Procrastination Central

The Nightmare is FINALLY Over

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:17:16 -0400

We learned on Friday morning that our realtor FINALLY received the signed paperwork from the developer allowing us out of the contract. I'm not happy about the $5,000 we are out, but realize it could have been A LOT worse if we had gone through with the sale..... today was supposed to be the day that our mom's helped us unpack!

No idea what we are going to do next... we're just happy to have this noose off our necks.

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Still Waiting....

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:04:16 -0400

So, Adam's lawyer-dad sent out a letter on our behalf to the selling agent on Friday. We are still waiting to hear if the developer is going to let us out of this contract. It sounds like the developer is as interested as we are in putting this behind him, but we haven't heard anything official yet. We will probably have some annoying back & forth about what exactly we owe him (custom paint, damn undermounts, & upgrades). Hopefully, we can get this resolved soon. We are getting tired of having this noose around our necks. We have put off taking any next steps until this is behind us. I sure hope we decide soon - I can't stand living around all of our packed boxes.

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We Won't Be Settling...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:54:57 -0400

I'm going to make this quick, because frankly, I am sick of thinking about it. Yesterday (Wed) Adam's uncle came down to look at the HVAC system of the townhouse we were supposed to buy. He pretty much confirmed what we already knew -- actually, its worse that we initially though. The HVAC system is a piece of crap and pretty much everything was installed incorrectly. The new thing we learned is that because of this, the warranties on everything become void. The developer was in the middle of correcting things (in a sloppy, last-minute, patchwork kind of a way) as we had expected.

Adam and Dan were working today on the paperwork to submit to the developer that we want out. It doesn't look like he is going to fight it, although some nit-picking in likely regarding how much we owe for upgrades, etc...

NOW WHAT? Good question. We know we can stay in our current apartment buildign through the end of the month - Ad was checking today if we can stay longer. I moved some of the boxes we had packed last night into our large closet, so at least we aren['t tripping over them, and unpacked a few of the kitchen things (like food!!!) Do we keep looking, stay put, rent somewhere else??? We have no idea. We are emotionally spent from all of this and aren't goign to think about until we KNOW that we are in the clear regarding this place.

I'll go into all of this in greater detail later....

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Concerning Phrases from the Inspector Report

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:32:34 -0400

This Home Inspection Report is thirteen pages long and includes a three page punch list.

The electrical wiring to the heater is the wrong type and was improperly installed.

Both Heating systems are using a closet to return air to the system. This is a safefy hazard.

.... This is a major safety hazard and the necessary work should be performed to correct this problem immediately..... The house should not be occupied until it is determined that..... {short version of this is that there is supposed to be a bunch of different things that have exhaust vents to the exterior and our Inspector couldn't find any -- doesn't sound like an easy fix to me}.

There are water stains on the window frames in the 2nd fl bedroom. These stains appear to be caused by water entering through the wall.

We will be going to the house tomorrow with Adam's uncle who is an HVAC guy. Should be interesting to see what kind of corrections Bill has made since yesterday morning. We don't have a lot of confidence at this point.

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Not a Good Sign

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:01:45 -0400

I just spoke to the woman who is putting together the official punch list in our home inspector's office. She said it is taking longer than normal to do because there was so much on it. Usually, the punch list is 1, maybe 2 pages long - Ours is going to be 4 or 5 pages long. She said the home inspector is trying to be "as specific as possible because he is worried that the developer isn't taking these items as seriously as he should"

Thank goodness we opted to have a home inspection!!! Can you believe our realtor was telling us that it wasn't necessary because this was new construction???

Our developer is NUTS if he thinks we are going to close on Friday! We learned today that our apartment building isn't going to kick us out and we can stay through the end of the month. Thank goodness!

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Quick Update

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:55:50 -0400

So, our developer has threatened to walk if we don't close on Friday.... this is especially interesting since we don't have to LEGALLY close until April 30th. Its a long story, but we originally wanted to close on the 16th - the developer rewrote the contract for us to close on the 30th to give him some extra time to finish. About 3 days after we signed the contract, he informed us that he wanted to close earlier (????) so we agreed, since that's what we had originally wanted anyway, BUT, we never changed the contract from the 30th closing date. As written, we need to close on or beofre April 30th. After I left the place today, the developer told my realtor that if Adam and I wanted to walk away from the deal he would give us back our 40K deposit and just ask that we remiberse him for the cost of the custom paint (that's a whole other story I don't have energy to get into)... Odd that a guy that is so DESPERATE to close on a house is willing to walk away. Why does he think he can strong-arm us? He's messing with the wrong people - we don't scare easy. Adam and I decided to give an ultimatum to my current employer, they didn't take it, I accepted the job in NYC -- we aren't afriad of this ultimatum. He's the guy with something to loose...

