On this episode, we dive into the real and raw truths of what the home buying journey can look like with John Houston homeowners, Terris and Latoshia Carter. For some it can be a quick and seamless process filled with joy and excitement, from that first meeting with a sales manager to the day they are handed the sacred keys. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case for everyone, and Terris and Latoshia prove that as they share the highs and lows of their experience and the journey that brought them to be happy homeowners today. If you are in process of buying or building a new home or about to begin your journey to home ownership, this episode is for you!

S2_Ep23_How We Found Our Way Home (Terris & Tasha Carter).mp3

Intro: [00:00:03] Welcome Home, a podcast brought to you by John Houston Homes. Join hosts, Chelsi Frazier and Whitney Pryor, as they walk you through the exciting adventure of your home buying and building journey.

Whitney Pryor: [00:00:19] Thank you for joining us today on the Welcome Home podcast. My name is Whitney and I've got my co-host here, Chelsi, who I lovingly refer to as my "work wife."

Chelsi Frazier: [00:00:28] Hi!

Whitney Pryor: [00:00:30] Today is going to be one of my favorite episodes. I always love whenever we have happy homeowners on the show. Chelsi, do you want to tell us who we've got?

Chelsi Frazier: [00:00:39] Yes, I would love too! We're sitting here with the Carters, TNT.

Tasha Carter: [00:00:44] Hello everyone!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:00:45] We are so happy to have yall in here! The energy was right when I saw their faces and they walked in the door. We are just really excited to talk with Terris and Tasha. They purchased a home in The Estates at North Grove and we like to say, "they went to Jared." There's a really fun story behind that, but really what we mean is the sales manager Jared Denton. The Carters have a really interesting story in how they ended back at John Homes, after contracting a pre-existing home. I think our listeners will really relate to some of those experiences that we're going to talk about today, because I think that's what a lot of people are going through in the market. Welcome to the show, Terris and Tasha!

Tasha Carter: [00:01:26] Hello, nice to be here.

Terris Carter: [00:01:28] Thank you guys for having us. We're excited to be here!

Chelsi Frazier and Whitney Pryor: [00:01:30] We are too!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:01:32] We actually had a sales manager, Patrick, who I think we'll probably talk about in a little bit. He emailed and said, "you really should get them on the show because they went to Jared and you could do really fun like play on words with that and tell their story." It's just interesting how the person who you didn't end up buying with, still loved you guys so much that they wanted you to share your story. We're excited!

Terris Carter: [00:02:00] Awesome, awesome.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:01] Let's start with just a little bit of background. Tell us a little bit about yourselves. What you do, family, kids, hobbies, all that fun stuff.

Tasha Carter: [00:02:09] I'm Tasha Carter. I'm married to this handsome guy over here.

Whitney Pryor: [00:02:19] I love that you call each other TNT, that's just awesome!

Terris Carter: [00:02:21] TNT dynamite.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:24] I love it!

Tasha Carter: [00:02:25] We have been for 3 years. I'm from Dallas, Texas. I am a local girl, Dallas country girl. I work at Grand Prairie ISD. I am an after school coordinator, so I work with the kiddos. We have two kids, NIA and Trevor. Nya is 21 and she's in college in North Carolina. Trevor is in the 11th grade in DeSoto and he's in the band.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:54] That's a big deal, right?

Tasha Carter: [00:02:55] It is a big deal. He's very busy.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:57] What does he play?

Tasha Carter: [00:02:58] He's in the percussion section.

Whitney Pryor: [00:02:59] Oh, he's a cool kid.

Terris Carter: [00:03:02] Yeah, he's the drummer.

Whitney Pryor: [00:03:03] I was a clarinet player. I was not the cool kid. I was also the drum major. .

Terris Carter: [00:03:09] Nice, nice.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:03:10] You were totally cool! I did always wish I was in percussion, though. I was just thought, that looks like where it's at.

Tasha Carter: [00:03:17] They have so much fun.

Terris Carter: [00:03:18] Yeah, they do.

Tasha Carter: [00:03:20] I love to shop, I love to cook and I love to read. Those are my interests. We love to travel.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:03:27] That's neat! Have yall been anywhere interesting lately?

Tasha Carter: [00:03:31] Not yet, but we are going to California.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:03:34] Oh, fun!

Terris Carter: [00:03:35] We are going to take a trip over Thanksgiving. We are going to take a little trip to Cali, L.A!

Tasha Carter: [00:03:42] Hopefully, we'll see some stars.

Terris Carter: [00:03:42] We can go to Beverly Hills and see the stars, the walk of stars.

Whitney Pryor: [00:03:49] It will be nice and warm, too.

Terris Carter: [00:03:50] Yeah, just a change of scenery.

Whitney Pryor: [00:03:52] Definitely.

Tasha Carter: [00:03:54] We need a vacation.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:03:56] Oh, I'm sure, yes, Teachers. Well Terris, what about you?

Terris Carter: [00:04:02] Good morning, everyone! I'm Terris Carter. I am originally from Delaware. The first state, all the way on the East Coast, New Castle, Delaware, born and raised. I moved to Texas in 2007 just for a change of scenery. Of course, the homes down here are nice and big. Everything is bigger and better in Texas, that is true, so just for a change of scenery. I'm a teacher in Grand Prairie ISD, as well with my wife. I'm not at the same campus, but in the same district. I teach music Pre-K through 5th grade, so that's exciting!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:04:45] What a fun job!

