Locking with NVR

If you've read my first NVR post Adventures with NVR, you'll know that we struggled with the decision to use NVR vs NFCU (Navy Federal Credit Union) for our mortgage. To quickly recap, our main reasoning was that NVR will sell us off whereas NFCU will keep us for the duration of the loan, and the interest rate with NFCU is consistently lower. NVR however was offering $5000 toward closing were NFCU was offering $1500. While the $3500 difference in closing cost, it's peanuts over the life of the loan if we ended up with a higher interest rate. So the plan as we left it with NVR was that about 72 hours out of locking we would get a GFE from NFCU and NVR would match the interest rate.

When we received our closing date of 28 July we spoke with our LO from NVR and she told us it was a good time to obtain the GFE from NFCU so that she could take it to her superiors and get approval to match the interest rate.  So that's exactly what we did and received a quote of a 3.625% interest rate which is pretty much exactly what's it's been since we started this process. NVR was quoting us at 3.875, so enough of a difference that we were willing to switch to NFCU if we couldn't get the rate match, and our LO was aware of this.

Our LO came back with an offer for us, they were willing to give us the 3.625% rate with a fee of 0.75% of the loan. This means we would have to come to closing with $3000 out of pocket, basically they were eating up some of our $5000 closing cost incentive. After running the numbers we saw that NVR would beat out NFCU by a few hundred dollars in this case but, to be honest, that wasn't enough to make us stick with NVR. A few hundred dollars over the life of the loan really is nothing and we had originally agreed to use NVR if the matched NFCU. Well charging a .75% fee wasn't matching NFCU in our opinions since their rate was the 0/0 rate.

We decided to play a little bit of hardball and told our LO that we would only stick with NVR if they matched NFCU's rate without charging a fee. She said she understood and took the info back to her superiors. When we didn't hear from her for 2 days we figured she couldn't get it approved, and were prepared to move forward with NFCU. After contacting her to see what the story was she told us that rates had actually increased a bit and she was waiting to see what they did that day so she cold continue the discussion with her superiors. When we heard that their rates went up we really figured it was the end of the line. We contacted NFCU to see what we had to do to start the process with them.

Surprise! The next day we got a call from our LO saying that NVR approved the rate without any fee!! So we would get our full $5000 incentive for closing as well as the matched rate to NFCU. We were pretty surprised and very excited. We locked right away and are now just awaiting our settlement day! Don't be afraid to negotiate a little, they really want your business and if what you are asking for is reasonable you may just come out on top.

HVAC Concerns

The MSS and Purchase Agreement list the HVAC System as "92% Efficiency Gas Furnace System Zone 2." We understood this to be a dual zone HVAC system, meaning thermostat upstairs and downstairs to control each independently. Makes sense given the square footage of the house and the fact that it's called "Zone 2". Well apparently that is not the case at all. We were speaking to the the PM last week while at the house and he told us that you get a dual zone HVAC system if you get the optional 3rd floor (attic bedroom or rec room around here, no basement options). Otherwise it is a one zone system with a manual damper in the attic. This means we could climb into the attic to manually close adjust the entire upstairs or downstairs and redirect the airflow. We were not thrilled with this and wish we had known up front. It's hard to imagine us wanting to climb up into the attic very frequently to adjust the airflow. I can't say it would have been a deal breaker but it's disappointing to find out after being under the wrong impression.

So where to go from here? My husband gave our inspector a call because he is also a Class A Contractor, and a no nonsense kind of guy, who we felt would give it to us straight. He said this is a common way of doing things now, but did have a recommendation for a way to improve the situation. Unfortunately we won't be able to have a true dual zone unless we have a new system installed, but he recommended asking the PM to wire the upstairs for a second thermostat. Once we take ownership of the house we can call in an HVAC company and have them install a second thermostat and an automatic baffler instead of a damper. Basically it will still work the same way, but we won't have to be climbing up into the attic, we can control it from the thermostat. He guessed this would run us around $800-$1000.

We spoke with the PM who seemed very willing to wire this for us, and we picked a spot for the thermostat on the 2nd floor (pretty much directly above the first floor thermostat). I have mentioned that a few times we've been given an enthusiastic 'yes'  from our PM and then when it comes time to deliver we've been told it's not possible. Hopefully that will not be the case here and we are trying to stay in close contact with the PM to ensure this is done before the drywall goes up.

Closing Date

We received official word from Ryan Homes that our closing will be July 28th. While we are glad to have a date, and feel as though we are moving forward, we were a bit disappointed to hear it will be end of July. All along we were told middle of July was a 'conservative' estimate of when we would close. We asked frequently if that was still a realistic target as a 'conservative' estimate and were told yes all along the way. The phrase our PM liked to use was, "I want to under promise and over deliver." Sounds great!! We'd like that too....and it turned out not to be the case. Really the only issue, besides the desire to get into our new home, is that we rented an apartment until the middle of July figuring we'd be covered. Thankfully our apartment had not been re-rented and we were able to extend for a few weeks to cover us until after closing.

Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't get pushed back any further than that. From reading blogs I've seen many accounts of dates being pushed back numerous times. Hopefully we can avoid all of that! At least we won't be homeless for those few extra weeks!