NVR Updates

One thing I have neglected to write about in this blog is our experience with NVR beyond the initial steps. Both our Loan Officer (LO) and our Loan Processor (LP) have been great to work with. Despite our good experience, Chris and I were tentative to blindly proceed with the Ryan Homes parent company lender. We began talking and proceeded to meet with a local credit union concerning mortgage loans after our pre-construction meeting on Sept. 12. This was a good choice, because the loan officer we spoke with at the credit union was able to explain some things about the process that were unclear before. This is not to say that our NVR LO didn’t try, but rather the process is extremely overwhelming and speaking with an outside individual helped clear things up.


One of the biggest reasons for speaking with an outside lender was the uncertainty of proceeding with a conventional mortgage loan or an FHA loan. Besides the difference in the minimum down payment required we weren’t sure which would be better for us. The information provided by both of the lenders we spoke with was extremely valuable. Just over a week later, we decided to proceed with NVR as originally planned due to the discount they provide toward closing costs. The downside is NVR immediately sells the mortgage, so we have no idea who we will be working with after settlement.

We proceeded to lock our loan rate on Sept. 28, about a week after deciding to stick with NVR. This was a difficult choice as we were monitoring loan rates for quite some time and the trends were not looking good. One thing we learned from speaking with the credit union is to watch the 10-year Treasury bonds rate as mortgage loan rates typically move in the same manner, operating in a one business day delay. With this info, we noticed the bonds were increasing significantly.

Now, NVR allows you to lock in rates at several stages of the build. The standard, 90-day lock they offer does not require any additional payments upfront. They also offer a 120-day lock that costs a certain percentage amount of your loan and a start of construction lock that also costs extra but lasts 180-days. The start of construction lock also allows you to “float down” your lock one time during the 180 days. Honestly, we didn’t want to pay extra to lock in for a longer time frame. The 90-day lock would extend to the end of December, the tail end of the estimated settle date at the time. NVR only agreed to allow us to lock for 90-days if we agreed to pay a per diem of 0.00015% of the loan amount after 90 days. A large gamble to take.

Luckily, our stressful decision seemed to be the correct move. Just two days after locking, mortgage rates increased considerably to the highest rates they have been in 8 years. Watch those Treasury bond trends if you’re building like we are and have the option to lock at different portions of the build. Locking our rate when we did is also beneficial since our settle date is now estimated for December 10, 2.5 weeks before the end of our rate lock.

The only thing that I have to really complain about with NVR is we were told that our credit would be pulled with our initial application and then once again near the end. According to our LO, the credit report is supposed to be good for a specified length of time (60 or 90 days or something). So, NVR pulled our credit when we applied on July 19, then again on Sept. 17 for a reason unknown to us and our LO, and they told us they would have to do it again before we receive our clear to close near the end of November. That’s 3 credit pulls in 5 months. Thanks, NVR.

Through October and November, our communication with NVR has been minimal. Our LP called and emailed a couple of times just to check in, we spoke with our LO twice after our LP prompted him to call us when I asked a question she couldn’t answer. And more recently, we were sent closing notices. It’s just over a week now before we close! (and I still need to finish with the construction updates >_< )

Estimated Completion: December 10, 8 days!