Terris Carter: [00:04:46] There is a lot of energy, especially with the kinder and the first graders. They have tons of energy. Red Bull, coffee and Starbucks, all those things are great. This is my 18th year teaching, so I've been doing that for a while. Like my wife said, Nya and Trevor, they're our babies and we love them dearly. My hobbies are, of course, music. I teach music and I do play music, as well.

Tasha Carter: [00:05:20] He plays for me.

Terris Carter: [00:05:21] Yeah, I play for Tasha sometimes.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:05:23] What do you play?

Terris Carter: [00:05:23] I play piano.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:05:24] Oh, that's so cool.

Whitney Pryor: [00:05:25] Is that how you got her? Dis you play the piano on the first date?

Chelsi Frazier: [00:05:28] She's shaking her head!

Terris Carter: [00:05:29] We used to actually work together in Desoto, that's how we met. I would see her in the hallway and as she was walking by I was like, "wow, who is this? I've never seen her before. Maybe I can play a song for her and get her to come in my class."

Whitney Pryor: [00:05:49] Serenade her.

Terris Carter: [00:05:50] Serenade her. La la la la la.

Tasha Carter: [00:05:52] I was working at the after school program in DeSoto, so he would always take my speaker out of the gym. That's how he would get me to come to his classroom.

Terris Carter: [00:06:00] So she could retrieve it so that I could serenade her.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:06:03] Yes, you just so happened to be playing the piano when she came to get it.

Terris Carter: [00:06:08] Just magically, so that's how we met and it's been awesome. It's been amazing. She's an amazing wife and an amazing friend to me. This step here, in purchasing our first home together, was absolutely stellar. Once we cleared some hurdles, which we'll talk about, it was amazing. She helped a lot with with the decisions and all the different components that have to go into making a large major purchase. I would tell her, "this is a major purchase, so we have to make sure that it's a right purchase." Going back to my hobbies, I enjoy music. I also enjoy flying. For the last 20 years, I have been a big flight simmer, so I love Flight SIM. I love airplanes. I love everything about airplanes and things like that. I've had a few friends over the years who are pilots with their private pilot's license. They would fly the smaller Cessna aircraft and things like that. One of my life dreams and goals, is to acquire my private pilot's license and to become a pilot one day.

Whitney Pryor: [00:07:28] We share that goal! That is also a goal of mine, once I have more time.

Terris Carter: [00:07:32] Yeah, yeah, that's cool.

Whitney Pryor: [00:07:34] I wanted to be a pilot before 9/11 happened. I was a sophomore in High School and I was like," yeah, I'm going to switched my career path."

Chelsi Frazier: [00:07:45] That's so neat!

Whitney Pryor: [00:07:47] That's awesome!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:07:48] I believe that will happen. I can tell you're a go getter. You probably put your mind on that goal and it's going to happen. That's so neat.

Terris Carter: [00:07:57] Thank you.

Whitney Pryor: [00:07:59] Very cool.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:08:01] Well, tell us about your journey to John Houston Homes, what happened along the way and then coming back to Jared. Where should we start?

Terris Carter: [00:08:10] Babe, you want to start or do you want me to start?

Tasha Carter: [00:08:12] Yea, you can start because I want to talk about the process and how I felt.

Terris Carter: [00:08:16] Towards the end of 2019, this is about a year or so after we were married, we started talking about, "hey, babe, I think we should go ahead and purchase a home." We had been renting for a while, for a number of years. Of course, everyone knows with renting, you're basically paying off the mortgage for your landlord.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:08:44] Yeah, there's no secret there!

Terris Carter: [00:08:46] You're not earning or gaining anything, there's no equity. There's nothing there, but just you rent. I mean, there are some pros, of course. You don't have to worry about maintenance and a lot of things are covered. We were just at the point and saying, "with the incomes that we're bringing in, we really need to purchase." We started getting ourselves prepared. We started saving earlier that year. I had opened a savings account and we were actively saving. We had a set amount of money we knew we wanted to have in the bank by the time we closed. Of course, early 2020, COVID happened and everything just stopped. We were like, "Oh my God, what is this? What is going on?" We said, "you know what, we're going to continue with our goal of of home ownership." We started looking. I think Tasha really kind of initiated the online search for properties. I said, "babe, I want you to start getting an idea of what type of home you want, right?"

Whitney Pryor: [00:10:03] That's our favorite thing to do at night is to go through realtor.com.

Terris Carter: [00:10:08] She has to pick that.

Tasha Carter: [00:10:09] That's where I was at, realtor.com, a lot.

Terris Carter: [00:10:14] I'll focus on the financial and all those things. You focus on what kind of home you want to, 2-story, 1-story, that sort of thing. Through searching, we came across John Houston and she showed me some of the floor plans. I think at the time, it was the Eisenhower and the Concord. We had looked at some of those homes and the Harrisburg. We were very impressed with the product and she did some research. We were living in Cedar Hill at the time when we were renting, and we found that John Houston was building in Waxahachie. We were like, "okay, well, that's only 20 minutes from where we are, maybe we can go down there." I think I made contact with Jared.

