“I just wish we could go back to the excitement, to the rush of buying our first place together. Now all we feel is exhaustion and defeat. Like I have said repeatedly, we knew this wouldn’t be easy. We knew that it would be a fight. It is never easy to buy a house, especially when you are 23 with limited finances. But I never expected to feel this defeated.”
Me, during our house hunt in 2010.
Our last experience with house hunting was less than ideal. Partially due to the naivety of two 23-year-olds, partially because of a complete lack of savings, and mostly due to the crazy pricing in Chicago.
Needless to say, we were both a bit more subdued in our excitement this time around. Granted, the market here in Des Moines is much better and it goes without saying that we are in a better place, financially. But there’s no doubt that the memories of 32 foreclosures will come back to haunt you, and put a damper on the house hunting excitement.
 |
| First house of the 2016 hunt. |
Thankfully, we’ve been surprised about how different the experience has been this time. It probably We saw three homes just over a week ago, and while none of them were “the one,” every single one was livable. No moldy basements, no “F&*% the bank” scrawled on the wall of a foreclosure. Today, we saw four more. And get this – one of them might be the one.
I say might for a few reasons. We do have the disclosure, and it mentions that the basement has been known to get a “trickle” of water. Our Realtor is asking the seller to be a bit more specific on their definition of a trickle. After our last experience with plumbing, anything to do with water in a house where there isn’t supposed to be water scares the crap out of me.
I also say might because we almost feel like it would be too good to be true. We’ve seen seven houses – this one was the fourth we’d seen. After 32 houses last time, it seems completely crazy that the “hunt” part of house hunting might possibly be over. Plus, from what we’ve heard, there will be a LOT more houses coming on the market in the next few weeks, so we’d hate to move forward with this one only to find one we really like later on. On the other hand, this house checks every box on our list – part of me is saying JUMP! Plus, I know that more houses on the market means the “rat race” for homes here will get out of control. The market here moves FAST when a good house pops up. Example: a really adorable, well remodeled house came up in our pre-selected listings on Tuesday. I emailed our Realtor Wednesday asking her to add it to the list of homes we’d see Saturday (today). She emailed me back Thursday to let me know it was already under contract and off the market. In less than 48 hours.
That isn’t something we really feel like dealing with. We had enough stress last time – I don’t want to continually get excited about homes that might get snagged before we even have a chance to put in an offer. So part of us says we should maybe see where this one will lead.
For now, we are waiting to hear back from the seller about the water in the basement. If that comes back clear, we might just be putting in an offer! That is, if someone doesn’t snag it from us first…
Good luck with this one. I have fond memories of reading your posts about the last house hunt!
Thanks, Steve! It is kinda fun to look back – now that we're through it, at least!
good luck