Development projects of interest

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Second Vesper [Building #2] Hard Hat Tour —

• the building is already 63% sold

• Building #1 (which is behind schedule) and Building #2 (which is ahead of schedule) will likely close around the same time

• Parking Spot: $25k

• the Sale Price will become available to ONLY those who have been added to the Approved Buyer Pool with HomeBaseTexas.org

Caroline and I had our second co-signer phone conversation. After six weeks of considering, she was unable to complete the application to be the formal co-signer role however she is willing to help support anyone who may agree to be the legal co-signer moving forward. 

I frantically searched for a new cosigner. The replacement co-signer completed the application with Dollitta at Priority Home Mortgage. (... but I ultimately never heard back from her! She was initially very responsive but later, it was complete radio-silence.)

All documents have been submitted to HomeBase. The last remaining requirement is the Pre-Approval letter for the mortgage. I still haven't heard a word from Dollitta at Priority Home Mortgage.

Having not heard anything back from Dollitta [Priority Home Mortgage] for three full weeks (which is strange,) I started from scratch and managed to acquire a Pre-Approval Letter for a Traditional Loan (as opposed to the useless Bank Statement Mortgage pre-approval that I received in May) in the amount of $300k with a cosigner from Danielle at First Centennial [Guild] Mortgage.

The Pre-Approval letter from First Centennial [Guild] Mortgage was the last remaining requirement and I have finally received a Certification Letter formally including me in the Mueller Affordable Homes Program Approved Buyer Pool. Now, I await the announcement of the Sales Prices for the Affordable Units in Parkside [Building #1] and Vesper [Building #2].

The sale prices for the Affordable Units in Building #1 [Parkside at Mueller] have been released to the Mueller Affordable Homes Program Approved Buyer Pool.

One Bedroom floorplans are $197,130 

Two Bedroom floorplans are $238,248

(see affordable floorplans here)

I was expecting the sale prices to be within the range of $441k to $589k so this is fantastic news that they are well within reach!

Parkside [Building #1] Sales Presentation

• seven Affordable Contracts signed within the first two days of Sales Presentations

• "built to condo specs" - a foot and a half of foam insulation between each floor & double-batting between each unit

• call box - no guest parking in the building (street parking only)

• parking included (two bedroom upgrade with "tandem parking space" $2,500 fee) $10k for full parking space 

• no motorcycle parking

• luxury vinyl plank-wood floors

• samsung appliance package (fridge & washer/dryer included)

• HOA dues $115.87 flat rate [trash, recycling, maintenance, master's insurance]

• Closing Costs: 

- Preferred Lender pays the Title Policy

- 2 months of HOA, 2 months of assessments, HOA Transfer Fee, Mueller Transfer Fee due at closing — $1,900 total

- once the contract is signed, 1% of the sales price as Earnest in Escrow [non-refundable deposit: $2,380]

Second Vesper [Building #2] Hard Hat Tour —

Not-so incredible news:

• the $25k Parking Spot is not mine for the taking; there are NO parking spots included in Affordable Units but I've been added to a wait-list [there are only three remaining spots available]

• the selection process for Building #2 will NOT be Identical to the process used for building #1 so there's still a degree of uncertainty as to how this is going to play out

INCREDIBLE news:

• the Monthly HOA Fee which I was earlier told would be $800 [75¢/sqft] is actually going to be $150 [14¢/sqft]

• the Sales Team seems to want to do whatever possible to help get me into the highly-coveted One-plus-Den unit (it's essentially a two bedroom / two bathroom unit but the second bedroom does not have a window so it's called a "den.")

It was a big day today. And NOT in a good way. 

• contracting began for Vesper [Building #2] and final Sale Prices were announced in this email

• I learned that the approval process for Building #1 and Building #2 are governed by two entirely different entities [the Mueller Affordable Program and the Austin Housing Finance Corporation Affordable Program, respectively] and now, I need to start the application process entirely from scratch. All of the hurdles that I thought were in the rear-view three weeks ago are suddenly on the horizon once again. 

• I discovered that cosigners are permissible for the Mueller Affordable Program but NOT for the Austin Housing Finance Corporation Affordable Program. Now, I need to figure out how I can be approved for a loan without a cosigner. 

In less than an hour after receiving the link to apply, I completed an application with the Austin Housing Finance Corporation to be certified as eligible for the Affordable Housing Program. I uploaded a total of fifty-one individual required documents. From everything that I've been told from both Laura at HomeBase and Denise from Prospect Realty, I'm the very first person to have submitted.