Tasha Carter: [00:11:09] What we did first, was we just came down to look at it, look at the area, look at the homes and look at everything. We just stopped in the model they had and I think it was the model that they were building. We started talking to Jared, found out more information about it and what we liked about it. The neighborhood was beautiful. That's how we got into contact with Jared at first. Of course, like my baby said, I wanted a new house. He was like, "how much is this going to cost?"

Terris Carter: [00:11:43] I was very reluctant. I was like, "baby, look at this house. It's gorgeous!"

Tasha Carter: [00:11:49] I said, "no, just write the check!"

Terris Carter: [00:11:53] I said, "but we're teachers!" We met Jared and instantly, his personality pulled us in and we were like, "wow, this dude is really cool!" He was very knowledgeable, very friendly, wasn't pushy and just very natural. We felt like we had already known him.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:12:24] That you'd want in a sales manager.

Terris Carter: [00:12:26] Very much.

Tasha Carter: [00:12:26] That's what he likes. He doesn't like anyone that's pushy or is trying to force you.

Whitney Pryor: [00:12:30] You want to trust the person that you're making the giant purchase from.

Terris Carter: [00:12:34] Definitely, so I believe we looked at a few properties. Some of them were still under construction. They were in the framing stage, so we weren't really able to see the finished product. There were a few that we could. We were saying, "okay, well, this is an option." Of course, like I said, I was reluctant. I knew there was a certain price point that I wanted us to stay in, so that we could live and be comfortable. Of course, my wife was like, "baby, we can do it, we can do it!" I was like, "I don't know, maybe we need to consider pre-existing."

Tasha Carter: [00:13:17] I didn't want to.

Terris Carter: [00:13:17] She didn't want to.

Whitney Pryor: [00:13:20] She was willing to take on a second job with Door Dash.

Terris Carter: [00:13:22] Actually, you know what, it's funny you say that. That's exactly what she said she would do. Oh, my goodness! She said, "you know what? Maybe I'll do Door Dash on the weekend. At night, I'll do Uber and you can do Lyft." I was like, "babe..".

Chelsi Frazier: [00:13:43] You two would be the most fun Uber or Lyft drivers ever!

Terris Carter: [00:13:47] I've done Lyft during the Summer, just to have some extra cash, so I'm familiar with it, but I didn't want her doing it. I'm real protective of my wife. You have strange people, strangers getting in and out of your cars. I don't want her doing that, especially in the evening and stuff like that. Anyway, we did look and we made the decision that, let's at least look at pre-existing. Let's have some options on the table and see what's out there. I had a realtor that I had worked with years ago, that I had contacted. We started looking at pre-existing properties and she pulled up several properties for us to go look at. We did, so that kind of started the process and the pre-existing. She had already had a mortgage company and everything to work with. We worked with her and the mortgage company for some time. We came across a property that was actually in Waxahachie in North Grove, as well. We ended up putting an offer. At the beginning of 2021, there was a lot of, how should I say it, "height with the real estate."

Chelsi Frazier: [00:15:20] Bidding wars.

Tasha Carter: [00:15:21] Yes, multiple offers.

Terris Carter: [00:15:23] People coming from out of state and just throwing huge amounts of cash on homes. People were being outbid. Well, that was us. That's what we dealt with and that's what we were dealing with the pre-existing market. It was a lot of that, and I think there were at least, what 10 properties, that we had put contracts on before before we got that offer accepted in North Grove, with the pre-existing. We got the offer accepted. It was a for sale by owner, so we were able to lock in the contract and we were excited.

Tasha Carter: [00:16:06] Extremely excited, especially because this was my first house. I was ready and I was all in.

Whitney Pryor: [00:16:12] It's kind of like a good in between, right? It was pre-existing, but it was still pretty new.

Terris Carter:[00:16:17] It was pretty new. I think it was built in 2018?

Tasha Carter: [00:16:18] It was built in 2018. We were like, "okay, cool. We're still in the area we were looking at. The home is fairly new. It's still under warranty." We felt like this was it.

Terris Carter: [00:16:36] So then, babe, you want to talk about what happened then?

Tasha Carter: [00:16:43] We were in the process and two days before we were going to close, the seller's pulled out.

Terris Carter: [00:16:52] Two days.

Tasha Carter: [00:16:53] Two days. Of course, we had some things and hurdles we had to get over. I was extremely devastated. I didn't think I was going to ever stop crying. I just I cried so much. I cried and I was like, "how could this happen to us?" We had so many things in place. We talked with our movers that we were going to have a certain day. We told our landlord that we were going to move out on this day. He had people coming in and looking at the house. All of our plans got rearranged because that happened to us. We went back to the drawing board after that. We went back and started putting offers on more houses. By this time, the market had gotten worse.

Terris Carter: [00:17:42] Yeah and properties were still climbing in price by the week, pre-existing and new. We were devastated how fast everything was rising. It was just unbelievable. Like my wife said, we had so many things set up and had in place. I mean, we had the movers.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:18:10] You were probably packed.

