However, how can I be turning 30 this year?!?!? Is it bad to feel like I am still in my mid twenties?!? Does that make me immature? I certainly don't think I am immature... but then again would I be able to tell if I was?
Lots has happened since I last blogged. So it will take me a couple of posts to catch up. Wouldn't want to do it all in one blog post... it would be like the Never ending story! So first things first:
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!
It certainly happened a lot faster than we thought. So here is how it all came about...
We all know my obsession with house browsing on the Internet. I can ,and sometimes do, spend hours just browsing all sorts of floor plans, houses, apartments, for rent or for sale, it doesn't make much of a difference to me. I just love to see what is out there. All this browsing though comes with a price: itchy feet. That is why in the almost 8yrs that Dana and I have been married we have moved 7 times....
Anyways, since I am always looking at houses I started seeing that prices where becoming a bit more reasonable up here... mind you, still pretty high dollar in the most convenient and populated areas, but I could see a glimmer of hope on the outskirts. With that in mind, Dana and I talked about possibly looking into buying a house in the next 6months or so. This was back in July/August 2012. Then we started talking with people who were looking to refinance their current loans because interest rates were so cheap.. and that got us thinking, shouldn't we try to get in on this low interest rate bus?
So we made an appointment with a mortgage broker just to test the water, see what our credit score was and if we could qualify for a loan, and if we did, how much could we qualify for? August 30th was our apt. We went in, really not knowing what to expect since we had never checked our credit scores. It was a much more pleasant meeting than I had prepared for, the guy we met with was super helpful and explained to us the things we needed to know and what we should look for. Since the numbers looked good, Dana and I decided that we might as well test the real estate waters and go see a few properties here and there, just to get a feel for what we were really dealing with... pictures are great, but you really need to stand in a home to get the feel of it... not to mention, picking the right neighborhood can be just as important as the house itself.
And off we went in search of a house... totally thinking that it would take us a while to find something we wanted/liked and could afford. We expected to not only have to wade thru a lot of properties to find the one, but also that we would have to put an offer on a Short Sale home, which would then result in a wait period of 4-6 months before anything really happened.
So much for best laid plans.... Apparently, house shopping is my drug of choice...if you thought the Internet browsing was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!! Once we got started it all spiraled out of control... I had this mad glow in my eyes and scheduled house viewing for every available moment we had... which fortunately, I guess, was only Saturdays! lol... anyways off we went, armed with several properties to visit on every outing. Our first meet with our Real Estate agent was on September 8th and two weeks later we had already seen 9 properties.. maybe that's not a big number but it sure felt like a lot to us.. and certainly to my Real Estate Agent... whom probably dreaded the phone ringing for fear it was me wanting to add properties to our list... and oh btw, the reason we saw only nine, is because 5 or 6 other properties on my list weren't available to show when we could go by.
Anyways, on September 22nd I was up at 5am scouring the Internet for more picks when I found IT!!! I swear there were angels singing in the background... and it stopped raining! I had to do a double take... I couldn't believe that this house met our requirements and our budget and it was a regular sale AND looked this awesome!!! A-frame cabin in the woods! need I say more?
As I grabbed my phone to call my Real Estate Agent I realized that it was still only 6am... good save on my part. So I waited patiently for a decent hour and then called. We were able to go see it that same morning.. and already when we got there, other people were circling it like vultures!! Thank goodness we were the only ones that brought a Real Estate agent thus being the only ones able to go inside at that time!!
It was weird.. and gorgeous... and very wonky! It could not have been any more perfect...well, on second thought, the kitchen had the most hideous tiles I had ever seen so I guess that could have been improved but we were in LOVE!!! We had one more house to see that day so we left and went to check it out... it was a beautiful house, and one we would have certainly put a bid on had we not found this one. So we stood in the kitchen of the "almost" house and worked out the details for the bid on the "I can't believe we found this" house. I have to admit I blanched a little when they asked me for a $2000 check right there on the spot, but I recovered quickly and handed over our hard earned money with a straight face....
Waiting to hear back was agonizing... then ,when we finally did hear back, it was only to find out that they had received 3 other offers along ours and would need an additional day to decide... then my REA suggested we write a letter to the sellers to let them know how much we loved the house.... that seemed very strange to me, but apparently this house was built by the sellers and they were very sad to have to let it go. So I put pen to paper... or fingers to keyboard (technology has killed the romance of so many sayings...) and endeavored to be a skilled enough writer to convince them to sell it us. Apparently my puny efforts were enough as we got the call that they had accepted the offer and that our letter had been the deciding factor. Go figure!
This was on Monday night, September 24th. We proposed to close on October 25th...
What ensued was a whirlwind of activity as we raced against the clock to get everything taken care of:
inspections, appraisals, underwriting for two loans, MCC something or other, we had to take a 4 hour class to qualify for an FHA loan... and all sorts of other crazy things...
Well, we didn't make our October 25th deadline but we only missed it by 2 days. We signed the papers for our loans on Saturday, October 27th in a McDonald's Fast Food restaurant in Seattle. It was kind of surreal to sign away the next 30yrs of our lives, or more accurately our livelihood, while munching on some fries and a McFlurry but that's how we roll. We moved in the weekend after that.
And that's how we went from "let's just test the waters and maybe buy something at the beginning of next year" to "whoohoo we bought a house in less than two months from start to finish!!"
Well we've been here now for a little over two months and we are SO SO SO happy to be here! Even with the million big and little projects we have planned and a few that we have already executed... but that is a different story/post all together!
Keep checking for more of our House Adventures.. as there have been many already and there are so many more to come!!
Till next time...
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