WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

An Overview of Your New Home Experience
Purchasing a new home is an exciting experience. The process is also complex, with many details to be decided and arranged. While Landed Gentry is building your new home, you participate by taking care of several important aspects of your purchase.

Building a new home is an investment of your money, your emotions, and your time. Many of the tasks will require your attention during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, usually between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

The chronological list that follows outlines the events that typically take place in the purchase of a new home and provides an overview of the events that will require your time and attention. Where time frames are specified, you need to observe them in order for us to deliver your home on schedule.

Purchasing Your Home
The purchase agreement and various addenda constitute the legal understanding regarding the purchase of your new home. Please read the purchase agreement and all attachments carefully. As with any legal agreement, you may wish to have your attorney review them. Once all the paperwork is signed, we suggest you insert those documents in the Homeowner Manual that will be provided by Landed Gentry.

Arranging for Your Loan
Once you have signed the purchase agreement, finalizing the details for financing is next. The first items you’ll need to take care of are selecting a lender and completing a mortgage application. Plan to accomplish this within 5 business days of signing your purchase agreement. Take the completed purchase agreement with you when you first visit your lender. Your lender’s job is to understand your particular financial circumstances. You will review all information on the application at your meeting with the loan officer. A situation rarely arises that your loan officer has not encountered in the past. Do not hesitate to discuss any questions you have regarding assets, income, or credit. By providing complete information, you prevent delays or extra trips to deliver documents. To assist you, we can suggest lenders appropriate for your specific financial situation. Emily Stewart, with Countrywide Home Loans, is our preferred lender, and we’d be happy to provide you with her contact information upon request. A checklist of items often needed for the loan application process is provided in our downloadable home tools section.

New Home Selections
We are happy to assist you in the exciting process of personalizing your new home with your selections and options. You will make most of these choices at the Landed Gentry selections office using the Personalized Selections list provided by your Selections Coordinator. As you make your choices, consider your present and future lifestyle. Take into account your family’s daily activities, hobbies, work, entertaining, and your family’s holiday traditions. Landed Gentry’s Selections Coordinator will guide you through this process. Note: For models or homes already under construction, Landed Gentry will have made some or all of these choices.

Construction of Your Home
Several tasks need to be completed prior to the start of construction. Some of these are our job; some are yours. Shortly after signing the purchase agreement, we meet with you at the Redline/Selections Meeting to review plans and specifications. All decisions must be completed 30 days prior to construction. Next we will invite you to tour your new home with us when your home reaches the mechanical stage, just before insulation is installed. Please bring your Homeowner’s Manual to both of these meetings.

Homeowner Orientation
The homeowner orientation has two purposes. The first is to demonstrate the features of your home and discuss maintenance and our limited warranty program. Equally important, we want to confirm that we have delivered your new home at the quality level described in our documents and shown in our model homes and with all your selections correctly installed.

Closing on Your Home
At closing the purchase agreement is completed: Ownership of your new home is transferred from Landed Gentry to you. The steps include finalizing your loan (one set of papers and checks) and the purchase of your home (another set of papers and checks). Funds are disbursed to the appropriate people and companies, title is transferred to your name(s), and the loan is recorded against your new property. This process involves about 75 documents, some of which are duplicates. Although these documents are not negotiable and thousands of homebuyers have signed them, you should read them.

Caring for Your Home
Landed Gentry will construct your home with carefully selected materials and the work of experienced craftsmen and laborers under the supervision of our field personnel, with the administrative support of our office personnel. Although this group works from detailed plans and specifications, no two homes are exactly alike. Each one is unique; a home is one of the last hand-built products left in the world. Over time, each behaves differently.

Although quality materials and workmanship are used in creating your home, similar to an automobile, it will require care from the first day. Regular homeowner maintenance is essential to providing a quality home for a lifetime.

In some neighborhoods (active adult or condominium communities), the owners’ association may administer certain maintenance elements. While in these cases, the association may manage some maintenance items, such as repainting and re-roofing, it is ultimately your responsibility as homeowner and member of the owners’ association to ensure that proper maintenance is occurring on your home.

The Homeowner’s Manual provided by Landed Gentry has many tools and checklists to help you properly maintain your home.

Your Feedback and Suggestions
Our desire to maintain open communication with you extends through the buying process and after your move-in. In an effort to improve the product and service we provide, we welcome your comments on how we’ve performed. We survey our customers after move-in. Our goal is to build the best home and the best customer relationship possible. Your feedback helps us reach that goal.

As time passes, if your housing needs change, we are ready at any time to build you another home. We also appreciate your referrals for friends and family. Our office is always happy to provide you and others with information about where we are currently building and the products we offer.