Once Upon a Lifetime

I wish I could say that the process of having a new home built is all rainbows and butterflies… unfortunately, it’s not 😕 read on if you’re curious about what goes on and if it could be the right thing for you.

For reference, I started my new build journey in January of 2022 in Florida (I’m sure some of what I write about varies by state, but is still probably good information to know in advance).  A little more background info about my particular situation is that my divorce was finalized in 2021; part of that agreement was that my ex-husband had 90 days to sell or refinance our house in Jacksonville.  He didn’t do so, so I had to take him back to court to get it taken care of (long story for another post).  After several months, the judge ruled for him to obey the original agreement and put the house up for sale since he didn’t refinance.  Once that was complete, I was able to seriously start looking for a permanent place for Maddie and I to settle down. 

I started off looking in St. John’s county because they have the best schools in the state… I put several offers on several places that were slightly below my budget so I had some negotiation room, but I got out bidded every time.  I was also looking in the southern Jacksonville area of Bartram; same story:  several bids that were always beat no matter how competitive 🤷‍♀️.  I started to get nervous that I wouldn’t find anything in my budget ($250,000), so I expanded my search north of Jacksonville.  I was avoiding going north before because we love spending time in Orlando, and I knew the schools in St. John’s county had the highest ranking, but it was becoming clear that if I didn’t expand my search, I might not find something. 

I remembered a few new build homes popping up on my searches in Fleming Island, and several others were in Nassau County, and all were within my budget.  I did a quick analysis of how far each was from work and what school Maddie would be zoned for, and it was obvious that looking more seriously into Nassau was the best option for us.  Luckily we were able to get an appointment with the builder and when I saw the model and heard the details (mainly that once I put a deposit down, I couldn’t lose the place) I was sold!  Maddie would be zoned for the newest and highest rated Elementary School here in Nassau (which has also been in the top 10 counties for school districts as long as I’ve been paying attention), the house was in my budget without anyone trying to out-bid me and it was scheduled to be completed a month before she started kindergarten!  It checked a lot of very important things off our list! 

I put the deposit down in early February and the estimated time of completion was June/July: perfect timing to get in before Maddie started kindergarten in August!  Maddie and I came to visit every few weeks to check the progress and it was really nice to see the changes!  We had moved into a very small 2 bedroom apartment right before COVID in January 2020 in Avondale, and we were SO ready for more space!

After the first few visits to the property, it became obvious that the timeline given to us initially wasn’t going to happen… June came and went, then July… I guess by that time they had switched contractors and construction started moving along again.  But it was held up by electrical installation: specifically the meters (apparently a side effect of COVID 🙄).

All the delays caused MAJOR changes to the financial aspect of this.  Initially when I put the deposit down, I was quoted a 3.2% interest rate which amounted to around a $1200 a month mortgage.  That was less than I was paying in rent when I left the 700 square foot nightmare of an apartment!  I had asked about locking in the interest rate MULTIPLE TIMES in the months leading to closing… I got ZERO RESPONSE from the mortgage company (DHI is what the builder recommended, and I didn’t know any better so I went with them).  Just over a month before closing (yet we didn’t have a set date yet) the mortgage company all of a sudden started reaching out repeatedly and INSISTING I lock in a mortgage rate- which, by the way, required me to put down MORE MONEY to secure a rate, WITHOUT HAVING A CLOSING DATE SCHEDULED!  So it went from me wanting to lock in a rate, getting NO RESPONSE, then I was told we needed a closing date to lock in the rate (then I did my own research and discovered that if I decided to lock in the rate without a closing date, I would be paying whatever it was the company asked for to keep that rate until we closed: and the kicker for me was that money went to NOTHING!!!  Not towards closing costs, not the down payment, not the principal, NOTHING BUT STRAIGHT TO THE MORTGAGE COMPANY!) 

