We started looking the first weekend of March with my cousin, who is an awesome agent and super patient with picky people like us. We knew what we wanted: minimum of three bedrooms and two baths, at least two living areas, at least a two car garage, and no HOA. I liked older homes for the charm, but soon agreed with Casey that something newer would suit us better, especially since we liked things like closets and spacious bathrooms. My cousin helped steer us to homes that we hadn't considered and also helped us determine what we really needed versus what we wanted.
On our first night out looking at homes we saw a house that we really liked, almost loved, and put an offer in the next day. We thought, that was easy, and were planning furniture placement and paint colors and then they tried to pit us against another buyer. House 2 was humongous, with so much potential to grow into it and it had nice upgrades but we were offer number two and it was a short sell so who knew how long that process would take. (Last we heard, the bank was going forward with the first offer but nothing was close to being complete.)
Next, we put an offer on a lot to build a home and had put earnest money down and picked out colors and finishes and the whole shebang. Then when we crunched the numbers, we were not happy with where we were going to be. Housepoor was something that we were afraid of and we knew that moving forward on that house, even though we loved the idea of building exactly what we wanted, wasn't going to be worth everything else that we would have to give up. Then we saw a HUD home that was almost identical to the short sell that we offered on, and a lot less, so we jumped on that. Apparently we were not the only ones. We bid $5000 over what they were asking, thinking that would put us in the running, and then found out we were bid number two out of at least fifteen. Disappointed was not even close to what we felt when we found out that we didn't get that house.
We went out again, found a great home and offered on it. Then he countered with, 'What more can you do?' and let us know that we were one of three offers that he had received. So we went up, and he came back with 'It's between you and another offer, so what more can you do?' We decided that we didn't want to be jerked around so we backed out. Which worked out perfectly, since it lead us to the perfect house for us.
DISCLAIMER: These photos are of the previous owners furnishings, they are not ours and the children in the pictures, again, not ours. YAY!
So now, we get to do all of the not fun (although Casey might argue that the whole searching part wasn't very fun) part, signing paperwork, inspections, finalizing mortgage, and packing.
I am the world's worst packer and mover. I hate, HATE, packing. We moved only once when I was a child, so I never developed any skills for packing. Casey on the other hand moved several times as he was in a military family and can de-clutter and pack like it's something he does all the time. Since we have been together, we have moved to Vegas, from Vegas to Parowan, Parowan to Cedar City, Cedar City to West Valley City, WVC to Clinton, Clinton to Centerville, and now Centerville to North Salt Lake. On what will be our seventh move, I promise that I will try to be a better mover. I promise that I will try to de-clutter as I pack. I just can't wait to be in our new home. I can't wait to make traditions and memories with Wes. I'm excited to mark his height in a door frame, put up a Christmas tree, practice sports in the yard. In Tina Fey's immortal words, I want to go to there.
