We Bought a House!

Kyle and I are official homeowners! For reals. It’s still a little surreal, and also a little nerve racking. But very, very exciting!

Kyle and I played around with the idea of buying a home for a few months before going out looking. We watched as homes for sale were posted online. We got an idea of what we would like and what we could afford. I talked with my cousin April, who is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker (as is my aunt Leslie), and she gave me some starting points and things to consider.

Sometime around February or March we saw a listing for a home in Farmington that had a layout we liked and plenty of square footage. And amazingly it was in our price range. We called April up and went out saw the home along with a few others. The house was a short sale, but we really liked it, so April encouraged us to put an offer on it. Short sales tend to drag on for months and months due to needing bank approval on any offers made. So, we thought, sure, why not. We really liked it. It was just what we were looking for; and if anything, it would be a learning experience for us to understand how to make an offer and what all goes into it. So, that same evening an offer was made on the home.

Fast forward to the middle of June. We hadn’t heard anything back about our offer on the home, and had put house buying on the back burner for a little while. We weren’t seeing anything we were real excited about. Then one day I got a phone call from April saying that the bank had finally reviewed the offers on the home and came back asking for slightly more money. And, the offer(s) ahead of us had dropped out. So, amazingly we had a shot at buying this home. We couldn’t believe it. In fact, I at first told April we weren’t interested. Silly, I know. I had just lost my home buying zeal- and the house is in Farmington, which is a little bit farther away. I told Kyle, and he told me I was crazy and had me call April back.

Then a few crazy weeks later we were homeowners. We actually closed on the home the very day Kyle’s parents flew into town (July 12). Kyle hadn’t mentioned anything to them about the home in hopes that we could surprise them by taking them to the home. We got really close, but didn’t have keys that day they first arrived (by a miracle and April’s great persistence we were able to get keys the next day). But, their reaction was still great when we surprised them with news that we had bought a house that very same day.

(No, we don’t have two cars. The SUV is my parent’s car.)

So, now here we are, living in our very own house. Hailey calls the house her Farmington House. And the neighbor’s dogs are her “neighbors-dogs”.  She’s been happy with living here and made the transition really well. One of the first days we were staying in the home Hailey had taken all of her clothes out of her drawers, and anything else that was around her room and put it all into an empty box. The box was stuffed full. At first I was upset, but then I discovered that she had boxed up her stuff to take it back to her old home. She didn’t understand that we were staying in the house for good. I thought it was so funny.

The house was built in 1987, which to us feels so new! So many of the homes we had looked at in Bountiful were built in the 50’s and 60’s. There is plenty of updating that needs to be done to the house. But there wasn’t anything so horrible we felt needed immediate attention, besides the yard. The irrigation water was shut off, so the grass began to die. But it’s coming back. The yard is a mess with crab grass and dandelions, and the back yard is a complete jungle. But it’ll get there. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be fun to see what kind of changes we’ll be able to make.

We’re welcome to visitors- we have a guest bedroom. We’re accepting reservations now. :)