Montage South Lamar [Building #3] Sales Presentation —

The Affordable Units in this building will be limited to Studio Floorplans only so Building #3 is no longer a viable option for me. 

I devised a three-pronged strategy for moving forward with the application process knowing now that my existing Pre-Approval Letter would likely be rejected by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation. 

1- use the existing Pre-Approval Letter from November 28th [Purchase Price $300,000 | Loan Amount: $240,000] with cosigner for the application and hope that this buys me some time so that I do not jeopardize my position in the queue of applicants
2- acquire a new Pre-Approval Letter [Purchase Price $176,155 | Loan Amount: $126,155] with $50,000 down and NO cosigner (after submitting a request to the underwriter for an exemption to include only 2023 revenue in the calculations for approval since I changed my pay structure from Deep Root to be a Regular Bi-Weekly pay from "Owner's Draws" [Wage Disbursements] rather than the standard 2-Year Average from Tax Returns.)
3- acquire a new Pre-Approval Letter [Purchase Price $176,155 | Loan Amount: $91,155] with $85,000 down and NO cosigner (in case we do NOT get approval from the underwriter for the requested exemption)

Not-so incredible news:

• it seems like Strategy #2 from above will not work because the "Owner's Draws" [Wage Disbursements] would likely leave the Deep Root Corporation in the negative for the year

INCREDIBLE news:

• I was told by the team at HomeBase that they anticipate finishing my file before sending any others to the Austin Housing Finance Corporation.  They can’t currently determine how long the city will take to review the file once sent, but they have assured me that my file will be the first one sent for review.

• after a solid week of frantically attempting to acquire a Pre-Approval Letter without the use of co-signer, I managed to get one using Strategy #3 from above: [Purchase Price $177,000 | Loan Amount: $92,000] with $85,000 down and NO cosigner

• the Interest Rate on the original Pre-Qualification letter was 7.625% but it has decreased to 6.25% on the new letter which saves me $42k in interest payments

• my total Monthly Payments have been cut in half from what I was originally calculating with a $300k Sales Price

Yesterday brought feelings similar to those that I felt at 9:46am on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 when I received the phone call explaining that I had been chosen from over ten thousand applicants to become a resident at Avalon Bowery Place. It's different but there are similarities. This condo is not mine yet but it certainly does feel like more of a reality as of today. 

There were still a few questions that I wanted to have resolved today before embarking upon the waiting game as the Austin Housing Finance Corporation reviews my file. It was confirmed for me today by the VP at Prospect Real Estate that:

1- none of the affordable units at Vesper [Building #2] have gone under contract as of yet

2- all applicants will be at the whim of the city's timing in terms of approval and I seem to be the very first in line

3- depending on the timing of the restrictive covenant, closing should begin at some point from March - May

As of 9:45am this morning, my file has been sent to from HomeBase to the Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC, a division of the City of Austin). I am awaiting a Certificate of Eligibility which could take up to four weeks. 

In the meantime, I have to keep an eye out for additional request from either the AHFC or HomeBase. 

AHFC already came back with a few quick and simple questions pertaining to my file to which I responded immediately. Given that I was told that the approval process would likely take up to thirty days, I'm surprised that there was engagement only twenty-eight hours after submission. I assumed that the file would be sitting on someone's desk for weeks before any attention was devoted. 

Additionally, I was told that I will need to complete an eight-hour Homebuyer Education Course in order to be approved by the AHFC. 

I barreled through the Homebuyer Education Course and submitted my completion certificate to Laura who then passed it along to the AHFC. Though I have the Pre-Qualification Letter with [Purchase Price $177,000 | Loan Amount: $92,000] with $85,000 down and NO cosigner, I'm going to continue to attempt to work with the lender and my accountant to see if I can negotiate a loan which won't completely wipe out all of my savings. 

If I can convince the lender to get the underwriter to approve the exception (so that we can ignore 2021 and 2022 tax returns in the calculations in corporate profit,) I might be able to be pre-approved for a mortgage which requires a smaller down-payment. 

I also need to figure out where I'm going to find the $25k to pay for the parking spot (... if I'm granted one from the waitlist.)

