Author Archives: stephaniesara

House Wine & Meeting New Neighbors

Posted in Miscellaneous by

Today was a gorgeous day outside and we still haven’t met all of our neighbors in our future neighborhood.  So we took the time today to introduce ourselves as well as bring by a bottle of wine and our contact information.  We thought that since we’ll be constructing a home in the neighborhood, it would be nice to give our new neighbors some warning that it was going to begin soon and that’s we’re sorry for any inconvenience it may cause them.  Hopefully in doing so, our new neighbors will be more open about anything that may be bothering them!  And of course we put our little note on a bottle of “House Wine”…how appropriate!

Our quick note telling our neighbors that construction is about to begin.

Our quick note telling our neighbors that construction is about to begin.

House Wine...how appropriate!

House Wine…isn’t that fun?!

Other news, the temporary power pole went up today and we should have power to it by the end of next week.  And groundbreaking is scheduled to be on June 2nd!

Crawling…to…Closing

Posted in Construction Loan by

It’s been two (long) weeks since I gave my last update on the house, and the one thing in our way – getting to closing!  HomeStreet has taken SO LONG to get us to closing, but we’re finally there.  We (as individuals) were completely approved by underwriting, so that wasn’t holding us up, but there were two things on the build that were.

The first was the type of contract we had set-up with Ruttan Construction.  We agreed to a cost plus fixed fee contract (which took forever to negotiate), but HomeStreet doesn’t like that set-up and required us to make an amendment to our contract to basically say that the contracted amount is a guaranteed maximum cost and is sufficient to provide the minimum quality and quantity of materials outlined in our plans & specs.  This doesn’t mean that we can’t have change orders and go over our budgeted amount, but it means that we can build the house for the amount specified (to a minimum level…obviously that can be done).  To wrap up that requirement we and Ruttan had to sign the amendment and then we were fine.

The second thing that HomeStreet didn’t like is that we need a private well for a water source and that the well is not already in place.  Our loan officer had to do a bunch of research with the County to prove that there has never been a private well applied for in Western Washington that didn’t have potable water.  All of that paperwork was sent to the head guys at HomeStreet and they finally gave their approval of the loan. The only caveat is that they won’t fund our first draw without the well being installed and the testing results back.  We were told on Monday that the private well was approved by their VPs, but it still took the remainder of the week to get it passed and through all of the document controls and underwriting.

Finally today was the day though – we finally had everything approved.  And to make things go through even faster, we signed papers at about 10pm tonight!  Our loan officer came to our house and we signed them on the kitchen table.  Break out the bubbly…and we did…our loan officer actually brought us a bottle of French Champagne!  We’re officially funded and going to begin construction!!

Picked Up Our Building Permit!

Posted in Construction Loan, Permits by

I finally did it – picked up our building permit today!  It’s been ready for a while, but as soon as you pick up your building permit the clock starts to tick and it actually expires 12 months later (or you pay for an extension).  Since we’ve already paid $25,000+ for permits, I’d rather not give them any more of our money and simply wait until we needed the permit to pick it up.  So today was the day!  Of course there was a bit of a hiccup in getting the permit – some paperwork they thought I needed but really didn’t – but besides that it was smooth sailing.  We just needed to drop off our covenant for drainage best management practices (BMPs), pay our remaining balance and I was on my way!  I know it’s really just a piece of paper, but it feels like such a huge accomplishment to get the permit…definitely reason to celebrate tonight!

Huge Milestone: I picked up our Construction Permit today!

Huge Milestone: I picked up our Construction Permit today!

Besides that, we have an update on our loan process.  HomeStreet came back with a slightly higher appraised value, and with better rates and lower fees, they were an easy choice for us.  We anticipated to be closed on our loan by now, but apparently they’ve been swamped.  So hopefully we’ll be closed by the end of next week.  (So much for their 30 day close, but hopefully it’s not too much longer).

Other news is that the empty property next to ours is no longer pending and has officially sold this week!  Cheers to them and to having neighbors (now we’ll just need to meet them) 🙂

Addendum 1 – Design Changes

Posted in Architect & Design by

Over the past year we’ve been refining our design plans even further based on both cost and simply because our ideas have changed.  This includes updating the outside of our home to be all white, cutting the sloped roofline, and adding a powder bath to the mudroom.  In addition, we’ve also updated some more minor things such as a few doors, closet layouts & windows.  So now we have it – our first addendum – well, at least we did these redesigns before construction began and it’s not our first change order!  Check out the new designs below…

Main level changes with Addendum 1.

