We (almost) Bought a House!
Thomas and I are so excited! This has been a year of excitement!
We found out we were expecting, up and moved to Colorado on a whim, and now we're buying a house! Eventually! :)
We started looking for houses in October. I never realized how much goes into it! I should have known, I guess, but it's a lot!
Thomas and I would look at housing websites from time to time when we first got here, but it was always for fun. We knew we wanted to buy a house, but renting was ideal...or so we thought!
We'd find a cute house only to discover it was a scam. Seriously, people would send us emails asking us for all of our information. They were always in Nigeria working as a missionary, but we could always wire them the money! Ha! Sometimes we'd get a kick out of messing with them. That was always a bummer.
We found a house we loved and contacted a few realtors. Within a few minutes one of them called us! She is an absolute doll. We met up and talked about the next steps. She got to know us to figure out the areas we liked, types of things we are looking for, etc. It was exciting!
We decided that Thomas and I should live no further than 45ish minutes from his work. With the snow out here in Colorado, it could get a little crazy. So the hunt began!
There are a few reliable websites that we scoured through...every day. We want a fixer-upper house! We love renovations (we renovated our first house together), projects, and making a new place our home.
We met with a money lender and found out we were qualified for way more than we were ever planning on spending on a house. That was really nice, but there's no way we were going to go there! We won't need nearly that much for a fixer-upper! The fact that a run-down fixer-upper house is almost a requirement is kind of funny, I think. A requirement! Ha!
We'd wanted to get into a house before January 1st, 2015. Ideally, we would get everything ready before baby comes in April! Especially if renovations would be involved.
The hunt has been exhausting, to be honest. We've looked at dozens of homes. What we've found is the perfect homes are in the worst areas. Some are in a great area but have a cracked foundation. Some are just too small.
We had a bit of excitement the other day! We were fairly interested in a house, but found out they were making a decision on the offers that night! We went back to the house to check it out to seriously consider it. We thought it would be good, so we made an offer! It made me so nervous! There were 6 other offers, but everyone was offering way under asking price. We offered more than asking price (which was still very cheap), so we thought we had it in the bag. We wouldn't be heartbroken if we didn't get it, but it would be nice if we did.
We did our research. We called the bishop of the local ward and he sounded amazing. Another member of the bishopric called and let us know a little more about the area and it seemed perfect! We were excited! We walked around the neighborhood and it felt really good.
We made the offer, signed the contract, and waited for the call. At about 9pm we got the call that they went with a different offer. I was actually more upset about it than I thought I would be. But I'm pregnant, so it kind of makes sense! Haha!
In reality, we would've been settling just a little. The house was pretty small (820 sqft), the bedrooms were small, but the front and back yards were huge! Kind of a disappointment, but that's what comes with searching!
We found another gorgeous house soon after. It was perfect! Move-in ready, basement, big, and in a great neighborhood. I didn't get my heart set on it, though, because it was too good to be true. The listing price was 80 thousand less than the value of the house! It was crazy! We made an offer but had no hopes of getting it. I knew what the disappointment was like and I refused to put myself through that again.
Needless to say, we didn't get it. The offers that were made were so much higher than ours. To be honest, I wasn't upset at all about not getting it. The mortgage would've made things pretty tight financially, so it was really a blessing. Lesson learned!
The third house we made an offer on seemed like the best choice. Mortgage would've been reasonable, perfect location (same neighborhood as the first house we made the offer on, actually), good size, and great condition.
When we made the offer, the listing agent was actually extremely sketchy and dishonest. He tried to suck us dry and asked us to make a higher offer before we ever heard back about our first offer. He even had the guts to lie to us about another "higher offer". It's kind of a long story, but thankfully that never went through.
I am grateful Thomas and I had this "trial run" of house hunting! We have learned so much! Seriously, if you're in the market, you can ask us almost anything. We probably made every rookie mistake there is! ;)
Thomas and I decided that we needed to put the house hunting on hold for a little while. Looking was exhausting. Especially while pregnant! We can save up for awhile and put a better down payment on a house. We will get a better house if we wait. The perfect house for us is out there! We just have to be patient.
As of now, our plans are to move in with my in-laws. There is a sweet little townhome that is perfect for all 4½ of us! Soon to be 5! :)
Honestly, I am so relieved that we've stopped looking. It has been a whirlwind of emotions and disappointment and stress! This time next year, we'll hopefully have enough saved so that we won't be cutting it close each month with a mortgage.
January is the start of a new year and a new baby! I can't believe it's almost DECEMBER! Ahhh! We've having a baby NEXT YEAR! Phew!
As for the family, Thomas and I are doing well! He is still loving his job and is hoping to move up quickly! There are so many opportunities and he is the perfect man for the job! I'm so proud of him.
Baby Graham is moving and kicking so much! I'm just over 20 weeks! Halfway?! WHAT!
We're so excited that we decided to move here to Colorado. It's been an adventure, to say the least, but we've grown so much closer as husband and wife. I love this man!
Here are some recent happenings in photos!
Just wanted to update all of you a little bit! We love you!
We found out we were expecting, up and moved to Colorado on a whim, and now we're buying a house! Eventually! :)
We started looking for houses in October. I never realized how much goes into it! I should have known, I guess, but it's a lot!
