Wow! What a busy couple of months it has been! I feel so lucky to say that we officially bought our first home! If you’re following along on Instagram, then you already know that we’ve already dove in and started on renovations, but I wanted to share a little bit more about the actual process of buying our house, how we found it, and what qualities it has that checked the boxes on our list.
What We Looked For
First and foremost, both Jonah (my husband) and I knew going into this process that whatever we bought would not only be a home, but also an investment. Because of that, we immediately ruled out new builds. We had our eyes on something that whatever money we put into it, we would make it back and more in one way or another. We both wanted something that we could make feel like our own and weren’t afraid to put a little hard work into it. One huge reason why we were super comfortable with more of a fixer-upper is because my dad is a general contractor and offered to help us with any big projects or questions we have along the way.
Second, we wanted something with an additional income opportunity. It’s super important to us to do whatever we can to have our money work for us. In this instance, that meant either a duplex, a house with a basement apartment, or even a separate garage with a loft or mother-in-law suite.
Next, location was at the top of our list. We all hear that the most important thing in real estate is location, location, location. Thankfully we found a realtor who was super familiar with the area and was very honest with us on where to avoid and where the most desirable areas were. We ultimately wanted a more established neighborhood that was still close to shopping, etc.
Another thing that was super important to us was having a backyard. Having outdoor space to have friends and family over, but also for pets and a garden was pretty much non-negotiable. This pretty much ruled out most townhomes even though we did look at a couple! Being raised in the country, I just couldn’t see myself comfortable somewhere with zero private outdoor space.
Our top qualities we looked for:
- Fixer upper
- Rental/additional income opportunity
- Good location within 25-30 minutes of my husband’s job
- Large backyard
- At least 3 bedrooms (one to use for my home office)
- Garage
- Lots of natural light
- Quieter street
How We Found Our House
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a no-brainer, but having a good realtor is so so important. We’d talked to a couple of realtors in the past, but didn’t feel like any were a right fit. We actually found our realtor through our lender and she was amazing! She was super patient, walked through properties for us, and was a great communicator. But let me back up, before you even start talking to a realtor, you have to get pre-approved through a lender. During pre-approval you show proof of income, tax history, and ton of other things. Then the lender uses this to determine how much a bank is willing to lend you to buy a home. I’ve heard that working with lenders and realtors can be super stressful, but honestly, it was WAY more chill than I expected it to be. It took about 3 days to get pre-approved and then we started seriously look at homes with our realtor.
She gave us access to the MLS and set up a few alerts with some basic criteria. Whenever we or she found something that piqued our interest we’d share it with one another and work on getting a showing set up. Long story short, we had about seven showings, and we actually made an offer on our house before we even saw it in person. Our realtor Facetimed us and we knew immediately that we were interested.
The house was in a highly desirable neighborhood on a quieter street, it was about 25 minutes to my husband’s job, it had a separate basement apartment, a really big backyard, huge windows, etc. We knew we would have to work quickly, and to put it in perspective, our house went on the market on a Friday and we put in an offer on Monday morning and the offer was accepted Monday afternoon. We were one of at least four offers and are SO happy that ours was accepted. Another reason why I LOVED our realtor is she was a great negotiator and made a few tweaks to our offer to make it more attractive to the seller. Then due diligence started and we had to sign a bunch of paperwork and get the home inspected, all while our lender was underwriting our loan. On closing day a few weeks later we signed a bunch of papers and that was it!
I feel so lucky that our experience was so chill! I would honestly say it was more stressful looking at houses than actually buying the house once we found it.
Our Plans
Now that we actually have the house, we have jumped right into projects. The first thing that ABSOLUTELY had to go was the awful carpet upstairs. But thankfully there was solid oak hardwood under all of the carpet! Right now we are about 75% done with refinishing the hardwood floors and then the next big project will be paint. I kid you not, on the main level alone, there are 5 different paint colors and they are all terrible. I’m talking turquoise and brown in the same room.
Once we wrap up the floors and paint, we will move all our stuff up to the main level (we’ve been down in the basement), and then work in finding renters for downstairs. Then the next big projects for the rest of this year and into the first half of next year will be the main floor kitchen renovation, the main floor bathroom renovation, and painting and landscaping the exterior!
I am so incredibly excited. If you are reading this, thank you for following along! I can’t wait to share more!
