After a long and winding path, we walked away from the house...

we wanted to buy. Approved at $695/mo with PITI. Great deal on a great property. But we got the elavation certificate in.

We knew we were in a flood zone & I wrote into the contract that we would get a Letter Of Map Amendment, or LOMA so we could avoid flood insurance altogether. We were thinking even if we were, $400-500/year in a flood policy wasn't all that bad.

The certificate came back, & it looks like a colossal screw up on the part of the builder or engineer. I'm more inclined to say the Engineer in this case. Won't name names though. But the Engineer marks the property initially for the builder, and they do dirtwork to put the slab at an elavation necessary to either get a LOMA or pay discounted flood policies.

The slab was measured to be at base flood elavation. Not above, but at. Which means my flood insurance policy skyrocketed. Got quoted almost $1400/year for premiums.

I have a connection w/flood insurance & I know that the feds are about to stop subsidizing flood policies in two years, at which time its expected flood insurance policy premiums are going to jump on average 25%. Meaning I'd be paying almost $2,000/year on top of my PITI.

The increased cost of home ownership at that point is just not outweighed by the price, location & quality of home we're buying. That's saying something because we are extremely happy with all three of the latter aspects.

Would've essentially increased our payments $144/month. So we walked. Ideally we'd like to build the exact same house-with just a bit more dirt underneath it-nearby, & the builder has a few other lots in the area I believe.

The question now becomes whether the builder knew early on that he had an issue and put the home on the market at that lower price point to make it more attractive, and whether he can afford to sell another one at that same price or whether he ups the price on us.

Sucks because we went through some serious hassles getting Rural Development Approved with Debt-to-Income ratios, etc. Right after I called the realtor my broker called to let me know we were approved. He put in a ton of work and I was regretful in having to tell him we were gonna walk away.

But ultimately we feel good. Just back to the drawing board now.

Anyone else balked and walked away like this before?