Thomas and I would look at housing websites from time to time when we first got here, but it was always for fun. We knew we wanted to buy a house, but renting was ideal...or so we thought!
We'd find a cute house only to discover it was a scam. Seriously, people would send us emails asking us for all of our information. They were always in Nigeria working as a missionary, but we could always wire them the money! Ha! Sometimes we'd get a kick out of messing with them. That was always a bummer.
We found a house we loved and contacted a few realtors. Within a few minutes one of them called us! She is an absolute doll. We met up and talked about the next steps. She got to know us to figure out the areas we liked, types of things we are looking for, etc. It was exciting!
We decided that Thomas and I should live no further than 45ish minutes from his work. With the snow out here in Colorado, it could get a little crazy. So the hunt began!
There are a few reliable websites that we scoured through...every day. We want a fixer-upper house! We love renovations (we renovated our first house together), projects, and making a new place our home.
We met with a money lender and found out we were qualified for way more than we were ever planning on spending on a house. That was really nice, but there's no way we were going to go there! We won't need nearly that much for a fixer-upper! The fact that a run-down fixer-upper house is almost a requirement is kind of funny, I think. A requirement! Ha!
We'd wanted to get into a house before January 1st, 2015. Ideally, we would get everything ready before baby comes in April! Especially if renovations would be involved.
The hunt has been exhausting, to be honest. We've looked at dozens of homes. What we've found is the perfect homes are in the worst areas. Some are in a great area but have a cracked foundation. Some are just too small.
We had a bit of excitement the other day! We were fairly interested in a house, but found out they were making a decision on the offers that night! We went back to the house to check it out to seriously consider it. We thought it would be good, so we made an offer! It made me so nervous! There were 6 other offers, but everyone was offering way under asking price. We offered more than asking price (which was still very cheap), so we thought we had it in the bag. We wouldn't be heartbroken if we didn't get it, but it would be nice if we did.
We did our research. We called the bishop of the local ward and he sounded amazing. Another member of the bishopric called and let us know a little more about the area and it seemed perfect! We were excited! We walked around the neighborhood and it felt really good.
We made the offer, signed the contract, and waited for the call. At about 9pm we got the call that they went with a different offer. I was actually more upset about it than I thought I would be. But I'm pregnant, so it kind of makes sense! Haha!
In reality, we would've been settling just a little. The house was pretty small (820 sqft), the bedrooms were small, but the front and back yards were huge! Kind of a disappointment, but that's what comes with searching!
We found another gorgeous house soon after. It was perfect! Move-in ready, basement, big, and in a great neighborhood. I didn't get my heart set on it, though, because it was too good to be true. The listing price was 80 thousand less than the value of the house! It was crazy! We made an offer but had no hopes of getting it. I knew what the disappointment was like and I refused to put myself through that again.
Needless to say, we didn't get it. The offers that were made were so much higher than ours. To be honest, I wasn't upset at all about not getting it. The mortgage would've made things pretty tight financially, so it was really a blessing. Lesson learned!
The third house we made an offer on seemed like the best choice. Mortgage would've been reasonable, perfect location (same neighborhood as the first house we made the offer on, actually), good size, and great condition.
When we made the offer, the listing agent was actually extremely sketchy and dishonest. He tried to suck us dry and asked us to make a higher offer before we ever heard back about our first offer. He even had the guts to lie to us about another "higher offer". It's kind of a long story, but thankfully that never went through.
I am grateful Thomas and I had this "trial run" of house hunting! We have learned so much! Seriously, if you're in the market, you can ask us almost anything. We probably made every rookie mistake there is! ;)
Thomas and I decided that we needed to put the house hunting on hold for a little while. Looking was exhausting. Especially while pregnant! We can save up for awhile and put a better down payment on a house. We will get a better house if we wait. The perfect house for us is out there! We just have to be patient.
As of now, our plans are to move in with my in-laws. There is a sweet little townhome that is perfect for all 4½ of us! Soon to be 5! :)
Honestly, I am so relieved that we've stopped looking. It has been a whirlwind of emotions and disappointment and stress! This time next year, we'll hopefully have enough saved so that we won't be cutting it close each month with a mortgage.
January is the start of a new year and a new baby! I can't believe it's almost DECEMBER! Ahhh! We've having a baby NEXT YEAR! Phew!
As for the family, Thomas and I are doing well! He is still loving his job and is hoping to move up quickly! There are so many opportunities and he is the perfect man for the job! I'm so proud of him.
Baby Graham is moving and kicking so much! I'm just over 20 weeks! Halfway?! WHAT!
We're so excited that we decided to move here to Colorado. It's been an adventure, to say the least, but we've grown so much closer as husband and wife. I love this man!
Here are some recent happenings in photos!
I went a little crazy and bought a bunch of baby books! Eeep!
I've been nannying the SWEETEST little girl for the past few months and I love it!
No caption needed :(
I've decided to attempt cloth diapering! Call me crazy! :)
<3
We accidentally matched one day! And I chopped off all my hair! :)
Love this man!
Bump!
My super creative Halloween costume! ;)
This is an old engagement picture, but I just love it! So I included it! <3
My car was murdered by the Colorado snow, so these are my temporary wheels!
The Beast.
Just wanted to update all of you a little bit! We love you!
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