Surprise Turnovers..

This week we came to know that the lead PM who conducted our Pre Settlement Walk Thru' has quit NVHomes.
Really.?.We couldn't have figured it out from his actions..
He was all about having a good relationship in the coming days, getting a good evaluation and above all he promised to take care of all the issues :( . Is it true or is it a game that NVHomes plays?

Now it adds to our worries.. Will they fix things as they promised?
Just when we start trusting someone, they leave NVHomes.. Again...This has been our experience through out the journey.
You could never tell from their expressions that they are planning on leaving the builder...

Maybe it was not a good idea to let them off the hook before closing...
We've sent the list of issues found in the Final Walk Thru' to the assistant PM. He is the one whom we communicate with on a regular basis. Hope he takes care of things before he walks away...:(

Surprises everyday..

Got the Keys!!!

We closed last week and got the keys! Very happy about it!!
Thank God! It was painless; we were in and out in an hour.

There was a drama earlier in the day about an extra charge appearing in the final GFE. We've been asking about it for two days. The reply was they will take care of it. But when we did see the charges again in the morning, we had to call everyone involved. Finally got a call from the LR explaining how it was a wrapped up charge, not an additional charge. Wish they had explained it when we initially questioned it.

Closing is done.. but we have a laundry list of things to do!.
The minor issues with the house are yet to be fixed. Need to make a list and persuade the PMs to get them done. Hope they keep their promise to get it done in a week. Haven't heard anything from them.  Not sure if closing without getting those issues fixed was a good idea. We'll let you know how that goes.

We got some things completed over the weekend ...
Much more shopping to do…Good thing, Thanksgiving is around the corner.  Our favorite time of the year!

Thanks to every one for being supportive during this process. We got lots of good tips and encouragement from our friends visiting the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pre Settlement Walk Through and some pictures..

The Pre Settlement Walk thru' takes solid two hours. Be prepared...
It was mostly about how things work, tips on maintenance, warranty, and contact info.....

The lead project manager was very thorough in explaining. They have one big book to go through..:)
Since we had a glorious home inspection we didn't have much questions or complaints..

They have done a good job so far. We could definitely see that they want to end it with a good note.
Hoping to have another year of good relationship with them..

Some friends asked us about our tile choices. The pictures don't do justice for the granite. But it is a perfect match. The kitchen is as bright as it can be..
Most of our choices are not too strong colors; but the house does exhibit the warm feeling we were hoping for..
We took an advice from one of our friend: Do not select and pay mortgage for an option that you can easily replace or get it done later. We made sure we got all the structural needs and some less expensive options that made the house look better.

Master Bath - Ridgeview DG30 Cream

Garage Entry - Paraiso PS51 Artico

Laundry Room - Castle De Verre CV10 Turret Beige

Master Bedroom -White Fox Carpet

Upgraded Banisters with Maple Stain

Kitchen View from Stairs

Kitchen - Waltham 3-1/4" Gunstock

Maple Spice Cabinets with New Caledonia Granite

Burlywood Granite in all Baths

Front Entry- Engineered Gunstock Hardwood

Home Inspection Passed with Flying colors...

We did arrange to have Home Inspection done from our side.  The Home Inspector said this is one of the best built houses he has seen. That made us really happy about our choice.
Don't want to sound like NVHomes spokesperson...:)
But got to give the kudos to people who deserve...Job Well Done!
He is a well experienced and reputed home inspector from our area. Found couple of minor issues and the big one was with attic insulation..And there is an unfixed squeky floor and some alignment issues identified from NVHomes inspection. The Project Manger assured to take care of those issues. At this point we are trusting that they will fix it in the next couple of days.

Is it worth the $400 we spent on a new house on home inspection? Yes, it gives us peace of mind.

In our earlier post we had mentioned the error made by T.A.C tiles. It was finally resolved by NVHomes.
Never got a good reply from T.A.C tiles one way or the other.  It seemed like they never cared about the issue or never intended to resolve it. Just bought time with their wishy washy replies. It was a game of pointing fingers.We are just happy that some one took care of it at the crunch time.

We are looking forward to the closing now.. Hopefully NVRM will make it easier with NO surprises...
If that goes well, we could definitely say the journey was all worth it...

Locked In... and Some Happy Moments!

We finally locked in a comfortable rate with NVRM. Though they didn't match penny to penny against our other GFEs, we think it is a decent rate and cost.
Historically the rate seems to go lower in the winter months. Maybe we rushed through the process, but we wanted to put the mortgage issue behind us and enjoy the rest of the 30 days. We will just have to refinance if the rates go well below 4% like last year.

