I know it's a pretty common practice to leave the framing wood outside for a few days but it's been sitting out there for about 2 weeks. They also left the stair case and doors outside uncovered and it's been raining last couple of weeks (raining right now as I write this). Our framing was pushed back for the 2nd week in a row and now our closing time went from June (when we signed contract) to July (when we started construction) to August (no enough framing crew, rain, or whatever reason).
What
concern us the most is interest rates are on it's way up and we can't
lock until the 30 day mark. When we signed the contract it was at 3.375% and now it's at 4%. That means our monthly payment
already went up about $200 based on our loan amount. An extra $200 a
month in interest is a lot of money, I can use that to lease a car or
pay for a lot of home services (TV, internet, Netflix, etc...)If we were on schedule with the initial June completion date, we would've already locked in at 3.375% 2 months ago. I mentioned it to our SR and she said we can always BUY DOWN THE RATE...
DUH!!!! really, are you going to give us the money for that or can we just go pick them off the money tree we are growing in our backyard. GRRRR SO FRUSTRATING.
oh my! 200$! That is a ton of money extra! I always think in terms of what I could be using the money for, and you're right, you could lease a car for that! Or one super fancy dinner date a month, or heck, a Cancun vacation every year for that! And sometimes, I feel like they think us buyers just have money trees! Like, I would get so pissed off when they would say, yeah, it's only $$$ more to the price of the home, or a month... some of us don't want to be house poor you know! I would get so frustrated, maybe you should look into another lender, because on bankrate.com the rate is 3.625% today (still more that 3.375 but better than 4%)
ReplyDeleteRachaels,
DeleteThanks for reading my post. Our loan will be a high balance loan (over $417k) even after 20% down so the rate is a little higher than regular 30 year conforming loan. I'll be happy with around 3.5% but 4% is too big of a difference. I hope rates will go back down a little by the time we lock.
Yikes. I'm definitely not looking forward to when we get closer to when we can rate lock... because right now I'm just blindly hoping it stays close to what we were "quoted" when we first started meeting with RH back in February. We finally have a contract signed and our pre-construction meeting is scheduled for June 7.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine what I would do if our rate went up by that much! I've been calculating all of my scenarios with 3.65% (which I thought was conservative) but if it goes up to 4% we'd see about a $60/month increase. Definitely not good!
-Brandon (www.buildingwithryanhomes-parkplace.blogspot.com)
I've purposely stopped watching rates. Our original delivery was August, but it has since been pushed to October (haven't even had our pre-construction meetings yet). It sucks that our incentive is large enough to tie us to NVR (we'd add on $26,500 if moving to another lender). That alone would be around $200 to the monthly, plus it would also affect our downpayment and settlement costs.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned to Rachael, I'm hoping rates will start to drop as we get closer to our window to lock. It happened earlier this year when rates were rising, then started to fall about 2 months back.
In any event, I hope your framing starts soon!
That's crazy!! Sorry I hope interest rates don't continue to rise.
ReplyDeleteWe just faced the same issue. Not sure who you are you going with but builders are notorious for giving a higher rate. Our house is going to be done at the end of June but we are moving in end of July so we are at the 60 day mark. Our builder was also giving us 3.75% but we decided to shop around and found that Bank of America is really competitive. They offered us 3.25% with a 90 day lock and 3.375% with a 60 day lock. They also offered us closing assistance. I also heard Wells Fargo is competitive as well.
ReplyDeleteTrust me we have all the same concerns that you've mentioned. Our plumber was sitting in rain for two weeks, when we called the PM and told him we are worried about it. He said they are designed for getting wet, it's OKAY! Next thing is interest rates.... we are shopping around. One of the blogger friend mentioned their LO tried to match what other lenders were offering, waived the origination fee etc.... I hope our LO does that too..
ReplyDeleteI guess we're gonna try BOFA and Wells Fargo as well.... Thanks C Crawley!!
Well our loan is stuck with NVR (like most buyers of Ryan Homes) so we can't really shop around unless we want to pay for the incentives (finished basement, Morning room, etc...).
DeleteRH and NVR know what they are doing....unlike some of the other bloggers on here I also shopped around (dec 2012) for a better interest rate, I got many many GFE's and everyone was about the same as NVR and we had 25% down with a conventional loan, so ....... I did not have the same luck with other lenders being able to beat out NVR...
ReplyDeleteOur PM told us when to lock our rate, and since HE told us to lock our rate NVR has to honor it, sure enough it went over the 60 day lock, but NVR had to honor it because our PM told us too, so you may want to look into that as you get closer also..
I agree and disagree about the lumber, I don't believe it is suposed to get completely soaking wet...its not like this stuff is pressure treated....so I dunno about that one,but Im not a contractor... I know RH likes to tell us what we want to hear............you will learn this more and more after you are in your home, you just have to be deligent and keep on them about things that are important to you.
Your SR's job is to disfuse you worries and make you feel better, so they are always going to have a "feel better positive twist" that they hope you hold onto...remember as much as we like our SR, they are sales people and are trained to give out "sales" answers and how to handle people!!! My punch out guy yesterday told me these guys are sent to class to learn how to "talk" to people...a lot of the contractors and punch out guys will sing like canaries....
Why is your lock at 30days not 60 even if it is a jumbo loan? It's still NVR?
Still with NVR, we can't lock until we are at or close to 30 days mark. I think 45 days is ok but the rate might be higher.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the rates go much lower for you. It may not hurt to shop around. Even if you have to give up the price of the incentives, they may have a cheaper rate in the long run. But, be careful because the potential loan companies will more than likely run your credit. This will temporarily affect your credit rate. Doing that can increase the rate they (both NVR and other companies) offer. The positive aspect is that you could potentially go back to NVR and say that BOA or some other company is offering you a lower rate despite the loss of the incentives. They may be willing to match it or do better to keep you. It is a gamble.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with dwtimes2 about the lumber. I was concerned about a little water sitting on what would become our dining space. Our PM said that the wood is treated to withstand water. However, that water dried up by the end of the day. It was not out there for weeks laying in the mud and the rain. Here is a site that I found that may or may not put your mind at ease: http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/26842/what-happens-if-your-framing-gets-rained-on-learn-to-use-a-moisture-meter
Thanks, That site is very informative.
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