If you have built a house...

[ktw]

If you have built a house before, when were your builders able to give you an accurate idea of when it would be completed and/or ready for closing? Our contract said our house would be finished in March. Our attorneys took a loooong time reviewing it, and by the time we signed, the builder was saying, actually, April. A short time later, they told us May. May held for a long time, until around mid-April when they told us June. Well, it's June 1. We're very happy with the work done, but we're getting nervous - there's a bunch of stuff not completed, and two houses ahead of us.

We have been in a rental since February and need to be out of here by the end of June. We won't have anywhere to live and/or keep the stuff that we've had with us at the apartment (not to be confused with the rest of our stuff stored in 3 pods since February 1). We have two young kids, and I can't plan childcare, schedules for work, anything, without knowing where I'm going to be and when.

We sent an email asking for a firm date, and haven't gotten a response yet. Is this an unreasonable question to be asking, when we should be no more than 4 weeks from closing?

[ssmjlm]

What kind of builder are you using? I'm guessing it's a production build if there are 2 houses ahead of you?

There are a lot of delays due to supply/demand. The people across the street from my parents moved in, it was another couple months before their fridge was delivered and installed.

What does your contract say? Do you have a buyer's realtor who can assist?

[corgimom]

I just went back and checked our emails from when we were building in 2018 to see what happened for us. We did not custom build but chose a layout from a builder, they carried the loan and sold the completed house to us. They committed to finishing the home within 6 months from breaking ground.
On March 26 they were targeting a close on 4/13 with a commitment to close by 4/30. Then there was an issue because the builder was not able to finish grading until 5/31 due to weather delays so after the appraisal on 4/11 the builder and our lender had to get permission to close with an amount help back at closing in escrow for the grading. On 4/13 our lender confirmed the escrow hold was good and scheduled our close for 4/19.

So we knew about a month out that we would be done but it did get hairy there at the end working with the builder and our lender to work out the issues with the final grade, get the appraisal done, etc. Everyone also knew I was very, very pregnant with our first and was due May 8th so they all worked to get us in ASAP, otherwise they might have waited until early June to close after the grading. They came before the end of May to do the grade and we had our sod laid shortly after so it all worked out and I did not care one bit about not having a yard for a month, lol.

So in my (very limited) experience they are able to project closing 3-4 weeks out. I'm crossing my fingers for you that they finish and you can move in before the end of the month!!

[dove]

My sister works in the new build industry. She mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that there have been major supply chain issues. Everything is back ordered and is causing homes to be finished months later than promised. For example, she said toilets were backordered 6-8 weeks. Toilets!

I’m currently re-doing my master bath and was told my tub was backordered 7-8 weeks.

Poor thing is so stressed at the numerous buyers ripping her a new one over something she has no control over.

[Susie]

I haven't built a house, but *sympathy*!  That sounds super stressful.

We bought an existing home last week and had to navigate significant supply chain issues with some of the updates we're doing/trying to do before moving in.  Oak hardwood floors?  Forget it.  Couldn't get 'em.  We pivoted to cherry which I'm very happy with, and we did get that delivered last week, but it was unexpected that oak was completely unobtainable.  Right now I'm dealing with inability to get certain paint products.  I was in Sherwin Williams last week (one of 3 that I went to for different products to get started), and the contractors were all in there stressing about jobs that they had promised but couldn't deliver on because ... no paint.  SW told me their shortage was related to the storm in Texas in late winter rather than covid, but still.  I feel for everybody in these situations.  Homeowners, professionals in the industry... nobody wins.

[ktw]

Jun 1, 2021 13:13:10 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

What kind of builder are you using? I'm guessing it's a production build if there are 2 houses ahead of you?

There are a lot of delays due to supply/demand. The people across the street from my parents moved in, it was another couple months before their fridge was delivered and installed.

What does your contract say? Do you have a buyer's realtor who can assist?

