7.23.2024
We bought a House!
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| "the american way" by roger wilkerson |
hello hello!
thing’s have been wild around here and I’ve been a little MIA on most socials because exciting things have been happening for us — we’ve bought a house! We’re first time home owners and the entire process has been tedious and exhausting. It’s finally over, so I’d thought I’d do a blog post to talk about the journey and then take a few weeks off from posting because I need to settle in, move all my things and take a vacation.
The house we just purchased wasn’t the first house we put an offer on. We ended up seeing over 50 homes and putting offers on three, so it’s been a whirlwind.
THE JOURNEY
House #1
It was my dream house — with the exception of being on the smaller side. It was a white house, black shutters and half an acre. The backyard was stunning, the perfect place to host events with two majestic trees, a play structure for the boys, a barn (that I was already imagining renovating in to a homeschool space), and plenty of room for chickens to run around. It had a spacious fenced front yard, and I was in love with the property just from looking at the Zillow pictures. The only kicker was that it was only 2,000 sq ft and we were looking for a home slightly larger.
We went to an open house and then called our agent the next day to see it one more time before we put an offer. The home was listed for $500,000 and we offered $450,000. We were the first offer and the sellers said they wanted to counter offer…. Then, they went silent. When we reached out again, the seller’s agent said that the sellers have “three threatening” offers and that they wanted to see if someone would go closer to their asking price.
We upped our offer to 470 and said that it was our final offer. Sellers responded back the following day saying it’s still not enough. So, with heartbreak we started looking again, keeping an eye on the property, hoping that in a months time, they’d drop the price and we’d swoop in again.
Unfortunately, the property got an offer and sold, leaving my husband and I with regrets.
House #2
After the loss of the “dream” house, we went back to looking. I found a cute home on zillow with .8 of an acre and showed it to my husband. It was a tinier home at only 1500 sq ft, but the backyard was so enticing — it had a play structure and a fire pit, lots of rose bushes and huge tree in the middle providing ample shade from the hot Idaho sun. I was excited to see it until I opted to look at google earth and browse around the street view option.
I noticed that it was a corner lot off of a busy street, strike one. It had a pole right in front of the house, bordering the driveway, strike two. There was a telephone pole on the right side of the property, with the supporting cables anchored in the front lawn, strike three.
I told my husband I no longer wanted to see it and voiced my concerns, but he insisted that he wanted to see it. So, we took a visit with our agent and my husband fell hard for the backyard. He kept saying it was the yard of his dreams and that we could in time, extend the home / remodel it.
I wasn’t convinced. I walked around the house, and it felt small — too small for our family of five and the possibility of having guests over felt impossible, strike four. I hated the telephone poles even more when I saw them in person, but what was the kicker was this home had a septic tank, strike five. I really wasn’t a fan of the property, but my husband was all in and declared we were going to make an offer because he couldn’t pass up such a nice yard.
The house was listed at $437,000 and we had offered $430,000. The seller’s agent called us that day saying that we were the first offer, but someone came in and offered them asking price. They then proceeded to tell us that the seller wants to make a choice that evening, so if we wanted to up the offer, now was the time.
So, my husband, not wanting to lose his dream backyard, offered 442,000. Our agent called us saying our offer was accepted and I wanted to cry.. let’s just say they wouldn’t have been happy tears. LOL
Since our offer had been accepted, I started to try and talk myself up to start feeling content about our new home. The house was built in 1970 with nothing updated, so I started to focus on how I’d make it a home and started selling some of our things on marketplace because I knew that fitting all our stuff into this home wasn’t going to happen. I started looking at triple bunk beds for the boys and ways to utilize space.
Until an 80 page inspection report hit our inbox — my heart sank with each page. I started to feel sick. We had sent the report to my father, who lives in Portland, and he got in his car to come see the house before we sign off on the report. Within 6 hours, he was here and becoming the voice of reason.
Everything I had brought up, my dad echoed and emphasized that extending and remodeling a home in this bad of condition would be a money drain and it would never be profitable for us if we ever wanted to move. He talked the size of the home already being tight and if we had more kids, it would be hard to sell because it’s a corner lot, and about all the possible surprises we might find as a remodel progresses and woke my husband up. We retracted that evening at 10 pm and I was so relieved. The seller’s agent said fine and asked if they could see the inspection report as a courtesy. We said yes, because we were happy to be out of what would have been a horrible situation.
But it wasn’t over, the seller’s agent called the next day said that we had missed the mark for backing out, and that they wanted to keep the escrow money because the other interested party had already bought a house. Even though we had backed out 12 hours within receiving the report, but there had been a mix up with the company and they had initially sent the report to a wrong email.
We insisted that it wasn’t our fault, but to retract our resignation and proceed with the septic tank inspection that needed to be done because that was the next step and it was one that the seller had initially agreed to pay for. Our plan was to object to the size and age of the tank and back out again. But the seller’s agent came back with the seller’s signature on our initial back out request.
THANK GOD that this whole ordeal was over. It was so stressful and I am so glad that we opted out. Also, major shout out to my father, who came across state lines, the day of, to talk us out of what would have been the worst investment of our lives.
House #3
after that whole ordeal, we started looking again and saw over 20 houses. Everything was either in terrible shape, old or had a sliver of a backyard. We started to lose hope and started talking about renewing our rental lease for another year and decided to visit open houses instead of dragging our agent everywhere.
I found a home that was having an open house. It had a smaller backyard than what we would have liked, but the appealing factor was that it was a bit bigger than our current rental. This home was 2800 sq ft and had remodeled bathrooms and kitchen, had 5 bedrooms, two living spaces, a loft and three car garage, in addition to, also updating the all the flooring and the heating + cooling units. It was listed for $464,000 and I really liked it.
On the same day, we saw another house, 700 sq smaller than this one, with several upgrades needed, but with a larger yard. We were impressed with it, until we learned there was a city easement on the property that would fill in case of too much rain. They had just lowered the price of this home to $499,000 from $550,000. Our agent said they probably wouldn’t want to drop the price any more since that was already a huge cut.
My husband drove back to look the first house we saw and decided to offer them full price and ask them to cover closing costs. The seller’s agent got back to us and they had accepted our offer. We got an inspection report that told us the house was in great condition with a few minor / cosmetic fixes and we were over joyed.
Now, we’re here and are home owners! It’s been a four month journey and I am so excited for the house hunt chapter to finally close. I can’t wait to share how I’m styling it via the blog, but I want to take the next few weeks to fully focus on moving and settling in. We’re also going to be visiting family next month, so it’s the perfect time to take a much needed break, and come back to getting the boys ready for the school year.
so, that’s a wrap for now — see you guys in September! xoxo.
