Financing

As most of you know, because of the housing market, it is much more difficult to get a home loan, as it should be. It is even more difficult to obtain a construction loan. You would think that with a credit score of over 800, a good debt to income ratio and, by the time construction is complete, at least 40% equity that finding a bank willing to give us a construciton loan would have been easy. We could only find two banks willing to make construction loans with decent terms. Umpqua bank had great terms, but they only offered Adjustable Rate Mortgages.  

Washington Federal is the only bank we could find that is currently offering a 30 year fixed, one-time-close construction loan. The way interest rates have shot up the last couple months, we are very happy we chose Washington Federal. The terms were excellent and they’ve been very easy to work with. It's nice to know there is a bank out there still willing to make good common sense loans. We encourage you to give them the opportunity to earn your business.

January 2011 we recieved a pre-approval, with minor preconditions, for our construction loan through Washington Federal. We should be notified of final approval the 2nd week in February. Since this is the last piece of the puzzle we will certainly publish a post once we receive notification.

Of course, we will be using the same builder that built our garage, Hetterle Construction. If there is one piece of advice I would give, it is to find a good, honest, skilled builder. Jeff and Brenda Hetterle fit this description perfectly. It’s not possible for me to give a stronger recommendation than the one I would give them.  

• Washington Federal (Alyssa or Jami) - 200 E 11th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401. Phone: (541) 686-2134
• Hetterle Construction - (541) 409-6601

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Getting up to speed...

First, let’s get you up to speed. A lot has happened, over many years, to get us to this point.

The thought of building our own home first came to us in 2004, soon after we became engaged to be married. We came up with initial drawings with just a pencil and paper. We used floor plans from former residences and original ideas we thought our future family might require. Over the years, these drawings have evolved with more and more detail as our current floor plan started to take shape. Once we thought we had our plans exactly the way we wanted them, we took them to a home designer and architect and had them professionally drawn up.

Our initial plan was to build in Eagle Point, on property we owned on East Antelope Rd. Unfortunately, the property was determined to be unbuildable seven days before we were supposed to start building, and we had to abandon our plans. This was devastating. We had already put so much into it, and we were so close to breaking ground. It took a long time to get over it, but once we did we knew it would work out for the best.

We continued to live in our Medford home and look for other properties in Southern Oregon. After the previous disappointment we decided we weren’t going to settle for just any piece of property. We wanted something that was unique and special to us. In the meantime, we were married and a year and a half later our daughter was born.

We discovered our unique property April 2009, but it was very expensive and, of course, we didn‘t have the financing to make an offer. The property had an amazing view. It had phone lines, Umpqua Basin Water supply with two 1500 gallon storage tanks, and standard septic already installed. We regularly watched the listing over the next year praying that it wouldn’t sell. In the meantime we saved every penny we could. After a year, we realized that if we were really determined to buy this particular piece of property we were going to have to make some serious sacrifices. March 23, 2009 we rented our house in Medford, moved into our 5^th wheel, and made the highest priced offer we could comfortably afford.Thankfully the offer was accepted.

With the generosity of our neighbors, and friends, Don and Donna Marshall, we moved our 5^th wheel across the street to their back lot where we lived for 9 months. During this time, we continued to save as much money as we could while making payments on our newly acquired land. With the help of Don Marshall (friend/neighbor) and Nathan Gordon (Scott’s brother) we rented some heavy equipment and flattened the building pad. Just before Christmas we moved the 5^th wheel, with a newborn son, to Scott’s mom’s where we stayed until March 2010.

March 2010 Hetterle Construction began to build our garage, where we planned to live for the next year. Using the money we had saved, we built a 1850 sqft garage. The garage consists of a 28’ x 28’ two car garage, 18’ x 42’ RV bay w/ full hookups, and a 12’ x 24’ one car garage. The garage was completed by the end of April and we have lived here ever since.

• Hetterle Construction - Quality Work, Honest, Reliable, Great Value. Nothing I could say would do justice to the kind of work Jeff does. Add Brenda to the mix and they make a great team. We strongly recommend them. Contact information: (541) 409-660





Garage Exterior Plans



Garage Floorplan



Don operating the Bull Dozer



Nathan Operating the Excavator



House Pad Complete



Excavation for Footings (Kevin Saylor Excavation) 



Garage Framing



Garage Complete