Saturday, August 7, 2010

Not Much Going On

There hasn't been very much to write about this week.  We have our meeting with Guardian Technologies on Monday.  This is where they do a presentation and try to get us to buy a whole bunch of things we have  no intention of buying - a security system, surround sound, and other such things.  The only thing we plan on getting are extra phone and cable jacks since you only get one of each per floor.  This is probably the only time where my husband could be sucked into buying something we didn't plan on buying :)  We'll see what happens.

And since I don't have anything else to report, I'll just complain about incentives.  My complaint is that WE AREN'T GETTING ANY!!!  I've known this all along, but after reading about the awesome incentives other people are getting, I really am disappointed.  My favorite Ryan incentive out there is the free finished basement!  How awesome is that!  That's an $11,000 savings (at least for our model)!  My next favorite is that Ryan will pay for half of your upgrades up to $16,000 - so they'd actually pay for $8,000 in upgrades.  I could think of quite a few things that  money could go towards.  Then there is the free upgrade to stainless steel appliances.  Its not as big as the other incentives, but it's still a pretty sweet free upgrade.  I'd take it!  But, no.  Our plan is in such demand that they don't need to give incentives because they know that they will sell the sites regardless.  Oh well.  I guess our incentive is that we'll have an awesome house in a great community!

13 comments:

  1. Is NVR giving you points? That's what they would have given us instead of the stainless... I must admit I would have loved 1/2 the upgrades covered.

    You're right! Just think of the awesome house!

    Hope the Guardian meeting goes well... Ours went much better than we expected... although we did end up with surround sound). :-)

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  2. Olenal, they haven't offered anything in regard to points. Is that something you asked for or they offered? Just curious. We've asked several times about incentives, in hopes that we could get something from them, but they keep telling us there's nothing they can do.

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  3. Ky,

    I don't know much about Ryan Homes or Guardian Technologies, and I'm not sure if you have the option or not, but in addition to the phone and cable drops for each room, you might want to think about Cat6 (Gigabit Ethernet) drops for each room as well. I know it is the age of wireless, but a good wired network connection is faster and more reliable than WiFi. Cat6 is the most future-proof (not Cat5 or Cat5e cable) as Cat6 is certified to support Gigabit Ethernet speeds.

    Also, if you ever plan on having a surround system in the future, you may want them to pre-wire the speaker wires. Normally they would go from where the receiver/head-end will be to where the speakers will be, so that all the wire runs are nice and neat inside the walls.

    Just some things to think about. Of course only add those things if they don't overcharge you and they are in your budget.

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  4. 1. Do you know how long the contract is that you would have to sign for the ALARM system? 2 Do you have any pointers for dealing with Guardian technologies?
    3. did they have packages?

    We are going to tomorrow to the meeting.


    thanks tim

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  5. Jason,

    Thanks so much for the advice! I kind of tuned out when they were talking about all of the wiring stuff. I did hear something about a Cat5. I'll pass this info on to Mark since he would understand this more than me. Also thanks for reading! I doubt there are many Ryan blogs that have readers from Okanawa!

    Tim, the meeting wasn't that bad. He wasn't nearly as pushy as I was expecting. We stuck to our guns and just got the phone, cable, and internet hook ups that we planned on. Any additional lines (cable, phone, or internet) were $95 a piece. Because we have Direct TV we had to not only get another cable, but another phone line in each room. I think all together we added 9 or 10 additional lines. The did have packages - if you bought 6 lines, you would get one for $20 rather than $90. I don't know anything about this kind of thing, but my husband felt it was a bit of a rip off.

    We chose not to get the security system. Ryan homeowners get the basic equipment for free and pay a $32 a month fee just for the service. Then, they have a bunch of options you can add, motion sensors, key fabs, etc... I actually thought the base plan was pretty reasonable, we just didn't want to commit to another monthly payment right now. I do not remember him mentioning the term of the contract. Sorry :(
    In addition, they will try to sell you a central vacuum system and surround sound. I think that was it.

    One tip, when we told him we weren't interested in the security system, he asked if we would reconsider if he gave us 6 months for free. So if you're thinking of doing it, I would try to see what kind of incentive you can get out of them first. Hope this helps.

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  6. KM
    thank you very much... WE are building our house in berks county PA. I just wanted to let you know this blog and others like it have been a real benefit. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

    Tim

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  7. Tim...if you don't mind me asking...What model are you building?

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  8. @bdeandel

    http://www.ryanhomes.com/Ravenna_14037.html

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  9. km...I see from Guardian's website that they offer 3 different package levels on the surround systems...do you have pricing? For those interested the Guardian website is http://www.guardianhometechnologies.com/ but they don't talk about pricing at all. Do they give you price sheets when there or just pull numbers out of a hat.

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  10. Tim...thanks for the info and good luck with your process...you should start a blog too :)

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  11. Tim,
    Congratulations on your home! They don't offer the Ravenna in our plan, but it is a beautiful house! Like you, I found all of the blogs out there very helpful. That's why I decided to do this!

    bdeandel, We were not given any pricing information. He just told us the prices of the the phone/cable/internet lines, the central vac - only because I asked, and the montly charge for the alarm. I don't remember seeing anything in print. My husband has the folder at work with him. I double check it when he gets home. Are you building also?

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  12. We are not currently building, but are seriously considering it. The information in these Ryan blogs is extremely helpful. THANK YOU for taking the time.

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