Sorry I've been MIA for 2+ weeks. Phew...it's been a doozy of 2 weeks. I'm exhausted from everything we've had going on. I will re-cap most of the activities in another post, but for now I am long overdue on a house update.
We're buying a house!
I haven't had the chance to update y'all because we've had an insane travel schedule (more on that in another post), but basically things are working out with the house I had previously mentioned (house #2). Out of the 10 offers they had, ours got accepted!
I think I mentioned some of the basics in a previous post about how it wasn't what we were thinking of as our dream home, but it was in an area we've had our eye on and just had to walk through it. Our agent actually wasn't available, so we ended up walking through with one of her teammates. I just had a sense that we needed to rush to get inside the home, and by the time we did, they had multiple offers on it already. We pretty much had to make a quick decision (again) about putting an offer on, but this time the asking price was much lower than house #1 and I felt much better about putting an offer out there and seeing what happened. Our agent told the sellers our story and they accepted our offer! They had higher offers from investors, but were extremely adamant about selling their home to a family. I have to respect that a lot. And it makes me feel good about the neighborhood as well given that they didn't want their home to turn into a rental property from the investors. The sellers had lots of documents for us to look at and tons of information about the house. After our walk through and not spotting a speck of dirt, we felt good about the sellers for being so meticulous with their upkeep of the home.
But I kept thinking about how this was not the ideal time for me/us to buy a house. I spent days talking about how I didn't want to buy a house now given DH's travel schedule, our family travel, etc. not to mention it's the hottest time of the year here in July and August. Who in their right mind would choose to move? Apparently, that's us.
But throughout the whole process we've had peace- peace that whatever was supposed to happen would. From the time we put an offer on to waiting to hear back and then jumping through all the hoops of home buying, we have felt an overwhelming sense of peace. It's been so completely different than with the 1st contract we had on a house. I've been much more relaxed and calm. No freakouts over the purchase of a home this time. Seriously, what an amazing gift. Perhaps because I've had too much on my mind with all the travel to really have the energy to get worked up.
Or perhaps because we did learn a lot going through the 1st contract and walking away from that home; we've been more relaxed this 2nd time around. It was hard to walk away from the 1st house we fell in love with, but having gone through that process, we now have a better appreciation for all the great care taken in this 2nd home. Yes, it stunk to lose money with the 1st house and I hated getting my hopes up only to have them dashed away by disappointment, but we learned so much through that experience. We both agree that it was good for us to go through (sort of like our thoughts on IF as well...painfully brutal to have gone through, but it shaped who we are today and for that, the process was worthwhile. That is definitely a reflection for another post as well).
Anyways, while I spent the first days of June thinking about all the reasons why I didn't want to buy a home right then, God was clearly reminding me that this process is not about me, my wants, or my desires. It's all about Him. And once I realized that, it's like I let out a huge sigh of relief and sat back to enjoy (most of) the ride of home buying.
We went through the home again with our agent and she loved it. It felt bigger than we remembered from our initial walk through, which was a pleasant surprise to DH and I. We negotiated terms of the contract with the sellers (they had lots of "Wants" on their list that we needed to comply with). We put down more earnest money for them, we let them have a flexible closing date, we let them have possession of the home 4 days after closing, etc.
Then the house inspection went amazingly well. The inspector commented on how the home was an anomaly to him because he just doesn't see homes in that good of condition (regardless of its age). Everything that came up in the inspection was minor, and yet we still asked them to take care of a few things (service the furnaces and a/c units, fix some electrical outlets, clean up bat waste in the attic, repair a leak, and repair a few things on the roof/chimney) and they agreed to all the repairs!!
We got all the loan documents together and signed the day before DH had to leave for 3 weeks away! Talk about God's perfect timing, huh? The one week he was home, I was able to run around gathering all the docs they needed as well as getting him to sign everything. Phew...that was a crazy week along with packing for his trip and ours.
We negotiated the appraisal (it came in slightly under the contract price) and our mortgage has been approved. The only thing we are waiting on is a closing date! Simply amazing. It's still hard to believe we are buying a home. There's something so much more permanent about buying a home than just renting. We really are becoming long term residents here (not that we wouldn't or couldn't staying in our rental home. It just seems more permanent when you buy your own home).
We don't know if we will be here 5, 10, 15, or more years, which was the hard part about buying a home. I still think we'll want/need to get better organized with our things to maximize space in the new home. And we still have some items to sort through that we just ran out of time doing before the cross-country move. Our home is "cute" and will become "cozy" unlike the 1st home which was "stunning" and felt "massive." And DH and I are ok with cute and cozy. It means our family will have to spend time together in the living spaces (and hopefully the kid/kids will want to). People won't be able to retreat away and "get lost" in the house. And it'll probably mean we think twice before we make purchases, so that we aren't buying unnecessary items that'll just take up space. We are so comfortable with our budget for the new home and will still be able to save aggressively for retirement, tithe, and travel. Those are all important to us.
