Always, always, always communicate via emails! I know this may be common sense to many of you, but there may be some first time buyers like us who trust there SRs or PMs who encourage you to call anytime with anything and get carried away. And please don't get me wrong, they may really mean it when they say that but few things do slip thru the cracks! And whatever they may say or make you feel, you are not their only client. Cover yourself. We learned it the hard way and too late in the process.
What brought this on? Well, remember the whole mater bathroom fiasco?! One tiny detail which I don't think I even mentioned earlier was that we were given an option of either obstructed or clear glass for the shower in the master bath. I liked a frosted glass door in my sister's master bath and thought obstructed glass would be similar, so I chose that initially. But once we upgraded the bathroom, I debated about the glass too, as we were now getting beautiful tile in the shower! So we discussed this with our SR. We had to sign the change order for updated tile so we went to the model home and he suggested that maybe we should take look at a home with obstructed glass on a tiled in shower and decide if that's what we want. He was the one who said, with obstructed glass the accent tile in the shower will not be visible.
So we went to this home in our community, on our way out after the signing the paperwork and looked at the obstructive glass set-up, and we hated it! I was very happy with our SR that he suggested the right thing and that we actually got to look at a sample (for the first time) and prevented us from making a wrong decision. We called him from that home and confirmed that we'd go with clear glass instead and went away for a relaxing long weekend!
Last night we stopped at the house and of course there was obstructed glass in our shower, I immediately emailed our SR trying to remind him how we had changed our decision back in July. He doesn't recollect that conversation and there is no email, no paperwork, nothing. He said he'll still communicate it to our PM but realizing things like this 8 days before closing, is frustrating!
On a different subject: We had scheduled a third party inspection today. The schedule had been discussed with our PM. We did remind him about this appointment again on Monday when we last met. The inspector came in today morning and said he can't to his job as the house wasn't ready for inspection. One would think the PM would know that....but one would be wrong!
Anyway, the inspector was kind enough to reschedule it to next Wednesday. Right now I don't know how I should feel about all this! Frustrated!
What brought this on? Well, remember the whole mater bathroom fiasco?! One tiny detail which I don't think I even mentioned earlier was that we were given an option of either obstructed or clear glass for the shower in the master bath. I liked a frosted glass door in my sister's master bath and thought obstructed glass would be similar, so I chose that initially. But once we upgraded the bathroom, I debated about the glass too, as we were now getting beautiful tile in the shower! So we discussed this with our SR. We had to sign the change order for updated tile so we went to the model home and he suggested that maybe we should take look at a home with obstructed glass on a tiled in shower and decide if that's what we want. He was the one who said, with obstructed glass the accent tile in the shower will not be visible.
So we went to this home in our community, on our way out after the signing the paperwork and looked at the obstructive glass set-up, and we hated it! I was very happy with our SR that he suggested the right thing and that we actually got to look at a sample (for the first time) and prevented us from making a wrong decision. We called him from that home and confirmed that we'd go with clear glass instead and went away for a relaxing long weekend!
Last night we stopped at the house and of course there was obstructed glass in our shower, I immediately emailed our SR trying to remind him how we had changed our decision back in July. He doesn't recollect that conversation and there is no email, no paperwork, nothing. He said he'll still communicate it to our PM but realizing things like this 8 days before closing, is frustrating!
On a different subject: We had scheduled a third party inspection today. The schedule had been discussed with our PM. We did remind him about this appointment again on Monday when we last met. The inspector came in today morning and said he can't to his job as the house wasn't ready for inspection. One would think the PM would know that....but one would be wrong!
Anyway, the inspector was kind enough to reschedule it to next Wednesday. Right now I don't know how I should feel about all this! Frustrated!
I hear you about the communications. We always email the important stuff and follow up with a phone call. Always create a paper trail! It has saved us many times in the past. The PM likes to do everything y phone though. I still email with exactly what I want, then call.
ReplyDeleteAfter you close, this also goes into creating service requests, always always always create an online service request, then call the contractors. This way there is a service history and documented trail of the issues you had, in case it does not get corrected the right way.
I'm gonna be careful about it from now on! Specially, when it comes to service requests. Can't take any chances with that!
DeleteSo annoying! We had a similar issue with how they described the bathroom and what it was in reality. We realized it after changes could be made, but made a big enough issue of it that they switched the layout. We also were told we were getting a different type of chandelier than we got... overall though we LOVE our house more than anything and can laugh about it now ;-)
ReplyDeleteI know I will love my house too, but I think little things like this are so annoying! I can't wait to get done with this.
DeleteYes, they have VERY selective memory. LOL
ReplyDeleteSo true!
DeleteDocument everything! That is why we ended up getting to keep the $7000 incentive even though we used an outside lender! Ugh I hope things get better!
ReplyDeleteWe had a few smaller issues like this. Our crown on the main level I never got it in writing so I misunderstood where it was going. I thought it was going in the family room also. I am married to a lawyer so I should know better and I made the same mistake. It is hard to always remember to email. For changes or large requests I did email them. If you spoke to the flooring people about it, that might give you some backup.
ReplyDeleteNaah the flooring people do not deal with this. Anyways, our PM been pretty good, we'll wait n see what he can or cannot do!
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