded lots have woods behind them that is protected wildlife land, so no back neighbors ever!  The wooded lots are a $5,000 add.  Definately worth it in my opinion to add the money in order to look out your back window at woods for the rest of your life.
Talking with the sales rep on site, we learned we can get Elevation B, the morning room, gourmet kitchen, wooded lot, upgraded cabinets, granite, fireplace all for $15,000 under our planned budget.  So we can get all the big ticket items we want.  The other $15,000 to play with we can use for other upgrades, so that was exciting news.
So now the plan is go back every 3-4 weeks and watch the sales progress.  Hopefully it slows down and we don't have to shuffle money around and continue as planned.  We'll see...