WOW, I thought I would never say that. When we had our wedding reception in Smithfield, I was like who would ever want to live out here in Carrollton, VA?!? It is far too peaceful lol.
We made the pilgrimage from Asheville, NC back to Chesapeake, VA early this month. Not gonna lie, it has been a rough transition. I feel like a brat saying that because we are so fortunate that Mike was able to find a job in Hampton. That being said, I miss the mountains, my neighbors, and our general routine back in Asheville. We decided to look for houses throughout March, then choose if we wanted to move forward and build, renovate, or rent an apartment for a year. If you’re lost on why we moved after only being in Asheville for a few months, I’m lost too. Lol jk, read Why We Are Leaving Asheville and then come back.
As you know, the market is insane. We looked at several houses and nothing really felt like “us”. Our Asheville neighborhood spoiled us. The rolling mountain views, 10 ft. ceilings, gated community, 13′ kitchen island, clubhouse/gym/pool/spa on site, but most importantly…the sweetest people I’ve ever met.
Even though our house wasn’t on the market yet, I reached out to the site agent for a gorgeous waterfront development in Carrollton back in the first week of January. The agent told us that Sasser Homes owned all the remaining lots. So, we gladly met with Eric Sasser and thus began the process of fine-tuning exactly what we want. Sasser Homes is a Southern Living Preferred Builder and has a wait list of couples who want to build with him.
A Curveball from the Medical Director
We asked for pricing and waited for 10 days before I grew impatient. That lag turned out to be a huge blessing. During that time, Mike met with his Medical Director who shared concerns about Sasser’s construction and said he loved his Sadler Home. I reached out to Carlesi Construction, Sadler Homes, Hohmann, Birdsong, and Saybrook Homes to ask if they had any inventory homes or upcoming developments. Scott from Saybrook Homes emailed me back immediately and said he had an open lot in the neighborhood we had been talking to the site agent about. 🤔 It is an amazing lot with a waterview and steps away from the James River access for paddle boarding, boating, etc. And we were like…um Mr. Site Agent left out that biiiig, important factoid.
Scott was very quick to respond to all of our questions. Can I have this, can we take out that, what if we bump the ceiling up, can we expand this, can we add a downstairs guest suite….the questions never really end with me. i just pause. 🙃 Scott was able to consult the architect and give us a package in 2 days!! We are delighted to move forward with him. Out of all the builders, he seems the most like he is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate us.
The Politics of Building
Evidently, there are a lot of politics in developments. We were absolutely not prepared for that factor. I planned to get to know the builders, what they will and won’t do, and have a general idea of the pricing before making an informed decision.
That….isn’t how it works.
I told the site agent that we spoke with Saybrook Homes, but we would like to move forward with receiving the building package information from both Sasser and Saybrook. Oh no worries though, Mr. Site Agent immediately told Sasser to stop pricing us. He disclosed to us that he has been working for Sasser for 30 years and will be leaving his brokerage to work full-time for them next year. So, one could say he has a conflict of interest?
The politics really get me fired up because I would get it if we were pitting them against each other and entering a price war situation. But….we just wanted to know where we stood in what we could build with both guys lol. This is a million dollar investment after all.
Never say men aren’t petty.
One Word of Advice
I tell you all of this because if you’re a local CC, I’m sure you are doing your building research as well. My biggest piece of advice is never trust the site agent, even if he or she seems like they are your new best friend. Email the builders personally. That could have saved us 2 months lol.
I’ll be posting my vision boards for the house this week. I spent sooo many hours on photoshop putting vision boards for each room.
xx, Chels
Leave a Reply