Well, as Captain Picard says, make it so, and so it is done.
Today, August 18th, 2007, we took the plunge and decided to go to contract on a new home in Townsend, Delaware. The community, as I previously mentioned, is a golf course community by the name of Odessa National. Ryan Homes, our builder, anticipates a settlement sometime in late Spring or early Summer of 2008, we won't know any more details until we get into 2008. We won't break ground until winter is over I would imagine, which means we won't start our pre-construction meetings with the project manager/general contractor for Ryan until that point in time. We have 30 days from today to amend our contract if we so desire, which translates into 30 days to make changes to the options we've chosen to install into our new home.
Stacy and I are both excited, yet at the same time I am nervous taking on more responsibility. Stacy's comment to me on the way home today after going to contract was that she is proud of me, that I took a risk in agreeing to go to contract. I suppose I am a bit risk averse when it comes to monies, a bit on the conservative side so to speak. So, now, on to more important and urgent matters, prepping our current townhome for sale! We have a lot of work to get done in a short period of time. Our desire is to have our townhome on the market by the end of September. If we can manage a sale by late fall or early winter, by some miracle, we'll either rent an apartment until settlement, or we may consider living with our parents/in-laws if they will have us. While we are very well aware of the stresses of living with parents, as we did so for about a year's time many moons ago when we built the townhome we've lived in for the past 11 years, doing so will allow us to save a good deal of money for several months on end. At least in my view, the more we can save, the more flexibility we will have both during settlement on our new home, and beyond.
We'll be contacting a real estate agent that was recommended to us the first of next week. We plan on working with this mother/daugther real estate team to determine how best to prep our townhome for a quick sale. Our understanding is that this mother/daughter team has an excellent track record, and is currently only charging 3% commission rates for their services. Sounds a lot better than the 5-7% most other folks are charging these days.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the BainBridge model that we're having built, here's a link to the generic floor plans for our new home:
http://www.ryanhomes.com/pdfpreview.aspx?ID=32ce6b03-d9dd-4b29-a1e1-c94a123445ba
I'd be happy to talk about what options we've chosen if anyone expresses any interest in having me do so.
Our new address as of Summer 2008 will be :
132 Lynemore Blvd
Townsend, DE 19734
One unexpected benefit of the model we've chosen is that for the past couple of weeks, we've wanted the choice of a lot in the next phase that was not yet available in the community because the land development isn't far enough along to begin selling the lots in the next phase. Fortunately for us, our home requires 62 feet in width, which disqualified every single lot that is currently available in phases one and two. So, by default, we were able to move into the as yet unavailable lot number 22, and for half off the expected lot premium. Bonus!
Please do be praying for us as we start down this path, for wisdom, discernment, energy, focus (especially when it comes to getting all of the prepwork done for our townhome), patience within our family toward one another, and patience with this whole process from start to finish.
Lastly, we're getting our family vacation pictures developed soon, and we'll be sure to snap some digital photos of our little lot 22 plot of land, as well as some pics of the surrounding areas and the golf course, which is supposed to be ready for use by Spring 2008. I'll post up some of these pics for all to see...
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3 comments:
Congratulations, Craig and Stacy. I know this has been something you've considered for a while and I'll keep this in my prayers!
Is it my deodorant? My friends keep moving away from me? Well, I as much as I hate the increased unliklihood of our getting together by the addition to the miles... none the less, I know you have been tried by the lack of bedroom and yard and wish you the very best. This time, you can put the wires in while it's under construction!
I appreciated your financial commentary. I'd love to discuss it with you in light of the broader market.
Jan and Kevin, thanks for your comments. Yes, the commute is one of the con's amidst the pro's of this eventual move.
That said, we'll be in a much better position to have our friends and family visit than we are today, and as a result, with any luck, visits will be more frequent than they are today, even if the distance between us increases! :-)
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