I am so excited to share our home buying process with you! I have been preparing this blog for a couple of months because I wanted to document all of the details that went into purchasing our home.

On March 3rd we met with a Senior Housing Counselor that specializes in Homeownership Education Workshops, personal finances, credit counseling, home loans, etc. She went over a spending plan with us, we completed a ton of paperwork, and she checked our credit scores. She assisted us with debts that we needed to pay off in order to raise our credit scores and guided us through what our next steps would be. We left that appointment feeling hopeful that within 4-6 months we would be able to go through with purchasing a home.

After getting a secured credit card and paying off all of our medical bills in full, Jordan’s credit score raised more than 200 points and mine by 100. We finally had “good” credit! I was 27 years old before I had established credit. I have never had a credit card, my college was paid for by my employer so I have never had student loans or any debts hanging over my head. That made this process so much easier! The medical bills that went towards our credit were from doctor visits when we didn’t have health insurance and from the bills that came rolling in once our son was hospitalized in July that his insurance didn’t cover.

Once we realized our credit scores had went up, Jordan called one of our local credit unions and done an application over the phone to see if we could get preapproved for a loan.

On Thursday, April 2, we were standing in the kitchen making frozen pizzas for dinner when Jordan’s phone rang. It was the bank calling to tell us that we had been PREAPPROVED to buy a house! Looking back on it now, that was one of the happiest moments of my life.

A few months ago when we went out to dinner, one of my best friends, Katie, had mentioned that her mom was a realtor and sent over her contact information. We sat out on our front porch steps and had her on speaker phone, telling her things we were hoping to find in a home.

She emailed us some listings and advised us to drive by the houses that we were interested in to get a feel for the neighborhood. There were some we loved and some we ruled out immediately. We followed up with her and sent her addresses to the homes we wanted to view.

Monday, April 6, we had an appointment with our realtor to view 4 houses. Going by pictures we viewed on Zillow, Jordan had a favorite house and I really liked another one. At the end of the day we weren’t completely happy with any of the houses we viewed. I loved the one I was interested in even more when I saw it in person. The neighborhood was incredible, the house had approximately 3,000 square feet, and was located on a .71 acre lot. It had a beautiful dining room, huge living room, finished downstairs, the perfect entryway, and a big yard. Unfortunately it was completely outdated and everything from doors and carpets to fuse boxes to windows needed to be replaced. Not to mention there was no source of air conditioning. I tried every way possible to convince Jordan that it was the house for us and that we could get portable air conditioners this summer until we could have a unit put in. It would just be a lot of money being spent on top of purchasing the house itself. Was it really worth it?

Jordan was disappointed when we viewed the house he had been so excited about. We only spent 5-7 minutes inside and tried to be positive, but it wasn’t what we were hoping it would be.

On April 7 we drove by a few more houses and emailed our realtor with addresses of homes we were interested in viewing. She acted immediately and the very next day we viewed each of them. The first house we went to that day was located in our school district and in a cute little neighborhood. Before we were preapproved, I had seen this house listed on Zillow. I was so excited as I looked through the pictures because it seemed like the perfect fit for our family. Unfortunately, once we were preapproved and were in a position to look at houses, the status had been changed to “off market”. I was bummed, but knew that God had a plan for us. I was surprised when we saw that it had went back on the market, but Jordan said that it wasn’t an option because it didn’t check the one box he had- a garage to work on cars. He does all of the maintenance work to our vehicles, so I understand why that was so important to him. At the same time I was disappointed because other than that, this house was perfect for our family. The square footage, the big fenced in backyard with a playset, 2 dens downstairs, a storage room, a patio area out back, and most importantly, it was within our budget and only a 2 minute drive to our school.

After viewing the other houses earlier in the week, Jordan had a change of heart. We had seen what condition some of the houses were in that were within our budget. Some needed a lot of work and the ones that didn’t were going contingent before we had the opportunity to view them. We are the type of people that take the time to thoroughly research things before we make a big decision. Buying a house is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make, so we wanted to be absolutely sure that we explored all of the pros and cons before we made a decision. It was out of our comfort zone, but we had decided that if we found something we liked that we needed to act fast.

