It was QUITE the ordeal let me tell you. It was a bit of an awkward start since the owners were wanting to sell this house we were renting at the beginning of the summer and asked us if we wanted to buy it. I hadn't seen anything out there yet, and needed to do some searching. I will just say - the housing market here in Lamar is a bit more of a unique experience than other places. People don't really build here, and if they did - it's an arm and a leg to pay for it. On the flip side - you also can buy some pretty decent sized older homes for a lot cheaper than you would think. Most of the homes here are the 60's style - lots of storage space and about zero open space - and a lot of split level houses. We saw A LOT of homes with some basic needs in mind: at least 4 bedrooms, basement, some space in the backyard, and at least a comfortable sized kitchen. We found a lot of homes that had a few of those things, but the ones that may have had all of them were WAY out of our planned price range. We came back to considering THIS house, because - it had all of those things and was even on the lower end of our planned budget. We talked about it in the nick of time, because during all of this - our house was getting shown to people - sometimes 20 of them a day! It was pretty stressful trying to find somewhere to live - especially if someone else were to buy this house before we found somewhere (because - let me tell you - there is NO WHERE to rent for a family of five). Anyway - it turned in to a bidding war at the end with two other people, but thankfully - we won out in the end.
THEN it was on to the stress of paperwork and closing...
I'm sure I'm preaching to many choirs out there, but there were probably at LEAST five times throughout the process I was told that we were no where near closing or would have to extend it by weeks or months (at least not years though right??). Being the if-I'm-not-satisfied-with-the-service-given-I-become-the-squeaky-wheel person that I am, I would immediately get on the phone (which is all I can pretty much do this far away from other civilizations) and leave voice messages, emails, or texts to whoever needed their hand held during the process.
The last week itself was manic. We had planned to close the 21st, but our appraisal hadn't been submitted, even though it was already done here three weeks before. (Insert hand hold and at least twenty phone calls and a threat of a three way call from me.) It got sorted. I was told our loan company hadn't let the title company know it was still set for the 21st. (Insert hand hold). They communicated and got started. I was told settlement statements hadn't been sent for approval. (Insert hand hold). Settlement statements were sent and approved.
Finally we knew in the afternoon of the 21st we could actually close. (Thank goodness too, because the Bratts (the previous owners) traveled four hours down to sign the papers!
After everything was sorted out and signed between the sellers and buyers, Steve and I got to sign just about every piece of paper that exists here in Lamar committing to buying this house. It was pretty crazy. BUT, we did it.
And now here I am, typing in MY home, looking at MY drapes I would like to replace, and MY kitchen I want to revamp, and MY closet that's going to get redone. Now I just need $20,000 to decorate how I'd like (okay let's be honest - PAY someone to redecorate for me) and do the additions I'd like to add on. ;)
I love this house, and it is such a relief to finally be through all the limbo-ness of renting vs. buying. That stuff is crazy stressful, and I thought it would be more fun!
Anyway - we're grown ups now - so you friends and family out there that thought we were just too immature to be associated with - well watch out! Because we are now just too immature to be associated with HOME OWNERS! Boo-yah!
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| Signing the ball and chain. ;) |
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| The last page - talk about hand cramps! Look at us changing from kids to adults - in the blink of an eye too! |
Pictures of our beloved house to come...
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