The Journey of Buying a House
Wow, I know right... We have grown up and bought our first house. I did not really talk much about the home buying experience on our blog, for fear everything would not work out. However, I kind of wish I would have documented all the emotions. But, I remember most of them quite well.
Let me take you on this journey.... Our lease for our apartment was up in July, therefore, we wanted to look around and see what our options were. We had already spent a lot of money in rent. I do not regret living in the apartment at all. It was the best decision for us when we got married, but we were a little eager to see if buying a house would be possible. The first few months of the year flew by, and we didn't do much. May got here, and I knew we needed to get moving if we were going to buy a house before our lease was up. I had been talking to a Realtor through e-mail, and had got in touch with a mortgage officer at a bank that I actually knew. Patrick and I had ridden around a lot looking at houses, and had browsed online. We sent a list to the Realtor and along with his suggestions one Monday evening we started looking at houses. We probably looked at 8 to 9 houses. It was very overwhelming, but luckily Patrick and I have similar taste. It was pretty easy to decide which ones had potential and which ones did not. At the end of the night... with a late night walk around the track, a few tears (it was overwhelming), and a lot of prayer we knew it was between two houses. Can you say moving fast!?!?!
The next day, we decided we wanted to see both houses again. Patrick was in love with house A, and where I loved house A, I was really leaning towards house B. We went to house A first, and could really see ourselves living in it. We played pretend for awhile, looked around, talked about everything, and at the end Patrick was pretty sold on it. I liked it too... I could have been happy there. However, I begged him to have an open mind going into House B. We eventually reached House B, and we walked in, it was like we both had a peace. It really did feel like home. After a little looking around and comparing the two houses, we know that we wanted House B to be our home. It had almost everything we wanted. The design work was spectacular, and it really felt like a home. House A would have been great, and it did have a 4th bedroom, but it would have needed some painting. And when buying a new house who wants to do any painting right away?
We thought the hard part was over. Then came the words, "If you want this house we need to put an offer in tomorrow." WHAT!?! Tomorrow.... It was like my head was spinning. I needed time to process, but there wasn't much time. We had no idea who else might be looking at the these, and if we wanted to make an offer we did not need to waste much time. Boy, was I a little nervous.
Side note: Patrick and I were doing this on our own. We had talked to our parents, but neither set had seen any of the houses, met the Realtor, NOTHING... We grew up a lot in that week. Patrick and I were proud to be walking this journey together, but I have to say it made me a little nervous knowing we were making all these decisions without any other opinion. However, at the end of the day, it was ours to make. I can say, we made it through, and I think we did a pretty good job.
Back to the story, nn Wednesday morning we ran the numbers with the loan officer, and by Wednesday afternoon we were sitting in the Realtor's office getting ready to make our first offer. My heart was beating out of my chest, and I was very anxious. Patrick being Patrick was calm and cool, and just wanted the house to be ours. We talked things over, and shot for the moon in our first offer. We knew it was low, but it was worth a shot. We put the offer in and gave them to 3:00 (I think) to respond. The afternoon was long, just waiting for a phone call. Finally, Patrick called me and said they made a counteroffer and it was advised that we take the offer if we want the house. Well, I wanted to counter again... just sure we could get them lower. But, after some advisement we realized it was a great offer. We got them below the asking price that had already been reduced, we got them to build a fence and deck, and put in a refrigerator. Wow, we had done it!!!! The contract was in on our first house! We went to bed smiling that night, with our fingers crossed that everything would fall into place.
To be continued....
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