I'm so excited and anxious for my pre-drywall meeting on Thursday. The hubs can't make it because of work so me and my kiddo are going alone. I'm excited to hear all the ways our house is energy efficient.
I am waiting to hear from the settlement coordinator with our closing date...I stopped in the model today and the sales person told me it's showing anywhere up until Aug 13 on her paperwork but that would be an absolute worst case scenario. Even if it does go that long (which would mean the house would sit vacant for 2 weeks? My PM promised he would finish it July 31), our rate is locked until Aug 14 so we are good there.
And again about the outside lender thing...if you qualify for a VA loan, I highly suggest checking out Veteran's United Home Loans. I found them by doing a "mortgage rate" search on Zillow's website. They have been beyond fantastic...their mortgage packet even included a little bag of confetti for me to throw at closing. Their rate has been holding steady the past several days at 3.375%.
I emailed my LO at NVR today at 3pm for the rates...no response. It was 3.75% a few days ago though. That's a difference of $50/month between the two lenders.
Is it obvious that I've been doing my research? I hope this helps somebody! Even if you are doing a conventional loan, I would still do a search on zillow to see if you can beat NVR's rate.
Oh and did I mention that I asked my neighbor who has a Venice what her electric bills usually run and she said $35??? And my other neighbor with a Rome (3200 sq ft!) had her first bill and it was for 36 days of use and was just under $100!!??? I'm so excited about this (and you can see why every little bit off our interest rate helps, it will pay our electric! ha!). We just moved from a 900 sq ft townhome and my January bill was $230! So I'm super excited at how low our electric bills will be. Less money in bills = more money for fun (and home projects)!
Updated to add: looks like the rates jumped today...now the lender I am using is at 3.75% so I can only imagine what NVR is.
Oh my, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have been so lazy about the mortgage and checked out outside lenders. I read on another blog that the incentives that bind you to NVR are actually illegal! They can't offer a home at a lower price for using NVR, and there is some loop hole to get around it. I know we probably could have got a 3.375% loan but we got 3.5% and it was really close... but their origination fee is ridiculous... most other lenders don't charge a fee at all or it is about 1/2. The closing costs are what made my stomach turn, I can just imagine what we could have bought with all that closing cost money!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I am super excited too for the bills to come in... wait what? I'm excited for bills?? LOL Our old 1000 sq ft house cost about 300-350 to heat in the winter! The only bill I'm not looking forward to is out water bill... lol I'm hoping for LOTS of rain so I mother nature can water my lawn for free!
3.5% is still a great rate!!! We were looking at 4.375% to get our good faith money back and just realized that was not a good idea. I'd rather lose that money to closing costs (or a portion of it anyway) and have the lowest payment possible.
DeleteI'm really excited about the energy bills. I have lived in some poorly insulated homes and have had huge bills. I would love to pay under a $100 a month. Fingers crossed. And thanks again for the info on the VA loan.
ReplyDeleteOk Kellie you sold me...I am going to have to look into Veteran's United Home Loans...I am pretty sure a friend of my husbands used them too. When do you have to tell NVR by that you are NOT using them? I have to call PM back and schedule our pre-drywall...looks like Monday or Tuesday!
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