In the beginning

Where to begin...?

After spending the past few years renting, I decided enough was enough one day, and set off on this course to own a home in 2017. I'm the proud father of 2 kids, one of whom is going to middle school next fall, and a beagle rescue (named Snoopy...yes, I actually thought I was clever) who's been with me since my first home purchase 14 years ago.

After getting engaged to the woman of my dreams (and homeowner) that put our head count at 4. And then, dear Mom, decides the home I grew up in with her is getting rather cumbersome, and would love to move in with me, Ashley, and the kids, if at all possible. And what Momma's boy actually says no to Mom right? 

So now we're looking at 3 adults, 2 kids, and prayerfully, more kids to come in the not too distant future. That's not including my current dog, and the fact that we'd love to possibly get another dog soon, home permitting. Oh, and did I mention that dear Mom, would like a first floor bedroom with her own bathroom. 

Neither Ashley or I were too keen on giving up our powder room. It also seemed somewhat cumbersome and possibly cost prohibitive, to convert the typical powder room found on the first floor in most colonials (I neglected to mention that I'm a colonial sort of guy. I love levels for separation). This left our selection with our regional home market (MD) somewhat limited. For quality of life purposes, we decided we were relatively anchored to within  roughly a 45 min of our jobs.

Once we began looking at the listings of pre-existing homes and their corresponding prices, we were floored at how few first floor bedroom (or in-law suites) actually existed. Not only that, but with all the adults in this situation having been spoiled by garages (I'm looking at you MD winters!!), we wanted not only land (1+ acres please), but also a 3 car garage, if possible. As mentioned earlier, finding those qualities in existing homes, within about 45 minutes of our work epicenter--was challenging. Especially once we factored in school district and of course, cost.

It's around this time that we earnestly begin pondering the question: Do we need to build our own home? More importantly, are we prepared to build our own home? Don't misunderstand me, it sounds like a fantastic idea right? Control over layout. New community. A home that hasn't been lived in. etc., However, my fiance or myself were under any illusions that potentially so much could go awry in the process. 

We went to visit a "luxury home" being built by another builder. And we absolutely fell in-love. However, after pricing out the home with everything we needed (1st floor bedroom with it's own bathroom. 3 car garage). We were floored by the price. But that's OK. We figured, that for our "dream home", what better a thing to break the bank for and possibly do a little belt tightening for a while. After all, this is where we'd spend the bulk of our days, and where our family would grow and build and so forth,

Besides, we had both owned homes before. And we had done our fair share of research (and spoke with our realtor), and we knew that the first price offered, tended to come with some wiggle room on the builders part right?? 

Wrong...

I won't go into the details. However, while the builder offered to find us a different lender who could possibly offer us a more manageable mortgage. We found that wasn't was niggled at us so much. It was more so the attitude that the builder, and in this case, the sales rep, refused to budge an iota. Not on lot premium. Not on options. No additional closing costs. Nothing. They said they were powerless, and made no true effort to accommodate us. 

And then it happened...

I setup and appointment with Ryan Homes, who were at the time, building a new community at a site and in an area that I was somewhat familiar with (I've passed it many times over the years, without ever going back into the cut where it actually exists now). My original intent was to price out the home, and see if that could give us any leverage with the other builder.

Well, from the onset, the my experience with the sales rep was as different as night and day. And that meant the world. So after pricing out the home with all the features we had in the other home (this one also came with a 3 acre lot and not lot premium at the time), it actually came to almost the exact same price as the other home we were looking into. The difference is, our SR (Amy) was straightforward in terms of what and where she could budge in order to make the home way more affordable (without the prerequisite belt tightening even necessary!) I was sold, literally. 

Full disclosure: I was told that if I didn't take the deal at hand, by tomorrow, she was going to offer the deal to someone else on her serious list who was considering the lot. Now whether this was a sales tactic or not, it worked! And we have absolutely no regrets in taking the deal.

We came back the next day. Reviewed the options, which despite adding up quickly (added windows, added ceiling fan rough-ins, added hardwood, etc.,), still came out to a figure well beneath the other home we looked at. With the exception that this one came with a 3 acre lot, at the cost of slightly smaller rooms, and no study (with the Avalon, the study becomes the 1st floor bedroom).

So here we are. First steps of the journey of a thousand miles....!