The developer is saying that he is going to have HIS HVAC guy come and make corrections tomorrow - so we need to give him a chance to fix it before Adam's uncle comes to inspect. Honestly, I can't believe all the drama that is going on. The developer actually threatened to walk??? The bank is banging down his door to get their money back... why does he think he can man-handle us to close before we are confident that everything has been resolved...

UGH.

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You Won't Believe This.... Probably Not Closing This Week

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:08:57 -0400

The drama continues... let this be a warning to all of you that have never bought a house before or anyone that is thinking that new construction is the way to go...... The process is a royal pain in the @ss and developers are a shaddy bunch -- so are realtors. Neither one of them has the homeowner/buyer's best interest in mind.

We had our home inspection today. Originally, I was thinking that $450 was a lot of money, but it turns out that this guy was worth every penny - I would have paid double that to hear this guys opinion!! The short version is this: The HVAC in our house is poorly done and we shouldn't close until it gets corrected. In addition to some things that are not up to code (lots of house lingo that went over my head, so I can't explain) there is also bad circulation in the master bderoom and guest bedroom - and there is no excuse for not having done this correctly. Also, one of the gas pipes is put in an unsafe place and not up to code (very scary). The electrician and the plumber were both furiously working while we were there, so we couldn't really check that the water flowed correctly, or the lights turned on like they were supposed to. In theory, the gas pipe issue was being remedied today.

According to our home inspector (who used to be a developer himself), it looks like they knew that the HVAC was a problem, and instead of fixing it the correct way, which would have been considerably easier BEFORE they put up the sheetrock and painted, they attemped to do a patchwork fix-up. I don't know how our inspector learned this, but the developer had issue with the original HVAC guy and had to have a new guy come in to finish it. To address the HVAC issues, the home inspector thinks they need to knock through the wall in our office closet and add a duct/vent (??), which will entail moving the closet door over as well -- not a small undertaking. He doesn't even know how they can address the issue in the guest bedroom, and they will need to move a vent in the master bedroom (so re-sheetrock, spackle, sand, and paint).

Our realtor was trying to tell us that we could just put some money in escrow and still close on Friday. I told him that there was NO WAY we were going to close if there was still this much work to be done. They need to make major changes - why would I move in before these corrections got done? And if we can't move in right away, why would we close on the house before this stuff got done? Who are you working for??? The realtor doesn't make his commission until we close - so its in his best interest to get us to agree to the corrections and still close as scheduled. The developer is having some trouble with the bank, so he wants to close ASAP as well. Neither of these things are our problem and we don't plan on closing until everything is the way it should be!!! While this is a pain for us, it isn't nearly as much of a pain as it is for them.

Adam wants to walk away entirely. He feels like with each passing week we learn of new trouble with the developer - what else is wrong that we haven't uncovered yet? I am suprisingly, freakishly actually, calm about the whole thing. It's annoying, but there isn't anything we can do about it. I still like the house and want to move in. I keep hearing from people, as much as I don't like it, that this just comes with the experience -- wonderful!

Our developer, naturally, disagrees with the home inspectors assessment (shocker!). We will be getting the official inspector's assessment tomorrow morning. Our realtor things we should get a second opinion, (not sure why exactly, I think the home inspector's comments should be enough - he's already a neutral party!) since the developer and the home inspector disagree. Luckily, Adam's uncle is an HVAC guy, so he said he would come up and take a look at it. Unfortunately, he can't come up until Wednesday night, which was when were supposed to be doing our final walk-through -- we can't do it on Friday morning as originally planned, because they were going to be staining the steps that day so we couldn't see anything past the first floor -- can you tell they are in "last minute scramble" mode to close?

We'll keep you posted.

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8 Days and Counting...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:43:29 -0400

We close on Friday the 13th - I'm not a superstitious person, but with all the trouble we have been having with this developer, I wonder what the day has in store for us. I haven't been writing the latest blow-by-blow of our house saga because its been frustrating/saddening/demoralizing and I just didn't want to have to think of it anymore than necessary....

