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?