Tasha Carter: [00:18:10] The whole house was packed.

Terris Carter: [00:18:10] The whole house was packed and we has boxes in the living room.

Tasha Carter: [00:18:13] They were ready to come get it and take it over.

Terris Carter: [00:18:16] We're teachers, so the prime time for us to move is the Summer, when the kids are out of school and we have those those few months to kind of do things without having to take off so much time from work, right? We had to we had to rearrange all of that, everything. Our landlord was very accommodating and understanding. We kept him up to date with the process. That would be one thing I would say to our listeners, just make sure if you're in a situation where you're renting and you're purchasing, just communicate with your landlord what's going on. Communication is the key to things working out in your favor. He was very, very understanding and worked with us. That was that was definitely a blessing. As my wife said, even after we lost the contract on the property, we still continued work with our same realtor and finance company. It was it was what, 10 properties?

Tasha Carter: [00:19:24] It was 10 to 12 more properties more properties that we put an offer on. By this time, we found out that they were only accepting Conventional or Cash, no FHA loans.

Terris Carter: [00:19:39] We were like," man.."

Tasha Carter: [00:19:40] We just didn't understand why, because we were bidding 20k to 25k over what they were asking. Come to find out, someone from California would come in. They would bid 50k to 60k over, or they would come in to pay cash or an investor would come in and pay cash for it. We didn't have a chance. What chance did we have?

Terris Carter: [00:20:05] We were like, "we're teachers, we don't have that kind of money!"

Tasha Carter: [00:20:09] I told babe, "listen, please call Jared. We don't have any other options. I'm tired of getting denied. I'm over it. We need somewhere to go." He was like, "no babe, I still don't really know if we can really afford new construction." I suggest call Jared.

Terris Carter: [00:20:31] I was being the stubborn husband.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:20:32] It happens.

Terris Carter: [00:20:34] Yeah, it does.

Tasha Carter: [00:20:36] I said, "please just call Jared!" He finally called Jared.

Terris Carter: [00:20:39] Three days later.

Tasha Carter: [00:20:40] Yeah.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:20:41] It wasn't right away?

Terris Carter: [00:20:44] It wasn't right away. I was being really stubborn.

Whitney Pryor: [00:20:46] You had to plant that seed.

Tasha Carter: [00:20:47] Yeah! I was like, "baby, just please call him just to see what he says." They were having spec homes built, so he finally called him. We wanted something that was in our price range, something that we can afford and I know that that's what he had wanted. We called Jared and I was so excited!

Terris Carter: [00:21:08] I said, "hey, Jared, this is Terris." He said, "yeah, hey man, how's it going?" I said, "I got some bad news, man. The last couple of months, we've been back and forth and that deal fell through. We weren't able to lock in that home." I said, "this is the price. tell me what you have?" He said, "I have two properties that will probably work for you." He said, "I'm not 100% on the pricing, but you and Tasha should just come on down, take a look and and we'll get working on that." So, we did. We came down, I believe it was a Thursday.

Tasha Carter: [00:21:49] It was a Thursday. He walked us around and showed us both those of those properties.

Terris Carter: [00:21:53] He showed us both of the properties.

Whitney Pryor: [00:21:55] Were they under construction?

Terris Carter: [00:21:56] They were.

Tasha Carter: [00:21:57] One was about to close. I believe it had two or three more weeks to go. The other one was just the frame, so that one was still under construction.

Whitney Pryor: [00:22:06] Oh, okay.

Terris Carter: [00:22:08] The one with the frame, that's the one that we ended up selecting. That was the Eisenhower. We had looked at an Eisenhower, I believe, on our initial visit with him, so we were familiar with it.

Tasha Carter: [00:22:23] The Arnold and the MacArthur, we had looked at those.

Whitney Pryor: [00:22:26] So you knew what they would look like when they were finished?

Terris Carter: [00:22:28] Yeah. Of course, we went online and looked on the John Houston website in the 3D Floor Plans Page.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:22:38] That's compliments of our department. We love to hear that from people!

Terris Carter: [00:22:42] We checked that out. My wife and I made a decision together. She said, "babe, I think that Eisenhower will work for us." We went back to the office and we started talking. We asked, "hey Jared, what's the time frame?" He said, "well, we're looking at a couple of more months because of course, it's just in the framing stage. We're looking at probably late September/early October." He said, "I know that's a little bit past the timing you wanted, but at least it's still before the end of this year and it's kind of around the beginning of the school year." We said, "okay, that that'll work." I said, "so here's the million dollar question, how much?"

Tasha Carter: [00:23:28] The numbers guy. He's the numbers guy.

Terris Carter: [00:23:33] Jared sent an email and made a few phone calls. We were just in the office just casually talking. Of course, I'm shaking, nervous sweating and just wondering.

Whitney Pryor: [00:23:47] Wondering if we're going to have to go back to driving Uber?

Terris Carter: [00:23:51] Yes, doing Lyft. He got an email and he was like, "oh, I got an email!" We were like, "oh my goodness," palms are sweaty and everything. What he told us, we were absolutely floored, we couldn't believe it because the price of what we were going to pay for the pre-existing, was exactly the same of what we were paying for brand new John Houston Home. We were like, "wait, wait, wait, what?"

