Lessons Learned

•  Even though you sign all like 60 pages of the "contract" it is not actually a contract until the builder signs it. This can take 2-3 weeks after you sign the dotted line.
• You may not think you need a realtor since you are building instead of just buying but it is a great idea to take one. It's really nice if you already have an established relationship and know that you can trust this person. Your Sales Rep - no matter how kind and no matter how many times they tell you that they "work for you" - works for Ryan Homes. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone that solely and truly works for JUST you? That's your realtor. They are paid from a whole separate account from Ryan Homes and it is based on the base price of the home. So you can feel secure knowing they won't be pushing you do get all these extra upgrades. My husband and I are still pretty clueless when it comes to this whole building process. Our realtor knew which questions to ask, when to push for certain things and what upgrades were worth it when considering resale. 

• This is your house, and you're paying a lot of money for it. Of course there have to be some time constraints if you ever want to move into your house but don't let them push you into making a decision quickly. Sometimes you just need to sleep on it and talk it out. And sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands.