Category Archives: home

It is possible! It’s a process, and a journey but it’s something so Worth it and it doesn’t have to be stressful!

Yeah you heard right!

It doesn’t have to be stressful!

So let me step back real quick, anything you want to do or have requires putting time and work into it! It takes dedication and the persistence to stick with it even if it gets hard! So with that being said you too can do anything you want! Anything you REALLY want! As long as your willing to stick with it and put in the time it takes to get it.

Want to go on vacation? Or start your own business? Or own your own house? You can, but are you willing to put the time and effort to get those things? That is the question you have to answer for yourself.

My husband, Dustin, and I have been married a little over a year now. We have been together 5 years in total and just bought our first home back in April! Looking back it really does seem that long ago, like everything went by so fast, but the road getting here was definitely no open highway drive!

We moved into our first townhouse, six months into our relationship, to this small town in the middle of nowhere. We pretty much became non-existent during that whole year and after the year was up we had to make the tough decision to move back in with Dustin’s parents.

Let me just stop real quick to say, God Bless the whole House family!

You will never met a better family, and I seriously am the luckiest to be blessed to have them as my family now! They took us in when we needed and allowed not only myself but our big ol baby Zowey to stay with them!

It was husband, my both my in-laws, my sister-in-law, two dogs, my other sister-in-law that would come home on the weekends from college, and myself all in this house. Somehow though, we all managed, we all just flowed together every day. Going into it I was so nervous, and honestly, embarrassed, but it went so much more easily then I could have ever thought. They immediately made me feel so welcomed and loved and, like I said, God Bless that family! That year turned out to be one of the biggest blessings too, I got the best job working with my mother-in-law at our insurance firm!

After that year though we were able to get our new rental house that we had for two years! It was a nice starter place. Perfect for my husband and myself and Zowey! Then we got Callie.

Callie is our, now 2 year old, Aussie and she is our little sissy! She is the sweetest thing in the world and her hugs make me melt! We got her the first year at that house and then a short year later we got Mamma. Mamma was my friends dog but her and her family were moving out of the country so they couldn’t take her, so we adopted her! She is our potato!

Now though, with my husband, me and three dogs, our home was starting to feel a tad cramped! It was time.

It took us exactly 4 months, viewing 22 houses, putting offers in on 8 houses, running and rerunning back to the bank for updated bank statements over and over, and so many “I’m over it!” before we got our home.

Remember when I said it takes dedication for something you want? Remember I said it takes time? Yeah…it takes it all when buying a house, but!

Yes there is a but!

But…I am going to give you a few tips and tricks to help get you started in your house buying process to help make it less of a stress for you!

One:

⁃ Make a list of what you want! – Go crazy with it! You want windows in every room? Put it on the list! You want at least 4 bedrooms? On the list! Put down anything and everything you want in a house! This is your dream, this is your goal! Put it down and read it over and over!

Two:

⁃ Make a list of what you can live without! – I know, kinda takes away from the first one, but hear me out! Now that you have it all listed out, Everything you want, big or small, you need to narrow down. Heck, if you can get everything on your list Whooo! You go girl! Unfortunately though, more times than not your not going to find a house that has exactly everything you want. Unless you build, and then again, You go girl!!! Narrow down though. If you can live without certain things on your list DONT MARK IT OFF, put a little mark next to it! You don’t have to take away, cause hey you may find it in a house, just mark so you know that’s not necessarily needed!

Three:

⁃ Really look at your budget! – some of you are probably thinking, “what the junk is a budget?” And in that case, honey, bless you. If you are getting ready to buy a house, or really buy anything that is a major purchase you’ve got to have a budget!! You’ve got actually sit down and look at what got, what you don’t, what you want, what you need, and how much you really really can afford! Buying a house takes time right? This is probably the biggest time piece!

*Make sure you budget how much you can go over asking price too! Most houses, specially in todays market, are going $20-$30K over asking! I know, WHAT?! It’s right though! On average your gonna pay about $15K over. THANKFULLY we got blessed and the house we went to purchase, at first we went about 15K over, but appraised for less so whoo hoo!

Four:

⁃ Look at the Neighborhoods and school districts! – I know when you first start to look at houses it gets all, “oh look at the bathrooms!”, “Look at these closest!”, Or “that kitchen!”. It’s so much fun looking! And it should be! This could potentially be your new home! You need to have fun with this! You also need to be safe and find something you actually need! Do you have kids and need to be by a school? Will the commute to work be an easy one? Do you have three crazy pups and need a big yard like us? These are things you need to look at and consider as well in buying your home.

Five:

⁃ Okay here it is the biggest tip I can give! DO NOT GET OVERWHELMED AND DO NOT SETTLE! – just saying this makes me laugh! I say this in hopes that you won’t be like me and you’ll actually understand, you have time! I tend to over do things and if there is something I want I put everything into it till its mine. Not a bad thing, but in this case I was constantly putting in stress and getting stress back. You have time! The first house you see you’ll, 50/50, either be, “Oh my gosh, I need it!”, Or “Oh nooo, not happening!” This is a common feeling! My only advice on this is go into the viewings thinking your this awesome house critique! Like one of those home improvement shows with the people that walk into a house and just start pointing out what they like, what they don’t, and what they want to change and update. Be like this! Go in and find what you love, find what you dont, and find what could be done to make it better! If you do this with every house you’ll start to get a clearer picture of the house you actually want! Don’t get so overwhelmed with the actual process of buying that it takes the fun out of actually shopping! I don’t know about you but I love shopping and this was the biggest purchase we are probably gonna ever make so we wanted to have fun with the actual process! Probably why we saw 22 different houses… I’ll fully take that was all me but hey what can you do!

Biggest thing though, don’t settle either! There are so many houses out there if you’ve been looking for a while and are tired and just want to say screw it, dont! You want to go with that one you saw last week that didn’t have the yard you wanted but it has four bedrooms that you need? Don’t settle. You want that awesome house with the perfect bathrooms and closests but its over an hour from your work? Don’t settle! This process takes time! Sometimes it takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months like ours, but sometimes its takes more! What if you do go with one of those houses then in the next two months another comes up that has all that you want and more! Two more months! Thats all you had to wait to get your dream home? Could you do it?

• Key note – in today’s market, houses are going like crazy! Like seriously crazy! Those 22 we went and viewed, all under contract and gone within three days! Three days y’all! That is insane! Do not stress yourself out trying to get in and see a house and feel obligated to put an offer on one you don’t really like!

No house is going to be perfect! Again, unless you build it. So don’t go into this process thinking it has to be perfect, find something that works for you and has what you want, what you need and what you love!

Another big tip I need to put out there, TALK TO YOUR PARTNER!

If you are married or in a relationship you can not do this by yourself! This is something you both are going in on, something you both will live in together, and I hope, make home together! You need to communicate, you both need to sit and make that list! You both need to sit and redo that list! You both need to find houses you both wanna see! You both need to have an opinion on your future! This is a huge step and going into without full support, and I mean you supporting them and they supporting you, then this process will crush you. It will make you stressed. You need support and you need to give it!

I hope this helps to at least get you started in this process! It’s a lot, I won’t lie to you, but isn’t anything that you actually want? Question is, is it worth it?

If you truly want it, you can have it! It is possible, and the journey can be fun, you just gotta go for it!