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Friday, November 9, 2012

Update on Rant and a Warning!

This is the recurring sump pump mess!

Ok, update on my rant about the sump pump alarm: After my frustration with not getting details on the issue, I must say, I feel much better now. Yesterday was just all-around stressful, besides worrying about this, we got a call from Guardian that really was the straw that put me over the edge (more on that later). And, I do have a teenage daughter that may have stressed me out yesterday. Needless to say, by 9am, I was a mess!!! But, the good news, our PM is really great. He called me at about 9:30 and said he was at the house. He said that every night the Handy Man comes around to all the houses to close up. He is supposed to check that all the cords are unplugged that the workers used all day. The workers keep unplugging our sump pump and so the battery backup kicks in. With all the water we've had here, it keeps dumping water out. In addition, the plumber hadn't attached the 5ft ground pipe that will take the water away from the house. SO, PM called the plumber, he is coming out today to do that and the Handy Man is now aware to check the sump pump so this issue should be resolved now.
As for the tile in our bathroom: Here is a pic of the discoloration.


The pics don't show the obvious difference very well but in person, it is. The inside color is different than the trim color. The trim has more red/pink tone and it is like this all through the bathroom. Our PM also looked at it and called RiteRug. Their manager is coming out later today to look at it. I'm not sure how it will be resolved but I will keep you posted.

Now for the WARNING: So, I got a call from Guardian yesterday morning (Guardian is who Ryan Homes uses for security systems, surround sound, and some other things). He was in freak-out mode telling me that he just heard from NVR (our lender through Ryan) and they just had this policy change stating that anything that is not permanently attached to the home cannot be included in the mortgage. Well we chose to have Guardian do the complete surround sound wiring for our media room, which included a receiver, fancy remote, and sub woofer. We initially tried to pay for these items out of pocket so they were not part of our mortgage but were told it all had to be included. Now, NVR will not include these 3 items so at closing we have to pay for these. Frankly, we are just fine with it BUT, we did not budget for this. It just came as a shock because we close in 3 weeks! The Guardian rep felt terrible and was told that NVR would contact us to tell us about this...which they did not, so he was a bit frustrated. I called our NVR agent and it was all news to her...Boy, I sure love the communication here:(.  She immediately called her manager who told her that this info is correct but that we should have been told about this months ago. She is not negotiating with Ryan Homes to see how this will be settled, without us having to pay for this unexpectedly. We will see how it goes.
So, any of you who used Guardian for such items, you may want to make sure where everything stands. Our Guardian rep said he was making multiple calls today to break the bad news to people. Part of me wonders if this was an oversight on his part from the beginning but I'm not sure. Just check with your lender!
Next post will be all about the amazing work that has been done this week!

7 comments:

  1. Wow... crappy news about the Guardian stuff! I'm sure that's going to upset quite a few people. I can't imagine how some of the people that got all of the bells and whistles are going to take that news. I hope it doesn't put you in too much of a bind.

    Good luck getting all of the other issues addressed quickly.

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  2. I wanted to ask what type of loan you are getting (i.e. VA FHA CV)? We were told that with VA you had a cap on how much you could add (I belive it was about $4500) into the mortgage. This worries me because no one has said anything and we had all of our Guardian rolled into the mortgage but we are getting an FHA loan which does not have a cap...

    Melissa

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    1. Hi Melissa. We have a conventional loan. I'm not sure what caps include but we added $30,000 in upgrades, including the surround sound with guardian. The only thing they won't include are things that can "walk away from the house". So the built in speakers are fine but the receiver, remote, and sub woofer have to be paid for, which is about half the package cost. Also, if we had done the Cental vac, the actual hoses and vac would have to be paid out of pocket. But, I find it odd that they let us include the fridge. I know many people who take their fridge when they move. You may want to call guardian or NVR to check on your loan. Guardian said that NVR recently got audited and they caught all these loans with non-allowable upgrades being rolled into mortgages.

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    2. We contacted our loan officer and he has not responded. We added all the same things as you minus the refrigerator. I hated the options that they provided us with for the refrigerator. Non of them had external Ice makers. We did get the central vac. the FHA loans let you add pretty much any thing into their loans. I will just have to wait and see if my loan officer gets back with us...

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    3. Definitely follow up with your loan officer. And I am so jealous of your central vacuum:( I should have pushed for that!
      As for fridge, I am surprised none of your choices included an external ice maker. That was a must for us too but the stainless one we got has it. Personally, I really did not want to roll that into our loan either but husband knew we would be purchasing SO many other things that he didn't want to deal with picking out a fridge too. Frankly, if I don't like it, it's going on Craigslist right away. Lol.

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  3. It seems like they go back and forth on this stuff, I've heard it mentioned on other blogs, as well as the conversation I had with our SRs when I didn't want to sign the contract clause that says buyer has to come up with cash if the appraisal doesn't come through high enough. I guess at times in the past all guardian stuff had to be paid for separately, and there have also been times when you could add plasma TVs to your loan through Guardian. The risk is that it costs a lot more than the value it adds to the home, and then the loan won't go through if the appraisal doesn't cover it.

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    1. Julie, you are right. The Guardian stuff used to never be allowed, then they went totally in the other direction, allowing everything. Well apparently NVR got audited and have new policies. Luckily, our appraisal came back higher than our purchase price, even with the NVR stuff but I was very worried, especially since we are one of only two ranch styles in our entire community (and there are a couple hundred homes). The appraiser had to use homes from surrounding communities but luckily they all sold higher than our cost.
      I pushed them for an early per-appraisal right at the beginning of the build based just on the specs and upgrades to make sure we werent over-upgrading. Maybe I should write a blog about that.

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