House for Sale???

We met with the realtor tonight to hear the sales pitch. He was very thorough in explaining how he came up with a price for our house. The price he is suggesting sounded acceptable - then the catch - the commission. We about fell out of our chair. Although we now the commission rate local realtor's charge, it wasn't until you see the rate equated in real dollars that it hits you like a ton of bricks. Bottom line, after the commission, we will have sold our house for less than we paid for it 10 years ago. Now I am no rocket scientist, but that doesn't make real good business sense. To say that we are disappointed is an understatement. Guess we will have to re-evaluate this whole thing and make some tough decisions. Should make for an interesting holiday weekend.

The Hometown Banker

We met with the bank loan officer last night to see about getting pre-approval for our new home. As I said before, this is my least favorite part of this process. We have banked with this bank for almost 20 years and have never had any problems with them. Not sure why I feel so uncomfortable going to the bank - well, maybe I do. Pardon me for my regression. My dad had a strong dislike for bankers - not personally, but professionally. He used to say, never trust a banker. Maybe that has something to do with my apprehension.

Anyway, back to last night. We met with Keith for almost 90 minutes. To make a long story short, he simply told us he would just mail us the pre-approval letter on Monday. That was it! Wow! I guess that is why we continue to bank with them. They make the process SO easy and painless! I did sense a hint of envy from him as we showed him our floor plans. I just hope this house turns out to be as nice as we are envisioning. Only one more step before we start digging - what is our current house worth. We will find that out on Wednesday.

Calling the Bank

We have banked with the same bank for almost 20 years. However, the thought of asking for money still causes me to break out in a sweat. I convinced Jo Nel to call the bank to set up an appointment so we could see about getting pre-approval for the house.

As I sat and listened to the phone conversation, it was like she was talking to a friend on the other end; school, work, kids, etc. We are meeting Keith at 4:00 pm tomorrow. Now to find the documents he wants - I think I put them in that pile over there!!!!

The Realtor is EARLY - UGH!

We have spent the last week breaking our backs trying to get our current house ready to show the realtor. With our busy schedules, we have just started piles in our basement with the good intention of taking care of it later. Well, later never came and now we are left with the results.

Pat Murphy was to come over at 4:30 today to take a look at our house. Both Jo Nel and I rushed home after work to do a few last minute items like vacuum and dust. I was in the middle of vacuuming the great room when the door bell rang. Crap - it is only 4:00 - they can't be early! Sure enough, they were early. Oh well, considering how much time Pat and Nancy actually spent in the house, they were not going to care if the floors had not been vacuumed in a couple of days.

Nancy jotted some notes about the house and they will go back to their offices and come up with a marketing plan, including what they think the house should be listed for, and meet with us next Wednesday at 4:00.

Next stop - the call to the bank!

The Price Tag

We got the news tonight - I think Jo Nel about choked when she saw the price Jay proposed. Considering what we are getting, I think it is a steal. His proposal includes the lot and he carries the construction loan. He was flat out honest with us saying he wants this to be a winter project for him and he is pricing it for us so we will build.

The next step is to talk with a realtor to get an idea what our current house will bring. Conveniently, Jay's brother is a realtor - kind of a package deal. Jay will have his brother call us to set up an appointment.

Our House

Very little has changed on our last revision and we both feel this plan will be our new house. We met with Jay again this evening to make sure this is the house we want him to build. We also decided to build on Lot 7. The house is setting at 2, 197 square feet on the main level. This is lot will allow us to have a southern exposure on the front of the house - nice for those Iowa winters where you want the ice and snow to melt off your driveway. Our next step is to have a formal proposal drawn so we know exactly what type of money it will take to build this house.

The economy continues to concern me (along with the fact that the U.S. Government looks to be in control of the Democratic Party). I struggle with building a house before my current one is sold but Jay tells me I just need to 'get over it' - thanks Jay - LOL.

Personal Contact??

Having J. Murphy Homes build our house now seems like the only way to go. Jay actually calls me instead of emailing and we can talk honestly about where we are going with our plans. We saw revision number whatever tonight and I think we are almost there. Being the visual people we are, we made him draw in a kitchen layout just so we can get a feel for how things might look. We have also settled on building in Hunter's Field - although which of the lots we will take is still not yet nailed down.

"Lots" of Decisions

We finally had a talk with our kids about our choices on lots. We drove them all past the 3 areas we were considering (well, only 2 are now viable candidates since Sunderman Construction obviously has written us off). Amazingly, not one of the kids chose the area where Sunderman had the lots. This started out as our favorite location. The discussion from the 2 girls is centering around moving away from their friends. Austin is really ambivalent to the location, although I think he is liking the area where Jay lives since it is so close to Linn-Mar High School.

Revisions

What a difference seeing your house plans on paper. We met with Jay Murphy again tonight to go over some of the ideas we say in the Parade of Homes. He is going to make some more changes and let us know.

He is trying to convince us to but the corner lot behind where he lives (he says it the old - pick your neighbors thing - lol). Jo Nel and I are feeling more comfortable with Jay. If a builder wants you to live behind him, logic would tend to say that he isn't going to want to have an unhappy customer living behind him. This is easing our minds about having a friend build a house for us.

Still nothing from Jerry Sunderman or Scott Rosekrans (the realtor). Business must be pretty good to be able to ignore customers who wanted to build with you!!

Parade of Homes

Today was the last day for the 2008 Parade of Homes. We went through several homes between soccer games and other activities. We got a few more ideas we are going to send Jay's way. We finished our tour by stopping at his parade home. Anne (Jay's wife) and Jo Nel spent most of the visit talking about how Anne would work with Jo Nel in finding things for the new house, etc. This feels right.

