So, Aberdeen Maryland? (1 Viewer)

[ChristopherG]

Congrats! I am shocked to hear that you couldn't find anything on the used market, but Maryland seems to have held up to the economic conditions better than most. Ryan homes are pretty much the biggest builder in MD so no surprise on there being some haters, but I expect that is the case for almost any builder out there. MBR looks fricking awesome with that sitting room in it. So I'm guessing that's the Eagle's Rest development? Definitely better to be west of I 95...

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/302371/so-aberdeen-maryland/30#post_3867807
If you care to see what mine will kinda look like, you can see a virtual tour of the model here:
http://www.motion-vr.net/ryan/ryan_tours.aspx?tn=806

Fricken Flash. I'm surprised you'd buy a house from a company that abuses web pages thusly!

I bought a Ryan home six years ago. My first home, and I learned some lessons. Particularly, Ryan cuts costs as much as possible. Have a good inspector before closing, and have the roof, furnace, and so on checked by someone other than Ryan's contractors a year later.

 

[Jay H]

Sounds good Sam, glad you found something worthwhile. When I was at Fort Mo. I was told that Aberdeen itself wasn't that hot and I never got around to visiting there before moving to the Berkshires.. I'm soo put off buying a house, I expect to be renting up here for quite some time. I am not interested in having to sell a house like I did in NJ and I'm actually enjoying the freedom of renting and having not to be stuck working on house projects all the time!
With a brick house, at least you wont have to constantly paint the exterior!
I think my father has a Ryan home in Delaware and while it does seem that some of the work appears cheap, he hasn't had anything major that I know of go wrong. You can probably find dirt on any of the typical house builders these days..
Jay

 

[DaveF]

I don't mean to say not to buy Ryan. But there were some things done wrong (e.g. furnace drain trap installed wrong; a vent carpeted over) I didn't discover until years later. Buy pre-existing has its risks. But, it turns out, so does buying new

If I were doing it over, I'd be more aggressive and picky during the inspection process and that first year of ownership.

 

[Sam Posten]

Yep, I definitely intend to be fully involved the whole way, and I'm considering having an independent evaluator take a look at it before acceptance.
The one thing that has me flipped is apparently MD does not require Attorney Review on home sales and doesn't even require attorneys for closing. I'm used to NJ enforcing that which I think is a good idea and was money well spent when I both bought and sold.

 

[Sam Posten]

And we're off!

After being told that my ground breaking had moved up to last thursday, but then showing up and finding no workers, we finally got started yesterday. Basement was dug up and this AM the crew was there building scaffolding and forms.

 

[Jay H]

Cool, must be exciting but nerveraking as well.. Lets hope they don't find any ancient dinosaur bones or perhaps an old graveyard... GET OUT!!!!!!
Jay

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Jay H /t/302371/so-aberdeen-maryland/30#post_3882959
or perhaps an old graveyard... GET OUT!!!!!!

Nah, just move the headstones and you'll be fine....

 

[Sam Posten]

If there are any graves there now they are under a heavy duty slab =) They got a lot done over the holiday weekend!

 

[DaveF]

Toured some Toll Brothers model homes in Ashburn (a couple hours SW of you).

Found one gorgeous house I want to buy, live in the basement and rent out the rest of the home!

This Mid-Atlantic market is *so* different from Rochester, NY. Costs are double, which I expected. But the style, assortment, and options are very different. It's going to take a bit to figure out what I want.

 

[Sam Posten]

Toll Brothers are nice homes, way out of my league, nice choice!

 

[Jay H]

So Sam, how many Septims did that cost ya?
Jay

 

[DaveF]

Yep. Don't think we'll be buying TB house this year Huge and expensive. And the town homes...the layouts are all lacking. But much house hunting yet to do.

Are you pre-wiring the house for ethernet or audio during construction? Can you comment on the costs? When I bought new-build in 2004, any sort of pre-wiring was stupid-expensive. I'm wondering if that's gotten any better?

 

[Sam Posten]

Yes, being pre-wired with gigabit ethernet and whole house stereo. I think the total cost for that plus the pre-wired HDMI runs and two 5.1 surround wall packages were well under $5k but I am not sure on the specifics, there is a lot of stuff wrapped into the packages I put together.
I went nuts on the options and the total price is about $450K. Base price on the house with nothing added in is $380 but in addition to the stuff listed above I am having a sitting room, morning room, finished basement, granite throughout, hardwood in a lot of rooms and things like chair rails and upgraded carpet and tile.
My original budget was $399, but I could not find exactly what I wanted where I wanted, so I had to pay more. I searched for literally 16+ months to try to fund something I could compromise on but ultimately had to spec out a home to my tastes. Its a LOT more house than I need for just me, but I intend to have 2 roomates with nice size bedrooms and lots of accomodations for lower than any of the rental places I looked out, so I'm not worried about finding someone trustworthy to help share some of the costs.

 

[DaveF]

I understand, having looked around the Chantilly region a bit: new build starts big and quickly get huge. And to get right the few rooms you care about, you have to build a mini-mansion at $500k+ with 1500 sq ft you don't need. Enjoy. Getting a couple roommates will quickly eat up the mortgage.

And your house wiring seems much cheaper than I saw in '04. I think it was about $3000 or more to get ceiling speakers wired into the bedroom. What you did would have been $10k-$15k, I think.

 

[Sam Posten]

Well I chose Klipsch, the Bose were the more expensive ones

 

[DaveF]

You chose...wisely.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well...it's not like Sam just fell off the turnip truck...

 

[Jay H]

Well...it's not like Sam just fell off the turnip truck...

Ya know, that would be pure hell, I hate turnips, I put turnips below carrots and above beets. Yuck, I can't imagine being stuck on a turnip truck. eewwww..
Jay

 

[Sam Posten]

Truth is I don't mind Bose as long as they aren't the plastic ones. My BIL has a terrific pair of bose wood box speakers from the mid 90s that still sound terrific.
Turnips I can take or leave tho! Mom cooks em up like mashed potatoes and they arent so bad!