Chris got back in touch with me! He had already started working on our loan. I sent him the houseplans, and an updated price estimate for the construction. We'll see what he can do!
New Castle Mortgage wanted every subcontractor bid updated and then they wanted copies of the bids. UBuildIt wasn't to open to that idea. Getting the bids updated fall under our responsibility according to the contract we have with them. It's just a matter of calling the subcontractors and letting them know we need them updated. The problem with that is that we haven't signed-on for the actual construction with UBuildIt. We don't get access to that kind of information until we sign. We didn't want to sign until we get financing. We can't get financing until we show New Castle the bids. So that's the situation we're in there.
Chris didn't seem to need newer bids (not yet at least). We may have to make it official that we are going to use UBuildIt, or find another builder. UBuildIt is going to be a lot less expensive and a lot more work. If we get someone to just build it for us, it will be too expensive. UBuildIt states in the contract that if we sign and the house doesn't get built, we don't have to pay. But if we sign and the house gets built (even by another builder) we have to pay them. So, I'm hoping we can get financing without having to commit to UBuildIt quite yet.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Permitting and Financing
I have some news. I have been doing some work on our home recently. Before Christmas I talked to a new mortgage man. New Castle mortgage, and over Christmas he was a little slow in getting back to us. So, I finally met with him on Thursday and found out that they had some concerns about the amount UBuildIt quoted us. They want to have some sort of assurance that we can actually build the home for the amount that UBuildIt says we can. Either a signed contract with the price, or they want to see the quotes from all the subcontractors that UBuildIt got. The lender also needs newer quotes, since ours are out of date now. I am meeting with Scott at UBuildIt on my lunchbreak tomorrow to discuss this.
Permitting: When I submitted for permit a while back I got a couple phone calls from Rio Rancho that told me what I needed to do to get the permit. About a week ago I called again, to ask what needed to be done. This time they faxed me the paperwork, and there were a few things on there that they didn't tell me about last time. One of the notes on the paperwork stated that it was clearly a Duplex, with multiple living spaces, and that is not allowed. This made me really worry. I was going to look into it more and make some phone calls before I worried anyone else about it, but I ended up telling Grandma and Scharese. Now I think I've really made more worry than had to be. Here's the good news: I called the permit office on Friday and talked to the lady who makes the decisions on these things, and made the comment on the original paperwork. She told me that the 2 front doors are not a problem. It's the doorways between our side and Grandma's side. So the doorway between our nook and Grandma's den needs to be an open walkway. The door from Grandma's hallway to her den must also remain an open walkway. If we submit our plans with those changes (which are very minor) it will make the entire house have an open flow between both sides and will be acceptable as a single family residence. The lady also made it very clear to me that we can divide the house after we get our certificate of occupancy, and that is not a problem. It just needs to be this way because of the zoning for the permit itself. After we get our certificate of occupancy we will plan on installing doors where we initially planned. That really made me happy. I thought we may have to make major changes, but I made her clarify it multiple times to make sure I got it.
I also got in touch with the septic tank folks and they are still going to be able to install our tank as soon as we are ready.
I sent a bunch of paperwork off to Chris Hunlow, because we found out over Christmas that he actually is licensed in New Mexico to get us a loan. I haven't heard back from him yet. I will try to get in touch with him this week. New Castle mortgage is also working on it for us. I didn't get any final quotes or figures from them because they think UBuildIt may be underestimating things. UBuildIt got actual bids for their quote, so I don't think it should be a problem once New Castle gets copies. I don't know what kind of rate they will get us, or what closing costs they charge. I need to find that out. I will try to do that this week too.
New Castle also (at my request) got a quote from a contractor to build the house for us. I think that a contractor would be better than me at getting things done in a timely manner. It costs significantly more though. So, we are still leaning toward using UBuildIt.
Hopefully the recent progress will keep rolling and we can start building sooner rather than later!
Permitting: When I submitted for permit a while back I got a couple phone calls from Rio Rancho that told me what I needed to do to get the permit. About a week ago I called again, to ask what needed to be done. This time they faxed me the paperwork, and there were a few things on there that they didn't tell me about last time. One of the notes on the paperwork stated that it was clearly a Duplex, with multiple living spaces, and that is not allowed. This made me really worry. I was going to look into it more and make some phone calls before I worried anyone else about it, but I ended up telling Grandma and Scharese. Now I think I've really made more worry than had to be. Here's the good news: I called the permit office on Friday and talked to the lady who makes the decisions on these things, and made the comment on the original paperwork. She told me that the 2 front doors are not a problem. It's the doorways between our side and Grandma's side. So the doorway between our nook and Grandma's den needs to be an open walkway. The door from Grandma's hallway to her den must also remain an open walkway. If we submit our plans with those changes (which are very minor) it will make the entire house have an open flow between both sides and will be acceptable as a single family residence. The lady also made it very clear to me that we can divide the house after we get our certificate of occupancy, and that is not a problem. It just needs to be this way because of the zoning for the permit itself. After we get our certificate of occupancy we will plan on installing doors where we initially planned. That really made me happy. I thought we may have to make major changes, but I made her clarify it multiple times to make sure I got it.