In the last week or two we have had to go back and forth numerous times because of appliances and this stupid closet for undermounts trade. Our developer started nit-picking us to death on the financial terms of the arrangment (upping the cost by $200 after it was already put in writing) that our realtor got fed up and said he would pay the additional funds out of his own pocket just so we wouldn't have to continue all of the back-and-forth. $200 on a house that costs over $400K -- you can't be serious!!!

This week's drama was the paint job. Our developer didn't think they would get the paint job done before the close. No way we intend on closing if everything isn't done. This guy has been so much trouble that we don't have to have to go chasing him to finish things. Once he has our money, where's the incentive for him to come back and finish the job in a timely manner?

So, what's left..... we are doing a walk-through on Tuesday after work with a home inspector. Until then, we have our fingers crossed that they get everything done. Let's hope there isn't a lot wrong/incomplete when we see it on Tuesday.... On Friday, we'll do a final walk-through, and assuming that there are no issues, we will be forking over the money and signing a million papers... and then, THE PLACE IS OURS!!!

Then we can shift gears/stories into being new homeowners....

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Round and round we go....

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:42:56 -0400

Every day brings another fight with the developer. It's extremely draining and Adam and I have said many times that we wish we could just walk away. Yesterday, we FINALLY got a copy of the floorplan and the appliance information we requested. But of course, the model numbers weren't all accurate and we aren't sure if the developer is giving us the upgraded package or not - even when we think something is resolved, it isn't. The developer continues to screw-up and misprice/mis-quote things and then thinks he is doing us a FAVOR by honoring his committment. For example, he told us that the granite in the model unit kitchen was the standard. We said "great, we love it" and got it installed. He later learned that it wasn't the standard and actually cost more, so he tries to play it off like he gave it to us a freebie/bonus. No, you just screwed up!!!

So, the drama continues with the appliances. Now suddenly, the washer/dryer is one of those apartment-like units that saves space with them one on top of another. Of course, this costs less and is not what he showed me when we were in the appliance store together a few weeks ago. He makes the change, to somethign cheaper, without telling us.... grr... our realtor theorized that it was because there wasn't enough space in the laundry room, but this sounds like a load of crap because we saw the side-by-side units in the model unit and side-by-sides are in the original specifications.... if they really won't fit, there's not much we can do about it.

Our realtor "claims" that we are going to get the undermounts taken care of free of charge, in exchange for us doing the closets, but still no definite answer on that.

We are supposed to close on April 13th -- no idea how this will actually happen. Adam and I are extremely drained from all of this. This is zapping all of the energy out of us - Every day its something else. This developer keeps saying that he's doign us favors and he isn't doing this for any of the other buyers, but he hasn't even sold anything yet!!! We feel like guinea pigs because so many screw-ups keep popping up.... Looks like we have to deal with this for the next three weeks. I'll be happy when we finally close and this guy sells some more of the units.

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House Update... I mean Nightmare...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:53:22 -0400

So, three weeks have gone by and we are STILL waiting for our developer to get us a copy of the floorplan and a list of the standard and upgraded appliances. This should not be this difficult!!! Both our realtor and the selling agent have trouble figuring this guy out because he talks himself in circles. It is absolutely maddening!!! We are supposed to do the pre-closing walk-through a week from Friday (and we close the following week). I have no idea how he is going to get everything done in time, and that worries me. First, it throws off things like our move out date here and our reservation with the moving company, but also, and more importantly, I don't even want to think of the hasty, rush-job they do to get done in time... I shudder at the thought.

You would not believe the trivial issue we are debating about with this guy that should have been resolved ages ago. On March 6th, I went with Bill to pick out the granite (the day I learned about the two sons both named Bill! - that story still cracks me up!). We also walked through the model unit. I wasn't a big fan of the crappy closets he had installed. I told him we would be interested in handling the closets ourselves in exchange for something. He told me that he wouldn't charge us the roughly $900 for the undermounts (a nicer way to install the sinks/granite) in exchange for us doing the closet. Fine, nice and easy.... since then, he has changed the arrangemtn, and the credit we would receive, numerous times.... suddenly, we were responsible for our shower doors too.... then we would receive a credit for one shower door we didn't want, which was worth more than the closet exchange??? Nothing made sense. He didn't know himself what he had said from one day to the next. Even trying to undo the whole thing (by us just telling them to do the installations as originally planned) turned out to be complicated.

We've reached our limit on all of this. We have threathened that we will not pay the next installment to the developer until some of this stuff gets straightened out... sounds like things are still a mess. We learned from our realtor this evening that the selling agent was calling the appliance store herself to get us the info.

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