The Story of Our House, Part 1
So here's the story about what's been going on with our housing situation these past few months.
Back around the time I wrote this post we had pretty much decided that it was not the time to go forward buying a house. We figured we had too much debt, and we didn't want to use M's teaching retirement towards a down payment. That left us with not enough (we thought) to put down on a house.
So, we began looking at rentals. M searched and searched and searched. He spent so much time on this. We gradually began to discover that the rental market has changed a lot. Prices have gone up, presumably because lots more folks are renting as an alternative to buying property in unstable economic times. And although we are currently living in a two-bedroom townhouse and doing just fine, many landlords will not allow more than four people to live in a two-bedroom apartment, even if one of them is a baby. The only three-bedroom apartments we could afford were complete dumps. Trust me-- I'm not exaggerating here. Before we had kids, I was willing to live in a Sketchy McSlumville apartment to save a buck or two, but not now... especially where I'm home with the girls most of the day. I just can't put my kids in an unsafe or unhealthy situation.
And so the door seemed to be closing on renting.
Next, we looked into a rent-to-own situation with a friend. We began looking at houses, with the plan that our friend would buy and we would rent from him. The eventual goal would be for us to purchase the home back from him, subtracting from the price what we had already paid in rent. This friend is one of the most helpful and giving souls on the planet. But as we looked at houses together, M and I couldn't shake a feeling of hesitancy about entering into such an agreement. Although it seemed like our only housing option at the time, promising to buy back a house from someone seemed like such an overwhelming financial commitment. And as we searched, it proved difficult to find properties that fit the needs of both parties.
And so the door seemed to be closing on renting-to-own.
And then M got a raise.
Yes, that's right, after only five months at his new job, his boss loved what he was doing so much that he decided to pay him more. Significantly more. We were overjoyed-- not only to have more financial freedom, but that M has found an employer that really seems to appreciate his talents and work ethic, and that he is happy in his job. (So proud of you honey!!)
The timing of this raise coincided exactly with us coming to realize that renting AND renting-to-own were probably not going to be workable housing options for us. So, as a "desperate measure" I called a mortgage broker that had been recommended by a friend. To my complete shock, he told me we would have no problem qualifying for a mortgage. This was a Wednesday.
That evening, I talked things over with M, and we decided that we wanted to move forward on one of the properties that we had looked at while house-hunting with our "rent-to-own" friend-- we'll call this the Smith Street property. We had fallen in love with the aesthetic of this property-- it was a cute little cape with four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, hardwood floors, and window boxes. It was in a great neighborhood with really good schools. The back bedroom had a separate entrance that would make a great violin studio for me. Compared with other houses in our price range, it seemed to be in really great shape. We thought it was the perfect house for us. The next day (Thursday) I called our mortgage broker and our realtor, and we set up meetings for the next day (Friday-- M had the day off from work).
The next morning, I took C to her 6-month checkup early in the morning (and she got her shots), then I came home. We fed the girls lunch and packed them up into the car. We dropped the older two off with some friends from church and drove to our mortgage meeting, bringing C along with us. C waited patiently while we met for two hours with the mortgage broker.
(Yes, she had just had her shots and she sat through a two hour meeting, playing with a rattle contentedly most of the time. She whimpered once, I nursed her, and then she was fine. We are so thankful for your patience, little C.)
After the mortgage meeting we picked the big girls up from the baby-sitter, drove out to the Smith St property (about a 1.5 hour drive), met my Mom and Dad who had agreed to be there to help with the girls, and did a final walk-through of the property. We then went to our realtor's office and wrote up our offer. We were under the gun to submit it, because two other offers had been made on the property that day. At 6:02 PM that Friday evening, our realtor emailed our offer to the list agent for the Smith St property.
Our realtor had told us that the seller of Smith St was at a conference for the weekend and wouldn't be able to review the offers and give us an answer until Monday. All weekend, we waited on pins and needles.
Monday at about 11 AM, our realtor called-- our offer had been accepted!
