Making Inverness Our Choice

     Inverness Homes was not our first choice for building our forever home.  In fact, building a home at all was not our first choice.

     We located to the Dayton area in July of 2011 and chose to reside in Fairborn, as it's the easiest choice for a military family with kids in daycare.  We have been leasing a house, as the military likes to tell us it's time to move whenever they feel like it.  Now, 3 1/2 years later,  a second assignment here at Wright-Patt and retirement right around the corner, we began to look for our forever home.

     I, being a planner and over-thinker, have been contemplating this idea for a few months now.  I combed the streets of our current neighborhood (An Inverness home development), and those that surround us as well.  We both have the similar tastes in homes and were looking for something built within the past 10 years, the newer the better. 

     While looking in our neighborhood, which has several homes for sale, I would go online to the Inverness website and check out the floor plan.  Most homes in our neighborhood are similar to the one we reside in, which has a floor plan that just does not work well for our family.  Too many rooms that we don't use, and the rooms we do use are not big enough or laid out properly. 

     This was how I stumbled across Ryan Homes, as a new housing development is being built just down the street from us.   Their home designs and website are just stunning and well thought out.  So my little brain started working, and everyday by boyfriend would come down to the office to find me playing with floor plans and designs.  I think he got the hint.

     Last week he started asking questions about the Ryan Homes development, as well as a new Inverness development that is just beginning a few blocks away.  He is a straight forward man. He likes things to be simple and efficient.  So we scoured each of their websites, and floor plans.  He decided on one plan from each that he really liked.  So we planned a visit to both developments.

     Our first visit was the Ryan Homes, and the Palermo model.  We were very lucky to have this specific model right around the corner.  It's a beautiful home and the sales consultant was very nice, however the development we preferred was in Fairborn, not in Beavercreek.  So with a model in mind, we traveled to Waterford Landing to check out their lots and meet the sales consultant. 

     She was a very lovely woman, and made sure to answer all of our questions and see to our needs.  The red flags arose as we started asking if modifications were possible.  One of our biggest pet peeves about our current home is the carpeting on the stairs.  They are difficult to maintain and just always look dirty and matted.  Wood stairs are a must for us.  When asking the sales consultant in Beavercreek, she said they could do that for the stairs leading to the second floor but not the basement, and for a price, of course.  The sales consultant in Fairborn just said flat out, "We don't do that."  So from there we became quite skeptical.   We also asked about our closing date.  We are leasing and don't want to pay a mortgage and lease at the same time, nor do we want to be homeless if the closing date exceeds our lease.  We were told the closing date is 6 months after the contract is signed.  We asked if that could be pushed back a month, and she said it was "set in stone."   If they couldn't deliver on such small modifications, what about our other wishes?  After all, we are willing to spend 300k of our hard earned money, shouldn't we get it the way we want it? 

     So we arose the next day for our trip to Inverness homes.  I had spoken to the sales consultant, Susan, by phone, as the development is so new there are no buildings or even roads.  She answered all my questions about the property.  She was in an office in the neighboring town and we took the trek to go see what Inverness was all about.  When we arrived Susan was extremely attentive and down to earth.  We spoke of our wishes, on both the model and the options we would like.  When asking about wood stairs we heard an, "Of course!"  When asking about a closing date, we were told it could be written into our contract.  When asking about resizing the third garage and the garage door, we got a "We can do whatever you need, it's your house."  Susan, and Inverness, won us over.

     Her office resides in a Darby II model at the Oaks in Huber Heights.  A model that is not available in our preferred development.  But as she gave me all the information about their company, the model of our choice, and where it was located, my boyfriend began to wander around the Darby.  It is a stunning home with well executed options and upgrades.  He did his own thing and wandered quietly, never really saying a word.  

     After the directions were in our hands, we traveled down to Liberty Township to see our model, the Hammond.  It was a beautiful home, with an almost perfect layout.  The only issue was the rooms were just too small.  Mainly, the Master bedroom.  The model had the 2 foot extension, an added cost, and it was still too small.  The other bedrooms were much smaller than we are used to as well.  The kitchen just didn't suit our needs either.  On paper, this model seemed perfect, but actually setting foot in it, we realized it wasn't what we wanted.

     On the drive home, I thought we would have to go back to Ryan homes and make it work with them, as no other model at our preferred development was going to work for us.  My boyfriend had other ideas.  Apparently he had fallen in love with the Darby II model during our visit.  He drove us straight back to Susan's office to talk to her about our situation.  She greeted us warmly and we explained our problem, but Susan didn't see it as a problem at all.  Inverness loves to give you what you want.  So a phone call was made, and we got approval to build the model of our choice on our lot of choice, in our preferred development.

     We quickly threw a check their way to put a hold on our lot, and made an appointment for 3 days later to price out our model with all the options of our choosing. 

     Inverness Homes is, by far, the best option in our area.  If you are in the Cincinatti, Dayton, Louisville or Indianapolis areas and are looking at Ryan Homes.  If you are getting "No's" and "We don't do that... I encourage you to find the nearest Inverness Homes development and talk to them.  If you're going to build your dream home, you deserve to have it just the way you want it.