Another Update
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
I know this has been a one trick blog lately, but this really has taken over our lives, so why bother trying to fight it?
Before launching into the update, I heard Friday that a funding proposal I had written was actually approved. It was a pretty substantial proposal, so it felt good that it paid off, and will benefit a lot of people.
Back to the house. People,
it pays to shop around. Not for houses, of course. No, we picked the first one we looked at it. But in terms of mortgages, there is apparently a lot of wiggle room. We had originally wanted to deal with a certain company, but then we were referred to a woman through the realtor. She came to meet with us and talk over all our options. She was very friendly and answered all our questions. The other company, on the other hand want us to work around
their schedule, and really didn't even ask us what would work for us before setting up the mortgage without our permission. Suddenly, when we told them we had gotten a second opinion... tada! Now they are ready to talk turkey. The gave us a new offer, and we went back to the woman again. She returned to us with a slightly lower offer,
plus a $1000 incentive. Which, I am sure, is a molecule in the bucket for them, but with all our closing costs and lack of forethought, is HUGE to us. So, it's all settled. The other company whined a little bit, but boo-hoo, fellas.
It is a little frustrating, though, to think that even at this, we had to go through a lot to get better rates.. Why can't people just be more upfront?
In the same vein, we went furniture shopping on Saturday. We built in an allowance into the closing price for appliances and furniture. It was fun, and efficient, but, again, I feel powerless to negotiate prices. The most we got was 5%, which is what everyone gets anyway if they make any major purchases. We're going to ask around again, and see if we can screw 'em a bit more.
So, I believe it's 87 days and counting until the big day. We're nearly at the point when all the fun stuff happens....meeting with the designer, picking floors, tiles, colours, etc. If anyone has any neat colour schemes, feel free to post them. I am pretty picky though. I tend to like cool colours, and I don't usually like earthtones, greens, yellows, etc.
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12 Comments:
SO EXCITED for you. You can totally wiggle and bargain for pretty much everything. Give 'em hell! And when buying your furniture, shop around and compare and tell the stores you're doing that. They love it. They also very often have payment / no payment plans, which is awesome. Get the kind with no payments AND no interest though, and remember when the time is up.
this is so exciting! i can totally see your colour schemes as very modern - greys, silvers, black, blues... when my sister got her place though, she was a little limited in what she could choose (cabinets were pre-chosen for example)... i suggest doing tiles and wall colour last, because you can adapt it to match what you picked for everything else. :)
The furniture payments are going right on the mortgage, so it's definitely buy now pay later. But the less money we are going to put on it, the better. And yes, I've noticed they DO respond when you're shopping around. So, I'll at least look online to see what's there. But I think our hands our tied since they are the only company that works with the development company directly - ie; any other company, we'd have to pay out of our own pocket.
Liser: We can pick the colours of the cabinets, walls, tiles, trim, etc, though we don't know yet how wide those options are. I imagine they will be pretty narrow, but at least we can change it in the future!
man, they have counters for EVERYTHING! So your closing and moving when then, I thought end of May or something. Maybe my math, she's not so good.
Well, this one you can add edit whatever you want. It was handy. :)
Alright then.. Let me do the math...
The official closing date is May 30th so...
1 month from today - April 13
2 months " " - May 13
+ Two weeks - May 27
+ 3 days = May 30
So, yah, it works out. I wish the slider was more in days than months, but meh, what can you do?
I enjoy hearing about your house. I know that I do not actually know you, but I am still incredibly excited about your big purchase.
Even if you start writing posts that are solely about choosing between two different shades of white, I will still read every last word you write.
Megan: I promise you THAT won't happen.. I'm anything but subtle. :)
You should check Furniture Deal$ on the Hanwell Rd. Ha. For reals though, we got a really nice dining room table there!
Actually, our furniture is ordered already (pictures to come!).. We had to go with a particular store as they will bill the housing company directly, and it's built into our mortgage...
it's odd but true. If you decide you need more furniture, furniture deal$ has nice things. bad name, but nice thing.
loving the new furniture pics. You should totally get the extra 2 chairs, in case I want to bring my whole family over for supper!
Heh, well, the difference in price was around $300. But if you come, I promise to make some room. :)
jesus, those are expensive chairs!
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