That house was the first house we viewed on the 8th. I was so thankful that Jordan reconsidered. Although he wasn’t as ecstatic as me, he loved it enough to look and me and say, “If the next house isn’t it, let’s make an offer on this one.” I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! We expressed our interest to our realtor because she seemed to really like the house as well. She called the agent who was selling the house on the drive to the next home we were viewing to let him know that she had a family interested in the home. We had already missed out on the house once, so I didn’t want to miss out on it again.

The next house we viewed was one of our favorites. It needed some work on the inside, but the exterior and the neighborhood were both amazing. I loved it and I knew Jordan loved it because it had a huge garage. It put him a little further away from the interstate to get to work each morning, but we had decided if things didn’t work out with the other home that we wanted to put an offer down on that one. Even though the asking price was much higher and it needed a lot more work, the home was beautiful.

We had one more house to view that evening. It had 5 bedrooms and a lot of space for our family, but after entering the home we instantly knew that it was not the home for us. Nothing about the layout of the house made sense. I felt like we were in a Maze Runner movie. As we were walking out of the house, Jordan said to our realtor, “We’re ready to make an offer on the first house.” She assured us that she thought we were making a wise decision. She took some of our information and said she was going home to type everything out for us to submit to the agent. We didn’t want to risk the house getting sold, so we decided to offer their asking price with them paying only half of the closing costs. We also included an earnest money deposit. Our realtor said she would call us that evening and email us the documents for us to sign electronically as she explained each section. She requested that we have an answer by 5pm the following day as to whether or not they accepted our offer.

That evening she went over all of the paperwork with us and made sure we agreed to the terms she included. The home had just had a pre inspection and we were sent over that report. The majority of things had already been taken care of which was a HUGE blessing.

I couldn’t sleep at all that night. I laid awake talking to God for hours. Prayer is such a powerful thing. I had texted all of my friends and asked them to say a prayer for us earlier that evening. While texting two of my very best friends, who also happen to be my biggest prayer warriors, I found out that both of their families knew the couple selling the house. One of them is a close friend of the family and the others are extended family of the sellers. I love trying to figure out God’s divine plan. I kept thinking, “Did He place my best friends in my life for THIS exact moment?”

The next morning at 11:20, our realtor called. Jordan was on his lunch break at work so I called him and asked him to 3-way call her so we could hear the news together, good or bad. Her sweet, soft voice said, “Well, I’ve got some good news. They have accepted your offer on the house!” I don’t even remember the rest of the phone call because I was so excited! The rest of the day we spent gathering documents and making copies of things that the lender needed and we met our realtor to give her the check for the earnest money deposit. That was when we really started to get nervous because there were so many things that could go wrong. Especially during the pandemic.

We had to deposit $475 into our savings account for an appraisal fee and the home was appraised on April 18th. It took three days to receive our copy of the appraisal and we were really pleased with the results.

On April 20th we had to submit more documents, such as a letter of credit and a home insurance estimate. We were informed that once we closed on the house we would have to submit several other invoices to the bank.

On April 22 we received the news that our pest inspection had been completed and our realtor sent us over the report. On the 24th we recieved our final approval.

On Tuesday, April 28, the title company called and set our closing date for May 11 at 9:00am.

Jordan took off from work May 6-12 so we could get everything packed and get started on things that needed to be done prior to moving, such as getting a cashier’s check to take to closing, calling the cable and utility companies and the million other places we needed to call to change our address. We got movers scheduled and spent a lot of time looking online for new living room furniture. We also had to schedule our final walkthrough with our realtor.

On May 10, which was also Mother’s Day, we met our realtor at the house at 10am to do our final walkthrough. Everything looked great. We turned on every light fixture, checked for any signs of leaks under sinks, opened and closed each door, inspected ceilings and walls, opened windows, etc.

On Monday, May 11, we woke up at 6 o’clock and got ready. We met our realtor at the title company at 9am and by 9:45 we were OFFICIALLY homeowners!

That morning we bought a new living room set so we would have enough furniture for each room in the house. Jordan and Kylan spent the day moving all of our boxes while Jordan’s aunt helped me unpack everything and helped me organize our kitchen and upstairs bathroom.

We are so incredibly grateful for our family that helped us by moving some of our stuff, helping unpack, helping organize, and bringing by small gifts such as new trashcans, kitchen towels, a shower curtain and bathroom curtains. We are still adjusting, but we’re soaking up every moment of this exciting time.