So far Icon Legacy has been great to work with. Our contact at the company recently moved to Icon Legacy from another company and so far we have found them to be very responsive to customer needs like helping us find a fireplace that exactly matches our need. They were even willing to obtain and install items from Manufacturers that they do not regularly work with, which the previous company refused to do.

Here are some pictures showing the main entrance, kitchen cabinets and one showing an exterior wall.

As it has been constantly raining, it feels nice that the house is sitting inside a controlled environment while it is under construction.

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Modulars are basically like stick built houses built in modules in a factory. From what I hear our house will be built in four weeks. And then delivered on trucks! Will update as time goes on with more on the house on Icon Legacy and modular construction.

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Then I started calling all the smaller local banks and mortgage companies and found that almost everybody wanted at least 20% down except these three:

1. Fulton Bank (80/10/10 conventional without PMI, One time Close 5/1 ARM convertible to 30 yr fixed, Interest only during construction)

2. Union Mortgage (10% down conventional mortgage with PMI, Prime + 0.25, minimum 6% during construction, refinance to 30yr fixed when complete)

3. Stellar One (3.5% down FHA with PMI or 80/10/10 conventional without PMI, Construction-Perm, Prime -? 0.25 currently 3.75% interest only during construction, refinance to 30 yr fixed when complete)

The UVA Credit Union was another one that does offer construction financing on a case by case basis but their criteria are very strict and I have no idea what their loan terms are.

We started out with Stellar One but after the loan officer we were working with left the company, everything was downhill. Our loan was transferred to the Harrisonburg office and after that nobody had any idea what was going on. No one was able to answer any questions or give me any timelines, even approximate, because of the multiple approval processes that needed to take place and some were outsourced. Nobody would even bother to contact any underwriters to speed things up until we literally called the director of Mortgages. From the end of October as an approximate closing period we went all the way to the end of December and at every point we were frustrated. Incorrect paperwork, general lack of caring about accuracy or customer satisfaction and persistent denial of responsibility for mistakes eventually made us really fed up and switch to somebody else.

We tried Union Mortgage next and I felt a world of difference, paperwork was more professionally done. There was a proper checklist of all required documentation and they knew exactly what happens and the process was fairly simple. However they wouldn’t approve our builder who is a relatively new small builder in Harrisonburg.

At this point after almost giving up on building a house, we were recommended Fulton Bank and not only was their loan the best offering of the three they were excellent to work with. The process was smooth and they worked with us and the builder to get everything approved quickly. I would highly recommend them. Contact Cleve Brannock – (434) 975-2319

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1. Finding Land in Charlottesville – Part 1 Let me start by saying that the title is misleading....

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But there are many pieces of land in the city and county that might be available if you are willing to look hard enough (or contact me and we can work something out).  With this and some following blog posts, I’ll go through the steps you need to find the land you want. This works and that is how we found the land for our house.

In Part 1, I’ll cover finding land in the county that is close to Charlottesville. Part 2 will be about land in the city.

Step 1: Find neighborhoods

A good way to find neighborhoods is by going to the Nest Realty Group website. They have a very nice interface to the MLS by neighborhoos and they talk about the pros about each neighborhood. Once you have decided on the neighborhood, begins the search for land. I would like to warn you in advance that there are neighborhoods with no land at all so pick more than one and dont get too attached to any one neighborhood.

Step 2: The GIS

Once you have picked your Albemarle county neighborhood, it is time to go the the Albemarle County GIS to find empty land. Just follow these easy steps.

1. Search for the Neighborhood:

2. House # Sort – Most empty land doesnt have assigned addresses. So you need to sort the search result by House #. That’s it! Here is your list of all empty land.

3. Value Sort – Sometimes empty land can have an address assigned to it. These can be found by sorting by total value. You will have to actually click on the item to see the value of the land and the improvements. This is rare for the county but I’ve seen it a couple of times.

Step 3: Contacting Owners

A good place to find owner phone numbers is Whitepages. Often times empty land will have owners who are not local or PO Boxes. You have to get creative, google the name of the owner, do reverse address lookups but eventually you will generally be able to find a way to contact them.

Tips and Tricks

Google Maps shows plat boundaries for Albemarle county. A combination of looking at the plats and the satellite map is an easy way to eyeball for empty space and to verify if the land you are looking at is desirable or not.

Have Me Find Land For You

If you don’t want to go through this effort, I can help you find land. Contact me for more details. You land budget must be at least about $100,000

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I’m making this  post for the real estate agents who think that buyers are suckers and can’t tell super enhanced photos. I think their real estate licences should be revoked. I guess they will learn the hard way when nobody shows up to see the houses. Generally I’ve found that photoshopping was only done in case of older houses that are probably in bad shape and once buyers see a few of those they will probably avoid all photoshopped houses. Photoshopping agents should probably take a photography class instead of just using some software to turn up brightness, contrast and saturation to make fake looking photos.

Yesterday I found this example of extreme photoshopping. I thought the photo was an awesome rendering for a proposed house. But the house looked very dated. It turned out that the photo is of an existing house built in the 50s

If you would like to look at the rest of the super enhanced photos click here.

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