We chose the main color in the pic (brown) 

Exterior colors

Isa looking at all the choices. Imagining how all these colors will look together was very difficult but I think we did alright. 

Flooring/Countertops 

Carpet Color 

Cabinet Color 

The Unit Map. 

Lot Research

The following advice is outdated. I believe the website was on to my sneaky ways and blocked the steps for which I found my own lot. You cannot search by "Unit" anymore, which makes this post useless really. If I ever find another way I will add it here.

I'm posting the resources I used to find a lot to build on in Palm Bay. Use this and you wont have to build in BFE. Palm Bay is divided into units designated by numbers. There is no pattern to these numbers that I can tell, just placed in different areas of the city. Say I want to be for example in Lockmar Estates area. You would then look for lots in Unit 45 or 21 from looking at the map. How do I look for lots in these areas you ask? I used this site from a random real estate co. in the area. It takes advantage of the MLS (Multi List Search) that has all real estate listings. Who needs a real estate agent now?  If you click on the "Advanced Search" tab it will give you lots of search criteria. The search bar you will use in this section is "Limit to This Subdivision/Area", typing in the Unit you want, ie "Unit 45", The 'U' must be in caps. Also, you must highlight Palm Bay in the "Limit to These Cities" right below that. Lastly, if you are looking for vacant lots, put a check mark in that box next to "vacant land". If you don't you will get house listings in that Unit also. Those are the basics. The map shows the Unit locations, I got it from the wahoo at Holiday Builders. I'm glad I had it because I would not have found a lot so close to shopping centers. Last thing--- once you have found a lot on the real estate site, it tells you the address. Check it out on yahoo maps in relation to where you live. I didnt pursue a number of lots because I could tell they were too far out of town. Put in your address as the beginning and the vacant lots address in the destination address.

Lot secured

Isa and I went and saw Allen at Renar today. He told us the lot is ours for sure. Good news. So as my dad would say "you can go take a piss on it now if you want". Sorry dad but you said it. I did some research on it and the owners are from NY city it looks like. It would be interesting to find out how they ever purchased it. They paid a whopping $2400 back in 1977. Thats a pretty good investment after almost 30 years. We are paying $20,000 for it. But we feel lucky to have found it. Its close to lots of stores, within a mile or so. And I just found out they are breaking ground for a Wal-mart this month sometime. Good for property values for development in that area. I remember back in the day (the eightys lol) when there was hardly anything in that area except pine trees and cow fields. Now we have a Publix grocery store, Home Depot, Movie Stop or something to that effect, Arbys, Wendys, Toxic Bell, BK, and Mcd. And now Wally World is to be built.  Im gonna try to take my camera into the model home sometime and take pics of the carpet, exterior color, etc that we chose and share that with everyone if I remember.
I found a site by some guy in town that has a blogger account too, looks like he just posts random stuff but it was neat to stumble across.

Can we cut in line?

Well it kinda stinks that nothing is happening now, Allen says it could be a couple months before the permits are issued to begin anything, because so many others are in line in front of us to build first. Its ok but not good news for a blog! I've omitted the "random" comments, I've decided to stick with the original format and try to  get the energy to restart our personal website for those everyday rants.

Filling out the loan

Friday Allen sent me home with the loan application. I was scared to death of this thing. It was very lengthy, mostly because it is an FHA loan, lots of paperwork. We also qualify for state of florida bond money towards buying our house, in the form of a lower interest rate. This bond rate can save us a half or up to a point on the standard going rate. Thats upwards of a hundred dollars difference per month than if we were to get a conventional everyday loan rate at 6.5 or higher. Right now the bond rate is at 5.6. That would be an awesome rate to have right now, but you dont lock in that rate until 60 days before closing. Who knows how the market will be a year from now at closing. Im setting my budget for worst case 8 percent so I dont get a bad surprise. Anything better than that kicks ass. If your looking around at houses make sure you call some of the lenders in your area or whoever and ask about these bond rates. We didnt qualify for the first bond we were told about which was a downpayment bond because we made too much money per year, but when I heard about this one we found out we were fine as long as I dont get a raise before closing on the house. So Isa and I went to a lender here in town (Homelife Financial, who is owned by Renar Homes by the way) and our loan officer assigned to us helped us right through the process. We got along great, he used to work at Circuit City also in NJ, got to know him a bit while we talked. Anyway I can see after being there today, there isnt going to be a black and white experience with the loan officer/lender. We all have different financial situations so only you know what baggage you are going to walk into their office with. Be realistic. If you have a lot of credit cards and are barely making it by now, how are you going to afford a house payment? Pay them off, ok, now thats a different story. We have some debt we are going to pay off between now and then, so we are in even better shape when it comes time for that first months mortgage payment. I think thats all I have for now, I wanted to spill what I knew from today before I forgot it all lol.

A picture of the lot we have a verbal contract on right now. We are waiting on signatures from the owners to make it official however since they are from out of state. It is a quarter acre at the address I mentioned in a previous post. Its really hard to tell boundries here because one lot just runs into another but I estimate most of the lot is in the picture. 

More Paperwork?

We've been dealing with Allen at Renar for a couple weeks now. We filled out a pre-qualification application and were tentatively allowed a certain amount of money. From there we chose a house model (seen in a previous post), a piece of land, options (porch, carpet upgrade, etc.). Today I got the actual loan application to fill out to get pre-approved. The real deal. This packet is a quarter inch thick, I'm not joking. Kinda puts me in a bad mood really just thinking about filling out every page. Blah.
Anyway we are excited cause we actually put some money down today, a good-faith portion of the downpayment I guess you could call it. Thats another thing. You have got to have some money for a downpayment on a house. No buts about it. 3% of the total loan is minimum. I hear that is what keeps most people from buying a home. The lot we want to build on is still pending whether its available from the seller. Its a quarter acre which is a pretty standard size around here. Allen seems to think its in the bag though. 911 Culpepper Ave. Sounds good to me.

How we got started......

Isa and I have been renting a very nice apartment in Palm Bay since Sept '03. Its so nice we really haven't had a good excuse to move out. I can't tell you how many times though one of us has said "i wish we had a house so I could ______". For me, grilling out is something I'd like to do. For example I had the office called on me one day when I was grilling some steaks out back. What kinda crap is that?
So there are lots of builders around here that have an arsenal of homes for you to pick from and theyll build it for you. Fantastic. Holiday, Adams Homes, and our pick, Renar Homes, plus some others are all there for the picking. I had a real hard time figuring out who to go with. After going to Holiday and not being taken seriously about buying a home, Isa and I were very disappointed. Six months passed and my dad said he had talked to someone at Renar. He said I should talk to this guy Allen that is a sales person there so I did.
Now I lucked out and found a great person at Renar to sell me a house. If you are young, expect to get overlooked by some places. When I was at Circuit City, that was sin #1 to assume someone was poor or had no money. Some of the most unassuming people are very rich. But anyway. Not us. We just wanted someone who cared about our need for a house and would help us find one in our price range. Allen fit the bill.

This is a scan of the house we've chosen from the sales brochure.
 

First Post

Well I'm not sure how this blog stuff works but I will just wing it. I hope to keep our family/friends up to date with the progress, as well as a help/howto for people considering building a house of their own. Isa and I had very little knowledge beforehand on how to get started, what to look for etc. Maybe this can help someone else someday who knows.......

Should be fun.