Tasha Carter: [00:24:27] It was spot on.

Terris Carter: [00:24:32] We couldn't believe it. We were like, "oh my God, this is crazy!" He said, "so what do you guys think?" We were like, "where's the contract? Let's do this dude!"

Whitney Pryor: [00:24:45] Did you say, "I told so!"

Tasha Carter:[00:24:46] That's kind of what I said.

Whitney Pryor: [00:24:48] A little bit?

Terris Carter: [00:24:49] The whole ride back home.

Tasha Carter: [00:24:53] I was thanking him. I was like, "thank you baby for finally listening! I told you we could do new construction."

Terris Carter: [00:25:02] He told us, "I'm going to put this together today. You guys come back down tomorrow with your earnest, your good faith money, we'll sign a contract and get it rolling."

Chelsi Frazier: [00:25:18] Did that happen?

Tasha Carter: [00:25:20] That happened!

Whitney Pryor: [00:25:20] That's so much easier than pre-existing.

Terris Carter: [00:25:24] Yeah.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:25:24] Was it just a weight lifted off your shoulders?

Terris Carter: [00:25:27] Humungous weight!

Tasha Carter: [00:25:29] You know it's yours and you know it's not going to be taken away from you at the drop of a dime. To have something that's in your reach and for it to be taken away, was devastating.

Terris Carter: [00:25:40] We had put so much time and effort. Thankfully, we didn't put a whole lot of money in there. There were some hurdles that we had to endure with that process because there was money that was tied up. It did take some time for us to get back the money that we had put on there, of course, but all in all, I believe it was a blessing in disguise. It really was. It also goes to the fact that sometimes us men, we're a little reluctant to listen to our wives. Sometimes, we have to just back down on the macho and just listen. It's hard because by nature, we're dominant, so we feel like, "no baby. I got this!"

Tasha Carter: [00:26:33] I never one time booked him on it. He's the leader, the husband, the man, so I followed him. In my mind, I'm like, "come on, waiting for you to catch up. I need you to catch on to the vision!" I never want to make him feel like he is not the head of the home. I want to make sure I follow him and whatever decision he makes. When we were looking at pre-existing, even though I wanted new construction, I still did that for him because he wanted that. He saw that it didn't work and I said, "well, your way didn't work, let's try my way now." He finally went that way and it was a blessing. It was a tremendous blessing.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:27:15] There's a cool story about somebody you met that lives not far from me, that I want you to tell. I think that and other things like that story, really support that everything happens for a reason. For whatever reason, that wasn't that house at that time, in 2020. This was the house meant for y'all. Didn't you meet somebody?

Terris Carter: [00:27:40] Yea, there was a friend of mine that when when I purchased my my first home in Texas, when I first moved here in 2007, we were neighbors next door in Glen Heights. He called me, I want to say the day we were moving in. Him and his wife, they put a contract on a home on the same street, down the street from us. It was just absolutely crazy. The moving truck was, I believe, behind me. I think I was in front of him and he recognized my car. He was standing out in front of the property with his agent. He said, "hey Terris, I thought I'd just seen you." I said, "yeah, where are you?" He said, "yeah, we were standing outside, we saw you guys drive by and I saw the the moving truck behind you. I just automatically assumed that, you know?" I said, "yeah, we're right down the street!" How cool is that? My neighbor from 2007, they stayed in their house, they just sold their house and they'll be moving to North Grove, as well.

Whitney Pryor: [00:28:53] Wow.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:28:54] That's so cool. I love that! Have y'all met more neighbors and people in the community. I know y'all are fairly new in.

Terris Carter: [00:29:02] Yeah, we've met a few people at the mailbox and walking.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:29:10] That's great.

Tasha Carter: [00:29:12] We've met maybe three or four of our neighbors.

Whitney Pryor: [00:29:17] It's a great little neighborhood for walking too.

Tasha Carter: [00:29:19] It is, and the dog trails.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:29:22] And shopping!

Tasha Carter: [00:29:24] Yes, shopping!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:29:24] There are so many things close by.

Tasha Carter: [00:29:26] Yes, we stay in Home Depot and Lowe's. That's our home now. I stay in target. I love the convenience of everything because it's five minutes away. It's right there. I can just go the back way out of the neighborhood and then come back in. The furthest I go is H-E-B now.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:29:47] Really?

Terris Carter: [00:29:48] Yeah, yeah.

Tasha Carter: [00:29:51] I go under 287 and that's the furthest I go!

Whitney Pryor: [00:29:52] I'm waiting for the grocery store on the North side, that would be nice. I live in Buffalo Ridge, so I'm not far from you guys.

Tasha Carter: [00:30:00] Oh, we looked over there too! That is where Trophy Homes are and Bloomfield.

Whitney Pryor: [00:30:02] Yes, I bought from Stuart over there.

Terris Carter: [00:30:07] It's a beautiful neighborhood.

Tasha Carter: [00:30:08] Yes, it's very nice.

Whitney Pryor: [00:30:08] But, I do want that grocery store.

