We found this house back in February, were the first on-lookers, and put an offer in the same day. That was a bit hard for me because I didn't have enough time to envision myself living in it. But 1) it was way too good of a deal to NOT put in an offer, 2) there were 4 other perspective buyers coming to look at it the next day, 3) we loved the neighborhood and had been wanting a house desperately there (believe me we did our research on a good resale value market, this was one of the good ones), and 4) I fell in love with two other houses only to have them get swept away from me. So I put it upon myself to not make the same mistake with this one... Catch 22 right there. On one hand, fall in love with it to not have it turn into a reality, or not fall in love with it at all and possibly hate it for all eternity... (or at least until we resell it).
I forgot to mention that it was a short sale... This explains the great deal on it. Piece of advice, if the house is right, short sales are the way to go! Instant equity, which can't be beat (and is hard to find) in this economy. BUT, make sure you have about 6 months to spare before you need to move. We figured since we started in September that would've given us plenty of time to find a house (and not necessarily a short sale) and move in before Jeremiah came and our lease was up. Like I said, we put three other offers down... So technically, it would've been fine. Well, little did we know that the house we found turned out to be in the beginning stages of a short sale... Wah-wah... Needless to say, it didn't go through in time. Am I upset about this? Maybe a little... Do I care anymore? mmm... Not so much. We got a great deal. Frugality is becoming my middle name. Pretty right?
We had THE WORST luck with having a house go through. We had so many weird situations thrown our way, I could probably right a book about it. I gained way more knowledge in real estate than I ever initially wanted. We got really good at looking at houses though. I think we looked at a grand total of around 40. Give or take a few. It was ridiculous. I was cautious in telling people in fear that if I did, God would shut the door. The crazy thing about it was the houses that weren't for us, He allowed the door to be close almost immediately. We were able to move forward, quickly, to the next house.
This last one though was taking forever. It was such a test of faith. From the beginning we prayed that if it wasn't the house that he would promptly end the process, like he did the others. Since the doors weren't closing we figured that was a good sign, but the deadline was coming up on the lease renewal and Jeremiah being born. Um, yes. One might say it was stressful. But we continued to pray and believe that he would show us if it wasn't the house.
Then the sellers bank threw us a curveball. They asked us for $5,000-$8,000 extra to pitch in toward the second mortgage that had been taken out on the house. OK, who has that much extra money in their bank account that would be WILLING to pay up front for some of this guys bad decisions?? Mmm.. No thanks. So we thought we were kissing the house good-bye. I kept saying to Jason that if this house didn't go through, dealing with ANOTHER ridiculous situation, that God was telling us that we shouldn't buy a house right now... So I stopped looking at Pinterest. It was too depressing.
Around the beginning of June I got the most wonderful phone call. Our offer had been accepted by the bank! From February 10th (my birthday, when the seller himself accepted our offer) to June we had to bite our fingernails and patiently wait. What a good Abba Daddy we have! He even gives us birthday presents! He gave me my birthday wish this year; to get a house. ON my birthday! I just had to wait to unwrap it. And people say God doesn't have a sense of humor...
I won't go through all of the other painful things we went though because basically, I want to forget them. All that matters is my prayers were answered, just not in my time. Obviously there was a reason for that and for everything we had to go through. I am so excited to start out on this new path in our journey. I couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else besides Jason. I'm so thankful he is wanting to be involved and not making me have the strenuous job of deciding paint colors.. ugh... I've been glued to Pinterest and Houzz to get ideas for my new canvas :).
