The Story of Our House Hunt

Doug and I were trying to decide if we should buy a house here in Texas. We did not have the best experience with our last house because we bought at the height of the market. We were told our house would go up $30,000 in a few years and we would be able to sell it and use it as a stepping stone. Then the market crashed. The house we paid $212,000 for was now worth $65,000! When we ended up moving to Texas we had to do a short sale. It broke our hearts because we had PERFECT credit : (

But God had it all worked out because with Doug's new job we were required to live on property. The duplexes we were moving into were 3 bedrooms and had a yard so it wouldn't be as bad as moving from a house to a tiny apartment and we could make it work.

Then fast forward 2 years and add 2 more children and we became cramped for space. We were at the maximum occupancy for this duplex. So Doug asked the Board of Directors to vote on if we could live off the property and they voted in favor! The other concern we had was that originally Doug's job was only a 3 year contract and so we were afraid to buy a house and then Doug not have a job a year later. So the board changed his contract to make it indefinite : )

We decided to go look at a new build that we got a thing in the mail for and they told us that we could not buy until 3 years had passed since our short sale. So we had to wait another 6 months to begin our search.

We have been counting down those 6 months and the time had finally arrived to start looking. Doug and I prayed that if God wanted us to buy a house here that He would show us a sign. We asked to see a double rainbow or to get a large check in the mail. Well guess what I saw the VERY NEXT DAY? A double rainbow as clear as could be! Doug and I both have pictures of it on our phones : )

So we embarked on the house hunt. And it has been Cuh-Ray-Zee! We kept finding houses we loved but then we would get outbid on every single one of them. We were looking at all foreclosures and shortsales because that was the most square footage we could get in our price range.

One week though, we went to go look at a new build that was above our price range but our realtor said that we would qualify for this program called DAP (down payment assistment program) where the government would pay $14,000 for our house. So we went to check them out. The house was really beautiful. It was built by the same builder who constructed our house in AZ, Centex. The house was also located 20 minutes closer to the freeway and in a much better school district than the other houses we had been looking at. So we went and sat with the salesman and our realtor and started working numbers. Well it turned out we did not qualify for DAP so the house was out of the question.

We returned to looking at foreclosures. Doug started worrying about all the repairs the houses we were bidding on would need because they were older and would probably need new rooves, new acs, and new water heaters soon. He also was concerned about the utility costs on these houses. We found another house we liked and we bid much higher than the asking price. We thought for sure this would be our house.

Then we got the call we had been anxiously waiting for...

And we did NOT get the house.

My heart was broken. I felt like we would never find a house.

Then our realtor called again that same day and said that the new build we had liked would actaully be in our price range and that the builder was willing to make us a deal to cover all closing costs and the upgrades we wanted. So we drove out to see it again. They showed us where our lot would be and threw in the upgrades we wanted. We went back the next day and picked out all of our colors and signed all the papers.

The house has everything we wanted! Here was our list for our dream home:
1. At least 1,900 sq ft. (The house is 2,100!)
2. 2 car garage- check!
3. 4 bedrooms and a gameroom- check!
4. A large kitchen (I call our current kitchen a hallway kitchen because one person barely fits in it. You can't open your fride and pantry at the same time. The new kitchen is a BIG square. It is set up almost exactly like our kitchen in our house in AZ except it has more cabinet space!)
5. Master bedroom on the same floor as the kids.- check!
6. Has a laundry room and not a laundry closet. - check!
7. Has the laundry room on the second floor so I don't have to constantly carry clothes up and down the stairs. - check!
8. Has a decent yard. - check!
9. On a culdesac street. - check!
10. In a nice neighborhood with ammenities like a pool and playground. - check!

Amazing, right? PLUS the house will be under warrantee and it is energy efficient! Our energy bill will only be $90 at the hottest time of the year! Now all we have to do is wait. They estimate our closing to be end of January/ early February. At least we have plenty of time to pack : )