History with Ryan

We first found the neighborhood we plan to build in when we were deciding between a smaller starter home in a fun part of town, or the long term raise a family neighborhood back in 2008.

After our house gained value and we saw that a move was possible we started looking again.  At first planning to go to a newer Ryan Homes neighborhood with amazing amenities.  However that neighborhood sold out too quickly of their lots they had contracted with the developer.  There are plenty more lots to build on.  However the rumor we heard is that because the first lots sold out so quickly the developer was asking for too much with the new contract.

So one day I decided to drive past the original Ryan Homes neighborhood and there it was the perfect lot in our eyes, a basement lot with an actual yard.

Growing up in the Midwest we both loved having a basement.  It was the bonus room before they became a thing.  However from all of our looking around through the years we have discovered that in the South the only reason they do basement is if the lots are sloped and they need to for the foundation.  Anytime you find a basement in the South it usually backs up to some woods and you don't get a backyard.

The lot that we are planning to get has road level then a slope at the house for the basement then it levels out for a little so you get a backyard then another slope down to the house behind.  See crude diagram for those that are visual like me.

A Little Background

So weird to figure out how to start these.


Who we are and our story to now.

I'm 32 and my wife is 8 days younger than me.  We have a 2 year old daughter, and plan to have another once we get into the new house.  We met in College in the Midwest, after graduation we moved to LA where we lived for almost 3 years.  LA was fun, we met some nice people but soon figured we didn't see a future there so why waste more time there.  A job offer in Charlotte moved us here.  After renting for 3 months we looked at the home market and after spending crazy amounts on rent in LA we were excited to buy a house and pay less than we did out there.  

We found the perfect starter home 2 bed 1 bath just over 1100 sq ft.  The good thing is we bought in 2008, o wait that wasn't a good thing the market dropped out within a year.  After the 1st year our house had dropped almost 30,000 in value.  Ouch. 

At the time we weren't too concerned as we didn't have any plans of moving for a while. 

Fast forward to early 2011, we are starting to talk about baby plans.  Do we move or do we stay?   But at that time we were still way to underwater in our house to get out.  We decided to continue with baby thinking we had until she was school age to really feel the pressure of moving into a good district.

So now here we are.  The market is rebounding big time, especially our part of town that is getting very popular.  We close on our house next week.  We aren't getting more than we paid but we will at least come out a little on top.  I just keep pinching myself and knocking on wood,  we had the best case happen as a seller.  Our house went on the market we had almost 10 showings the first 5 days and by the first weekend we had 4 offers and accepted one above asking. So lucky.*pinch pinch pinch knock knock knock*

To play the pessimist we are waiting until we are through with closing to sign with Ryan.