Main level changes with Addendum 1.

Lower level changes with Addendum 1

Lower level changes with Addendum 1

ANOTHER Bathroom?

Posted in Architect & Design by

Most people have heard of Houzz and Pinterest but one of my favorite sources of ideas and advice has actually been a forum which Houzz just purchased (GardenWeb).  I know what you’re thinking…GardenWeb?  Really?  Yes, really!  They have an entire forum dedicated to “Building a Home”.  Since Houzz just acquired GardenWeb all of Houzz’s great photos and all of GardenWeb’s great advice are now in one spot.  Love it!

The forum has been great to learn from other’s mistakes as well as get advice.  I FINALLY decided to see if anyone had feedback on our house plan.  Yeah, yeah, a little late since it’s been about a YEAR since our plans have been finalized, but better late than never, right?  Overwhelmingly, people commented on the location of our powder room and how inconvenient it is if our boys are playing outside and need to get to the bathroom from the mudroom.  And they’re right!  Check out the map below of how the boys would need to get to the powder room from the mudroom.

Trek from where the boys play outside to get to the powder room.

Trek from where the boys play outside to get to the powder room.

Although it’s easy access from the front door – I’d really like the boys to enter through the mudroom and keep their dirty shoes in there.  In which case the powder room is super far from the mudroom.  At one point we had a bathroom near the mudroom but over the year of design revisions we moved it and I never really thought of its location compared to the mudroom.

So, I spent some time to reconfigure the mudroom and I squeezed in a ½ bath!  Yep, ANOTHER bathroom in the house.  This now means there will be 5 toilets that have to be cleaned…ugh.  But it’s better than having the boys trek dirt in from outside all through the main level.  And this way there will be a sink in the mudroom where they can wash their hands when they’re home from school.  And since our little one, Spencer, will only be 5 by the time we are done with construction, I can keep a step stool in there for him to wash up before dinner.  Adding the ½ bath is really a big benefit and I’m so happy that we added it in.

Check out the before and after plans of the mudroom below.  To add in the ½ bath I had to straighten out the wall between the garage and the mudroom (which we did have to run by our structural engineer since it was a shear wall).  This allowed me to add the bath in the upper corner as well as give it a window.  I did lose a bit of floor space which likely means that the dog bed will be placed underneath the desk area, and I’m ok with that.  Small loss for a big benefit.  Also a benefit is that building the straight wall is easier than the original layout – bonus!

Original mudroom layout.

Original mudroom layout.

New mudroom layout with the 1/2 bath.

New mudroom layout with the 1/2 bath.

Needless to say I’m super thankful that I posted our plans to Houzz’s new forum!  If you’re looking to build or remodel, you should definitely check it out for some advice.

Moving Homes and Construction Lending

Posted in Construction Loan, Moving Homes by

These past couple of weeks have been pretty busy!  We sold our home and it closed on March 31st…under 30 days.  So that meant we had to be out of the house and moved into our rental home on the weekend prior.  But we did it – got all moved in on March 28th & 29th.  With help from a moving company (Moving Help) for the heavy lifting and my Aunt Nancy for her mad-unpacking skills, things are looking pretty good for us as we’ve already settled into the new home.  So we’re officially non-home owners any longer!  Feels so strange not to really care about the home we’re living in; especially knowing that it’s for less than a year.  We haven’t put up any art or pictures and I’m not even sure that we will!  The house has been great though and our boys have already met kids to play with in the neighborhood.  Love that!

For our build, we’ve been working for the past few weeks with the lender getting all of our paperwork turned in.  The bank needs to have everything they normally require for lending (W2’s, bank statements, etc, in addition to things about what we’re building – our contract, budget, scope, plans, etc).  They then pass all the build information on to an appraiser who determines a “future appraised value” of the home.  And that value is what the banks end up lending on.  Most banks I found do an 80% loan to value.  So if your home’s future appraised value will be $1M once the construction is finished, they will lend you up to 80% of that, or $800,000 for the construction.  If your contract amount with the builder is more than that, they you’ll need to come up with the remainder in cash at closing.

