Let the Journey Begin

It's been a whirl-wind year for our family. New Job, New State, New Baby and now a new house. We moved from South Jersey in October to the Richmond, VA area. It has been an adjustment trying to get aclimated to the slower paced south as everything is fast fast fast in the Northeast. However, we have finally decided to make the decision to build a new house in Chesterfield County. We are excited and can't wait to get the process started.

One of the major advantages of moving here from NJ is the cost of living, particularly real estate taxes. We have lived in older homes and condos all of our lives because the cost of living challenges. Our home in NJ was a modest 1600 square foot condo. The property taxes were $6700 per year. We owned a condo for a few years probably 800 square feet and the taxes were $3,400 per year. It amazes me that down here we can get a $300,000 house and the property taxes are only $2,700 per year. That makes a huge difference in borrowing power!

So after meeting we a real estate agent and looking at some re-sales, we were convinced that we should go the resale route. During my first meeting with Ryan Homes, I did not see the value in the new homes. However, the more and more we thought about it we began to see that new construction could work for us. We decided to give Ryan Homes another chance and on 2/17/13 we went under contract with Ryan Homes. This works out best because we are currently in a one year lease that expires the end of October and our home is scheduled to be completed by the middle of August.

I hope to provide insight of the construction process with Ryan Homes. During the next 6 months, I hope to have plenty of encouraging stories as well as cautionary tales to help you avoid any pitfalls that we might face during the process. Admittedly, we are very picky people and have issues with paying for things that are not up to par. So hopefully this is a smooth process, but as with any construction I am certain there will be a few bumps along the way.

So read, enjoy, ask questions, and most of all learn from our experience.

Welcome!