It’s funny, because the home-buying process has been not at all like what I expected—
I expected us to perhaps wait for a home in one of those areas we really liked, or I expected that we would go and see scores of houses before finally settling on The One. And when we did find one that we liked, I thought we’d sit on it for awhile–pray for a few days, maybe even visit the ward (aka, church congregation) where we’d be attending if we moved.
With today’s housing market being like it is (at least up here in Northern Utah), all of that wasn’t really an option—
Basically, if there’s a nice house that’s priced right, you have to move ridiculously fast to get an offer in period before it gets taken off the market.
On Monday night, we drove out to Hyrum to see a house that seemed really promising on paper—the pictures made it look nice, and there was the possibility to finish a basement to add extra value to the home later on. The other houses we’d gone and seen, I’d felt distinctly neutral about—I was able to see both the good and the bad, but I didn’t necessarily lean one way or another. When we went and saw this particular house, I felt distinctly uneasy about it, though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.
Though Matt was optimistic about the home, we decided not to do anything about it at present, but on our drive home, just a block away, we passed it—
A red-shuttered home with a For Sale by Owner sign that I just KNEW we needed to call on as soon as we could.
I was worried it would be out of our price range, but it turned out to be *just barely* within it, complete with a finished basement and 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (giving us plenty of room to grow as a family). It had carefully-done landscaping (both front and back), as well as a fully-fenced backyard. And it had literally just gone back up on the market after the contract it was under at the time was going to fall through.
As we walked through, I saw lots of light and plenty to love and felt nothing but enthusiasm about moving forward on it. And checking in with each other very quickly outside on the front porch, Matt confirmed that he felt the same.
So we put in an offer that night.
We were only mildly hopeful that our offer would be accepted because the family who’d seen it right before us was also putting in an offer, and the owner of the home had intimated that he felt it would be kind of a “first come, first serve” basis (although my realtor talked him into at least entertaining ours as well).
All in all, we found out the next day–on the day it freak-snowed here in mid-May, no less–that the house had actually received four offers in less than 24 hours…
BUT THAT OURS WAS THE ONE THEY CHOSE!
True, we basically had to “swing for the fence” (as Matt put it) with the offer we gave, meaning that we agreed to cover all our own closing costs as well as the cost of our own realtor. It also meant that we offered $5,000 above asking price.
BUT WE GOT IT.
So now we’re currently knee-deep in trying to close on this thing quick, since a key variable in our contract was that we would be willing to move fast (which was important for the sellers as they moved out awhile ago).
But if all goes as planned (and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it does!), we’ll be homeowners in less than a month.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH!!
Excitement all around over here!
We’ll be keeping you posted as things start getting closer to the settlement, but it looks like we’ll be out of here in mid-June. Wish us luck!
