Potential buyer that loves DF so far (Pine Ridge: lenders, schools)

[RodneshiaJ]

I applied for my pre-qual today with Advantage ( one of their preferred Lenders) and we are looking to build in Lexington Park in the Pecan Park area, the Edison 1. Of course I am nervous as this is our first home. I've read almost every testimonial on here and I'm definitely going to hire an inspector for every step but I am worried about the design center. Will we end up spending an extra 20k on upgrades. Things like hard wood we won't add but just the reasonable things. I read all the included features and some of the things we want are the disappearing doors, additional recess lighting, the pre wire for the alarm and surround sound, the in step ceiling in the master, prewire for the hanging lights in the kitchen area, double door entry at the front and master bedroom. To me this seems like a lot and that we'll spend so much adding these things. Any suggestions or helpful insight would be most appreciated on this and anything else that would be beneficial to a first time buyer!

Thanks

[pcsn0122]

Hi. We almost decided on Lexington Park with Dream Finders. Ended up building in Pine Ridge instead even though the CDD fees are very high. I thought Network Funding was their preferred lender? That's who we applied with. We added the disappearing sliding doors as well. I didn't have my design center appointment yet since we just signed last week. We're already over our budget we wanted, so I don't have room to spend much.

[RodneshiaJ]

Yes they are but if you're interested in the Bond Program which I was originally you have to go through Advantage which is their alternative Preferred Lender. I will have to look that up(your community), I am staying clear of the CDD fees. Why did you decide against Dreamfinders/Lexington Park?

[pcsn0122]

The main reason was because of schooling. I have 3 kids, two of which are school aged and the schools for that area (Duval county) were very poorly rated, in my opinion. If they were average, I could deal with it even though apparently Duval has a bad reputation. My oldest is very smart, but has some challenges as it is so I didn't want to take that chance with their education. I believe if we didn't have kids, we would have purchased in LP. We just moved from Buffalo, NY and I don't want to move again since we're building new.