I love receiving good customer service and I have to admit the service and attention I’ve received from my builder since buying the house (and even before; I sort of haunted the place during my decision-making) has been superb. Even though I’m sure they are heavily motivated to be endearing because they want to take the #1 place on the JD Power and Associates list of the best builders away from last year’s winners, I like it.

So what has my builder been doing to woo me? Well first they put my name in print (click to make bigger).

About a month ago, I was looking through the homes section of the weekend newspaper and I came to the ad page for my builder. They took out a full page ad to thank all the people who bought from them in 2008. Ever the narcissist, I searched for my name. When I didn’t see it immediately, I called in reinforcements: my mom and sister. Before long my sister spotted my name (it was first names only) in the third column. And then we whooped it up because we are mature like that (yes, including my mom). I then took the paper downstairs to my brothers and pointed out my name to them (in case they were unfamiliar with it) and whooped again. Repeatedly. I repeated this when my father returned home from his outing.

So yeah, thanks builder! You know how to make a girl feel special.

Secondly, I received a letter in the mail today, telling me the dates that had been booked arbitrarily for my inspections! I have two inspections before I get the keys: one in a month, and one the week before I get the keys! I cannot believe in a short month I will be (legally) walking through the place! So giddy! My camera will be along for the tour! My sister came across an article that said it’s a good idea to get an inspector to look through the house, even though it’s a new house, because mistakes can be made, so I’ll need to find one who will work to the tune of $0…either that or save up daily lunch money for it. But it’s so exciting! And of course this letter is totally standard and they just filled in the blanks with the information related to me but still! It builds excitement!

And finally, earlier this evening, I received a call from the lady who I dealt with through the purchase process. She was calling to see if I had any questions since this is around the time people start having questions, apparently. She reminded me of some things I needed to get sorted out (contents insurance, for example), and encouraged me to call her if I had any questions. I know it’s yet another part of their protocol, just one of those things they (have to) do, but I liked it! It almost makes up for the fact that if I had bought the place soon after showing it to my parents, instead of delaying the purchase needlessly, I would have saved enough to buy most of a decent car.

Other updates:
This fabulous book is getting me excited about the interior of the house:

I’ve flipped through the entire thing and feel way more informed. I’ll be going through it in more detail and keeping a number of things in mind as I plan the placement of my furniture, and perhaps the purchase of a few items.

I’m also working hard on locking down a mortgage rate: a well-timed email this evening resulted in me contacting four people (in addition to the one person from yesterday) that I already had on my shortlist and leaving messages with them. I may get this matter sorted out by the end of the week!

That’s it! I still need to talk about all the “small” things I need, and how many banks I’ll have to rob to get them.

Filed under: Operation Home for Jummy by jummy