I don’t know the technical definition of “production build”. It’s not a National builder or anything. It’s a local builder who bought up the remaining lots in the neighborhood in 2018. He was steadily building in the area, including our neighborhood, since then. Then, when everything went nuts, all of the lots in our neighborhood went under contact in the fall and they started building 8 houses there, one after the other. So, there’s an order, and we know what it is, but it’s not like there’s 100 of them or something like that.

We have a call into our attorney to see if there’s anything in the contract about delays. The realtor works for both us and the builder. We are working with him. He actually responded to the email this afternoon, listing out what’s left to be done and when it should happen. But, also telling us that we might want to secure housing for the first week of July in case of “worst case scenario”. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to do that - nobody is going to rent us an apt for a week, and while there are places we (the humans) could stay, we aren’t inclined to move our apartment furnishings to another intermediary location, essentially turning this two move production into 3 moves. Never mind that between the premium we’re paying for short term housing, storage, etc, another month would cost us *another* 4K.

H is pressuring the realtor to convince the builder to get the CO a little earlier than he prefers to, so that we can get the clear to close from the bank and be ready to close ASAP (hopefully in June). This is so stressful.

[pearls]

Ugh. I sympathize with you. We built semi-custom (lots owned by builder until closing but we could add and remove rooms and adjust the specs of floorplans). They gave a range of roughly 7-9 months as a projected completion timeframe but said even that may vary. They didn't need to give us a firm completion date until 7-10 days before they set the closing date per the contract. They notified us 7 days prior to the closing date they picked and we closed on their date. According to our realtor that is standard for our area. Although we understood going into it, it was very frustrating to go through. We rented and had to keep extending our lease month to month since they couldn't give a firm date until the very end which was not cost effective at all.

[ktw]

Jun 1, 2021 16:42:09 GMT -5 pearls said:

Ugh. I sympathize with you. We built semi-custom (lots owned by builder until closing but we could add and remove rooms and adjust the specs of floorplans). They gave a range of roughly 7-9 months as a projected completion timeframe but said even that may vary. They didn't need to give us a firm completion date until 7-10 days before they set the closing date per the contract. They notified us 7 days prior to the closing date they picked and we closed on their date. According to our realtor that is standard for our area. Although we understood going into it, it was very frustrating to go through. We rented and had to keep extending our lease month to month since they couldn't give a firm date until the very end which was not cost effective at all.h

Yes! This is what we're doing. And everyone is right, there are tons of delays on materials and everything else. But, this doesn't seem to be that. Most of what is left to be done they have the supplies for, or at least they haven't told us if they don't. The major cause of stress (and now rage, since we got a more defined timeline today) is that when things pushed out into June, I told the builder's office manager that we had to extend our lease, and that the number of days/months/weeks it takes isn't the most important piece - it's that every time we cross a month boundary, we're having to scramble because that means a new month on a lease, or making new arrangements. And up until we sent an e-mail last night, "July" has never come out of anyone's mouth, including the realtor who told us two weeks ago that we could expect to close the 3rd week in June. We just keep going up to the house and not seeing enough progress to let us believe that, and lo and behold, now they say hitting 6/25 will be tight, prepare for "worst case scenario". W.T.F.

[atarianna]

My scenario is a little unique in that I have a personal relationship with the builder but we were homeless while we awaited the house being finished. It wasn’t exactly delayed, we anticipated the build taking 9-10 months, it was more we had hoped it would finish sooner and ended up selling our current (at the time) home very quickly leaving us about 6 weeks in limbo.

Fortunately for us, we lived with the builder during that time and it gave him a huge incentive to finish ASAP.

[ktw]

Jun 1, 2021 19:08:07 GMT -5 atarianna said:

My scenario is a little unique in that I have a personal relationship with the builder but we were homeless while we awaited the house being finished. It wasn’t exactly delayed, we anticipated the build taking 9-10 months, it was more we had hoped it would finish sooner and ended up selling our current (at the time) home very quickly leaving us about 6 weeks in limbo.

Fortunately for us, we lived with the builder during that time and it gave him a huge incentive to finish ASAP.