Terris Carter: [00:30:09] Yeah, we said we love H-E-B, but we would like to have some other options, other than Target and Walmart.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:30:19] Yeah, I'm shocked there's not something on the North End yet. I mean, there's so much growth up there.

Tasha Carter: [00:30:24] It is. There are a lot of people moving this way.

Terris Carter: [00:30:26] I'm sure they're going to have to put something, with the amount of people that are moving.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:30:31] Yeah, yall should just have a North Grove grocery. It's like a little town in itself up there.

Tasha Carter: [00:30:37] Yeah, it is, but it's beautiful. Everybody's so friendly in the community. We love it.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:30:45] Next summer, you can enjoy the pool, since y'all came in in the Fall, right?

Tasha Carter: [00:30:49] Yeah, we didn't get a chance to so the pool yet.

Terris Carter: [00:30:51] We did get to watch the construction of the pool. While we were watching our house being built, we would sit at our house sometimes for an hour or two. We would just sit outside and just watch the guys laying the brick. We go a lot of videos and a lot of pictures. We would walk through it, come out, stand and just look at it.

Tasha Carter: [00:30:56] Dream!

Terris Carter: [00:31:22] What color do we want to do this wall and what do we put in this room? It was very, very exciting.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:31:27] With the Eisenhower, did yall do any of the structural upgrades? Did you get to pick any of that or everything was already set?

Terris Carter: [00:31:39] For the most part, everything was set. We did have an option of blinds or gutters. Of course, we chose the gutters

Chelsi Frazier: [00:31:47] Good choice!

Terris Carter: [00:31:48] At the time we put the contract on, a lot of the product had already been ordered. Jared explained that to us. He said, had we come in a little bit earlier, there may have been a few things that we could have done. With it being a spec home and at the time we put the contract on, we weren't able to do a lot of things. What we really enjoyed are the colors that were selected by the Design Team. They were gorgeous. We like the earth tones, so we like the browns, tans and those sort of colors. We were excited.

Tasha Carter: [00:32:33] He was glad that it wasn't pink.

Terris Carter: [00:32:35] Yeah, our rental home had pink bricks.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:32:40] He couldn't stand it! Oh, my husband is the same. He hated pink brick.

Whitney Pryor: [00:32:46] I guess that was the thing in the late 80's, early 90's.

Terris Carter: [00:32:50] I'm sure that was hot back in the 90's, but it's 2020.

Tasha Carter: [00:32:55] One of the houses on our street has pink brick. I say, "well, babe, that house has pink brick." He was like, "oh, I wonder how he feels?"

Terris Carter: [00:33:03] Yeah, but we were very excited about the stone because we do have the stone on the front, which with some builders, we know that that that's an upgrade. We were happy. It was very, very refreshing to know that a lot of the upgrades, what we would call upgrades, were already there with the Houston product.

Tasha Carter: [00:33:31] The arches that we have and the extended foyer.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:33:36] I think that's what a lot of people don't know. It's kind of like, "oh, I wish I could just tell more people this." What you're paying more for, in some cases, just comes standard with the home.

Tasha Carter: [00:33:47] Yeah.

Terris Carter: [00:33:47] Yea, just the small details, like the cabinets to the ceiling in the kitchen and the crown molding in the bedroom.

Whitney Pryor: [00:33:58] The larger baseboards.

Tasha Carter: [00:33:59] Yes and the stone on the fireplace.

Terris Carter: [00:34:03] The stone on the fireplace. Like Tasha said, the arches, we were able to to have the arches.

Tasha Carter: [00:34:11] We weren't supposed to. Jared said that was a mistake.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:34:13] Oh, really?

Tasha Carter: [00:34:15] We came in and said, "that's a mistake. They weren't supposed to do that."

Whitney Pryor: [00:34:17] But you liked it and your happy with it?

Tasha Carter: [00:34:20] Yes!

Terris Carter: [00:34:23] The extended foyer.

Tasha Carter: [00:34:24] The extended foyer. The his and hers closet.

Whitney Pryor: [00:34:25] Oh, you have a his and hers closet?

Terris Carter: [00:34:27] Yeah, we did.

Tasha Carter: [00:34:27] He uses his closet as the flight room.

Terris Carter: [00:34:29] That's my flight area.

Whitney Pryor: [00:34:34] That's your flight simulator room, very cool!

Terris Carter: [00:34:35] I have my little planes, my 747's, Airbus and Cessna model planes I have my nice little computer set up.

Tasha Carter: [00:34:42] All of his little models.

Whitney Pryor: [00:34:45] Your computer with your simulator?

Terris Carter: [00:34:47] Yeah, so it's fun.

Tasha Carter: [00:34:48] We had to have a study. We love the study.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:34:51] I was going to ask you about that bedroom or the study.

Terris Carter: [00:34:54] Yea, we got the study. With us both being teachers, it's already been very beneficial. You can go in there, work in private, do lesson plans or she can do you know her items for her after school program.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:35:10] You don't have to spread out on the island or the dining room table, you have that space.

Whitney Pryor: [00:35:15] You can shut the door while your son's beating on the drum.

Terris Carter: [00:35:18] Yes, Yes!

Tasha Carter: [00:35:19] He does, he beats on the drums.

Terris Carter: [00:35:22] His drums and he plays keyboard as well, so he's got a keyboard set up in his room.