I still don't understand the timing of this all as I would have preferred to wait until the fall, and yet I believe God is doing "something more" here that I can just begin to see. He's reminded me (again) that I'm not in control, and trusting Him is the best place to be.
We're buying a house!
I haven't had the chance to update y'all because we've had an insane travel schedule (more on that in another post), but basically things are working out with the house I had previously mentioned (house #2). Out of the 10 offers they had, ours got accepted!
I think I mentioned some of the basics in a previous post about how it wasn't what we were thinking of as our dream home, but it was in an area we've had our eye on and just had to walk through it. Our agent actually wasn't available, so we ended up walking through with one of her teammates. I just had a sense that we needed to rush to get inside the home, and by the time we did, they had multiple offers on it already. We pretty much had to make a quick decision (again) about putting an offer on, but this time the asking price was much lower than house #1 and I felt much better about putting an offer out there and seeing what happened. Our agent told the sellers our story and they accepted our offer! They had higher offers from investors, but were extremely adamant about selling their home to a family. I have to respect that a lot. And it makes me feel good about the neighborhood as well given that they didn't want their home to turn into a rental property from the investors. The sellers had lots of documents for us to look at and tons of information about the house. After our walk through and not spotting a speck of dirt, we felt good about the sellers for being so meticulous with their upkeep of the home.
But I kept thinking about how this was not the ideal time for me/us to buy a house. I spent days talking about how I didn't want to buy a house now given DH's travel schedule, our family travel, etc. not to mention it's the hottest time of the year here in July and August. Who in their right mind would choose to move? Apparently, that's us.
But throughout the whole process we've had peace- peace that whatever was supposed to happen would. From the time we put an offer on to waiting to hear back and then jumping through all the hoops of home buying, we have felt an overwhelming sense of peace. It's been so completely different than with the 1st contract we had on a house. I've been much more relaxed and calm. No freakouts over the purchase of a home this time. Seriously, what an amazing gift. Perhaps because I've had too much on my mind with all the travel to really have the energy to get worked up.
Or perhaps because we did learn a lot going through the 1st contract and walking away from that home; we've been more relaxed this 2nd time around. It was hard to walk away from the 1st house we fell in love with, but having gone through that process, we now have a better appreciation for all the great care taken in this 2nd home. Yes, it stunk to lose money with the 1st house and I hated getting my hopes up only to have them dashed away by disappointment, but we learned so much through that experience. We both agree that it was good for us to go through (sort of like our thoughts on IF as well...painfully brutal to have gone through, but it shaped who we are today and for that, the process was worthwhile. That is definitely a reflection for another post as well).
Anyways, while I spent the first days of June thinking about all the reasons why I didn't want to buy a home right then, God was clearly reminding me that this process is not about me, my wants, or my desires. It's all about Him. And once I realized that, it's like I let out a huge sigh of relief and sat back to enjoy (most of) the ride of home buying.
We went through the home again with our agent and she loved it. It felt bigger than we remembered from our initial walk through, which was a pleasant surprise to DH and I. We negotiated terms of the contract with the sellers (they had lots of "Wants" on their list that we needed to comply with). We put down more earnest money for them, we let them have a flexible closing date, we let them have possession of the home 4 days after closing, etc.
Then the house inspection went amazingly well. The inspector commented on how the home was an anomaly to him because he just doesn't see homes in that good of condition (regardless of its age). Everything that came up in the inspection was minor, and yet we still asked them to take care of a few things (service the furnaces and a/c units, fix some electrical outlets, clean up bat waste in the attic, repair a leak, and repair a few things on the roof/chimney) and they agreed to all the repairs!!
We got all the loan documents together and signed the day before DH had to leave for 3 weeks away! Talk about God's perfect timing, huh? The one week he was home, I was able to run around gathering all the docs they needed as well as getting him to sign everything. Phew...that was a crazy week along with packing for his trip and ours.
We negotiated the appraisal (it came in slightly under the contract price) and our mortgage has been approved. The only thing we are waiting on is a closing date! Simply amazing. It's still hard to believe we are buying a home. There's something so much more permanent about buying a home than just renting. We really are becoming long term residents here (not that we wouldn't or couldn't staying in our rental home. It just seems more permanent when you buy your own home).
We don't know if we will be here 5, 10, 15, or more years, which was the hard part about buying a home. I still think we'll want/need to get better organized with our things to maximize space in the new home. And we still have some items to sort through that we just ran out of time doing before the cross-country move. Our home is "cute" and will become "cozy" unlike the 1st home which was "stunning" and felt "massive." And DH and I are ok with cute and cozy. It means our family will have to spend time together in the living spaces (and hopefully the kid/kids will want to). People won't be able to retreat away and "get lost" in the house. And it'll probably mean we think twice before we make purchases, so that we aren't buying unnecessary items that'll just take up space. We are so comfortable with our budget for the new home and will still be able to save aggressively for retirement, tithe, and travel. Those are all important to us.
I still don't understand the timing of this all as I would have preferred to wait until the fall, and yet I believe God is doing "something more" here that I can just begin to see. He's reminded me (again) that I'm not in control, and trusting Him is the best place to be.