This is a great strategy! Maybe I'll tell him that we're moving in

[boiler717]

We started working with our builder in Oct, signed Dec 31. Estimated completion date of August 1 (which we purposely pushed out from their completion date of July). We ended up getting a CO by mid-Sept but we had trades in our house every day for over a month to finish the punch list. I do not recommend rushing on the CO even though it SUCKS. This was well before Covid (2012) and I know things are way more up in the air now.

[divanerd]

That just sucks..honestly I would see if you can extend current rental for 3 more mos or find a new place altogether or family to crash at.

[Ramz-ee]

We have built twice, same was as you semi-custom. The second time finished September of last year. In normal building times, it is not unusual for the house to sit untouched for weeks. I lost it multiple times when building our house because of this. We ended up getting pushed back a few weeks because of contractor screw ups and/or builder issues.

However, right now is not a normal building situation. We have new homes (same builder we used) going in behind us. We are watching the progress and it is SO ridiculously slow compared to both times we built. There are wood shortages, window shortages, etc. The manager we worked with says they order 5 houses worth of wood and they only end up getting 3 houses worth of wood delivered. Basically they are being rationed and get what they get when they get it. None of these houses are passed the framing stage, so I can't speak to your situation.

Honestly, I would plan for a month longer than they tell you so you can prepare. If you end up having to pay an extra month of rent, it beats not having a place to live.

[zarapipe]

Wife of a builder. I would absolutely start looking for an airbnb or long term rental for at least the month of July. Getting the CO sounds easy enough but often it’s not in the builders hands, even getting inspections scheduled is getting hard bc the inspection offices are getting overwhelmed. And if things aren’t done they won’t give a CO.

I’m sorry you are dealing with this. What is still incomplete?

[ktw]

Jun 2, 2021 17:30:33 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Wife of a builder. I would absolutely start looking for an airbnb or long term rental for at least the month of July. Getting the CO sounds easy enough but often it’s not in the builders hands, even getting inspections scheduled is getting hard bc the inspection offices are getting overwhelmed. And if things aren’t done they won’t give a CO.

I’m sorry you are dealing with this. What is still incomplete?

It’s interesting, because (of course!) I believe you. But our builders aren’t saying any of this. They’ve closed on 2 other houses in the last month or so, and have a 3rd sitting there waiting to close (word is that those people were insistent on doing the appraisal at the very end, and now they’re delayed waiting for it to wrap up). Last month, it took the town 6 days to issue a CO, and they acted like that was a long time.

Still incomplete:
3 coats of poly on the floors (1st supposed to be tomorrow)
Appliances (after coat 2 on the floors - they’re in, waiting to be installed)
Carpet ( next week)
Tile backsplash in kitchen (tile is in, as far as I know)
Shower doors
Closet shelves
Garage door openers
Yard and landscaping (this week or next)
Final painting
Finish fireplace (stone is in, it’s half done)
Turn plumbing on and make sure all is well/no leaks or anything

[zarapipe]

Jun 2, 2021 17:50:55 GMT -5 ktw said:

Jun 2, 2021 17:30:33 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Wife of a builder. I would absolutely start looking for an airbnb or long term rental for at least the month of July. Getting the CO sounds easy enough but often it’s not in the builders hands, even getting inspections scheduled is getting hard bc the inspection offices are getting overwhelmed. And if things aren’t done they won’t give a CO.

I’m sorry you are dealing with this. What is still incomplete?

It’s interesting, because (of course!) I believe you. But our builders aren’t saying any of this. They’ve closed on 2 other houses in the last month or so, and have a 3rd sitting there waiting to close (word is that those people were insistent on doing the appraisal at the very end, and now they’re delayed waiting for it to wrap up). Last month, it took the town 6 days to issue a CO, and they acted like that was a long time.

