If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this past weekend, my boyfriend and I closed on our first home! I thought I’d share the full home buying experience here, and if you’re interested, you can check out the Week in the Life Vlog I just uploaded to the YBC® app, which has a brief hour tour time lapse towards the end.
So at the top of the year, Ashley gave me a Passion Planner (you need one, if you don’t have one!!!). A Passion Planner is a planner that helps you achieve your goals. To begin, it asks you to make a wish list for what you want to achieve in three months, one year, three years, and in your lifetime. You set a timer and just let yourself dream big as you jot it all down, without worrying about the logistics.
On 1.16 I set a goal to have all my student loans paid off within a year. I wound up doing it within a few months (there’s a post on the YBC® app about how Dan and I collectively paid off over $30,000 of our student loans, if you’re curious as to how we did it). With that out of the way, I took a closer look at my original three year goal which was to buy a house. With mortgage rates as low as they are, and with so many people moving out of NYC to Connecticut, where we lived, we figured we might as well take a look.
We met with a mortgage lender, who approved us, and we locked in a rate at just a little over 3%. With a letter of approval, we called the first real estate agent we found, and met with her.
The first house we saw overlooked a lake. It was cute, and had so much beautiful natural light, but it was kind of tough to get to, down a bunch of back roads, and the driveway was pretty steep which may not sound like a big deal but Connecticut winters can be icy. Also, there wasn’t much of a yard, and I had really envisioned a good amount of grassiness for Buckles :)
We had tried to see two other houses but they were purchased (sight unseen!) by people coming up from New York City - this market was getting crazy, and we were feeling the pressure to find the right house and make a move.
The next house we saw was mostly updated and modern, but the driveway was a mess and tough to pull in and out of into the road. The house was cool but the layout was pretty odd, and there wasn’t an en suite bathroom set up, which Dan had his heart set on. He’s really handy but with the layout of the bedrooms, there wasn’t an option to create another bathroom without it being a major renovation. It was at the end of this house tour that I felt like our agent wasn’t happy with us. She just gave me weird vibes - didn’t come in the house with us, didn’t really talk it out with us and didn’t seem to care about our thoughts after we exited the house.
The next house we saw was a very cool house with lots of character. It almost looked like it had a silo attached to it! The set up was really odd, though, and it would’ve needed a ton of renovations to make it what we wanted. At the end of this tour, our agent essentially told us we didn’t strike her as buyers and said, “I don’t understand why you are wasting my time.”
My boyfriend explained we were buyers because we actually, by that time, had a signed contract for our tenants, so we needed to be out in a month! So that was a little awkward. In the car ride home, he was like, “We’re buying a house, not a pair of jeans! How can she expect us to see a house and just buy it just like that?!” But she truly was. She was selling multiple houses sight unseen, without contingencies to New Yorkers, and I guess those were the kind of buyers she was used to.
Feeling somewhat dejected, I told a personal training client of mine about our experience, and she connected me with the agent she used. The area she purchased in is a pretty affluent neighborhood, and so I wanted to make it clear to the agent that we had a budget, and let her know up front that we are first time home buyers and will need some hand holding. She told me to relax, and that there was no pressure, and suggested the towns we should look in to get the most bang for our buck.
I sent a few homes to see, she responded that three of the five were under contract (the market is crazy right now!) but that we have appointments for two of them two days later.
Another came up in the interim and she was able to get us an appointment to see it a few hours later. It was a fantastic price just around the corner from my studio, and my boyfriend was ready to buy it sight unseen because we knew it would go fast. By this point, houses were starting to go at more than asking price. Our agent said she would never let us buy a house sight unseen, and said to wait for the appointment, and good thing we did. There was about a 45 degree slope that went from one end of the house to the other! It was wild. It was also smaller than what we were looking for.
The other two we saw with her were great, though. The first was a lake house that had been completely redone. The yard had all these beautiful little gardens throughout, and it came with a golf cart you could take down to the lake (about a 300m drive). It was so great, but felt just a little small, and I couldn’t get past the telephone pole wiring that ran through the back yard. It was such an eyesore, given the price. Further, there wasn’t a fence around the yard for the dog, and the house was at the top of our budget. And lastly, the house was at the end of a lane that wasn’t paved, which our realtor said that as far as resale value goes, that’s probably why this house had been on the market for so long.
The next house we saw, I just got a feeling. I knew this was the one. It’s got the best curb appeal, and a beautiful yard and landscaping at the front of the house. When we walked in, it just had a vibe I loved. Something about it just felt right. I could envision Christmas there with my family - I could see it all so clearly. And it had literally everything we were looking for:
Fenced in yard for Buck
A garage for the cars with ample storage
A finished basement which we will convert into a home gym
Space to film my yoga videos
Space for both of us to have offices
A guest room
An en suite bedroom which Dan was hoping for
Easy access to the highway, but far enough away so it’s quiet
an outdoor space where we can sit and have our morning coffee.
a bit of character - there are two fireplaces, and a big great room
It’s not perfect - there are some updates we want to do, but they’re simple cosmetic things, for the most part. The bigger projects - the kitchen renovation and bathrooms will be in a few years’ time, but it was totally move-in ready.
At our inspection, looking at the basement
The house had been on the market for about 25 days, and had already had two offers, but they fell through. More on that in a second. We put in kind of a low offer, and to our surprise, they came back a little above that with a contingency that they want the inspection done within that week. We got the inspection done the next day, and the inspector said the house was pretty close to perfect. Eventually we’ll have to redo the deck, but otherwise, it was all good.
The inspection was really cool. I loved learning about all the little things that you have to consider with your home.
Measuring the deck
So, like I said, the house had two prior offers, but both buyers walked. The first time the offer fell through it was because of a firesafe wall that needs to be put up in the basement. I’m not sure what the deal was, if that just scared the buyers or what, but our inspector told my boyfriend what to do, and he’s super handy, and said it’d be so simple to do. The second time was because the septic needed something done to it, and the owner did it, but the buyers had wanted an all new septic (which wasn’t required at all), so they walked. The upside for us was that since the septic had been inspected literally a week prior after the work was done to it, we didn’t feel we needed to do yet another septic inspection, so that saved us a little money.
The closing took just under 30 days, and at our walk through, we were able to meet the owners, which was nice because they told us so many things about the house, and showed us how to change the air filters, water filters, etc. These are all things we were basically clueless about prior since we were used to condo living. They also told us about a co-op they use for their oil which saved them money and got a free yearly cleaning, and they told us about their preferred garbage pick up company (another thing we were clueless about!). So it was, all in all, a really smooth process.
Exhausted at the end of the moving day
We moved in last weekend, and are still getting settled (to be honest, it looks like a bomb went off in there right now - our stuff is everywhere). And we’re hoping to get started on three projects this week:
Create a usable outdoor space: Our deck is huge, but it is empty, so I purchased a couch, and am on the hunt for an outdoor table we can eat at. We also have a really cool lighting project we’re going to do out there - I can’t wait to share that!
Turn the finished basement into a gym: We both are really into working out and the downstairs space is perfect for a home gym. We’re going to order matting and turf, and get it painted.
Paint the following rooms:
Guest room
Great room
Our room and closet
Kitchen and foyer
It still feels so surreal to be in such a beautiful, spacious home. I can’t believe we did it! I’m so beyond grateful and excited for this next chapter in my life. If you’d like to see a mini tour of the house, check out the latest post on the App (iOS, Google Play).