Who would have known how emotionally exhausting house hunting would be? Surely not this girl. I thought to myself; you have no time restraints to work within, no limitations on the place in which you live (so long as it is no more than 40 miles in any direction from Kansas City), and a good sense of what you want in a home. This is going to be so fun and exciting!
Oh was I wrong.
Turns out the husband did not share in my enthusiasm of starting our lives in a new home anywhere our hearts desire, so long as it meant getting exactly what we want.
Turns out we would get a lot less for our money than I thought we would.
Turns out we did not have a good fit with our realtor.
Turns out the house we fell in love with has structural issues and we cannot purchase it.
Turns out breaking up with our realtor was a good choice, as our new realtor is patient in answering our questions and assuring us she understands our wants/needs and and will do everything she can to find us the perfect home.
Turns out I would eat my words on NEVER living in a split level home.
I had no idea how emotionally draining it would be looking at the same small handful of houses day after day as no new listings came up. I made matters worse for myself when I decided to look at a house out of our price range out of frustration.
Burnt out and ready to give up on the whole thing, there were couple things that happened to turn it around. We used a program through USAA that; 1)set us up with a realtor who better suited our needs, and 2) gives us cash back at closing. (Seriously, who doesn't love cash back??) We also learned about a Kansas first time buyer down payment assistance program that would make financing a home as a single income family much more manageable. After discussing with the husband our priorities in our first home we determined that property trumped aesthetics of the home and we found a house that suits our needs with a substantial amount of our wish list fulfilled as well.
We have made it through the agonizing wait after submitting our offer and were very lucky to have a great counter so we didn't have to do much haggling to get our needs met. We still have to go through the inspection process and the loan closing where there may be more unexpected obstacles, but for now I'm feeling relieved to have made it this far in the process.
Looking back to February when we started this process, I would never have thought it would have taken this long or been so difficult. I should have listened to the warning,
"House hunting isn't for the faint of heart."
No comments:
Post a Comment