I'm Back!

Alright, so I'm back after taking an impromptu week off from blogging. When last I posted I had decided to go ahead and make our house hunting endeavor public. This past week has been incredibly busy running around meeting with our realtor, making calls to lenders, etc. So now I'm updating everyone on that process.

The long and the short of it is that we didn't get it.

It needed a lot of work. Possibly $20k worth of work. It would have required a renovation loan. We offered low enough that we would be able to afford the house with the renovation costs on top of that, but they weren't willing to go as low as we wanted. It's not a terribly big surprise considering the house hasn't been on the market very long. Our realtor equated it to a honeymoon phase. Basically the bank just put it on the market a short while ago and isn't going to take the first low ball offer that comes along because they still think they can probably get something better. We don't think they will. Our realtor agreed.

Our plan of action right now is to watch it and wait. If someone else snags it than that's okay and it wasn't meant to be. If thirty days go by and it's still there we'll try again, assuming it holds up well while being vacant for another month.

Regardless of what happens this has been an incredible learning experience. I'm the kind of person who looks at the idea of buying a house and thinks "I should research that process" but until I have pressure on me to get it done I probably won't. Finding this house forced us to actually go through the whole process, to also take a hard look at our finances and see how much we can actually afford and what kind of sacrifices we can make in order to afford more. Maybe this isn't the house for us, but when our house does come along we'll be ready. We'll know exactly how much house we can afford. We'll have saved more. We'll know who to go to for a loan. We'll know which grants to apply for.

Part of me is disappointed, sure, but I think I'm mostly thankful for the experience. I know God's going to bring the right house along. And I know that when he does, he'll provide a way for us to be able to buy it. In the meantime we're going to focus on being ready for when that time comes.

Have you experienced the frustration of house hunting? Or did everything work out really well? Ever have a door you really wanted open slammed in your face?