Our visit this time was a happy one since things are coming together. The new PM gave us a quick tour. A lot of things have been completed.
We felt that our choices didn't go wrong any where.

Though we did not upgrade the carpet everywhere, we got the upgraded carpet pad throughout the house. It doesn't feel cheap at all.  We will be installing hardwood later on.
Couldn't get clear pictures since the tile and carpet were all covered.

The kitchen cabinets and the counter tops are a perfect match. (The granite is covered.) We are planning to install glass tile back-splash later on.

We have the biggest pantry a townhome can have. And a lot of storage spaces as well...










Love the Powder Room! The Master bath tile is not finished yet. That is something we are looking forward to since we upgraded it.

The spacious dining room with NVHomes signature finishes.










The whole row of houses look wonderful!

More pictures to come...

It is Beginning to Look a lot Like....

It  is indeed an exciting phase since it is really starting to look like a house. 

The cabinets are up and the tile is done in most of the places.

Still waiting for the granite in the kitchen and the tile in the master bath room. 

The mortgage issue did burst the bubble out of us. We are really tired of all the negotiations.
NVRM has a lot to improve in timely communications and earning customers trust.

Malaise is contagious and their actions make us mistrust them in every step of the way.

However, we have to give it up for our SR. She has been a true advocate fighting for us while keeping her promise to resolve the issue. We might go with NVRM after all, but we'll have to pay a little higher to get the market rate.
Hopefully they will make the 'Closing' painless.

Just when we synced up with our PM, he was replaced. Not sure if he left the company or just moved to a different community.

The new PM is updating us on all the work being carried in the week. No problems there so far.

The finished kitchen and master bath room may put the excitement back in this process. Will post pictures when we visit the house again...

When It Rains.. It Pours..

It's a rainy day today and is pouring out here. We couldn't visit the house..

But we received back to back updates from  the NVR Loan rep and the PM.

We are going to meet with the mortgage rep to resolve the issues. Still skeptical with all those charades...

Our PM has briefed us on fixing issues that were found and the work that will be carried out next week.
He is someone whom we have begun to trust...Looks like the closet issue is the way it is for interior units.

Received emails about Final Walk thru' and Settlement dates as well...

Keeping our fingers crossed for a better experience in the coming days...

Backstabbing ....

Finally we were contacted by the NVR Mortgage rep. He quoted us a high interest rate and closing cost. We told him that we have quotes with lesser interest rate. 

He asked us to send any quotes from other lenders and he will see what he can do. We sent him two of the quotes we had so far.

He disregarded the one with lower interest rate. Not sure what his rationale was to deny the one with lower interest rate.

He asked us to provide the POC for the other quote saying that he will transfer the loans allowing us to keep the incentives. Trusting his email, we naively provided the contact info. 

Today we found out that NVRM has contacted the other lender’s boss and had confronted them for giving us a competing quote.

Now that company is not willing to give us a loan. Later we learnt that they are Affliated lenders and are supposed to quote a different rate for NVHomes.

We did not expect this backstabbing and unethical behavior from NVR mortgage. 
If there is an issue with the lender, they could have been upfront about it.

NVRM asks us to get competing quotes and then confronts the lenders. 
They disregard the quotes from companies whom they cannot match.
Isn't this mortgage steering?

Sent a mail to our SR on this... NVRM has a lot to answer before proceeding further..

Continuing Gripes...

Our visit was not very satisfactory..They have taken care of the plumbing issue in the bathroom. However, the vent going through the second bedroom closet has not been removed. This closet is the smallest and the space is almost cut in half by the vent to make it even smaller.
We don't know if they can or will fix it.

One good thing is our PM has started giving us weekly updates..He has promised to take care of it somehow...

The brick layout on the front view has been completed. But the elevation did not have the accent bricks on the edges as promised. We have emailed the PM about it. He is  looking into it  and he is not sure if that design is applicable to this community.

If that is the case, why even put it up in the blue print? That Elevation costs us extra money. It better include what we signed up for...
Continuing gripes...

Within 60 days...

Getting closer to the tentative close date!

Let me start with some Kudos to our Loan Processor and our Sales Rep for their timely responses....

After pushing through different channels we were able to talk to the new NVR mortgage loan rep.
The Rate and Closing Cost he quoted us was higher than we expected.