I did a little happy dance in the kitchen when I got the phone call. The girls joined me in my dance! I called M to let him know, and we moved forward with the next step-- setting up a home inspection.
To be continued...
Read part 2 here.
Back around the time I wrote this post we had pretty much decided that it was not the time to go forward buying a house. We figured we had too much debt, and we didn't want to use M's teaching retirement towards a down payment. That left us with not enough (we thought) to put down on a house.
So, we began looking at rentals. M searched and searched and searched. He spent so much time on this. We gradually began to discover that the rental market has changed a lot. Prices have gone up, presumably because lots more folks are renting as an alternative to buying property in unstable economic times. And although we are currently living in a two-bedroom townhouse and doing just fine, many landlords will not allow more than four people to live in a two-bedroom apartment, even if one of them is a baby. The only three-bedroom apartments we could afford were complete dumps. Trust me-- I'm not exaggerating here. Before we had kids, I was willing to live in a Sketchy McSlumville apartment to save a buck or two, but not now... especially where I'm home with the girls most of the day. I just can't put my kids in an unsafe or unhealthy situation.
And so the door seemed to be closing on renting.
Next, we looked into a rent-to-own situation with a friend. We began looking at houses, with the plan that our friend would buy and we would rent from him. The eventual goal would be for us to purchase the home back from him, subtracting from the price what we had already paid in rent. This friend is one of the most helpful and giving souls on the planet. But as we looked at houses together, M and I couldn't shake a feeling of hesitancy about entering into such an agreement. Although it seemed like our only housing option at the time, promising to buy back a house from someone seemed like such an overwhelming financial commitment. And as we searched, it proved difficult to find properties that fit the needs of both parties.
And so the door seemed to be closing on renting-to-own.
And then M got a raise.
Yes, that's right, after only five months at his new job, his boss loved what he was doing so much that he decided to pay him more. Significantly more. We were overjoyed-- not only to have more financial freedom, but that M has found an employer that really seems to appreciate his talents and work ethic, and that he is happy in his job. (So proud of you honey!!)
The timing of this raise coincided exactly with us coming to realize that renting AND renting-to-own were probably not going to be workable housing options for us. So, as a "desperate measure" I called a mortgage broker that had been recommended by a friend. To my complete shock, he told me we would have no problem qualifying for a mortgage. This was a Wednesday.
That evening, I talked things over with M, and we decided that we wanted to move forward on one of the properties that we had looked at while house-hunting with our "rent-to-own" friend-- we'll call this the Smith Street property. We had fallen in love with the aesthetic of this property-- it was a cute little cape with four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, hardwood floors, and window boxes. It was in a great neighborhood with really good schools. The back bedroom had a separate entrance that would make a great violin studio for me. Compared with other houses in our price range, it seemed to be in really great shape. We thought it was the perfect house for us. The next day (Thursday) I called our mortgage broker and our realtor, and we set up meetings for the next day (Friday-- M had the day off from work).
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| Smith St House |
(Yes, she had just had her shots and she sat through a two hour meeting, playing with a rattle contentedly most of the time. She whimpered once, I nursed her, and then she was fine. We are so thankful for your patience, little C.)
After the mortgage meeting we picked the big girls up from the baby-sitter, drove out to the Smith St property (about a 1.5 hour drive), met my Mom and Dad who had agreed to be there to help with the girls, and did a final walk-through of the property. We then went to our realtor's office and wrote up our offer. We were under the gun to submit it, because two other offers had been made on the property that day. At 6:02 PM that Friday evening, our realtor emailed our offer to the list agent for the Smith St property.
Our realtor had told us that the seller of Smith St was at a conference for the weekend and wouldn't be able to review the offers and give us an answer until Monday. All weekend, we waited on pins and needles.
Monday at about 11 AM, our realtor called-- our offer had been accepted!
I did a little happy dance in the kitchen when I got the phone call. The girls joined me in my dance! I called M to let him know, and we moved forward with the next step-- setting up a home inspection.
To be continued...
Read part 2 here.
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