By the way, nothing from Jerry Sunderman (a.k.a. Builder A). It will be interesting to see if we hear anything from him next week now that the Parade of Homes is over.

Plans Arrive

Got an email from "Jay" aka Builder B today. He attached a copy of our first floor design per our conversation. At a first glance, wow! He was really listening to us. Can't wait to show talk to Jo Nel and get her thoughts.

"The Note"

Received an email from the realtor today. He is trying to nudge his father in law along to get the plan to us. He wanted to make sure we knew they had not forgotten about us.

Reflections

What a difference between 2 builders. Although we feel Builder A builds a quality home and his name is know in the area for that, I am still replaying our meeting. At the very least, we should be able to get ideas from 2 sets of plans and start making some decisions. My only fear is dealing with a friend and how to tell him no while we build with his competitor. The cart may be in front of the horse right now but it is concerning.

Who is selling whom?

We met with "Builder A" and the realtor tonight to show them the plan we liked and how we envision us combining this plan with one of his pre-builts. We had only been there maybe 5 minutes and I was ready to walk out the door. What an arrogant. . . . . . Sorry - still too fresh in my mind. We got the sense that we were trying to convince this guy to build a house for us. He is the builder so we were looking for him to lead the conversation on how we may be able to combine a couple of plans to come up with a house that we wanted. The image of a dog chasing it's tail would be a good visual for this meeting. The realtor had to leave about 45 minutes in to the conversation. Once he walked out the door, it was like a turn of events. All of a sudden the builder seemed to change his demeanor and it was actually a good dialog. We agreed that he would take our ideas and plans and give them to his draftsman and come up with a very preliminary drawing. We stressed that since we have no idea on how this will shake out, we did not want either parties spending a lot of time and money on this. He agreed with us. The 2008 Parade of Homes was only 2 weeks away so he was rather busy right now. Not a problem, we told him. Give us a call when you have something for us to look at.

Had my Jo Nel not kept the conversation going, we never would have seen the other side of this conversation as I would have been home downing my Miller Lite's in rapid succession out of frustration. We are trying to figure out if he was feeling a need to put on a show in front of his son in law. Whatever the case, I am not completely sold on using this guy to build my home.

The Grand Tour

We met with "Builder A" tonight. He spent 90 minutes taking us to homes he has built in the area to show us some different designs. Come to find out, he has 'transplanted' half of his old neighborhood out to the area where he lives. He joked saying that was the only way he could control who his neighbors would be.

We saw a few things we liked from a design perspective but nothing in it's entirety. He asked us what size of a home we were looking at. Not really knowing the correct response, we told him 2,400-2,600 on the main base. Without even thinking, he told us we were nuts and that we would swim in that house. He would gladly build it for us but he thinks that is way too big. Alas - an honest man???

The last house we saw was his and that is where we sat at his dining room table and showed him the plan that we had found. His wife came over and said she really liked our ideas. Knowing both of them it was easier to open up and talk about how we want the house built around the kitchen and great room. He took our ideas and said he would draw up a plan in the next couple of days. He is behind on his parade home but thinks he can squeeze this in.

Builder "B"

Well, the last meeting with "Builder A" is still swirling in our minds. We spoke to some of our friends who have used him and the comments are all the same - builds a great, high quality home but his follow through is not very good. One friend even suggested we hold back money after closing till all the items on the final punch list were resolved. Not having a very good feeling about this.

Enter "Builder B" - a mutual friend of ours. I'm a little nervous about entering in to a conversation with him. Doing business with even casual friends hardly ever turns out well. But against our better judgement, we called him. We are know talking to two builders. Guess we will see how this circus ends!

Meeting the Builder

We just got back from our meeting with "Builder A". First impressions have us thinking that this guys thinks quite highly of himself! I can play that game too (LOL). We talked generally about our ideas for a home. I think he is more of a 'visual' learner because he wants us to draw our ideas on paper. Being that neither of us are artists (let alone draftsman), we will give it a shot. One of the lots as a verbal hold on it already. Prices are a little higher that we thought but we will see where this goes.

Meeting Set

We are meeting with "Builder A" tomorrow night at 6:00 pm. We are anxious to learn more about what he can do.

BINGO!

We may have just found our area! We went to an open house of a builder that we are considering (we will leave the names out for now to protect the innocent - lol). We LOVED some of the things we saw. This builder has built homes for a couple of our friends so we have some personal references we can draw on. The realtor showing the house was very helpful (and also related to the builder). I am sure we asked more questions than he was accustomed to answering but we know a little more about building than your average bear. He suggested we meet with the builder to discuss our intentions. He has 2 walk-out lots in the subdivision that would be great! Is it really going to be this easy???

Well, the discussions have begun (or should I say continue)! We have been talking about building a new home for years. The problem we always run in to is where. We love the school district we are in and would like to stay within those boundaries. We have looked and looked for lots that meet our criteria; must be within the Linn Mar School District, must be a walk-out lot, and the biggee - we can chose our OWN builder. That list doesn't seem that long or unrealistic - or so we thought. Seems the one that is the biggest stumbling block is the "bring your own builder". The lots that are in our area that we like have all been purchased by the builders and you have to use them (naturally) to get the lot. Not a big deal IF you like that builder - thus the problem. The search continues so stay tuned!

New Home Project

After years of talking, we are finally going to pursue building a new home. We will be blogging our experiences (both the good, the bad, and the ugly). Follow along with us as we start this journey. Who knows, we may be right back to only thinking of building. Only time will tell.

Welcome

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