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Monday, August 1, 2011

Dig Date is Set for August 10th!


Wow, where has the time gone? Last April my husband and I started looking for homes to buy, just for fun really. We drove by a few homes, but never set up appointments to walk through them as we were afraid to get our hopes up. We are in a rental home now and back in April we knew it was too early to truly start looking into homes we would want to buy. One of my husbands co-workers at the firehouse is also a real estate agent and she mentioned Ryan Homes to us. One thing my husband and I both wanted was a yard for our dogs to run around in, and a nice home to grow into. We were amazed to find that one of the Ryan Homes communities near where we were looking offered both of our requirements. After talking with the Sales Rep we realized that this was an option that could be too good to be true for us. It would give us time to save for a down payment, it would give us peace of mind to know where we would be living after the lease was up, and it would give us something to look forward to! So, that week in April looked something like this. Monday: spoke with Realtor, toured 3 model homes, and spoke with the sales rep in our community. Wednesday: meeting with sales rep, picked out our lot and model, set up the beginning of financing to see what we could afford Friday: wrote a check to save lot while we talked things through with family, friends, and each other.We waited 1 week before we signed anything official. 
And now here we are in August.Since then we have picked out everything from the elevation plan to the cabinets and flooring, down to where we want every last outlet. We have scheduled meeting after meeting, picking out one thing or another, and have even changed our minds a couple of times. I have signed one too many papers, and we have even locked in our loan ( we did it early just in case this debt ceiling thing doesn't get resolved)!! We have been very happy with everyone involved thus far. We had our pre-construction meeting last week, and will begin digging August 10th, set to close October 27 th! As 24 year old's, we never dreamed we would be able to own a home, let alone have a new build with all the upgrades we wanted! We are very blessed and thankful, and pray that the rest of the process goes along this smoothly.
 The only obstacle we have come across that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around is one I would appreciate feedback on. Last week during our preconstruction meeting our PM took us out to our lot to show us what the  land surveyor had staked out as our property line. The back of our lot has a small wooded area with another neighborhood behind the trees. When we were walking our property lines we were surprised to find that the surveyor measured our lot to be about 8 feet beyond the "backyard neighbors" fence line. So basically 8 ft of our property is fenced off into their backyard and they are using it as their own. Did I mention that on this 8ft section of property lies beautiful, mature trees? Ryan Homes said that the law is in our hands and that it is up to us to tell them what we want them to do. They said they could just knock the fence down and the neighbor would not be able to fight us about it or anything....we do not want to make any enemies and so obviously we would never knock the fence down without notice..We need to do something, as we are paying for it and one day if we resell that 8ft will be important! We are just unsure of what to do and how to go about doing so. We asked the surveyor to come back out and remeasure, so nothing will be done until then... Tell me what you think, we would love feedback!! I will let you know more too once we know more, and I will be updating with pictures etc once the ball gets rolling next week :)

10 comments:

  1. I think you need to reclaim that space no matter what bc like you said it will really help your resale value. Your dogs would love to play back there AND it would be a great place to put a tire swing for your nephew and future Dorsky 's :-). I would write a letter to your neighbors and give them a few months to let you know what they want you to do...

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  2. Boundary disputes can actually lower the value of your property as surely as losing eight feet off the end of it, so it is important that you do whatever you can to resolve this issue amicably.

    I would ask your surveyor to put the findings in writing, preferably with a drawing to illustrate the issue. I would then write to your neighbor explaining that there seems to be a boundary discrepancy that means their fence is in the wrong place, attaching a copy of the surveyor's report.

    If they offer to move the fence, make sure that the surveyor properly marks the boundary beforehand, otherwise there is a risk they will not move it to the correct place and you'll end up squabbling over 6 inches or something.

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  3. I agree with SCJ. Its important to have all your ducks in a row. The same thing kinda happened to me but in our front lawn. Luckly its not really space Ill use and not fenced in so we just explained to the neihbors that it is our space according to plan. Good luck! This happened to another blogger because her neighbor built a garden on about 10 feet of her land. Ill try to find her blog so you can read about it.

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  4. I also agree SCJ. Get the re-survey done and get it in writing. That is step one.

    If was only a foot, personally, I probably wouldn't worry about it. But 8 ft? Um, yeah. That's a lot of land YOU will be paying taxes on. That's your property and you need to politely let the other neighbors know you'll be putting up a fence too, and according to 2 surveys and Ryan Homes, they are on your property and need the move the back of their fence.

    It's not a fun situation to be in. I'm so sorry. I hope it gets fixed amicably. GL! And congratulations on the house!

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  5. Thanks everyone!! New Build Noob, I would really appreciate if if you were able to find that blogger for me :)

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  6. Congrat's on getting ready to build your new home. It seems like it would be much more simpler if Ryan did the dirty work for you, especially since it isnt "technically" yours yet. Not sure why they did not handle this themselves.

    GL and I agree with everyone else, get the second survey and then come up with a really nice way that includes the surveys to let them know the land is yours. They may already know and are hoping that no one mentions anything, because the developer bought the land, it was just trees so now they may be waiting for your lovely letter to arrive any day now...

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  7. Hey Sarah...here is the blog. Im not sure if she wrote about how it ended up but its almost the same situation...

    http://veniceinohio.blogspot.com/2011/06/yard.html

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  8. Thanks!! Turns out she goes to the same school I graduated college from, small world :)

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  9. Well it sounds like you already received a lot of good advice regarding your situation and we hope it gets resolved without any further issues. We want to welcome you to the RH e-neighborhood. We are here to provide support...so ask away. Also, we love to follow you through your journey.

    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Congrats and welcome to the Ryan Homes blogging eFamily. As you can tell from the number of responses that we all love to jump in and provide advice. Personally I think Ryan Homes and the Developer should be dealing with this issue since I am not sure how they can transfer title to the land without going through the proper legal channels. I am not sure how the developer can legally transfer the property to RH without having the 8ft intrusion recorded as an easement. Writing the letter is a good idea, but the more neighborly thing to do is to go to them personally, introduce yourselves, and explain the situation. I would hope they would tell you that they will take care of it and everyone will then be on good terms...you might even offer to help move the fence with them. If they refuse, then you need to take legal action because it is your property and without a legal easement you may have trouble selling the property in the future.

    Also...you can't get away that easy without sharing all the details of your last 4 months with us...we want the scoop...what elevation, what flooring, color combinations, upgrades, etc...you have to catch us up...anyway, welcome, and feel free to ask tons of questions, share ideas, and throw out your problems or concerns.

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