If you are just tuning in, I have already shared part one and two of our real estate journey. To quickly recap, we committed to buying a brand new condo, pre-construction in DC in March of 2019 with hopes of being in our new home by Fall of 2019. So far I have shared why we decided to buy new construction and the first year of waiting for delivery.
Today I am going to share the highlights from year two of waiting for delivery.
Winter 2020
Late January 2020 we received what would be the first of many official construction updates. We were told that the construction team was hoping for a Spring of 2020 delivery but the sales team thought that was aggressive and encouraged us to plan for early Summer 2020. Side note: I found it interesting that they were publicly acknowledging that the construction team and sales team weren’t aligned. Seemed like something you should resolve internally, right? Anyway, we had already missed one delivery date a few months prior so I knew to be cautious.
I responded to the email from the sales team to get more clarity. I told them that our lease was up in just a few months (April 2020) and that we were considering signing a six month extension just to be safe. That would ensure we had housing until October 2020. The sales team responded, “I hope October is not the case. We are anticipating delivery to begin between May/June.” To me, this read, “How silly of you to think you would need housing until October! We are getting close.” Excited, I responded back and asked if we should consider going month-to-month in our rental to better align with delivery? Mind you, this was a far more expensive option than the six month extension. I never heard back. Just to be safe and save money, we signed the six month extension. This locked us into our apartment until October 2020. If our condo did deliver in the summer, we could try to sublet.
Spring 2020
By April 2020, the pandemic was in full force. Both my husband and I started working from home. The walls of our 600 square foot one bedroom were beginning to close in but we stayed positive. Summer would be here before we knew it and we would have more space for working from home. But then another delay. In late April, we got another update pushing delivery to August/September 2020. Again we remained positive, our lease was up in October so maybe things would be perfect.
At this point we had heard every excuse for delays under the sun. Covid-19 was an obvious one but couldn’t account for the delays the previous year.
Other excuses included DC government woes, issues with permitting, material delays, and even the Washington National’s World Championship.
Apparently the extended season and road closures, made getting to the construction site a challenge…
Summer 2020
By the summer it had been a entire year since we last saw our unit in person. I emailed the sales team with the subject line: “Annual Tour.” I thought that was a hilarious subject line. The sales team did not. The sales team said they had to get permission from the construction office to show the unit.
Not knowing much about new construction, I assumed this was normal but I was surprised when the construction team denied the request.
Again, let me remind you again it has been a year since we have seen this condo. The fact that they weren’t letting purchasers come and see the progress raised a red flag for me. Furthermore, the sales team said, “We have been instructed to stay out of the sold homes and the latch/electronic lock system has been working against us:( ” So not only do I feel like the construction team is trying to hide something, the locks on the units are also malfunctioning? Hello, red flag number two.
The sales team reassured me and said they would try and snap some pictures of our unit over the weekend. I never heard from them.
Fall 2020
When October 2020 arrived, we decided to go month-to-month. This was far more expensive but now with the pandemic still raging, we just didn’t want to be locked into anything.
By the winter there were some glimmers of hope. We were able to pick our parking spot! The sales team sent a map of the garage and we submitted our first and second choice. We didn’t get our first choice. This is definitely not a big deal but I do remember feeling like,
“Huh, that’s annoying. Why do we keep hitting these snags?”
The second email we got in December was a note from the developer offering credits to all the buyers because of the delays. The credits increased in value based on how long you have been waiting. We were in the group that had been waiting the longest so we would receive the largest credit.
On a positive note, the credit was a nice gesture. I knew that as frustrated as we were, the developer was probably equally as frustrated. I imagined that at this point they were bleeding money. The fact that they were at least trying to make things right gave me some reassurance. On the other hand, given the amount of money we had spent renting while waiting, the credit didn’t feel like much.
We ended the year still not really knowing when we would be moving in.
It had also been almost a year and a half since we saw our unit.
Finally, after the holidays we received an invitation for our first walk through.
More to come next week.
