♥ I am the Luckiest ♥: House Hunters Reality: Our First Home!

After 3 weeks with no AC, a leaky ceiling, and an HOA from hell, Kary and I decided it was time to move. We played around with the idea of buying but weren't sure if it was the right time, especially since we don't have a big chunk of change for a down payment. We looked at some rentals but then with the advice of my friend Lynn and a great realtor recommendation, decided to go for it.
We called Kolleen and got started right away. It was pretty awesome to hear her ask what kind of house we were looking for. She had me come up with a "wish list" and I was realistic. She sent me a few options and Kary and I started getting really excited. We went through a mortgage company she recommended and got started on the paperwork. A few days later we heard back and it wasn't good news. She basically told us we couldn't qualify for half we thought. We were pretty bummed but just figured we'd keep renting and save up. But, this wasn't far from over. My mom suggested we try the Credit Union. So, on a Friday we rushed over to the credit union, signed up for an account and got busy on the paperwork. The girl helping us was really cool and didn't even mind that London was ducking down behind her hair dropping a deuce in his diaper...ha.
After a few days she got back to us and told us we'd qualify for what we thought and actually $25,000 more than that! We were sooo pumped so I got ahold of Kolleen right away and we set up a day to go house hunting. We bookmarked a few good options and set it up for a Thursday.
I met Kolleen at a blue ranch in Huntersville first. The house had a great yard and really nice on the inside but at first it appeared a little small and was a ranch and was in a less than beautiful neighborhood. I brought Izzy with me and Lynn generously watched London. I was quickly impressed with the ranch house and couldn't get it out of my mind as we traveled from house to house to house. I'm pretty sure we looked at about 8-10 houses that day. None of the houses stood out like the first one and I honestly don't even remember them. They were very generic. Finally, while in a Mooresville cookie cutter I told Kolleen I was ready to put an offer in at that first home! I called Kary, changed Izzy's diaper on the floor of the generico house and headed to Kary's work to fill out the offer paperwork! Of course, Kary agreed right away! Kolleen showed up and we made the offer. A few hours later she got back to us. After a few counter offers we finally settled at them paying closing costs, and throwing in the brand new LG washer and dryer and us paying asking price. It was super fast and exciting! We did a walk through the next day and that was Kary's first time seeing the house, he loved it! We then had the appraisal which was $15,000 more than we paid. Then we had the inspection and after a few weeks of a mold scare all was good to go and safe! So, we set closing day at August 29th (my mama's birthday) and then played the waiting game.............within those 45 days we had ceiling leaks, I ran into the garage with my car and our landlord asked us to place the ad, show the place ,etc (so not our responsibility!) Finally, the time was here and after A LOT of harrassment from our landlord, we were FREE! I don't even want to get into the bs she tried with us but all that matters was we were HOME OWNERS!
We had our closing on August 29th as planned and Kolleen, her cool lawyer guy and the previous owners all showed up. They all loved Izzy and London and I could tell the previous owners were happy someone as cute as us bought their house ;-) The woman even showed up a few days later with a check of ours that was delivered to her by accident and she even gave me advice on how to care for the flowers in the yard. She was sweet.
We moved in August 30th and paid a moving company and were moved in within one day. Kary's parents came and helped with the kids and Risa and Brent came to check it out and we had a bathroom dance party. We were sooo happy to be HOME and have been having fun doing all kinds of projects. We have big plans for this house and can't wait to build memories in a house that actually belongs to us! Good riddance landlords. WE ARE HOME! <3 p="">