In the end I had to lock in a rate before I closed, but I did it on my own terms and not when the company was trying to pressure me to do so… I was VERY surprised by this whole process and how some companies have adopted the process of “buying your mortgage down”.  ESPECIALLY after I had inquired for MONTHS about locking in my mortgage rate!!  DHI was only interested in locking me in when the rates went over 7%… then they did everything they could to try to pressure me into the lock-in.  I held out until they gave me a closing date, and by doing so, I was able to secure the lowest rate I had seen in several months (still nearly double of what was originally quoted to me).  This entire process surprised and disgusted me. 

I was so beyond ready to be in the house by the time my closing date came that I really didn’t register just how impersonal the process was.  It was much easier than all the papers I had to sign with the first house my ex-husband and I bought, and I was grateful for how much was taken care of online.  There was mention of the taxes changing after the first year due to the house being a new build; at first the taxes were estimated from the property value, but they would be evaluated with the house once the house was done.  After the house was evaluated, I could apply for the homestead exemption, and that would even out the tax payments.  So when I closed, I knew the taxes would change, but I had no idea just how much.

Getting the house and moving in was less than ideal in the beginning of December, but we were just excited to be moving into our own home, never been occupied before! 😃🤩 It took us a few months to really unpack, but it was fine since there was no rush to unpack 🤩. I got Maddie enrolled in the school (which was way weirder than I ever expected, but also a subject for another post), and she started a couple of weeks before Christmas and it was my year for Christmas, so she was able to be home for our first Christmas here ❤️🥰🎄😍.

One thing they mentioned lightly was the HOA: we have two here; one for the exterior maintenance of the townhome and the other for maintenance of the community property. This ended up being more of a problem than necessary because the initial company taking care of the HOA expected the entire year to be paid BY THE FIRST OF THE YEAR… when so many of us only closed days before that. So I reached out to the company and asked if I could pay quarterly, and they agreed to that… then the 2 separate HOA’s were sold/bought out by different companies by the summer of 2023. So, paying those became impossible for a few months until the new companies established themselves (this could also be it’s own post).

As if all of this hasn’t been tumultuous enough, when I logged in last week to pay my mortgage, I discovered it went up by almost $600 PER MONTH!!! 🤢😡😳 I went through everything I had, like email and snail mail and it looked like I was supposed to resubmit my homeowners insurance policy, which I didn’t realize I had to do since I didn’t change anything… so I submitted all the documentation and filed for the homestead act (which I was told I had to wait for one year of taxes to be assessed before I could have them submitted) and gave it the long holiday weekend to see if updating the info changed anything… and it didn’t 🤢. So I called the mortgage company this morning to see what was up, and it didn’t go well. I guess they sent out some information about having homeowners insurance and if you don’t submit the updated info they will force their own crap policy on you for about 4 times what the actual insurance costs, only to not actually do this… but what they DID do was DOUBLE what they think the taxes this year will be, apparently because the escrow account that was established at closing had a negative balance (even though it said it had $1900 in it last week after paying state taxes) and the woman I spoke with said my account wasn’t even eligible for a recalculation since the mortgage company did everything right- yet my mortgage payment has increased by $600 A MONTH because of this!!! 😡🤢😳

SO, this new mortgage company took over around the same time as the new HOA over the summer, and apparently they didn’t check anything DHI did with the mortgage and escrow accounts, so now they are blaming DHI. I do see how DHI just churned us all through, and how they never even came close to explaining how much our payments would change after the appraisal with the houses on the property went through- they just passed it on; which in itself is disgusting and in my opinion unethical. But then they sell the mortgages out to other companies after they get them and then they put the mess on someone else! So now my current mortgage company claims everything is fine, yet my mortgage went up over 1/3 of the original price and they claim there is nothing they can do about it!!!

So my thoughts at this point are that I’m still very happy I got the house and that we are settled and safe, but the process to get here was insane, and I kinda wish I knew what I was getting into before I got into it, especially the way the mortgage was handled!