We have provided him with comparable GFEs we've got so far.
It's a Waiting game now. Hopefully he will come back with a better rate and closing cost..
The rates are very volatile.
The market is waiting for the Fed Announcement next week.
No shortage of dramas...Then again, life without dramas is boring...

Our nice PM has promised that the issues we found last week will be fixed before the inspection..
But seeing is believing ... So, we are planning to make a visit to the house.. It is like watching a baby grow ..

We are excited and anxious at the same time...

Pre Dry Wall Meeting and Growing Anxiety....

We had our Pre Dry Wall meeting. Kudos to our PM who accommodated our availability for the meeting.
The weather was very nice and the PM was friendly like always.
A lot of work has been completed since we last saw the house.

The electrical rep from Trinity Wiring was there to mark the places where we needed our ports.

As we walked through the house,  PM marked down all the issues and promised to take care of it.

The things that concerned us were some of the errors made by the HVAC and Plumbing contractors.
Two biggies were in the secondary bedroom closet and the lower level bathroom. There were other minor ones like not leveled floors and not filled holes in the wall.
Definitely not a thorough job. Felt like contractors may be rushing to complete the job.

Hopefully our PM will make sure that these issues are fixed before they put the dry wall on.

Adding to our anxiety was the neighbor (recently closed)  who was complaining that they ruined the bedroom carpet during final cleaning. The carpet has to be replaced now. His bedroom furniture were being delivered and he was figuring out where to keep them temporarily.. Poor guy...:(

We had to send a mail to NVR people saying that we'll have to switch lenders since we missed out on some good loan rates due to lack of correspondence.
We received an immediate response on how our mortgage rep is leaving and the new rep will be in touch within 10 days...mmm
Why couldn't they have conveyed that to us earlier...?
Anyways we have to talk to the new rep and see how responsive he is..
The rates keep going up everyday...

Growing Anxiety...
Is it worth it?
Only time will tell..

Moving Fast....

Finally got an update from the PM....

Looks like the Framing, Roof, HVAC will be completed by the end of the week.

Still not sure about the Pre Dry Wall meeting .... That is one of the reasons why we were expecting an update from the PM.
Hoping that would be scheduled at the latest by next week.

The mortgage rates are sky rocketing... Hopefully the mortgage rep will call us at the right time to lock the rate or else we will have to look for a loan from outside lender... Maybe a good thing...

Jinxed It.....No Response....

We have read so many reviews online where NVR mortgage people don't respond and the PMs not updating the status.
But we always wanted to give them the benefit of doubt. Seems like it might be typical of NVHomes / Ryan homes.

No response from the reps in the past two weeks for any of our emails.
Our SR says that these things are out of her hand..

The only thing we can do is visit our lot during the weekend to see the progress and wait for the pre dry wall meeting..

And here are the pictures from our visit...

Community

No Major Updates ...But Some Pictures ...

The Project Manager hasn't sent any emails..May be not much is going on...He promised weekly emails though...Time to stop by the lot and have a look ....:)

The framing is up. The construction is going faster.

Heard from one of our neighbors that there are already six homes for rental in that community. Sounds like one too many investment properties.. Alarming...Not surprising though in this market..

Earlier in the week, we sent a mail to our NVR Loan rep regarding the 90 days lock. She said she will call us.
Still waiting to hear from her...

Pre Construction Meeting....

We met with our Project Manager(s). They seemed real nice.
They went thru' our selections.Answered all our questions.
The assistant PM said he will send out emails every week to keep us updated.

Our Pre dry wall meeting is supposed to be in the last week of August when we've planned our summer vacation.
Hopefully we'll find a good date that works for everyone...

Our closing date is temporarily set for the beginning of November.

We also got our loan approved but conditionally. We need to submit more paperwork.

Our SR will delete the additional light fixture we got. We couldn't find a place for it.

Overall it was a very good meeting and we are so excited....

Another exciting thing is,  we peeked at our lot and the concrete is poured already....:)

Surprise development before Pre Construction meeting

Two weeks ago when we saw our lot, there was dirt and some lumber in the front, but still had the available sign.

Last week our SR had sent an email asking our availability during week days for pre-construction. Looks like the PM does not work during weekends. It is hard to schedule during week days because of our job situation.  We had asked for a meeting next week.

When we were waiting for the confirmation on the date, we thought we'll make a visit to our lot. Guess what... The footers were already in.

So we decided to stop by the sales office. SR told us since some people had finished the pre-construction meeting, the development has already started. She gave us an appointment for coming Friday and said it is not too late.