Tasha Carter: [00:35:30] The musicians in my family. He plays the organ, as well.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:35:34] Oh cool! I just have no musical talent. I admire people who do because I just do not.

Tasha Carter: [00:35:44] I know because they use a part of their brain that is really difficult. He tries to teach me, but I can't do it. I tell him all the time I can't.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:35:51] It's like you have it or you don't.

Tasha Carter: [00:35:53] I don't have the patience either.

Terris Carter: [00:35:56] I tried to teach her 'Mary had a Little Lamb' and it didn't work.

Tasha Carter: [00:36:00] It didn't.

Terris Carter: [00:36:01] Okay, no problem.

Whitney Pryor: [00:36:02] Mary has no lamb.

Terris Carter: [00:36:03] Mary has no lamb!

Tasha Carter: [00:36:03] The lamb is gone!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:36:13] Well, you tried! I think you've shared so much, but if there's just one thing that somebody could take away or a couple of things from y'all's experience, is there anything you'd want to share with the listeners just kind of as like a parting nugget of wisdom?

Tasha Carter: [00:36:29] I would say, with pre-existing and buying that thing, just know what you're price range is and what your going to be able to afford. I just believe pre-existing or having a new construction home, there are benefits to both options. With pre-existing, like my husband was saying, you get it in faster. It's like 30 to 45 days and you're in, but with new construction, you have to wait longer, like 8 to 10 months. The benefit of it is, that it's brand new. You're the first one that's in it. That's what I take from it. I want to listeners to know that it's beneficial to have both options.

Terris Carter: [00:37:20] It just depends on what you want. Even though we wanted or should I say, I wanted pre-existing, new construction worked out better. I would even take it a step further because I wanted to talk a little bit about Brittany and her team.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:37:43] Oh yes, please.

Terris Carter: [00:37:45] There were more benefits on the financial side to purchasing new construction. Brittany was able to find different financing options for us that helped us towards closing. For instance, with us being teachers, we were able to qualify for the Heroes package. As teachers, we were able to get money towards closing and down payment. Of course, going through Trinity Oaks, that was a blessing because that was something that we weren't able to get on a pre-existing property. We weren't able to take advantage of some of those incentives that we would for new construction. To contrast, I could say that we saved money going with new construction. I'm thinking it was close to 5k to 6k

Chelsi Frazier: [00:38:44] Wow!

Tasha Carter: [00:38:47] The closing costs for the pre-existing, I think was it was about 6k more than what it was for new construction.

Terris Carter: [00:38:57] First of all, that had to do with Brittany, her genius team, Peyton and all of the wonderful people at Trinity Oaks who helped us get finance. They were able to find us the best rates.

Tasha Carter: [00:39:17] We have got to tell them about the rates. What happened with the rates?

Terris Carter: [00:39:20] Yes, okay, I'm getting there. The rates and just all of the things that we didn't think that we qualify for and we were like, "wow, okay!"

Chelsi Frazier: [00:39:33] Yea, because we don't know. That's know our realm.

Whitney Pryor: [00:39:33] Also, you wouldn't expect it in a seller's market, right, where you're having to put so much over the asking price, you're like, "man, there's no way they're going to cover closing costs for me." Then they do, we do.

Terris Carter: [00:39:50] Brittany shared with us, all of the different options. I was so consumed with the pre-existing. We were devastated and I wasn't sure what to think. When we came in and started working with Brittany, I was asking, "Brittany, we need this, do I need this?" She was like, "hold up, Mr. Carter, slow your roll, slow it down!" She had to check me. It was a good check. It wasn't a bad check. It was a good check. She ended up calling me after she sent the email. She said, "you know what, Mr. Carter, I understand because I'm the same way. I'm very, very particular about things and numbers. I get it."

Tasha Carter: [00:40:46] Especially after we lost it.

Terris Carter: [00:40:49] Yea, after we lost it, it's like being in a bad relationship, you know what I mean? Your guards up. Your like, "hey, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. What's this? What's this?" She assured us that everything was fine, which it was. One of the kickers is that when we first signed the contract, we decided that we didn't want to use our previous team, that we were just going to go with Jared. We were quoted a different interest rate with the previous lender. When we came over to Trinity Oaks, it dropped. We were like, "okay, this is looking good. This can be really good." I want to say maybe two weeks before we closed, I got a call from Brittany on a Friday. She said, "Mr. Carter, I couldn't even email this to you. I had to call you on this one. Your interest rate just dropped a point."

Whitney Pryor: [00:41:54] What?!

Chelsi Frazier: [00:41:54] A whole point?

Tasha Carter: [00:41:54] One whole point.

Terris Carter: [00:41:54] I'm like, " a whole point or a .001?" She said, "no, from three down to two."

Whitney Pryor: [00:42:05] Oh my gosh!

Terris Carter: [00:42:05] I was like, "you can't be serious. Are you serious, Brittany?" She said, "I am serious. I'm going to send the paper work over right now. I need you to sign it right now." Wow. I was like, "yes!" Again, with pre-existing and new construction, these are things that we weren't able to do. You kind of locked in with the pre-existing. This is what it is, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, sign on the dotted line. We were very, very happy with the work that Brittany, Peyton and her team did to get us the financing that we need because I was very reluctant again. First of all, with the homes, but of course, changing companies. We had already given the other company all of our personal information, pay stubs and bank statements, all of these documents.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:42:57] It's a lot of work, too.

