House Hunters: Royer Style

Alright, here's another Royer version of one of my favorite shows (House Hunters on HGTV). I'm going to give you a taste of our house hunting experience by giving you three choices and you need to figure out which house we made an offer on (just don't tell on me for using the images from RMLS):

House #1: 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath 2316 square feet between two levels $179,000

+ Potential for growth, with full basement in great condition - already has a nearly-finished bathroom and two bedrooms (they just need larger windows to be considered bedrooms)

+ Huge corner lot, the yard is actually another legal lot.
+ Large bedrooms on upper level, double closets in master bedroom.

+ Awesome, private patio

+ Very close to my family

+ Great neighborhood

- Only two bedrooms on main level

- No master bath

- Garage not attached

- Needs some cosmetic updates, especially in the kitchen.

House #2: 3 bedroom, 2 bath 2778 square feet between two levels $177,000
+ HUGE house with a lot of potential for growth by finishing the basement (like the last house, there are already two finished rooms but this one actually has a large enough window for a bedroom, but no closet)

+ Brand new kitchen

+ Three bedrooms on the main level

+ Master bath

+ AMAZING neighborhood and location, within walking distance (two blocks) to the beautiful Sorosis Park.

- Only has carport

- Very little yard. The backyard is nearly unusable, with a large outbuilding taking up most of the sloped hill that is the yard.

- Some cosmetic updates still remain.

- The basement would need work before it could be used.

House #3 - 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, 1400 square feet on one level $179,000

+ Great neighborhood, with an LDS neighbor across the street and a great co-worker of Jared's two doors down.

+ TONS of updating (granite, flooring, moldings, fixtures, windows, etc.). Freshly remodeled and move-in ready.

+ Heat pump

+ Private backyard

+ A full blown laundry ROOM!

+ Master bath, although it is only a half

+ Attached, two car garage (with one large door instead of two small ones like our last house)

- One of the smallest houses we've looked at in this price range.

- Front yard is the biggest part of the yard, so it would need fencing.

- Heat pump is old

- Only one closet in master bedroom

So which one was it???

Sorry, I couldn't resist the trick question...we made offers on ALL THREE of these houses. Which one did we get? NONE of them!

Before I show you our future place, I need to tell you more of the story.

I had texted my dad to tell him about House #1 by saying "If we were able to buy a house right now, this is the one we would get." My dad (a man of action) said "Well, call the realtor." I laughed and said that we couldn't buy a house (thinking we needed a down payment now that we aren't first time homebuyers). His response: "Well, I can." They'd been looking for an investment property and this one, with the proximity to their house, would have been ideal. So I called the realtor and we were looking at it within the hour. The realtor was shocked to hear it wasn't ME that was interested in buying and he told us about a loan option for us that didn't require a down payment (turned out it was the same loan we used when we bought our first home...apparently not just for first time buyers). So even though we missed out on this house to a cash offer, it got us hunting.

So we got prequalified and our realtor said that with the condition of the market we shouldn't shy away from looking at places at the top of or above our price range. That's when we looked at House #2, along with the house we are currently under contract on and four others. The reason we bid on House #2 was because it had less cosmetic issues and it was starting IN our price range. (The house we are buying started out 25,000 above our comfort zone). There were definitely some negatives, like the lot size, but the positives outweighed them. House #2 was a no-go because there is a magic number that they need to get out of the house and we just couldn't do it.

The night we heard about House #2 we were pretty bummed, but decided to go look at another house we had been eyeing since moving to town and, after being sold and the buyer backing out, it was fresh on the market again. It was not going to work for us, but our realtor then took us to House #3, which hadn't been listed yet. We peeked through the windows, liked what we saw and wrote an offer that night. Since it was Friday, we gave them until Monday morning to respond. In the meantime they listed the house over the weekend to see if they would get any other offers (can you blame them?!) They had at least one other offer that was better than ours, so we lost this house.

That's when I asked Jared..."Why didn't we go for that other house? We were seriously considering it along with House #2..." So we called our realtor and looked at it again.

HOUSE #4 - 3 bedrooms, 1 full & 2 partial baths on two levels, 2360 sq ft, $189,500

Positives (compared to the other three houses) - This house is on 1/3 of an acre, and that space is divided nicely between the front, side and back yards. There are only two neighbors, and only one of those is very close. The basement is a daylight basement (a huge plus compared to the other two homes with basements that we offered on). If you can tell from the picture above...our house backs up to an orchard. It is a beautiful view! The other plus is that there are three bedrooms on the main floor, which will be very nice!

One drawback to this property is that (as you can tell from the awesome wheel motif) is that it is quite dated. There are not only cosmetic things to take care of, but some safety issues also (those will be taken care of before we close). This house will be a lot of work, but out of all of the houses that we looked at, we feel like this one has the most potential for our family.

Alright, so back to the story...We thought about this one for a little bit longer (mostly because it was so expensive and it needed SO much work!) We decided to make a low offer that was in our comfort zone, figuring there would be a counter offer that was in our "we can do it, but it will be tight" zone and then the tough decision would come. (Note: the latter was the zone we would have been in for all three of the other houses). We also asked for our closing costs to be covered and for them to pay for the repairs. Tall order, I know... The funny thing was that I had not a single pang of anxiety or stress with this offer, which I had with the other three places. Total calm. At the time, I couldn't figure out of it was due to my being numb to the process of making offers or if it was confirmation that this was the right decision.

Turns out there WAS a counter offer, but rather than the ten thousand more that we were expecting it was only $2,500 more and they agreed to all of our other terms. (I know...WOW!) We just sent them our list of repairs after yesterday's inspection, so we will see if they agree to those.

We feel so blessed to be able to buy another home. We know that this is the place for us and we continue to pray that the deal will close.