We bought a house!! This is still so surreal to me, not because we moved in almost a month ago, but because prior to being with my husband, I never thought of buying a house; it wasn’t a “goal” of mine. But here I am, a homeowner.
Our process started last year, around March; even with the whole pandemic, we continued our goal. But we initially started talking about buying a house in 2018, then in 2019, we got engaged, so our focus was the wedding. The wedding was in February of 2020, so right after that, we got started.
We contacted our friend who was a mortgage broker at the time, he ran our numbers, and our debt-to-income ratio was not looking good. I wanted to get a house by August of that year, so we could move before by the time our lease expired at the apartment and before the new school year started so I wouldn’t have to change my daughter’s school in the middle of the school year. But receiving the news that we had work to do bummed me out.
Mind you, I had no idea how the process was like since I never thought about buying a house before, so I was getting discouraged already. My husband reassured me that we would do what we have to do and get the ball going. We paid off the debts we had and worked on my husband’s credit score. By November, our numbers were much better, and we got pre-approved.
Here is the fun part, to look at houses! We set out a Saturday at the beginning of December to see houses with our realtor. We were not too picky of which city we wanted to live in because we are both working from home, so we had flexibility but, of course, only looking at houses within our price range. We started looking on the side of town we lived in, and we realized that either the HOA fees were high, or the taxes were high, which would bring up our monthly payment higher than what we were comfortable paying.
Now to set a date to look at the other side of town, we had to wait because of the holiday season. As our relator was sending us lists of houses to look at, I found one online that was being built and would be completed at the end of February. I saw the “model” pictures and immediately fell in love. I showed my husband, and as I showed him, our realtor sent us the same home. I told my husband, let’s send an offer. He asked me, are you sure? I said yes, it’s exactly what we want.
We sent an offer, and a few days later, our relator sent my husband a “congratulation” text; our offer had been accepted!! It was a waiting game now because the house was still under construction, but the loan process was still underway.
Around mid-January, we went to choose the color of the cabinets and the tiles for the floor, and the process in which the house was at that point did not seem like it would be completed by the end of February. The contractor took us to another house that they were closing on in two weeks, which was the same layout as our home. When we saw it, it was nothing like the model pictures, so we were disappointed. 🙁
Another issue came up with the backyard, it was a jungle, and it seemed like our backyard was going to be shorter than the neighbor’s yard, which didn’t make sense to us because that would cut from the total square footage of our land. Our relator added an addendum to our contract to make sure that they would cut the trees in the backyard and provide all the stated square footage. And they never signed it.
The appraisal came back less than the asking price, and they didn’t want to come down; they wanted us to pay the difference. At this point, my husband was already not liking everything that was going on with the people. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him to decide. We backed away from the contract and started our search again. This definitely made me start getting impatient because I was so ready to move by the end of February.
This time we went to the other side of town, closer to our jobs, for if we have to return to the office to work. And again, we set up a Saturday to look at houses. There were two that I really liked, and the following Monday, they already had multiple offers. I was over this whole process; I just wanted a house. Then our realtor told us about this new community being built, so we went to check it out.
The community does the loan process for you, and they offer incentives for using their loan. They help you with the closing costs, and they pay your first three months of HOA, among other things. We saw two houses that were brand new and move-in ready. I loved the second one, more space, great yard, the kitchen is just what I wanted, the stand-up shower in our bedroom is amazing, it is an open plan like my husband wanted, this house had a lot of what was on our list that we wanted.
We signed the contract that day, and they told us by the end of March, you should be all set! They made the whole process so smooth; everyone was super helpful and had excellent customer service. The process was not a hassle at all. We moved on March 31st!
I remember at the beginning of this whole process, my spiritual mentor telling me to pray specifically for what I wanted in my house, I did, and GOD PROVIDED! Honestly, yes, there were moments where I felt discouraged, but now that we have our house, I praise and thank God every day for all of His blessings in our lives because He has been SO good to us.
If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for reading! And if you have a house, I would like to hear your process in buying it. Do you have a similar story? Let me know!
With Love,
Heidy
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Instagram.com/Heidy.Delacruz13
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