Whitney Pryor: [00:42:59] You already gave them your first born, now you having to give the second one.

Terris Carter: [00:43:02] I have to give big props to Trinity Oaks. They really did a great job with getting us financed. The process, the closing process, everything was smooth. Excel title company, everything was great. It was great.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:43:23] That's awesome.

Whitney Pryor: [00:43:24] There's definitely benefits of using all of the companies in one because it makes it so much smoother. We really communicate internally. That way, it's just easier for you guys to just get closed on the home and move in.

Tasha Carter: [00:43:37] Yes.

Terris Carter: [00:43:38] Definitely

Chelsi Frazier: [00:43:38] At that point, really, you didn't deserve anything else but the best from everybody. I mean, you've already been through so much. I was time for everything to line up for the Carters.

Tasha Carter: [00:43:51] This year has turned into complete joy. I'm happy about that.

Terris Carter: [00:43:55] We went through a moment where it was really low. It was really low. This being her first home, she was really down. I told her, "sweetie, we can't allow this situation to stop us. This has to make us, build us and make us stronger. We got to keep going. We can't stop."

Tasha Carter:[00:44:18] I didn't want to. I said, "I want that house" He was like, "I want that house." That house was all I saw. Especially when you go down and you see it, as much as we did, because you have to go inspect and the survey. You see it and you fall in love with it so much. It's just devastating when you don't get it, especially when your life has to be turned upside down. He's so strong and he's used to because he's my backbone. He's use to willing me when I'm so down. It's hard for me to just to bounce back.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:45:03] Right, that's how I am, too. I need a minute to grieve and wallow in my sorrow.

Tasha Carter: [00:45:10] Yeah, just for a second. I'm going to get there, but right now, I'm so hurt. That's all you see, is the hurt. You don't see past the hurt, but now there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it was a blessing at the end. I thank God for that.

Whitney Pryor: [00:45:27] Now, you're in a brand new home.

Tasha Carter: [00:45:28] Brand new!

Whitney Pryor: [00:45:29] It feels so good, no issues and no problems. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:45:35] We're so glad yall came back to Jared, John Houston Homes and Trinity Oaks Mortgage. We're very thankful that came full circle. Thank you for sharing your story, what a beautiful story!

Tasha Carter: [00:45:47] Be looking for us again in the future.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:45:49] Yes, yeah, absolutely!

Terris Carter: [00:45:51] If I could add one more thing, I would just like to say that we're very grateful and thankful for Jared Denton. Listeners out there, Jared Guy Denton is your guy.

Tasha Carter: [00:46:06] Brittany, she's your girl!

Terris Carter: [00:46:08] She's your girl. They are the dream team. We call them the dream team. We are very, very happy with the work that they did for us in getting us in our home. They did an amazing job. I told Jared, "Jared, you should be making millions, dude, millions, man!" He's top notch.

Tasha Carter: [00:46:30] He's was a great communicator.

Terris Carter: [00:46:31] A great communicator. What we found amazing about Jared is during the process, I know he had a lot of different things going on in his personal life. He bought a new home, his wife had a baby and I believe he was sick at one point. Even through all of those different obstacles or those things that happen, he still managed to communicate with us every single week. We got a text message. It would usually either be on a Sunday or Saturday. We would get a text message from Jared explaining to us where we were in the process. "Hey, they're going to lay brick this week. They're going to come do flooring this week. Drywall is going up, sheet rocks going up and the electrician will be out. He kept us up to date on everything. We were like, "wow, didn't he just have a baby? Didn't they just move? Wasn't he in the hospital?"

Tasha Carter: [00:46:31] Every week, he was still responding.

Terris Carter: [00:47:44] We realized, especially us being teachers, that is to me above and beyond. We're customer service oriented because we're in the business of education. Educating children and, of course, parents. With us being the clients, he's in the business of home ownership. For Him to have the level of commitment and dedication that he had for us, and that he has for his clients, was just amazing. We were blown away. We couldn't believe it, so big props to you Jared.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:48:25] Yes, Jared!

Whitney Pryor: [00:48:26] Shout out to Jared!

Tasha Carter: [00:48:27] Everything that he said actually happened at the time it was suppose to happen. It was great. Mm hmm, beautiful home and beautiful builder.

Chelsi Frazier: [00:48:37] Thank you. Thank you all very much and thank you for being out there on the front lines with the kids too. That's a huge calling and we appreciate it.

Tasha Carter: [00:48:48] Thank you guys for having us.

Terris Carter: [00:48:50] Thank you for having us.

Whitney Pryor: [00:48:51] Thanks so much for joining us today and thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Welcome Home podcast. We would love to hear from you with any questions or comments or hear your story. Feel free to give us a call at 866.237.7803 or email us at info@jhoustonhomes.com Again, you can visit our website at jhoustonhomes.com

Chelsi Frazier and Whitney Pryor: [00:49:17] Welcome Home!