Journey to Avalon Isle: To corner or not to corner, that is the question...

Yesterday was a whirlwind with many decisions to be made in a relatively short period of time. It can be broken down into three sections:

1. The Money

2. The Lot

3. The Decisions

The Money:

Our NVR rep contacted us Friday to obtain some preliminary follow-up questions (I know, follow-up questions cannot be preliminary, just let it slide :-) ). Since we recently moved from another state and of course started new jobs, we needed info from employers for the last two years. Now as a show of hands, how many people know the address, phone number, and contact info for a rep at your previous job... That's what I figured. Nonetheless, it was a good conversation. Our rep went on to inform us that we would need to obtain a copy of our purchase agreement, we will get to that in the decisions portion, before our loan meeting on Monday. Since we did not have this we needed to go yesterday to make all of the decisions in order to complete the purchase agreement, including handing over a nice fat check for our earnest money deposit.

Once done, we would go through the litany of paperwork we had to compile and submit as part of processing our loan.

My suggestion:

-Create a spreadsheet of all the items you know you will need. This it typically provided by your NVR rep

- start obtaining electronic copies of all the required paperwork and be sure to date each electronic piece in both the file name and the spreadsheet. The reason for this, as time goes along you will need to provide updates to some of the documents you provide in the beginning. If dated in both place properly, you can easily identify what you have and what you need to replace.

- If you are married or going in with a co-applicant, create an online repository that you both have access to and can upload documents as necessary.

-When all items on the spreadsheet are accounted for, zip up the docs and send to your rep.

Doing this as soon as you have the required list will save you much stress as you go through the process in the beginning. Because once you complete the purchase agreement and it's signed, you have seven days to obtain financing. And there is a lot of paperwork... Just be prepared. :-)

The Lot

One of the early decisions you need to make, one of many, is which lot you would like. This request for a decision came quickly for us as we found out on Friday afternoon that we needed to have our purchase agreement complete by Monday so we could process our loan application. I guess the one good thing about the speed in which we needed to make the decision is we didn't have time to go back and forth, over and over about the lot.

All along we knew we wanted a corner lot or at least a lot with room apart from our neighbors. As it turned out there was only one corner lot that that would fit our house and it just so happens someone else was looking at this lot as well.

Armed with this and the aforementioned information, we decided we needed to go view this lot immediately. As we took the forty minute drive from where we were to the community, we were quickly approaching dusk but we would not be deterred. We needed to view this lot immediately and decide if this corner would be our corner (hence the title - I attempt to tie up all loose ends as I tell this tale; a tale of truth - so lets call it non-fiction... But I digress).

When we arrived we still had a little bit of sunlight remaining. We pulled out the document provided by our sales rep of all the available lots and we began our search.

Of course our first stop was the corner lot and with all the clay, rocks, and sparse grass - it was still a beautiful site to behold. It was hard to image our house fitting in this space, but it was no mistaking that this corner was in a great location. In doing our due diligence we looked at he other lots, but the didn't have the pull of the other. Without much hesitation we knew this was he lot for us. We drove around the community for a while as dusk continued to settle in and was convinced this was the right spot to raise our family.

From there we went to get ice cream and while waiting, I sent our sales rep a message to let her know we wanted that corner lot and would be there first thing in the morning to complete out purchase agreement and provide our earnest money.

I have to say that was a great night of sleep. :-)

The Decisions

After receiving our 10:30 PM email about our lot decision Friday night, our sales rep emailed us at 8:30 AM Saturday morning to confirm our meeting time (12:30 since she had another appointment). A note of caution: This meeting is probably one of your most important initial meetings as you will get into the specifics of your house. This includes exterior colors down to the number of additional outlets you may want.

My suggestion:

- Do your homework as it relates to the model you have selected

- Come prepared with as much info as you can. To do this obtain info from your sales reps as to the options available in your model. And map out for yourself which options you want. Doing this in the comforts of your home helps you to think critically about your decisions and you won't feel rushed or overwhelmed at your appointment.

- Additionally the time you spend making your decisions at home helps this meeting to go much quicker. We already had all of our decisions ready to go and the process still took about three (3) hours.

- If you have kids, I suggest not having them present at this meeting. Mainly because of the aforementioned time duration, and also because there is a lot to absorb and maintain so you will need your focus.

- Narrow your decisions by taking out what you know you don't like first. What you'll find is that may narrow it down to about three choices. Continue to do this with the remaining choices and before you know it, a decision will be made... Stress free.

-Last but not least: Don't sweat it if you aren't sold on the decisions you make. Take pictures and understand you have fourteen (14) days to make a change. However, if you follow some of the steps I mentioned above, it just may make your decision-making process easier

In an effort to wrap a bow to this post, the family that was also looking at the corner lot we chose may end up selecting the lot right next to us. Guess that could lead to some interesting conversations when we move in :-).