I remember the moment when I said to my dad, 'it is time to buy my own house.' I was so excited, and was scared to death. Could I do it, what if I don't qualify, can I handle the payments by myself etc. I don't want to mess this up, that would be embarrassing.
My dad was a long time real estate agent and started asking me what I would want in a house. I started to think about it and I wrote down a wish list of things I wanted in my new home. I wrote down some things like I needed privacy, need a driveway, 3 bedrooms, a basement (this was back east), big trees in the yard, enough of a yard so I could put in a garden, close to the freeway, and an older home with character.
At the time of making the declaration to my dad that I wanted to buy my own home I had just gotten out of graduate school and had started working in our family mortgage business. I was living with my folks for a short bit while I got on my feet coming out of school. Once I decided to buy a home, I knew that I really didn't know if I could qualify given I had just gotten out of school and didn't have many resources to use for down payment etc. So I started looking around at different loan programs, took an application on myself and submitted myself for a loan approval. And then I waited. I was so nervous, what if they say no? On my way home that night and on the way into work the next morning I drove past the home dreaming about it that it would be mine someday. Several days later, I got my answers – I could by the house of my dreams. Now I just had to find it.
Several weeks later, my dad got a call from one of his real estate friends about an old house on a street that I vaguely remember from growing up as a kid. After work, I drove by the house and said to myself, I want to see the inside. So I told my dad that I wanted to see it so he said that he'd set up a walkthrough of the home. On my way home that night and on the way into work the next morning I drove past the home dreaming that it would be mine someday.
It took my dad a week to set up the walkthrough. It literally drove me nuts, I kept saying things like 'what if someone else puts in an offer on it before I can.' But when we finally got to go to the house, it was snowing and the house had big pine trees around it. As I drove into the driveway to the back part of the property I had a good feeling. It was just perfect – like a picture perfect postcard. I parked and got out of my car and looked at the house from the back. I loved it.
Soon the Realtor showed up and let my dad and I into the house. The first room we walked into was the kitchen. The kitchen had a huge gas stove – I was hooked. Oh, this was on my wish list too. Then we walked through the rest of the house. There were some funky painted rooms like a bright yellow one and a pink one. I knew I could paint those rooms. Then we walked into the living room and dining room areas. The ceilings were higher than the normal room height found in east coast rooms. I loved it. I knew I was home.
I told my dad and the agent that I wanted to put an offer in on the house. They both said that they could see it in my eyes that I wanted to buy the house, but said that I should think about it over night and let them know what I wanted to do in the morning. Well, I knew what I wanted to do, but I waited and thought about it over night. All that happened over night was that I wanted it even more.
We called the agent the next day and we wrote the purchase contract and presented my offer. After several counter offers, we finally settled on a price and my offer was accepted.
It took about a month to close the deal. I remember I got my keys on a Friday night. There I was, in my new home, with no furniture except for a kitchen table and some folding chairs in the kitchen and my bed. I had other furniture in storage but didn't get that out until the next day. I was home.
The bottom line for me was the perfect house was just something I knew when I saw it. The rest of the process was easy. I lived in that house for 7 years and loved every moment of it.
Article by Dale Stouffer, Mortgage Broker
