Watch Out for Nails

Not only are we building a house, but our current abode is also under construction -- and has been for several months.  That's why the only thing surprising about this picture, is that it did not happen sooner.  It happened the first time we parked in our new driveway -- welcome home!  Thank goodness for Discount Tire -- one hour, one shower, and $0 later, we were back in business.

Approved

Today we received full approval on our mortgage!  I think this means that our spending ban is over.  Now we are just waiting for the mortgage company to provide us with the magic number -- the amount of money we have to bring to the closing table.  Throughout the entire process we have been given approximations, but never a hard number -- for fear that the mortgage company invents another fee prior to closing.

Everything's Greener

It's been awhile since I have posted a picture of the exterior of our home.  With just a few days until closing, things are still moving along.  Over the weekend, they put in the grass on our 1/2 acre of land.  This is definitely a job I am glad I did not have.

Maintenance Galore

On Monday we had our first of two final walk through meetings with our builder.  While not explicitly stated, the purpose of this meeting was to overwhelm us.  We we got there, Tony went over all of the maintenance that we would need to do on our new home. He provided this helpful checklist to get us through the first year.

If that is not enough, we have another checklist to do in addition to the above list for years 2 through 10.  We even have maintenance work to do prior to moving in -- we need to seal the grout, back splash, and granite before we start using them.

We also went through the house and pointed out things that needed to be fixed or changed.  This was our opportunity to point out anything cosmetic that was flawed.  They will fix it before we close, but after we close on the house, it is up to us to fix those cosmetic problems.

We will have one more meeting on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning to check out all the touch-ups that have been done.  Then, we are scheduled to close on Friday at 4:00p.m..

Calm Before the Storm

My email inbox and phone are no longer exploding with requests for our mortgage company, the doors to our house are locked, and a few miscellaneous items have been packed.  By this weekend we will be in full packing mode, contacting utility companies, and fielding another round of questions from the mortgage company.

Yesterday, we went by the house (surprise, surprise) and were able to get inside because there was someone -- get this -- working on touch up!  We discovered that the back splash had been finished and our new applicances had been installed.

The air conditioning units had also been installed as well as the steps leading up to the front door.  If we could get in the house a night, we would no longer need a flashlight because we have working electricity (and running water).  We still have not heard from the builder regarding our final walk through, but the rumor is that it will be scheduled for Monday, giving them a couple of days to tackle the punch list before closing.

Jumping Through Hoops

Among the hundreds of documents we had to read, sign, or provide, was this jewel.

While somehow the over-zealous lawyers who drafted all of these documents failed to define "new debt"   the lady we have been working with made it clear that "new debt" means spending any money in our bank accounts or any other account we may have.  We can spend cash on hand!

She was gracious and acknowledged that we have LIVING expenses, so they would just have to recalculate our debt to equity ratio right before closing to account for our spending on things like rent, food, student loan payments.   But, we cannot spend money on extraneous things like a refrigerator for our new home, furniture, or anything else for our new house.  She begrudgingly said we can apply for credit with the electrical company, gas company, and cable company, so we can have those commodities when we move into our new house.

Kitchen Essentials

Lots of things are happening at our house.  Today the house passed the final electrical inspection!  I was really excited about having electricity so we could see a little better at night, but it has not been turned on yet.

The tropical storm kept them from pouring the driveway, so now we are left with a lot of debris in its place.  Since I posted last they installed the tiny tiny tiny carriage lights and the rest of the roof.

This week they installed the kitchen counter tops and today they put in the back splash.  We "upgraded" both of these options and I think that it was money well spent.

We Took the Plunge

Over the past two months we have been very interested in what the market was doing, specifically mortgage rates.  When we signed the contract to purchase our house back in January, the interest rate quote we received was 5.0%.  However, the earliest we could lock in our interest rate was 60 days before closing (keeping in mind that if our closing was delayed past the 60 days, we would have to pay a fee to extend our lock-in rate).  

We were sitting ducks.  We could obsess about interest rates as much as we wanted, but the reality of it all was that there was nothing we could do until we were within 60 days of closing.  We sat around and watched the market.  Luckily we liked what we saw -- falling interest rates!  

On day 60, we emailed our loan officer only to get quotes for 60, 45, 30 and 15 day lock-in rates with the 60 day rate being the highest and the 15 day rate being the lowest.  With this knowledge and the fact that the market did not show signs of improving, we cooled our jets and decided to wait until the 30 day mark.

Thirty days before closing, we again request a rate.  But, since the 15 day one was still lower, we again decided to take our chances and continue to float the market.    About a week later, we got another rate quote.  This time the 30 day and the 15 day rates were 4.5%.  Then around day 18 the 15 day rate went to 4.375%.  Also right around this time we were beginning to get cold feet in regards to our loan officer.  I called a few friends and learned that the loan officer should be able to get us 4.375% through September.  So, we asked for 4.375% and the loan officer said no.

So, every day we email our loan officer asking for a quote. -- he loves us -- and for the last week the 30 and 15 day rates have stayed at 4.5%. 

Today marks 15 days before closing.  This is a significant milestone because our loan officer's canned emails stated that we must lock in our rate 15 days before closing or we will be automatically locked in to avoid delays in closing.  Although, one of the many documents we signed stated we had to lock in our rate 10 days before closing.

Since we want to close by September 30th to qualify for the home buyer's tax credit, we decided to take the safer route and lock in our rate at 4.5%.  While, it is a great rate, we were slightly bummed that it was not the 4.375% we had dreamed of.  

About 30 minutes after emailing our loan officer, he sends me an email stating that we can get 1% discount points paid for by the seller as part of their agreement to pay closing costs up to 4% which would give us a rate of 4.375%.  In plain English: at no additional cost to us, we can get the rate we have been requesting all along.

Mortgage Preperation

It looks like our house is still on pace to close on September 24th!  Yesterday, in the pouring rain, the electricians were inside installing all of the switches and fixtures.This week, thanks to the tropical storm,  is also proving to be an excellent opportunity to check for leaks and flooding.  So far we have not found any leaks.

Mainly, we have been dealing with the mortgage company.  Despite being pre-approved back in January, we are not having to resubmit all of our financial documents.  It seems like every time I check my email (which is frequently) we have a request for another document that needs to be provided yesterday.  

We are still floating the market.  Ideally, we will lock in our interest rate at 4.375%.  We got that quote for a 15-day lock-in when we were outside of 15-days and the 30-day quote was 4.5% .  (They are our builder's partner, so why are they quoting us rates for lock-in periods that cannot be met?).  

Our mortgage guy loves us.  We do not perceive a current risk that the mortgage rates will go up in the near future.  Every morning we send him an email asking for a new quote.  This past week the quotes have remained at 4.5% for both the 30-day and 15-day periods.  At the 15 day mark (tomorrow), our rate will automatically be locked in. In my defense, I told him that we will accept 4.375% or float the market.  If he gets tired of my emails, he knows what to do to make them stop. 

Squares

Well, we had hoped to catch the tilers before the started laying the floor tile and use a little green persuasion to get them to lay the tiles subway style.  But, they got to work before we could get to them, so we are stuck with the ordinary layout.  Oh well.