I also got in touch with the septic tank folks and they are still going to be able to install our tank as soon as we are ready.
I sent a bunch of paperwork off to Chris Hunlow, because we found out over Christmas that he actually is licensed in New Mexico to get us a loan. I haven't heard back from him yet. I will try to get in touch with him this week. New Castle mortgage is also working on it for us. I didn't get any final quotes or figures from them because they think UBuildIt may be underestimating things. UBuildIt got actual bids for their quote, so I don't think it should be a problem once New Castle gets copies. I don't know what kind of rate they will get us, or what closing costs they charge. I need to find that out. I will try to do that this week too.
New Castle also (at my request) got a quote from a contractor to build the house for us. I think that a contractor would be better than me at getting things done in a timely manner. It costs significantly more though. So, we are still leaning toward using UBuildIt.
Hopefully the recent progress will keep rolling and we can start building sooner rather than later!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
More waiting
I talked to Indigo Mortgage today. They need a couple more things from us, so they haven't moved forward with the loan processing yet. I should have been more diligent, and known that they needed more. So, I need to get some things again, since they are from July/August, and Indigo needs the most current statements and paycheck stubs. I will try to get that gathered ASAP!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
New new news
I was told that it takes less than 2 weeks to get a building permit. That is true IF everything is ready. We found out this week that we need a couple things. First, we need an engineered drainage and grading plan. I was told by someone in that office that we would NOT need it, but apparently that's not the person who has the power to make that decision. I talked to UbuildIt about who we should get to do it, and they are trying to track a specific person down who was able to do it for very reasonable prices. They also said I should call Rio Rancho and explain a few things about our land. Maybe we won't need it after all.
We also need to extend the water line. There is a fire hydrant on the corner of our lot, but I guess that's not good enough. I should have seen that coming because our neighbor wouldn't have run the water line all the way to our lot if he could have just run it to the edge of his. UbuildIt gave me the name of someone for that, but I have to submit different paperwork to Rio Rancho before we do anything. I was also told not to do anything before we get financing. And that leads to the next bit of news.
Charter Bank was going to do our construction loan, but after reviewing everything they said we need to sell our existing home BEFORE they can give us the construction loan. That's not exactly what we had in mind, seeing that we need somewhere to live during the construction. It's a good thing that we had talked to another lender who is ready to give us the loan. We just didn't go with them yet because of Charter Bank. So, Ben at Indigo Mortgage said that there is a 98% chance of us getting a construction loan and being able to begin building by October 1st. Another reason we were going through Charter is the timing. We were told not to do anything at all to our land until we had the loan finalized, or it would cause problems with the financing. That means that we can't begin anything until October 1st. Any chance of moving in around Christmas is lost. So, January or most likely February is when we will be able to finish the home.
We also talked to another possible contractor who would manage the entire job. Indigo Mortgage recommended him. Jim Flores is his name. If we use him, we wouldn't have to do all the things we are going to have to do through UbuildIt. He also costs more than UbuildIt, but said that he can usually save people enough to make up a lot of his fee. I don't know if he realized that we are already saving a lot by going through UbuildIt. When he looked at the price of lumber that UbuildIt quoted us, he told us that it couldn't be right because it was too low. I called UbuildIt and they went back to the lumberyard, and the price they had quoted us had actually dropped a little since the quote was first given. It is not very likely that we will use Jim Flores to build our home. He is working on a detailed quote for us. If his quote impresses us, he may still have a chance.
I had a pretty heavy work week and a reunion today. I hope you didn't miss the blog too much this week. I should have more time in the coming weeks and try to be a better reporter when it comes to "breaking news".
We also need to extend the water line. There is a fire hydrant on the corner of our lot, but I guess that's not good enough. I should have seen that coming because our neighbor wouldn't have run the water line all the way to our lot if he could have just run it to the edge of his. UbuildIt gave me the name of someone for that, but I have to submit different paperwork to Rio Rancho before we do anything. I was also told not to do anything before we get financing. And that leads to the next bit of news.
Charter Bank was going to do our construction loan, but after reviewing everything they said we need to sell our existing home BEFORE they can give us the construction loan. That's not exactly what we had in mind, seeing that we need somewhere to live during the construction. It's a good thing that we had talked to another lender who is ready to give us the loan. We just didn't go with them yet because of Charter Bank. So, Ben at Indigo Mortgage said that there is a 98% chance of us getting a construction loan and being able to begin building by October 1st. Another reason we were going through Charter is the timing. We were told not to do anything at all to our land until we had the loan finalized, or it would cause problems with the financing. That means that we can't begin anything until October 1st. Any chance of moving in around Christmas is lost. So, January or most likely February is when we will be able to finish the home.