We’ve hit a bit of a speedbump with our lender though.  At first we were going to use Banner Bank – a friend recommended them, and although the loan officer was great, he ended up changing the terms of the loan at the last minute (after we had already paid $550 for the appraisal, ugh).  He wanted to charge an origination fee of $7,500.  Although that might not sound too bad, this isn’t a loan that we’re keeping forever – at most we’ll only have it for a year, and then refinance once the construction is done.  So at this point we’re going through the whole process again with HomeStreet Bank.  I’ve been talking with the loan officer there for about a year now (off and on) asking lending questions and making sure we’re on track with our savings.   He’s been great and says that he can close by the end of the month (which was the same time frame as Banner Bank).  And he’s even waiving the appraisal fee!  His rate is the same as at Banner Bank too, and he doesn’t charge any origination points.  So far so good!  He has just submitted everything for the appraiser, put a rush order on it, and we should be hearing back with what the future appraised value is by Monday.  Fingers crossed it came in the same (or higher) as the appraisal from Banner Bank!  If not, we may end up actually going back to Banner and we would have wasted a few weeks in the process ugh.  I guess its Banner Bank vs. HomeStreet!

banner vs homestreet

30-day Loan Process Schedule

In case you’re wondering, here’s been our schedule working through the loan process (and what it’s estimated to be):

April 1-2: Turn in initial paperwork from Owner & Builder to Bank

April 3-5: Receive and sign Good Faith Estimate and lender’s underwriting paperwork

April 6-7: Revised budget based on a last minute design change (oops!)

April 8-13: Order Appraisal & Appraisal Time

April 14: Appraisal Completed

April 15-22: Underwriting

April 23-28: Escrow

April 29: Signing at Escrow

April 30: Closing…construction can officially begin!

Rental Home Figured Out

Posted in Moving Homes by

When we listed our home last week we had no idea where we would live in between when we sold the our home and when our new home would be built.  We thought maybe we would try to do a rent-back on our current home from the new owners, or that maybe we could extend the closing to 45 or 60 days.  Little did we know that we’d be getting 6 offers, and with people giving us $50,000 over our asking price we took the advice of our real estate agent who said, “get to closing and run!”  So we did, and we agreed to the closing date that the buyers wanted – March 30th!  Not even 30 days for us to find a home!  Now we really needed to find a home…and fast!

We figured at a minimum we could always find an apartment.  The tricky thing is the school districts.  Our oldest, Cameron, will be going into 3rd grade next year and we wanted him to start at his new school in the fall instead of switching halfway through the school year.  We figure, the earlier he can start making friends, the better.  The problem with this is that the new school district won’t let him into the school unless our house is completed and we have our certificate of occupancy.  And since there’s no way we can have that before September, that means that our intermediate rental needs to be in Cameron’s elementary school boundary (that way he’s guaranteed able to go to that school).

Trying to find a rental within an elementary school boundary limit is ridiculously hard!  First off, the boundary limit is so small.  And when we did some initial research we found 3 apartment complexes in the boundary.  The only issue is that really only one of them has decent apartments to rent.  Great – so now we have one apartment complex to look at.  And when I went this week, there was only ONE (1) 3-bedroom unit available.  And of course it’s in a super awful location – right on the main street as you come into the complex – totally no privacy.  And I nearly freaked out when I toured the unit, it was sooooo tiny and dark.  There was literally no space – I’m not sure how we could fit (and function) in under 1,200 SF.

I had been looking on and off for a while for a home to rent, but couldn’t find anything.  There was never anything available in his school boundary without being ridiculously priced.  But Thursday (the day after we accepted an offer on our home) that totally changed.  I found a home listed for rent in the neighborhood right behind Cameron’s elementary school!  I called them immediately and was asking all sorts of questions regarding the rental – including if they’d take a 9-month lease.  Of course they said, “no”.  Ugh.  But after talking to them more, and telling them that we’re building and only need something for about 9-months, and then we could do month-to-month if needed, the leasing agent caved and said that they could do a 10-month lease and then month-to-month.  Score!!  With that figured out I set up an appointment for Friday morning to tour the home.