Still incomplete:
3 coats of poly on the floors (1st supposed to be tomorrow)
Appliances (after coat 2 on the floors - they’re in, waiting to be installed)
Carpet ( next week)
Tile backsplash in kitchen (tile is in, as far as I know)
Shower doors
Closet shelves
Garage door openers
Yard and landscaping (this week or next)
Final painting
Finish fireplace (stone is in, it’s half done)
Turn plumbing on and make sure all is well/no leaks or anything

That actually doesn’t sound like a lot at all! I would be more annoyed at the lack of communication from the builder.

[ktw]

Jun 2, 2021 18:03:22 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Jun 2, 2021 17:50:55 GMT -5 ktw said:

It’s interesting, because (of course!) I believe you. But our builders aren’t saying any of this. They’ve closed on 2 other houses in the last month or so, and have a 3rd sitting there waiting to close (word is that those people were insistent on doing the appraisal at the very end, and now they’re delayed waiting for it to wrap up). Last month, it took the town 6 days to issue a CO, and they acted like that was a long time.

Still incomplete:
3 coats of poly on the floors (1st supposed to be tomorrow)
Appliances (after coat 2 on the floors - they’re in, waiting to be installed)
Carpet ( next week)
Tile backsplash in kitchen (tile is in, as far as I know)
Shower doors
Closet shelves
Garage door openers
Yard and landscaping (this week or next)
Final painting
Finish fireplace (stone is in, it’s half done)
Turn plumbing on and make sure all is well/no leaks or anything

That actually doesn’t sound like a lot at all! I would be more annoyed at the lack of communication from the builder.

Thank you! That is how we feel, but also I’m not in construction, so it’s hard to know. The issue with the CO is that according to the realtor, the builder likes to have the house completely finished (cleaned, everything), and then go for the CO. That is fine. But, since it takes the lawyers and the bank a week to turn things around once we have the CO, there is the possibility of finishing the stuff the CO is dependent on, having the town out to inspect, and then putting the finishing touches on during the time they’re waiting for the town to issue the CO and the week that the bank and lawyers are doing their thing. Under normal circumstances, waiting one more week wouldn’t be a huge deal, but when we hit July 1 and have nowhere for our stuff or us to go (or, in the best case scenario, have to pay another 4K to stay where we are), it makes a big difference. The realtor was supposed to get back to us today to let us know if the builder would do it that way, but he didn’t.

Communication is the major issue. Last week the realtor told us we would close the 3rd week in June, and now this week it’s “prepare for the worst”. We’ve been understanding all along when there were delays/dates got pushed. But they know we’re renting, and I told the builder’s office manager (who is also his daughter) in April that June was ok, but if we crossed into July we’d be majorly screwed, and yet nobody tells us anything until we lay it all out in an email and basically demand an answer.

[aprilsails]

Assuming that you are in a standard sized house, that punch list does not seem like an excessive amount of work to complete in a week and a half to me. The only issue will be that no one else can work inside the house while they finish the floors, but they could do the exterior work concurrently at that time. Everything else could easily be done at the same time over the course of 4 days. That assumes all the tradesmen are available and reliable to schedule.

My builder started our project in November and we were moved in by mid-June on the closing date originally provided. He gave himself a lot of time to get the work done, although he had to take into account the issue of working in the winter, and that was a rough winter for construction.

I’m sorry you are having these issues and I know it is super common nowadays. I hope they can give you a firm date so you can make plans.

[icedcoffee]

My FIL works in construction and he said everything is behind. Right now they can’t even get pipes for plumbing. None. And they have 3 houses they’ve promised for this summer, but they literally can’t get pipes.

I don’t know. I really feel for the builders. It must suck. And also a lot of these houses were promised at lower prices than they can get materials for now. It just sounds like a mess.

I’d be frustrated if I were you though. It sucks for everyone. 😞

[ktw]

Jun 3, 2021 7:35:02 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

My FIL works in construction and he said everything is behind. Right now they can’t even get pipes for plumbing. None. And they have 3 houses they’ve promised for this summer, but they literally can’t get pipes.

I don’t know. I really feel for the builders. It must suck. And also a lot of these houses were promised at lower prices than they can get materials for now. It just sounds like a mess.