We also talked to another possible contractor who would manage the entire job. Indigo Mortgage recommended him. Jim Flores is his name. If we use him, we wouldn't have to do all the things we are going to have to do through UbuildIt. He also costs more than UbuildIt, but said that he can usually save people enough to make up a lot of his fee. I don't know if he realized that we are already saving a lot by going through UbuildIt. When he looked at the price of lumber that UbuildIt quoted us, he told us that it couldn't be right because it was too low. I called UbuildIt and they went back to the lumberyard, and the price they had quoted us had actually dropped a little since the quote was first given. It is not very likely that we will use Jim Flores to build our home. He is working on a detailed quote for us. If his quote impresses us, he may still have a chance.
I had a pretty heavy work week and a reunion today. I hope you didn't miss the blog too much this week. I should have more time in the coming weeks and try to be a better reporter when it comes to "breaking news".
Saturday, August 16, 2008
We will have a building permit in less than 2 weeks
Hooray! I was finally able to get everything in for permitting! The basement engineer needed a little bit of a push to get our engineering to us, but he finally got it to me on Wednesday. That was the last piece of information we needed. Rio Rancho got all the paperwork and plans on Thursday for our permit. Initially Leonard at the permitting office said it would be a few days. I had him clarify that and he said within 2 weeks. There is also a water meter request that must be accepted before they can give our permit out. That was also submitted on Thursday with a 5 day waiting period. We are just glad that it should be done in 2 weeks and not 6.
I talked to Horizon Mortgage as well. They are an affiliate of Wells Fargo and they cannot do a construction loan because of new strict corporate regulations. Mark at Horizon Mortgage said that he will be able to get us the best deal in town on our permanent mortgage, but we will have to get our construction loan through someone else. I played phone tag with Jonathan from Charter Bank and will try to meet with them ASAP. We have met with Charter Bank before (about 9 months ago) and were prequalified for the loan. I have since gotten a fairly significant raise, so I think we should be able to get our financing quickly. Charter is who UBuildIt recommended and normally uses. I just thought that I would shop around a little. I know we like Horizon Mortgage, so I tried them.
I also spoke with the Alpha Septic. They wanted an estimated time of septic installation, which I'm not too sure of right now. They said any time after rough in plumbing, so I told them October. They weren't too concerned with exact timing, just wanted to make sure they had us on the horizon.
In the next 2 weeks we will have to get the construction loan finalized, and sign the contract for the building phase with UBuildIt. We will also have to get PNM to get electricity on our lot. There's a PNM box about 1 foot away, and in past conversations they have said that our lot is ready for it. We just need to have them set it up when the time is right.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Not much news
So. We are now waiting on a couple of things. The basement engineer said that he will get everything done by early next week. I also met with Horizon Mortgage on Wednesday and he will get back to us on Monday. He was very confident that he will be able to get us the best deal around. They are the same ones we have our current mortgage through, and I am very happy with them.
Based on that information I am planning on submitting everything for permit next week! Hopefully permitting will go quickly and we can start building soon.
Based on that information I am planning on submitting everything for permit next week! Hopefully permitting will go quickly and we can start building soon.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Plans are almost ready for permit
We have some progress being made. Tuesday I got the plans from UBuildIt along with the approved truss engineering, and then dropped them off at a structural engineer to take care of the basement walls. He said that he should be done next week sometime. I told him to engineer the basement walls based on poured concrete, not block. I have been in contact with a concrete company that can do it for about the same price. We won't know for sure until we get the bid back from them, but we were willing to spend a little more for the better walls.
Thursday I picked up the septic approval. I will have to double-check, but I think we will be ready to send the plans to Rio Rancho for permit as soon as we get them back from the basement engineer. From what we've heard, it takes 4-6 weeks to get a permit from the City. We are hoping that the City can go faster since there shouldn't be as many other people building right now. Maybe they can get it done in a week or two. If everything goes well we can break ground in August, but we should probably be content with early September. We will try to build in time constraints into our subcontracts to keep everything moving quickly and smoothly. We should be done by January! Right now it's just a little bit of a waiting game (for the basement engineering and the permit).
Thursday I picked up the septic approval. I will have to double-check, but I think we will be ready to send the plans to Rio Rancho for permit as soon as we get them back from the basement engineer. From what we've heard, it takes 4-6 weeks to get a permit from the City. We are hoping that the City can go faster since there shouldn't be as many other people building right now. Maybe they can get it done in a week or two. If everything goes well we can break ground in August, but we should probably be content with early September. We will try to build in time constraints into our subcontracts to keep everything moving quickly and smoothly. We should be done by January! Right now it's just a little bit of a waiting game (for the basement engineering and the permit).
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