Rental House Front

As you can see, the home is early 80’s and in a total private/treed setting – on nearly an acre.  The house is all one level (great for moving furniture in & out) but has the funkiest layout – all the bedrooms are off of the family room.  So that means after the boys go to bed, our hang-out area is right outside of their bedrooms.  And it smells a bit musty – as if they hadn’t opened any windows in a while.  On top of that, the owners have done partial renovations on almost all of the rooms…such as the vanity being replaced in the master bath, but not the shower; and the shower being replaced in the boy’s bathroom, but not the vanity.  Strange decisions.  It’s definitely not a home that I would ever buy…ever.  But, 3 bedrooms + 2.5 baths + 2,500 SF + in the new elementary school boundary = perfect rental house!

So, we signed the lease and we’ll be renters for the first time since college starting on March 19th!  Wish us luck!!

Six Offers…One Accepted

Posted in Moving Homes by

Today was an awesome day!   It’s our friend Chelsea’s birthday…but it felt like our birthday.  And it’s our friends Kevin & Malissa’s 15 year wedding anniversary…but we were totally celebrating!  It’s a week from when we put our house on the market – the day we were scheduled to review offers – and we sold our house!!

We had 6 offers, one at our asking price and the rest above our asking price.  Totally unbelievable!  We had two offers that came in significantly above our asking price (Nearly 10% higher)!!!!  Absolutely unreal.  Joel and I are completely in shock, and it’s absolutely crazy that we got the price we did.  Honestly we were worried about listing it where we did at $610,000, so for it to sell for so much more is crazy to us.  We’re so happy though!

Front of House - Pending

My boss at work asked me why I think it sold for more than asking and I think it came down these top 3 reasons:

#3: Great Pictures. 

I can’t say enough about great pictures.  Everyone’s looking online and that’s what they look at to draw them in for a tour and that’s what they look at after they leave your house.  I mentioned before that our neighbors next door listed their house the same day as we did (still bitter about that one), but their pictures were crap.  Our photographer was much better – and that’s because to our listing agent, David Hogan, hired the right photographer.

#2: Timing. 

I knew early March was the best time to sell.  I’ve been watching the listings in our neighborhood for the past couple of years and spring time is definitely when homes draw the most offers for the best prices.  Prices seem to stay constant for what they sold for in the spring for the remainder of the year, but you definitely get the most offers in the spring (at least in our neighborhood).  Inventory seems to be low in early spring but there’s tons of buyers.  Supply low, demand high – can’t beat that!

And the #1 reason why I think we sold so quickly and got such high offers…

#1: Our Agent. 

I honestly can’t say enough about David Hogan from Windermere.  He was fantastic to work with.  It’s not often that we use real estate agents and unless if you have a friend in the business sometimes it’s a bit of a crapshoot as to who you get.  We’ve used a couple ‘ok’ agents in the past, but definitely none as good as David.  David recently sold another home in our neighborhood for $60,000+ over asking which is how I heard of him.  I had interviewed another agent in our area first and then decided to call and talk with David.  We chatted for about 45 minutes before we set up a time for him to come and look at our house.  I knew from that phone call that he was going to be good.

You know when you talk with someone and just know that they know their stuff?  That’s totally him.  The agent we interviewed before him had years more experience than David, but you could just tell that he wasn’t really with the changing times/market.  It’s like the people you know that are totally behind the times in technology.  You can tell right away that they have no idea what’s going on – maybe they ask you questions about their computer, internet, phone…whatever it is, they totally aren’t current.  That’s how we felt about the first agent – he had a great rep for the area, came from a great well-known real estate agency, but didn’t really get how to play the game.  And then there’s David – he’s like Frank Underwood on House of Cards – always a step ahead and thinking forward.  Using other agents & buyers’ information to stay ahead in the next step in the process.  And I totally got that feeling in just talking with him about the previous sale he did in our neighborhood.  His ideas on listings, staging, and multiple offers were far better than the other agent’s…leaps and bounds better.  And he totally lived up to my initial thoughts of him throughout our sale.  Everything worked out to be truly painless – he took care of everything without us really having to worry, and held true to his plan for getting the best offer.  And that’s with our neighbors putting their house on the market the same day we did (even though they were initially going to list a week later) which I thought was going to screw us up.  It was actually pretty wild because our neighbor’s listing agent was definitely taking cues from David – everything he would do, she would do.  It was so bizarre.  I think the only reason that our neighbors snagged a deal above their asking price was because of the tips that David gave their agent!

