It’s been a week since I last posted and I missed y’all! Life has been so busy and moving so fast that I haven’t had much time to just sit, relax, and write. I have a little bit of time today, so I want to share a little update about what has been going on with us.
As you know, one of my goals this year is to buy a house. Buying a house is a very daunting task, because there are so many pieces that can seem very confusing and complicated for people who have never gone through this process before. Over the past few months, Jeremiah and I have taken baby steps to accomplishing this goal: finding a realtor, learning about the process, finding a lender, getting pre-approved, and starting the house hunt.
House hunting seemed like the most fun part of the house buying process, but I actually found it to be the most frustrating so far. I would scour the realtor website for houses that interested us, find some really great prospects, and email our realtor about scheduling a tour only to find out that half of them are already under contract. We spent a few long days touring the homes that were available and we thought had promise only to find out the real thing was nothing like what was advertised.
This past Tuesday we had a house tour day set up with our realtor. We were going to visit six houses in our metroplex and I was excited and hopeful about the first two. Well my hopes plummeted when the first house we visited turned out to be under contract for three days and the status was never changed on the realtor website. When the day starts like that, you automatically assume it is going to be a long one. But the second house we visited was just perfect… and I mean perfect! I fell in love from just seeing the front, but then kept falling as we walked through. Honestly, I was sold, but we figured we would look at the rest of the houses because we already had tours scheduled. We visited the next house on the list and I was already comparing it to the other house and knew none of the rest were going to compare, so Jeremiah and I decided to buckle down and figure out what we needed to do in order to get the house we absolutely loved.
Our realtor gave us some stuff to do while she called and inquired about the house. A few hours later, she told us that the house already had an offer, so all offers had to be submitted by noon the next day. So that night, we figured out what our best offer was and submitted it along with a personal letter to the seller.
Around 1pm the next day, our realtor informed us that the seller received multiple offers and wanted everyone’s best offer by 7pm that night. The seller had also sent some changes they recommended we make to our offer to make it more appealing. Well Jeremiah and I knew we had already submitted our best offer. We didn’t want to be reckless and get ourselves into trouble, so we just altered one thing and resubmitted. We kept praying and knew that if this was the house for us that everything would work out. The seller said they would choose by noon the following day.
One thing to know, our realtor and our lender were pretty confident that we would not get this house if we did not offer over asking price or shorten our closing time. Realistically, we knew that we couldn’t offer over asking price or shorten our closing date – that would put house closing the same week that the baby is due. So as excited as I was about possibly living in this house, Jeremiah had to bring me back down to earth and remind me not to get my hopes up.
So Thursday morning I was glued to my phone constantly checking for an email or a text from our realtor. As noon came and went, I just assumed our offer had not been chosen. But around 12:30pm the greatest thing happened: I received a text from our realtor that said, “Hey guys! They accepted your offer!!!!” I about lost my mind with joy, excitement, gratefulness, and shock. We were then sent into this whirlwind of next steps.
The rest of that day was spent researching inspectors, signing different documents, and learning what all went into the option period. We had a pretty short option period, so it was imperative that we get an inspection done as soon as possible. I spent a couple hours on the phone with inspectors trying to find someone who could come out some time in the next 48 hours. Eventually, I found a great company with availability the next morning.
Our inspection started at 9:30am on Friday and we arrived a couple hours later to receive a verbal report and walkthrough. Just about everything checked out, but we ran into one hiccup: the sellers had not gotten the new appliances installed. Well the inspector can’t finish his inspection if the appliances aren’t ready to go, so that through a little wrench our tight schedule. He offered to come back later that day once the sellers had gotten the appliances installed. When he returned, he learned that the sellers had bought the incorrect sized appliances and they were not fitting in their designated places, so he had to leave and write up the report with that information missing. So right now we are waiting to hear back from the sellers on when they will have the correct appliances installed, so that we can request an extension on our option period.
While all this hectic house commotion was going on I had work, an extended family dinner, a chiropractor appointment, our maternity photoshoot, and a childbirth class. So I am being 100% serious when I say my life has been super crazy busy and I just need a nap, but I am so full of excitement and hope right now with the baby and the house. Please keep us in your prayers and send positive vibes! 🙂 ❤
