{IN}Design

Feb 6, 2013

Our House-Buying Process

Bobby and I looked at over 40 houses during the course of about four months before we bought ours. A little nuts, I know. It took us awhile to get on the same page regarding ours 'must haves' and 'nice to have'.

In the end, here were our must haves:

At least 3 bedrooms

At least 2 full bathrooms

Mature neighborhood/ non-cookie cutter

Good outdoor space

Good sized kitchen

Within 30 minutes of both our jobs, but preferably closer

Here were our ‘nice to haves’:

Basement

Updated kitchen

Hardwoods

Open floor plan

Not a huge yard

Deck and/or sun room

2 car garage

After seeing so many houses (and losing a bidding war on another house) we knew this was the house for us the moment we walked in. It had almost everything on our lists, including everything on our must have list. The location is convenient to both our jobs (we work on different sides of town), plus lots of restaurants, shopping, etc. I love the other houses on the street and the area in general. Basically, it was perfect for us. Unfortunately, it seemed to be perfect for a lot of people- the open house we attended was PACKED. We later found out over 30 couples/ groups went through the open house. Talk about a realtor’s dream!

Ultimately we put in a strong offer the same day we saw the house, and it was accepted the next day! We didn’t even have to deal with counter offers. (I will admit, the bargain shopper in me was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do any negotiations, but I am thankful for a smooth process!) Along with our offer we submitted a short letter introducing ourselves, explaining that we were newlyweds buying our first home, and looking forward to starting a family there. Our realtor suggested that it could help set us apart from the crowd. We later learned that there were multiple offers and the seller chose ours in part due to our letter! It might not work in every scenario, but it definitely worked for us.

Here are some pictures from the original listing (aka not our stuff). It looks beautiful, but not totally our style. We’ve slowly been painting and decorating to make this house our house.