Financing the dream

Can I just say that building a new house costs all the monies? I am blessed to have paid off my current home, have a well paying job and a wife that works all the ways to support us too.  Despite having savings and being fairly stable, we needed to obtain financing. As you know, we initially set off to build a barndo with builder #1. That financing is tricky too as many lenders will not fund a non-traditional build.  Luckily builder #1 had some contacts and we worked through a pre-approval process for the barndo with them.  Some things we liked was that they qualified you for and got approval for more than the expected build costs to cover any surprises. These folks were really nice, but the terms were better with another lender when we no longer needed a bardo.  

Our current builder suggested someone to get started and compare and that turned out to be a good fit.  Our lender offers construction to permanent loans.  We worked out enough of a down payment that we can skip the jumbo loans which typically have higher rates.  During construction, we pay only interest at the rate we signed at (4.5 ARM) and only after they use our down payment for the build.  So far, no charges to us. When we are finished and ready to move in, we will get a new loan with the current terms if we want and the market is suggesting a possible drop in our favor by end of the year.  That will help us out a lot. Then, when we sell our current home, we can do something called a re-cast to update the payments due with the sale profits bringing down the total owed on the mortgage.  

Speaking of closing, we closed on October 29, 2025.  Here are some pictures of a big big step for us.

With our lender, Beth and the lawyer, Ron