I have been house hunting for years now. Any time Paul mentioned a potential job location I would hop on the internets and start my search. Now we're in here, in Michigan, doing the real thing. Looking at every house available and picking up and driving 20+ minutes, one way, to look at a house.
It is not fun.
If I didn't have children, it would be a completely different story. But I do have kids. Two of them. And working around naps, meal times and the terrible twos has been a headache. In the process of house hunting we have missed out on three serious potential homes. Two were sold in under 12 hours. The third home was taken from us by someone who put in a cash offer. Who even has that much cash??
I was becoming desperate. Our realtor wasn't aggressive enough and I felt myself going through quite the emotional ride as I saw the perfect homes slip through my fingers. As tough as it was, we did what was best for us and dropped our realtor. Can I just tell you how difficult that was? She was extremely nice but we needed more than a great personality. We were connected with Cindy Witke-- our answer to prayers!
Within 24 hours she had a huge list of potential homes for me to pick from. I was still discouraged as I looked through the list because many of them weren't the right fit. Then, I saw it. At 2-story house with an unfinished basement and a quarter acre lot. It had only been listed for a few hours. Cindy scheduled our showing and we had an offer in that very night.
We offered 15k OVER asking price. The market is insane in Grand Rapids. We're thankful we went so high because the next highest offer was 13k over asking price. Obviously the home is worth what we asked because we weren't the only ones bidding in that range.
The home was off the market in under 24 hours, and they accepted our offer!! We had an inspection that night and felt comfortable with the minimal findings.
So let me recap. We found the house online, toured it, made an offer, had the offer accepted and performed the inspection in under 48 hours. You guys, I am exhausted! The whirlwind isn't stopping though. The loan officer was shocked by how quickly she verified our finances and said we could close in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS. If the sellers agree we can close on April 6.
Although we're practically homeowners, I won't feel it's settled until the keys are in my hand after closing. At that point, I will show you pictures of the biggest piece of debt I've ever 20% owned. I'm sure you'll also be updated with the many renovations/updates we'll being doing.
Come on, home ownership. I'm ready for you!
YAY!!! can't wait to see some pics!!!
ReplyDeleteYahoo!!!! So exciting! And totally stressful. But totally worth it. Yay!!!
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