Well, technically we haven’t bought it yet. Our offer was accepted last Saturday and we’re currently under contract. If all goes well, we should close at the end of August (fingers crossed).

So how did we get there? Let’s back up a second.

Derek and I have been actively looking for a new house since March. We currently live in a two bedroom/two bathroom attached home that we own, which is great, but we’ve definitely outgrown. We need more space, more yard, and more windows!

Since March we’ve probably seen over 100 houses. What started as something casual and “fun”, quickly escalated to a crazy stressful hunt that tested both of our spirits. Towards the end we were viewing 3-4 houses a week, most of which had just gone on the market the day before we saw it. There just wasn’t much on the market and we seemed to have a lot of competition in the process.

After months of not even coming close to putting any offers on houses, Derek and I felt we finally found “the one” a couple of weeks ago. We knew we were going to love it before we event saw it. It had a split floor plan, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a giant backyard, a window in the kitchen (surprisingly important to me), and was in immaculate condition. It was perfect.

The listing popped up on Tuesday night and we had an appointment to see it Wednesday afternoon. We were barely there 5 minutes before we were ready to put an offer in. Our realtor let us know a couple of offers were already on the table and suggested we be aggressive with our offer. We ended up going all in and put an offer in $7,000 above asking.

We didn’t get it.

Turns out someone submitted an offer higher than ours. I have no idea what that offer was, but at least Derek and I have no regrets knowing we went in at our max price.

Back at square one and feeling defeated, I packed my bags and headed to Massachusetts for work the following weekend.

While I was away Derek sent me a text letting me know he was going to see another house.

An hour later I received another text telling me he really liked this house and he thinks we should put an offer in.

Another hour later I received yet another text telling me that he was deathly afraid someone else would take the house and he submitted an offer.

Ummm… what?!

To be fair, he reminded me of the 15 day grace period, so if I saw it and didn’t like it, we had 15 days to walk away without penalty. He also sent a dozen videos showing every inch of the house. I agreed, it was a great house in a great location for a great price. I was scheduled to see it as soon I got off the plane on Monday,

Turns out lightning does strike twice (and apparently strikes back-to-back). Derek was right, the house was amazing. Again, it had everything we wanted (minus the screen less pool in the back, we could like without that), but this time we had won. The house was already ours.

I met the owners that night and they were great. They confirmed that it was just as amazing of a neighborhood as we had predicted and walked us through all of the improvements they made to the home. Everything from the roof to the lighting fixtures to the windows were brand spanking new and looked fabulous.

So we bought a house.

Now’s when the real fun begins… Mortgage applications! Home insurance! Home inspections! Oh boy! 

All the paperwork is driving us to drink already. It’s normal to go through an entire bottle of wine while weeding through a 40 page loan application, right?

And did I mention I’m traveling every weekend in August and we’re hoping to close in a month?! Gulp. If you don’t hear from me, it’s probably because I’m in a corner rocking back and forth. It’s okay. Leave me there and remind me I can rock back and forth in my brand new house in no time at all. It will make me feel better. Pinky promise.

So any advice for us during the buying process? I think we need all the advice we can get!

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