After checking in with HomeBase — since we were nearing the 30-day estimated processing time — I was informed that the city has "paused" the processing of all applicants. At the time, I had no idea what that meant but five days later, it was explained to me that the developer has mis-filed some of the documents for the Restrictive Covenant and as a result, the city was unable to proceed as planned. I've been assured multiple times that this "pause" has nothing to do with my specific file and does not affect my current status. 

However, it complicates things for me because the delay pushes me into the danger-zone for the deadline for my current lease renewal. Knowing that the estimated closing date might not work well with my current lease, I was willing to gamble and bridge the gap of a month or two for finding a temporary place to live. But with no confidence that Vesper is a done-deal at this point, I'm going to have to renew my lease. This means that the whole project is going to cost me an additional $4,500 due to early-lease termination fees. 

Last week, Danielle [the lender] informed me that it's possible that the Vesper project would permit a co-signer (because some developers do and others do not.) This would be a tremendous asset to me if I'm able to use the original $300k Pre-Approval Letter, then I'll have a back-up plan of purchasing a two-bedroom if someone else is able to swoop in and secure the One-plus-Den ahead of me. Another benefit would be that I'd have the ability to finance the $25k Parking Spot without having to add that out-of-pocket expense to the already high Down Payment. 

Danielle [the lender] had her meeting with the city and confirmed that cosigners will NOT be permitted for the Vesper project. I also spoke with Laura [the agency rep] who confirmed that the city had not yet lifted their "pause." She told me however, that I'm "in a very good place."

When speaking with Denise [the realtor,] she told me to "hang tight."

At 4:35pm, Denise [the realtor,] called me to report that the developer and the city are still tangled in red tape. She said that she's tired of waiting so that she will start contracting units while she waits for the city's final approval. To the contract, she will attach an addendum which would nullify the agreement if the city ultimately comes back with a decision that I am not eligible. [IN THE EVENT PURCHASER DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE AFFORDABLE  HOUSING REQUIREMENTS, PURCHASER WILL BE IN DEFAULT OF THE AGREEMENT.] She also said that "... HomeBase knows what they're doing" suggesting that it's unlikely that I will not be deemed eligible by the city because my file has already been scrutinized by HomeBase before being passed off to the city. 

She said that I was the very first person that she contacted and she offered me the option to start the process contract for the One-plus-Den unit, Unit #1310 | A14a floor plan. Denise told me that I was prioritized a full day ahead of everyone else because I have been so kind and so good with my communication — yay!

I received an email on December 20th stating that "The one-bedrooms & the one-bedroom plus den are priced at $176,155 and the two bedrooms are priced at $202,291." Three weeks later, I received another email that looked identical. What I did not notice is that the updated email included the following sentence: "The one-bedrooms are priced at $176,155 and the one-bedroom plus den & two bedrooms are priced at $202,291." Did you notice the difference? Yup — it turns out that the initial email was incorrect and the sale price of the One-plus-Den is actually $26k more than what I had been expecting for the past two months! And under these terms, I cannot afford it. 

I immediately attempted to get in touch with Danielle [the lender,] to see if I could somehow get my $177k Pre-Qualification Letter any higher so that I could afford the higher price. Unfortunately though, Danielle's step mother died last night. I'm not even kidding. 

After navigating through all of these complications, I managed to secure my FIFTH Pre-Qualification letter. This time, I've been pre-qualified for $202,291 — the exact cost of the One-plus-Den unit, Unit #1310. Apparently just eight days prior, Fannie Mae had completely changed their standards and no longer require a two-year history on tax returns. The required two-year average up until this point had been preventing me from securing a Pre-Qualification Letter with a loan amount high enough to afford the apartment so it was quite fortuitous that this policy update occurred when it did. I really dodged a bullet with this one. AND — miraculously, they're requiring NO down payment!

I spent a very stressful hour of my life deciding between the 1,058 square foot One-plus-Den unit (that I've been fantasizing about since December) and the 1,224 square foot two-bedroom unit but it turns out that I prefer the original One-plus-Den for several reasons. 

After speaking to Ryan on the phone, I signed and delivered the Purchase Agreement. There's still a chance that I do not receive the Certificate of Eligibility from the City of Austin but at the very least, this means that none of the other applicants can swoop in ahead of me to secure the One-plus-Den before me.

I'm in touch with Monica Foote​​​​ (the Residential Escrow Assistant at Heritage Title Company of Austin) and I submitted the first of two Earnest Money payments to be held in escrow.