WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

AHHH – WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

The last three weeks have been a serious whirlwind of emotions, anxiety and excitement. Oh and stress, ha. I’ve been dying to share the news with you guys, but waited patiently through our 20 day close. Now that the day is here, I can finally share!
THE STORY OF OUR HOME BUYING JOURNEY
Our home journey has been a mix of sweet blessings, perfect timing and having an amazing team by our side.

SHORT STORY.. S and I got preapproved on a Saturday and put in an offer on Wednesday with it being accepted the same day. LIKE WHAT?! This is absolutely unheard of in Massachusetts – especially for a brand new build. In this area, houses are getting 7+ offers with the offers going well beyond asking price. We put an offer on the first house we were serious about and got it. And it’s our total dream home for this point in our life. We’re so excited for our next chapter!

During our house search, I loved reading other peoples home buying experiences, so if you’re like me, here is our full story..

LONG STORY.. So we decided with our lease ending this September, we should start the home buying process in July to have three-ish months before our lease renewed. I mentioned in this blog post that we made a little Saturday date for kicking off the home buying process which we soon learned was getting pre approved and finding a realtor. Little did we know at the time, the very next day, we found our home!

Like I mentioned in the short story, we were preapproved Saturday afternoon. After applying, we then got on the phone with our lender because wanted the preapproval amount to be a large chunk less than what we were actually approved for. S and I like to handle our financial planning as if only one of us was employed. That way, if something happened down the road like one of us lost our job, we would be totally fine financially and could go on living our normal life. We wouldn’t be drowning in stress.

Anyways, an hour after getting preapproved, a gorgeous new build came on the market in the town we really wanted to live in. This house was well beyond what we’d expect to get in our area or for a first home. Honestly the new builds north of the city are typically going for $100-200k more than what this was listed at. It had our entire “must have” checklist – preferred town, ten minute work commutes, open concept layout, hardwood floors, yard. And much more – three bedrooms, three bath [what!??], white kitchen, white marble countertops, deck, huge basement, central air, brand new appliances, gas stove, fireplace, pantry, walk in closets. And the list goes on. It was an absolute DREAM HOME for us.

After taking a drive to it that day, I was 100% emotionally invested which I know is home buyers 101 of what not to do 😉

Keep in mind, we didn’t even have a realtor yet! Right when we got home, I emailed the agent that was referred to us. She hopped on it, but sadly after only being on market for four hours, the buyer had accepted an offer.

…And that’s why they say to not get emotionally invested.

While this was the first house we were serious about and we should have known this was the reality of the situation since in Massachusetts couples are putting in seven offers before even getting one accepted. Since this house was really a gem, we knew we wouldn’t come across this again. You can see how fast the housing market moves here! Many houses aren’t even posted online by the time they are sold, so during this time we we even resorted to driving around town taking pictures of houses that had for sale signs and houses that just had the beams up to vet through them. It’s crazy!

So the next day we lifted our heads up and we went to an open house. This open house was down the road from the new build we lost out on the previous day so naturally, we drove by which wasn’t productive, but I gave myself 24 hours to wallow lol. When we drove by, the family who placed the offer was literally getting our of their cars and heading into the house. ZING! Knife to the stomach!

S said that this was my first house break up and I’d probably never really get over it. I agreed lol.

To top it off, the open house was a bust. The house felt so small and with it being ten years old – needed some renovations. The asking was at the top of what we wanted to pay, making the renovation process seem long and daunting since we’d have to wait to flip anything. It would be hard to fall i love with a house that needed work, even just a kitchen hardwoods floors, because of the new build gem we previously found.

Fast-forward two days later to Tuesday, we had our first meeting with our realtor. I gushed over the house we lost out on the entire time, but really stayed positive that we’d find something else we loved since I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason.. as cliche as that may be. [and really feel like the end result of our home buyers journey shows this quote to be even more true!].

Anywho – we got home two hours later and did the typical Zillow every 5 minute refresh..

Sergio looked at me and said: “GUESS WHAT’S BACK ON MARKET?!!?!?!?” I just about jumped through the roof. Talk about breaking every “don’t get your hopes up or emotionally invested” tips we’ve been given lol.

We immediately texted our awesome realtor who got us in the house at 9AM the next day. We made an offer topped off with a freaking cover letter selling our little family [yes cover letters and video letters are used in this area to put a face to the offer and make an offer stand out.. insane!]. Our offer was then accepted a couple hours later.

While typing this out, it all sounds so easy breezy, but I’ve never had such a twisted stomach then waiting for them to respond to our offer! All day after seeing the house S and I were anxious. We kept texting each other being like “When will they accept or reject?!?!”. But, come that evening when we were popping open some champagne, it was all worth it! Everything else was pretty smooth sailing as far as the inspection, appraisal and such. We learned a lot and I’m pretty sure we called my dad and in laws 457 times through the process. S’ parents have a lot of experience moving and buying real estate while my dad has had his own company building houses, so they were our rocks through this process and we are really lucky to have such an amazing support system. And the phone calls will keep coming as we move along in being home owners, I’m sure haha!

Since S had been getting all the financial documents to our lender very quickly, they approved us for offering the builder a 25 day close. The builder countered with a 20 day close which we happily accepted! So here er are 19 days later.. all packed up and ready to move in 🙂

And to go back to the quote mentioned earlier – “Everything happens for a reason”. I always apply this to keep my head up when things fall through or things don’t align in my favor though life. I mean, if that couple hadn’t made an offer and back ed out, we probably wouldn’t have even ended up with this house since we hadn’t even had a conversation wit hour realtor yet. Going through losing the house, to then it going back on market was 100% worth the emotional rollercoaster because now we own it!

So let’s just say July has been insane! On top of buying a house, it’s was one of my blog’s busy seasons, S’ work busy season with quarter end, I’m very busy at my marketing job and out of the 20 day close, we were going to be on vacation for 10 of them. I actually decided to start packing us up the day they accepted the offer, knowing that we may end up unpacking through any hiccups in the process, so that’s why I have been so quiet on Instagram stories.

With all the craziness, I wouldn’t have it any other way! I can’t help but just reminisce on when we had just moved to Boston together after gradating college four year ago with an empty city apartment with pizza my (now) father in law bought us since we were poor post-grads. Now we are living our own version of the American Dream as newlyweds in our first home with our little furbaby. I’m just so excited! Also will we even see Muenster in this house? He will have so many sleeping spots!

We officially get our keys tomorrow and the movers come Monday! We took all of next week off to get settled and soak it all in. My dad is coming down too! AHHH!!

I will have an ’empty home tour’ and the initial decor design concept for the kitchen and living room for you soon, but until then follow along on Instagram stories for day to day updates.

As always – thank you so much for following along on my little nook of the internet. Having this blog serve as a journal for our life for us to look back on has been so sweet. From getting engaged, to our wedding and now buying our first home – sharing these milestones with you all is so sweet!

Now – get ready for some serious home décor content. AHH!

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