House Hunters

We’ve recently decided to start searching for a house to buy in the area. Lots of things are impacting this idea of ours and we’ve been looking online at all sorts of houses in our price range. We applied to see what we could pre-approved for earlier this week and we’re still waiting to hear back. Last night, we drove by a house we saw online and realized the neighborhood was ghetto, run-down, dirty and just gross. There was trash on people’s lawns, lawns weren’t taken care of, the houses just looked dirty and old and we decided hell no.

We were close by another really nice house we had seen online and really liked but saw that there was a back up offer on it, but we decided to drive by anyways. It was in a gated community and we couldn’t remember the address, but we decided to drive around anyways and see if we could find it. Sure enough, we did find the community it was in! And the gate was open! We walked into the office right around 5 pm and it looked like the lady was closing up. Another guy who worked in the development was walking in at the same time and said we could come on in and we started looking at the community map and the plots of land. Seth pointed out the biggest lot and said it’d be an awesome one. We started talking to the lady and she said that they did have a few available houses that we had been looking at that we could tour. And one of them was even on the lot that Seth liked on the map! We hopped in our cars and followed her up the street to the house. It’s safe to say we fell in love with it pretty quickly (it’s a 4 bedroom + a den/home office, 2.5 bathroom, 2 car garage, large back yard, master bath with a walk in closet). It was pretty much everything we were looking for. We have an exceptionally large kitchen right now, with an island, that we love. The kitchen in the new house is a bit smaller, I think, but it might just be the layout. There isn’t an island, but I think we could easily make it work. We also currently have a pantry, and there’s a pantry (albeit not as big) in the new house.  We back to the office and the lady asked if we wanted to make an offer/write up a contract. We made an offer on it (which includes all of the closing costs include, a new refrigerator, a landscaped backyard (right now it’s just dirt) and a wooden fence to finish off the backyard.  I got an email last night at 10:30 from the lady (I’m not sure if she’s considered a realtor, she just works for the property development) that said our offer had been accepted!! We applied for the loan online to see if we could get pre-approved for the amount that we need. Even though she asked us if we wanted to write up a contract, to take it off the market to other lookers, I didn’t want to do that if we can’t get approved for the amount needed. I really don’t think we’ll have a problem, but I don’t want to tease myself. Ok, honestly I’m already in love with the house and it’s already a tease and I’m going to be very very sad if we don't get approved.

Right now, we’re anxiously awaiting a call back from the lender. We have an appointment tomorrow to go back and look at the house in the daylight and write up a contract, assuming we get approved. The lady also put early March as our possible closing date, assuming we get approved. The backyard would be perfect for Patrick too!! There is a little hill in it that he would love to tear up and down and roam free. There is a big flat spot by the back door that would allow for a hot tub too! It’s a house we can definitely grow into and we really want it.

Here’s to hoping it’s ours soon!

Oh, and P.S. Patrick was with us last night when we went on this adventure. The lady invited him into the office after we toured the house and she fell in love with him  (he’s a charmer, what can I say?!) When she emailed me, she addressed it to Seth, Stacy and Raymond!!! She called PATRICK Raymond!!! So today I’ve been calling him Raymond and he doesn’t seem to mind.

Here’s a picture of RAYMOND!!!! He also goes by Ray, for short.