So, not only did we get great photos, but the work David did behind the scenes by talking with agents and making sure we’d get multiple offers was amazing.  He definitely did the leg work before and during our listing in drumming up hype and interest for our home.  He didn’t sit back and wait to see if we got any offers; which some agents do.  Instead, he was calling and talking to other agents immediately to ensure that offers would come in – he made sure people knew what we were looking for – and we got it!

And although it’s hard to say (because I do think that real estate agents make a crazy amount of money), he was totally worth the price and if I were to do it all over again – I would totally spend the money and use him again.

Open Houses & Permit Ready

Posted in General Contractor, Moving Homes, Permits by

This week has been pretty busy for us…

We put our house up for sale on Wednesday evening, and had two open houses this weekend.  It was pretty insane the number of people that toured the home – about 80 GROUPS of people came through.  And we had additional showings before and after the open houses on both Saturday and Sunday.  I guess timing is everything – thanks David Hogan (our agent) for pushing us to get it listed sooner rather than later.  Let’s hope all that traffic actually produces some families that actually want to buy our home!  We’re scheduled to review any offers on Wednesday.

Redfin 'dubbed' us a "Hot Home" - hopefully it will sell within the next 9 days!

Redfin has dubbed ours a “Hot Home” – hopefully they’re right and it will sell within the next 9 days!

Besides listing the home this week, we also heard back from the County that our permit was officially approved and ready to be picked up whenever we want to grab it!  Finally…all of the reviews were done and we can cross that off our list.

Permit Approval - Final

But we’re not quite ready yet – on Sunday we finished negotiating our contract with Matt from Ruttan Construction – our General Contractor.  It took a couple weeks, but the terms are mutually accepted now and we can sign them today.  Tomorrow we should be submitting all of the paperwork to the bank to be able to start the process of appraisal and getting the construction loan.

Our Home is For Sale

Posted in Moving Homes by

We’re officially on our way to moving – our home was just listed for sale on the market today!  Check out our listing!  Know anyone that’s looking for a great home in Sammamish??

Over the past couple of weeks we have been hustling to get our house ready for sale.  And since we’ll be moving into an apartment while we’re building the new home, that meant clearing out all of the things we won’t need for a year and putting it into storage.  So for the past two weeks we’ve been packing like mad.  And finally last weekend we loaded everything up and filled up a POD to the brim.  It was so full – you definitely couldn’t have fit anything else into it.  We had a lot of help packing and arranging all of the boxes in the POD by our brother-in-law, Chad.  He was moving boxes so fast…we joked around that he went beast-mode on moving all of the boxes…such a HUGE help!  And Joel’s buddy Hans came to help move the heaviest piece of furniture we owned – the boys’ armoire from the playroom.  Thanks to both of them!

And besides all the packing, my mom and I also rearranged furniture and décor to style our home.  It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work!  We worked from Friday-Sunday straight…definitely an exhausting weekend.

I think it all paid off though – check out how great our pictures turned out?!?  And truly they turned out so well not only because we did a good job styling the home, but also because our agent, David Hogan from Windermere, is awesome and has a great photographer he uses!

Front of House

Front of House

Great Room

Great Room

Great Room

Great Room

Dining Area

Dining Area

Kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen

Powder Bathroom

Powder Bathroom

Office

Office

Loft Playroom

Loft Playroom

Cameron's Room

Cameron’s Room

Spencer's Room

Spencer’s Room

Boys' Bathroom

Boys’ Bathroom

Boys' Art Area

Boys’ Art Area

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Master Walk in Closet

Master Walk in Closet

Backyard

Backyard

Side yard

Side yard

 

The craziest thing is that our next door neighbors have also put their house on the market.  On the EXACT same day as us!  Totally unbelievable.  And they’ve listed for the same price as us!  And it’s the exact same floorplan as us!  I feel like we’re going ‘head-to-head’ with them.  It’s really strange and it’s all pretty crazy…we’ll see how all of this works out I guess.  We’re supposed to be reviewing any offers next Wednesday – only time will tell!