Mortgage Application started

Today we submitted the initial paperwork for the mortgage.  Because we are building a non-traditional house there is a significant chance there will not be "comps" in the area (within a specific radius of about 5 miles) that can be used for the mortgage assessment because nothing will have been sold.  That likely won't have an impact on the appraisal of the house but could mean the bank will have to hold the mortgage which they call a "portfolio loan," presumably since they will maintain the paper in their portfolio.  We aren't concerned but it may mean a slightly higher loan rate in the end.  There are a number of different loan options so we spent some time discussing the best options and chose the one that we felt was least risky and provided us the best financial position.

  We plan to submit the remaining mortgage paperwork by the end of the week and then we'll submit the application for the building permit with the county.

  Our next step will be to have the surveyor make the final adjustments to the siting for the house and septic so we can eliminate the "field of flag tape" that currently exists.  Right now there are countless flags around the property marking bad perk test sites, good perk sites, boundaries, the original repair area, the current main/repair area combined, the house site, the garage, initial grading markers, and several that we placed before the professionals began their work.  Then there are those that are hard to identify a purpose for.  We agreed with the builder that we simply don't want to take any chances with the septic siting, the house siting, or any of the setback or property lines as we begin the work.

   Because of the approval timeline we will begin some of the preparations on the "downpayment" money we are bringing to the table for the construction.  That lines up perfectly with the Bank requirements to spend our money before we begin drawing from the loan.  A very important step is making sure we document our expenditures well and notify the bank of any large dollar expenses.

Things are starting to move well.  Can't wait until we plant the first shovel on the property!