How we know we have matured as home buyers

As many of you know, home buying is the most demanding, heart breaking and I’m assuming rewarding journey any young adult will face in their lifetime. We have been officially looking since March, so about 9 months. We were pre-approved in the beginning  of March and honestly so many things have changed! Not only have things changed financially but they have changed in our mindset as well.

I’m sure anyone that is in the same boat as us and is currently looking for a house has realized it is so hard to constantly hear “it is a sellers market”. Yes, we have all heard it over and over and all of us home buyers are well aware there will be bidding wars and most things won’t go in our favor. However, there was one thing that our realtor said to me that really stuck out and made me feel a little better about this process.

Let me begin by saying when we first got pre approved we were looking for a 3-bed 2-bath house, which we very much still are but things have changed. We KNOW and have made it very clear to our realtor land is our number one necessity, if the house doesn’t have a decent plot of land we really aren’t interested. We have been back and forth here and there looking at houses because we have such a broad area in which we are willing to move to. This has been a constant whirlwind with driving here and there and offers having to be in by a certain date its almost like everything I thought I knew about real estate and home buying went out the window, and I did a LOT of research!

We recently came across a house that was an old farm house on an 8 acre plot of beautiful land across from a corn field and just perfect!  It had a circle driveway which we wanted and even a side-lot driveway/parking area where we could put all of our trailers and the camper. Anywho, this house was “renovated” if you want to call it that and it was made into a one bedroom. I didn’t even know those kinds of houses existed! I’m very sure it wasn’t always like that which is why I believe the last owners were just a couple that needed a space to live and made it work. The huge selling point on this house as well was the attached 4 car garage that could store basically everything Nick owned!

We went and did a drive by to see the house and see the area and if we liked it, we made this work in the few short hours after he got out of work (at 1:40) and I had to go into work (at 4) and this house was 35 minutes away **cue heavy breathing and panic**. We made it work, went and looked at everything from the street of course and loved the idea of having this land.

I contacted the realtor and she ended up getting back to me when I was at work and basically saying there was no point in scheduling a showing for us because the offers were due by 5pm that day, and with us not seeing the house I knew Nick wouldn’t want to put in an offer. She then assured me that if we did put in an offer and their realtor noticed we never went and saw the property and house that she may not take the offer seriously and it would just be pushed to the side. In addition, we thought it was priced way too high, especially since we would have to put on an addition in the future and there was literally no place to even put a second bedroom, so we decided it wasn’t worth it and once again passed on another house.

After I had talked to the realtor about all of the house information and we came to a decision she said one thing to me that really stood out, she said “I can tell you guys are maturing as home buyers because in the beginning you never would have thought to look at a one bedroom house.” She was right! I was so dead set on having the house I wanted with the stipulations I had chosen for the house but honestly, everything needs work and that is a way we can make a property of our own!

Hearing this was the thing I needed to set my mind at ease once again about how long it is taking. Yes, it is super frustrating and now it is of course the off-season but we are ready whenever something comes along and in the meantime we are saving all we can for that moment!

Thank you for reading about all of this, you guys really are the best! Have any other home buyers had a moment like this? If so let me know below in the comments!

Until next time,

-L