And they say planning a WEDDING is stressful?!?

Try buying a house!!!  Ok, so I know I’m not the first girl to go through the process of buying a house-but let me tell you I had NO idea what it was going to be like!!  I’ve heard terms tossed around like-offers, closing costs, escrow, contingency periods etc.  I never really knew what any of it was, but now that we are going through it, I definitely had a crash course in real estate 101!!

Here’s how it happened….

We’ve looked at quite a few houses.  Hundreds on the internet, and quite a few in person.  Every house we looked at left plenty to be desired.  Because of the market, we were seeing a lot of foreclosed homes.  While I wouldn’t mind moving in to a fixer upper-Vince’s tastes definitely lean towards “move-in ready”.  Move in ready is harder to come by these days.  Most of the houses we looked at were actually so depressing.  All I could think of when walking through these bank owned properties was the people who used to live there.  The time they spent on the faux paint in the bathrooms.  The love and thought they put into remodeling the kitchen or master bath.  It made me so sad to think of where those people were and what led up to them being removed from their homes.  

SO, when we walked into this home, we had that warm fuzzy feeling.  The feeling that we had just walked into the home where our children would take their first steps, speak their first words, and even have their first co-ed pool party.  That’s right.  This house has everything we want for our future.  It’s in a cul-de-sac with a basket ball hoop.  It’s brick, which is Vince’s favorite.  It has a newly remodeled kitchen, huge master bedroom-and a full finished basement.  The best part is that it has an in-ground pool!!!

So needless to say, we put an offer.  We low balled what they were asking-but we thought we might have a chance.  They’ve come back today and said they have another offer that’s higher than our offer.  SO, we have given them our best and final offer today.  They then came back and asked if we would be willing to move up our closing date a few days.  We said yes.  So now, we wait.  Good news is, they are VERY motivated to sell.  They are already moved out, which means they are paying two mortgages right now, so they are ready to get out of this mortgage.  

I’ve already planned all of the future parties and dinners I’m going to be having at this house.  I keep calling it “our house”.  Vince is so practical and tells me not to get my hopes up.  It’s pretty much too late for that.  I know there’s still a lot that could go wrong and I’m trying to tell myself that but we want it so BAD!  It’s really just the most perfect house we could have possibly found.  Everyone keeps saying there will be other houses if this one doesn’t work out.  I’m not so sure.  This house has every criteria we’ve ever discussed-and of the hundreds I’ve looked at, nothing else comes close.  

Since I plan weddings for a living, I can honestly say I would rather plan four weddings a month than go through this again any time soon!!

Any of you girls trying to buy a house and plan a wedding at the same time?  How do you feel about the timing??