Hello friends!
I have some exciting/nerve-wracking news!
We put in an offer on a house today!
[ picture stolen from my Girl’s Weekend this past summer. seems to fit though, right? ]
It’s a little more complicated than that though…
Here’s what happened:
Wednesday (8 days ago as of me typing this): we looked at this house at night. I remember being kind of meh about it when looking at Zillow, but in person…a whole different story! Especially when you factored in that the backyard is a freaking state park. No backdoor neighbors ever!! (I swear I like people but the privacy and view sounds awesome.)
Saturday (5 days ago): Dave and I checked out the house again during the day AND with Dave’s dad, AKA inspector Bob. Inspector Bob is super good at finding problems with houses. This has historically made me super depressed/nervous/horrified about whatever house we are looking at, but this time we were pleasantly surprised that he approved. He was basically looking for things to point out like noticing dust on top of the fridge and asking if there was ever a fire in the house (I’m sure he had his reasons..but…no.).
Saturday night (5 days ago): Dave wanted to sleep on it, but we have been experienced first hand that you can’t always wait to put an offer in. Our real estate agent who is a family friend AND who has been very very patient with us and all around super chill about things told us not to wait—so we listened to her and put in an offer.
Sunday (4 days ago): The seller’s agent told them about our offer and after they countered with a barely lowered price. Long story short—they wanted to stay at the asking price and were being super stubborn. Since we weren’t willing to get very close to the listed price, the deal was “dead in the water.” Boo.
Wednesday (last night): After thinking about it a few days, we decided to give it another go and put in our best offer—just in case they would take it. It doesn’t hurt, right?
Thursday (today as I’m typing): I can’t even handle the wait!! I know it will work out for the best in the end, but I’ve definitely gotten attached to the idea of calling this house our home for the next 10-15 years.
We’ve been looking at houses since November (and online for months before that). I’ve learned a few things along the way and I thought I’d share them with you if you’re a new house hunter.
5 Things I Have Learned About House Hunting
1. Things happen MUCH faster on the 20 minute house hunting shows. I mean they find their house in 20 minutes…after looking at 3! We’ve looked at over a dozen so far and probably considered a hundred online. Then there is the part about putting in an offer. The 24 hours the seller has to consider your offer feels like for.e.ver. And my stomach is a ball of anxiety the whole time.
2. Zillow doesn’t know everything. If you’ve been house hunting in the past year or two, you might have heard of the Zillow app. While it’s super handy for searching yourself, about 25% of the time the house we found was sold. One in particular still haunts me since it was on Zillow 14 days, was PERFECT, and was already sold by the time we texted our real estate agent about it.
3. You can’t have everything. I know we had our list of things we NEEDED, but really most of those things were just wants. And since we don’t have an unlimited budget, we are realizing that we can’t have allthethings. Sadly, a 3 car garage for Dave Cakes and a super deluxe kitchen for me aren’t both in the cards for us at this point.
4. Be open minded. Things I thought I would HATE, I ended up not minding in houses and things that I thought I NEEDED don’t seem as important anymore. For example: apparently I like the inside of cookie cutter homes (still not super fond of an entire neighborhood looking alike). Dave and I have said that we didn’t want a “cookie cutter house” like Hearthstone Homes or the like, but about 1 in 3 we like on Zillow have ended up being one of those cookie cutter homes. Go figure.
There are also aspects of a house that Dave and I were separately super stubborn on, but have relaxed on over time in favor of not murdering each other compromising. Compromise is definitely necessary when two individuals are looking for a home.
5. “Don’t get attached to a house” is way easier said than done. Part of the process of picking out a house is picturing yourself in that house. Where will your furniture go? Where will you eat breakfast each morning? How far of a drive is it to/from work? Where will the future kids play with their toys?
Thinking about all of these things is bound to stir up some emotional attachments to a house especially if you’ve looked at it more than once (and, er, obsessively looked at it on Zillow). I’ve tried to remain logical through this process but the fact of the matter is that house hunting can and SHOULD involve emotion. If you’re not even a little in love with a house, why bother? And when you’re even a little in love with a house, it can be sad to hear that it sold while you were trying to make your logical decision.