I’d be frustrated if I were you though. It sucks for everyone. 😞

I feel for them, too. I’m just not sure how to proceed when there is not an actual specific delay that we’ve been told about, and the amount of work left seems reasonable to finish in June, even with the two other houses ahead of us (presumably they each have an even smaller list than we have). It’s not even that we couldn’t have accepted having to wait until July to close and move in - it’s more how can we be a few weeks out and nobody can tell us when to expect to close and move. Our landlord listed and started showing our apt on 5/15 - if they had told us then/before then, we likely could have extended our lease another month. And our contract said March, so it’s not like we’re haven’t already swallowed several delays and extra costs. I don’t know, it’s just very frustrating to be so close and yet have no idea.

I keep wondering if we should have waited to sell our house, but we had good reasons for listing it in the fall, and closing over the winter. And, we might have been in an even worse position, because we would have had to list it preparing to close on the new house in May, and then would have had to figure out where to go when we couldn’t. At least this way, we secured the apt thinking we’d be here for 4 mos and were able to push it to 5. Nobody would have rented to us for 1 month.

[icedcoffee]

Jun 3, 2021 7:48:13 GMT -5 ktw said:

Jun 3, 2021 7:35:02 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

My FIL works in construction and he said everything is behind. Right now they can’t even get pipes for plumbing. None. And they have 3 houses they’ve promised for this summer, but they literally can’t get pipes.

I don’t know. I really feel for the builders. It must suck. And also a lot of these houses were promised at lower prices than they can get materials for now. It just sounds like a mess.

I’d be frustrated if I were you though. It sucks for everyone. 😞

I feel for them, too. I’m just not sure how to proceed when there is not an actual specific delay that we’ve been told about, and the amount of work left seems reasonable to finish in June, even with the two other houses ahead of us (presumably they each have an even smaller list than we have). It’s not even that we couldn’t have accepted having to wait until July to close and move in - it’s more how can we be a few weeks out and nobody can tell us when to expect to close and move. Our landlord listed and started showing our apt on 5/15 - if they had told us then/before then, we likely could have extended our lease another month. And our contract said March, so it’s not like we’re haven’t already swallowed several delays and extra costs. I don’t know, it’s just very frustrating to be so close and yet have no idea.

I keep wondering if we should have waited to sell our house, but we had good reasons for listing it in the fall, and closing over the winter. And, we might have been in an even worse position, because we would have had to list it preparing to close on the new house in May, and then would have had to figure out where to go when we couldn’t. At least this way, we secured the apt thinking we’d be here for 4 mos and were able to push it to 5. Nobody would have rented to us for 1 month.

I totally get it.  I would be incredibly frustrated as well.   I hope they can firm up the timeline for you.

[macmars45]

H and I bought a new construction in Sept 2020. Our close date was originally 11/30, then moved to 11/20. We hired movers, made plans and NO ONE told us we wouldn't close on time because our city is short on appraisers. People knew and didn't tell us until we asked our realtor on 11/18. We closed on 12/01 instead after much back and forth. H and I were very displeased by the lack of communication.
Our house was supposed to be done in Sept 2020 (when we viewed & bought it), but there were delays in cabinets so there was no kitchen or bathroom cabinets until late October/early Nov.

Could you continue to rent month to month at your current place?

[ktw]

Jun 3, 2021 10:14:02 GMT -5 macmars45 said:

H and I bought a new construction in Sept 2020. Our close date was originally 11/30, then moved to 11/20. We hired movers, made plans and NO ONE told us we wouldn't close on time because our city is short on appraisers. People knew and didn't tell us until we asked our realtor on 11/18. We closed on 12/01 instead after much back and forth. H and I were very displeased by the lack of communication.
Our house was supposed to be done in Sept 2020 (when we viewed & bought it), but there were delays in cabinets so there was no kitchen or bathroom cabinets until late October/early Nov.

Could you continue to rent month to month at your current place?