Is that the process flow for the NV townhomes? Aren't they supposed to let the owners know about ground breaking? Disappointed, since we'd heard differently from the Ryan home bloggers..
We actually wanted to take a picture when they broke the ground.

We are now worried about the other meetings. We can't take too much time off work.

Hopefully NV homes will keep us informed of latest developments. We are going to meet the PM for the first time. Looking forward to the meeting...

Gripes and Kudos

The deciding factor for us was the size of the home.
After signing, we found out that it is smaller in size than what we were told.  We couldn't digest it for a while since we went by price per sqft.
Will NVHomes compensate us for that? Of course not. Our SR showed us the blueprint to verify the sqft.

We still love the layout and the location of our lot. As I mentioned earlier it is bigger than neighboring townhomes and we are also hoping that NVHomes end product will be of good quality. Our SR is very confident on that.

We had another issue of misinformation as well. We felt like NVHomes doesn't take our side.
Our Realtor helped us keep our cool. A talk with her makes us put things in perspective.

Our kudos to NVR mortgage rep. She accommodated meeting with us on a weekend. We really liked her.
The closing cost seems a little higher than normal and they do ask for unusual no.of documents.
The interest rates have gone up since meeting with her. Hopefully we won't fall out of love with her when we lock our rate.

Update: Little did we know that we are in for a stormy journey with NVR mortgage at that time..

Selections Saga...

We went for the Full Brick with Elevation E. The choice of Elevation and Brick are predetermined for a row.
There was a cheaper one available with partial siding on the same row. But the beauty of NVHomes is in full brick front.

We have finished our Flooring Selections. The T.A.C tiles Flooring Rep was nice and very helpful, but there was an error. Our NVHomes SR has promised to take care of it.

Chose Maple Spice Cabinets and New Caledonia Granite thanks to Ryan home bloggers. The Kitchen flooring is Gunstock Oak wide plank.  Can't wait to see the finished kitchen...

Upgraded only the Master Bath tiles to DG30 cream, upgraded the countertops in additional bathrooms to Burlywood granite similar to Master Bath. Got the White Fox carpet with the carpet pad. We can redo the flooring later at a better price.

My suggestion to an NVHomes buyer is to visit Ryan home blogs for selections.. Lots of good information...

NVHomes offers the basic standard four outlets just like Ryan homes. The Cable/Phone selections was with Trinity Wiring. We didn't feel the love since we opted for very basic options.
In this day and age of wireless communications who needs too many phone and cable outlets?

Additionally we got a dedicated circuit in the garage and a lighting prewire for the storage room.
Later found out the storage room does come with the light fixture. Need to talk with the PM now on how to use that extra lighting.

We have opted for the modern Roman shower instead of soaking tub and regular shower. Recently we changed our mind and requested to include the soaking tub, but the answer was it is too late.:(

Have you ever got the feeling that if the changes are in favor of the builder, they can make it happen by signing addendum, if not the reply is some reason?
In this case, we have to trust our first instinct on just getting the shower and be happy about it..

Why an Andrew Carnegie at Arcola Center?...

We started looking for a townhome from March 2013. The housing market has started to heat up.

We missed the boat on buying a home at a bargain price..

Most of the new townhomes built in Ashburn were smaller and more expensive than SouthRiding area. It is mostly because of the 'Future Metro' fever. We didn't want to catch that fever.

We were still debating on buying a new home or a recently built one.

We visited Arcola Center Ryan townhomes in May. The houses were smaller.
Also visited NVHomes in the same community. NVHomes is supposedly the luxury version of Ryan homes.The prices were way higher, but the size seemed bigger. The size is a deciding factor for us. We also favored the Rear Load garage, since we don't get a lawn to maintain.

We've owned an NV home before which we loved.

We didn't have a model home to visit though.
Came back in June and the model home was ready, we loved the layout , and liked the standard features that come with the house. And  of course, our SR was good in pointing out the pluses. We talked with our realtor and decided to sign for one.....

Journey Starts....

Hello everyone,

We've signed up with NVHomes at Arcola Center to build a grand townhome with the 10ft extension.

This is our first new home building experience.

We have started the journey with a prayer; it has had its ups and downs so far. Just wanted to share our experience with others thinking of building a townhome with NVHomes.
(NVHomes and Ryan homes come under NVR)

Anyone out there who is going thru' the journey or have finished it successfully with NVHomes?