Aren't you buying a house or something??

Yes, we are buying a house. I can see why there might be some confusion because this process started in JANUARY. And no, we have not officially bought anything yet. The reason I began the "God Choices" series was to document some Spirit-led decisions in my life to lead up to the story of our house purchase. God has been all up in this business! But it hasn't gone the way I expected at all (which I guess was my own point the whole time with these decisions...funny that I didn't see that coming!).

My plan is to chronicle the house journey, leading (God willing!!) to the actual purchase of our house (which is currently scheduled for Sept. 7th. Yes, that means this will have to be done quickly!). I hope that our stories will do several things--entertain you, inform you of what to expect from this process, and encourage you in the belief that God is working all things together for your good!

On January 18th I posted that we were officially looking for a house, and I talked about some of our fears and concerns. I guess I always thought that it would be fun. And maybe it is for some people, but it really hasn't been for us. We didn't know what to expect for our price range and we didn't have a vision for potential. We also weren't super aligned with what we wanted. So, we had a lot to work through just in the beginning stages of searching.

TIP: Discuss with your partner (if buying with someone else) what you NEED. Yes, talk about what you want, but make sure you spend a lot of time discussing the non-negotiables for you. There are plenty of things we would love to have, but not all of it is a deal-breaker. 

TIP: Look online at what the options are for your area and in your price range. Get a good idea of what your options are before looking in person. I think it just helps you be more realistic when your'e actually looking. BUT--don't base everything off of pictures online. They can be VERY deceiving! And sometimes they may not do the place justice. So consider that, too. 

We signed with a Realtor who was very nice and helpful, but he was only available to work 8-5 Monday through Friday. Well, that's when we work, too! So it was very challenging to try to look at houses during lunch breaks.

TIP: Find an agent who is willing to work with you (show houses, draft contracts, etc...) during hours that are convenient to you. The more flexible he/she is, the better. 

We found some houses that we were interested in, but none of them worked out. The first house had a roof that was 30 years old. It appeared to be in good condition, but we knew that it would likely need to be replaced in the next few years. For that reason, we were only willing to pay a certain amount for it, even though we really liked the house. The sellers wouldn't budge, so we walked. It was a hard decision, and we still drove by that house frequently, wondering if we made the right choice. It has since sold, and I feel good about the decision. Roofs are one of the most expensive things to get repairs or replaced.

TIP: Consider the roof!! 

The next couple houses were foreclosures and they were right next door to each other. We loved the neighborhood, though the area around the neighborhood wasn't terrific, and it was just a little further than we were hoping from work and church. The houses were listed well below their actual value, but were both still out of our price range. We decided to make offers on both of them, much lower than asking price. The choice between the two of them was tough because one was in better condition and prettier, but it was smaller and had a few features that I didn't love, and it was more expensive. The other house was bigger, had some cool features (the bathroom was much better!!), it was cheaper, but it was in worse condition. We made offers on both. It was actually accepted on the cheaper but bigger house! We moved forward with the inspection.

TIP: Definitely do an inspection, even if it isn't required by your bank. And compare prices for things that need to be fixed to see how much you're really talking about.

After doing the inspection, we realized just how much work that house needed. The people who lived there really trashed the place. There had been a fire in the kitchen, and several parts of the cabinets and counters needed to be replaced. There was a hole in the wall of the living room. There were some missing doors. There were terrible scratches on doors and walls (from jumping dogs, it seemed), and the carpets all needed to be replaced. The whole place stunk of animals. We could have afforded the house itself, but we did not have enough money to put into all those things that needed to be fixed before we could even move in. We tried to renegotiate for a repair allowance, but we were denied. We walked. I recently found out that it sold for cheaper than we had offered, but I still think we made the right choice. We wouldn't have had that money for repairs no matter how cheap they sold the house to us.

After all that, we decided to take a break. That was in March. We stopped looking and we voided our contract with our realtor. We decided to book a cruise for our anniversary in May since saving every penny for a house wasn't that necessary anymore. We went about life, with little to no thoughts of house shopping. We decided we would leave it up to God. If He wanted us to buy a house, we would know it. Until then, we were just waiting.

Then the week after our cruise in May, we heard from God! More on that to come!


{Part 2}