That’s terrible!! Delays are one thing, but you have to tell the buyers!

So, we probably could have extended one more month. That’s what we did to stay here for June. But, as of 5/15 when we had to let the landlord list the apt for rent, we were still being told we’d close in June. We’ve had some showings, but haven’t heard if it’s been rented yet. We really don’t want to be here in July for several reasons, mainly that rent alone is costing more than mortgage + taxes on our new house (and our old house, for that matter) without even factoring $850/month for the pods, and the fact that our kids will be done with school, and DD is supposed to start Day camp in our new town on 7/5. We’re moving over an hour away, so it’s not trivial to get her there daily.

It’s tricky, because following the builder’s usual process, they still expect to have the CO by the end of June, but are telling us to prepare for the closing not to be able to happen until early July. So it’s not like we even need a full month. We do have family we can stay with for a few days or even weeks, but the issue then is our stuff. June 28 we’ll get hit with another $850 storage charge, which obviously we will just pay if we must. But, we also have an apartment full of stuff that we need to put somewhere. We’re hiring movers to move us out of here, but if we have to put this stuff into storage, we’ll need movers *again* to get the stuff into the house and put together. If the builder has the CO but we haven’t closed, we might be able to move our stuff into the garage, but we’d still either have to hire movers to get everything inside and assembled, or beg family and friends to help us.

[mrsukyankee]

I sympathise in the having to deal with delays, though ours was in the purchase. It kept being delayed and we had to move 3 times during that. Luckily, our furniture went into storage with the first move. We spent a very large amount of unexpected expenses to get this house in the end. Hope you can move forward more quickly than expected.

[ktw]

I'm back again, and really just venting now. So, we sent our email last Monday night before I posted this, and got an email back from the realtor on Tuesday afternoon with some statements clearly meant to placate us, and a list of things and when they were supposed to be completed. My husband followed up with him multiple times, and his opinion is that the builder could move faster/prioritize some of the work at our house, but he won't, and that the communication is lacking. He is the builder's realtor, represents him on all properties.

This is the list I put here last week, with updates on what got done before yesterday:

Still incomplete:
3 coats of poly on the floors (1st coat was supposed to be Thursday - it wasn't done. This one is a killer because they have to dry for a minimum of 2 days after each coat, and they can't do things like carpet or appliances until the first two coats are complete.)
Appliances (after coat 2 on the floors - they’re at the appliance store, waiting to be installed - were scheduled for this Friday, but I don't think they can get two coats on the floor before Friday)
Carpet ( Supposed to be this Thursday, but I don't see how with no coats on the floors as of Monday morning)
Tile backsplash in kitchen (tile is in, as far as I know - no progress)
Shower doors (not done)
Closet shelves (not done)
Garage door openers (not done)
Yard and landscaping (not done)
Final painting (not done)
Finish fireplace (done)
Turn plumbing on and make sure all is well/no leaks or anything (was scheduled for last week, not done)
Swap out regular switches with wifi dimmers and regular thermostats with smart thermostats - we supplied ALL of these before they put in the regular ones, but they didn't give them to the electrician before he did the regular ones and now they have to be swapped out (not done)

From what we could tell walking around there yesterday, last week they installed a mailbox post, did some finishing work on the front porch, and finished the fireplace. I am trying to keep myself calm about the fact that I spoke to the office manager (builder's daughter) on Thursday, and asked her to find out for me if they were doing the floors on Thursday and if so, if they would be safe to walk on over the weekend. We live an hour away, and I did not want to drive up there if we wouldn't be able to go in the house. She responded that we should skip visiting. Fine. We ended up being in the area for something else entirely, and decided to swing by to just look in the windows. Imagine our surprise when the floors were not touched - not swept, debris still all over, nothing. I am telling myself that she probably did not intentionally try to keep us away, that she might not even know that they didn't end up doing the floors on Thursday, or that at least when I spoke to her, she thought it was happening. But, I'm not 100% confident that she didn't tell me that just to keep us away.