I totally cried over a house and don’t regret it at all. It’s part of the process. Also I cry at a lot of things, so in the grand scheme of things it’s definitely not the silliest thing I’ve cried over. 
Bonus: If you’re using a real estate agent, pick the right one. Dave and I have been super fortunate to have a family friend who is a real estate agent to help us and offer advice. She is not pushy, always has the information or will find it quickly, doesn’t offer her opinion unless asked, and tells it like it is even if it means she loses out on a sale. She even knows when to excuse herself from the room when Dave and I are arguing over where we would put our couch (sorry to make it awkward, Liz). From what I’ve heard, not all agents are like this. If you have a super pushy agent and she/he is making you uncomfortable, get a different one! House hunting is stressful enough as it is.
[Tweet “5 Things I’ve Learned About House Hunting #reallife #thinkingoutloud”]
So…here’s to either getting an amazing home or having my dreams crushed again. HA.
Tell me…
Have you been house hunting before? Was it super stressful for you or am I just being dramatic?
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Love these tips, Amanda. And I’m so proud/happy for you guys for hanging in there and putting in an offer! I cannot wait to hear more about this house hunting and I will be hoping for the very best for you and Dave! And Zoey cat. 🙂 By the way, that House Hunters show? They already picked the house out before they show them looking at the houses. Just thought I’d let you know, even shows aren’t real about that. 🙂
Okay I already told you this, but I feel so betrayed by television! Tricky tricksters…I always wondered how they could only look at 3 homes haha.
Ah, that huge champagne bottle is LEG-IT! House hunting is such an exciting experience, and like you said, it definitely will work out for the best. I hope you share on social media if you do get it – I’m sure you have learned alot through the process! Thanks for these tips – we will actually be in this position sooner rather than later!
Riight?? I didn’t buy it because I would have had to carry it around a couple of hours haha but I wish I did!
I will definitely be keeping people updated on house hunting stuff…it can be pretty rough, but it’s a big decision so it is what it is! 🙂
I love this! I’m actually a realtor in Iowa and I agree with every single one of these points so much! Zillow is usually inaccurate and hgtv house hunters is not real life haha. Wishing you luck on your offer!
Well that makes me feel good to know I learned some legit lessons!!
Not getting attached to a house sounds like SOLID advice! We will probably look into buying a house this spring/summer.
Yes if you can manage to NOT get attached, that’s ideal because sometimes you have to walk away if they are pushing your price point. :/
Good luck with house hunting and definitely contact me if you need advice or just support, friend! <3 <3
We had a specific area to look in since we wanted a certain school district and we looked at Every house in that area…some of them twice. When we finally settled on one, we went back and forth with the seller for a couple of weeks on price because she didn’t want to budge, but there were issues that had to be fixed. I had lots of tears, and lots of “should we let it go?” In the end we gave in and took the deal. I know what you are going through and its work it once its all over, but I don’t want to do it again!!! Good luck!
Omg a couple of weeks?? That would be sheer agony for me! Ours was like a couple of days!!
Thanks for the kind words, friend!
eeeee, fingers crossed! a state park back yard sounds amazing! Tim and I have already said that our next house will have more land and a private-er setting.
hehe private-er. 😉 Yes I definitely love the idea of a pretty backdrop and no backdoor neighbors! Makes it feel less like we are still living in an apartment haha. They build houses close together these days!
Best of luck with the house offer Amanda! Nothing’s ever like it is on television. And I’m totally with you on backyard privacy. Love the champagne shot BTW.
haha so true about the television thing..I just didn’t realize HOW MUCH I was being lied to!!
Aaand thanks. I should have bought that bottle but I didn’t want to lug it around the rest of the day.
There will have to be compromise somewhere, it’s rare to find a house that has everything in the budget that is set. Thank you for sharing, what you have learned will help others.
I totally agree and we are definitely finding that out! I really hope this does help…I should have mentally prepared myself more before we got into this!!