I already have the makings of a homebody (bookworm that I am) and finally after 5 years in the working world, figured I had enough funds to get myself a little home of my own.
Everyone is doing it.
People usually like doing easy things.
So: House buying =
Lets talk about how I was wrong on that last one....
Do you know how easy it is to get pre-approved for a house? Let me provide insight...
You call a lender (broker, bank, etc..) tell them estimated numbers on your income, savings, & checking. They take a minute to run your credit score and BAM you are preapproved for half a million.
Are those people nuts?? Am I nuts for doing this??
Probably. *sweats*
The best part for me in this process is the window shopping. I say this because you can see all the cool stuff without being attached to the price tag and you get to live vicariously through other people.
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| I love it!! Let's buy it!!...oh....how many million?...no thanks.... (all rights reserved to xeno on flickr) |
However, it's also slightly discouraging, ESPECIALLY in the northern VA area....as you find out how far your $$ does stretch (hint: not far).
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| My god... this house is perfect!! A box of my own! Only 500K....sign me up!! (all rights reserved to tacoma290) |
How many people go to open houses? *sees some raised hands*
Now, how many people have gone to an open house within their price range, for fun? *crickets*
You usually only look 'within your
Needle...meet haystack.
Let me define this:
Haystack Houses: Open Houses that are done to get people willingly going into a house you otherwise wouldn't look at if someone paid you. They even serve cookies at these open houses....yes... Sugar cookies were my favorite.
Needle House: This Open House is one that has been put on the market due to the seller needing to relocate quickly in relation to work, life event, etc... These houses are few and far between and are rarely on the market for more than 3 days.
We searched through quite a few haystacks, probably 20-25, before finding 3 needles. (You can probably guess where this is going...) Clearly, we didn't buy 3 houses. Remember? The Box.... The Cardboard.... That's the dream. Not 3 of them. 3 is just greedy.
Needle #1: The Fixer Upper
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| Ok... it wasn't this bad...or this big.. (Dempster Lane) |
This house was well within budget and amazingly maintained. It had 3 bedrooms, a nice kitchen, gorgeous master bath........
It was a trap.
Not at first glance was the trap noticeable, or even the second. But I think the second was due to the fact that we were first home buyers and weren't all that savvy on what we were willing to spend money on AFTER becoming indebted for hundreds of thousands. In a nut shell, naive. We were naive.
We had on the rose colored glasses and were drinking the koolaid of "This will be the amazing dream home that we can design ourselves and build from the ground up and love every minute!"
The reality: It had a roughed out basement, that was underground and would require radon testing, drywall, intensive building out, and lots of money.
We did our research and come to find out? Completing a basement costs a good $15-30K depending on the size and whether you want it to be liveable or not.
But we were hopeful and naive!! What did we know? FULL SPEED!
We bid on it.
In our defense, we bid under the asking price. (A sub-conscience cry for help?)
And we got contacted back by the seller saying they accepted.....IF we gave them asking price. Now, we did consider this offer, we did. However, after doing our research (Thank you sweet higher power that was there for us) we decided it wasn't worth the effort. Which if it's not worth the effort for us, it's just not worth it. Do NOT be afraid to walk away when they counter offer. You are spending a bunch of money to be HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS in debt.... for 15 or 30 years, depending on your ambition.
What was the result of us declining?
That house stayed on the market for more than 25 days after we declined offer...... meaning? Everyone else discovered the same thing we did. Not worth the price.
(*pats self on the back for being part of the smarter majority*)
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From our first Needle we had learned so much more! Don't bid. Don't bid. Don't bid.....UNLESS it's amazing. Unless you love it. Unless it whispers sweet nothings in your ear and holds you by the gonads! (...to far?) *shrugs*
This leads us to our Needle Numero two......
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Needle#2: Too Good to be True!
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| It's perfect!!! Wait...what's the catch? |
So we looked at around 8 more houses before we got to Needle#2.
How many people watch HGTV? I know I'm not the only one that has this guilty pleasure.
You know how they take the people to see 3 houses? They show a Moderate one, then a crappy one, then an absolutely freaking amazing one right at budget or right over budget?? Yeah??
We got HGTV'ed.....hard....
We went and saw a house before our dream home that was just ok...not really inspiring but really in all honesty, it wasn't the worst we'd seen. (There was one that had a basement smelling like rotten eggs mixed with a very weak febreeze... *shudders*)
So when we saw this house, it was spectacular and amazing. A end unit, hardwood pickled floors, a fully updated kitchen, a walk out basement with spare bedroom and wet bar, 3 beds upstairs, a double sink jacuzzi master bath.
Game. Set. Match.
Hook. Line. Sinker.
We couldn't bid on this house fast enough. It was at THE TOP of our budget but we bid anyway. If we got it even at the top of our budget, it would be amazing. It would be just stunning and everything we had hoped for in a house.
*sigh* Alas, it wasn't meant to be. And by that I mean, we weren't even in the running.
The sellers under priced their house to have bidding wars to get it back up to a good price. A high price. A price.....way out of our budget that we weren't willing to go.
Which is a good thing. You have A BUDGET for a reason. Set it, love it, live by it, stand by it till you bleed and cry. We had people tell us that "Oh, you'll find the perfect house and pay over your budget cuz you just have to have it". Uhhhhh No. I was never the person to sneak the extra twinkie and I'm not the person to add the extra 20K to my debt.
*pats on back*
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Our second Needle taught us the importance of budget. If you can't afford it?? YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT. It's that easy.....and that heart-wrenching. However, this house led us to search in the surrounding houses as we liked the HOA (haters of anything), parking, location, etc...
And we found our 3rd and final needle....right down the street :)
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Needle#3 - Just Right
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| Comfy and cozy~ <3 |
Needle 3 was our last and final needle....why? Well, cuz we ended up buying it of course! :)
Was it a fixer upper like the first? No. It actually has a finished basement, an updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors on the main level, 3 bedrooms, and good storage space.
Was it amazing and awe inspiring like the second? No. It's just a very nice home that's been well maintained and taken care of that fits our needs without requiring a 'fixing' but will require the good ole 'cozy feel' type decorations and living.
The 3rd Needles just fits.
It was in our budget, it was nicely updated, very nice floor plan, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and really everything we need. :)
Walking into the house, I just wanted to decorate it. I loved the layout, the openness. Did it whisper sweet nothings? Maybe not whisper, but it mumbled and flirted with me coyly, luring me into a bid.
That we won.
Fireworks didn't go off, parades didn't happen. But there was smiling and victory dancing and extreme happiness.
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I had hoped to make all this house stuff in one blog post.... I guess I won't be able too. That's okay.
I get to dedicate my next one to the whole horrible process of being approved for a loan.
This is also where I started learning the belief that 'Murphy is a Homeowner'. I'm sure most everyone has heard of Murphy's law? If not, and you are one of the lucky few not effected by this disease, let me be quick to infect you with it's knowledge:
"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"
8 small words, all horrible karma.
~AH
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