I don't think I've really spoken about how hard we'd been house shopping the last 2 years. Anything in our price range we went and looked at, even if it was in terrible condition. Once we found out we were pregnant that really put a rush on things because where we were living wasnt big enough for the 3 of us, let alone adding 2 more babies, and the landlord/maintenance man wasn't making any repairs to it, so it was in really bad condition.
Well we finally found a house, that happened to be literally a minute from my moms house. If it weren't for one neighbor, and all the trees, she could see us from her back deck.
We had actually looked at this house before we knew we were pregnant, and loved the location, but the condition of the house and yard made us move on. But when we found out we were pregnant with twins, we decided to revisit it because I really wanted my mom to be that close to help me, & she really wanted us that close.
So we found the house. But if any of you have bought a house, you know that's the easy part (& for us it wasn't that easy!) we still had to get all the mortgage paperwork turned in.
I evidently picked a terrible mortgage broker. He coached his sons basketball & baseball team, which made him a great dad, but a terrible mortgage guy. He was never at his office, and always out of town. He was maybe available for a day or half a day during the week. So during those two sports seasons, I basically only dealt with his receptionist, who's answer to any question I asked was "I'm not sure, that'd be a question for him"... well thanks, for basically nothing, every. single. time.
We also had to have our down payment "gifted" to us from a family or friend, because we only had a cash savings, and there has to be a paper trail. Our loan was an FHA loan, which adds a few hoops we had to jump through because it's a government loan, allowing us to do a smaller down payment. So the government had to make sure our down payment wasn't drug money or something like that. The 'gift' down payment money we actually got from two family members, so that was one difficult step, because that requires about 5 different documents for each one.
The house also needed work done in order to finance. The seller wasn't willing to do the work, but because of the great location of the house and the ticking clock of babies coming, my step dad payed to have the work done, so we would be close to them.
The first step with that was to get the sellers kid out. He had been renting this house from his mother for the past few years and completely trashed it, and took a few months to clear out. I think it goes without saying that he didn't clean the house when he moved out either.
Then the repairs had to be done, the busy schedule of the contractor and the terrible rainy weather really made the work drag along. We also had to contact four different contractors before finding one willing to do the work, because of how hard the jobs would be.
Finally the work got done, and all I had left to do was get all my paper work turned in. At this point I was absolutely over dealing with the mortgage broker. They'd tell me one thing one day, and the next call me and tell me they gave me the wrong paper work, or something, and it happened constantly.
I was very stressed we wouldn't be in the house before babies came, because it took 7 months for this whole deal.
We signed the papers for the house on November 8th, 2016, and with the help of basically a small army we got the house cleaned and all our stuff moved in. Because I was already over 30 weeks pregnant with twins, my doctor didn't want me unpacking anything, and to just relax, and now I have 3 kids under 2, most of the boxes are still packed and stacked in a corner, waiting to be put away, if I ever get a spare second.
The house needs a lot of TLC, that we don't have money for right now, but hopefully slowly over the years we'll get it to be the way we want... I am obsessed with those HGTV house shows, so maybe I'll learn some DIY tricks!
My tips to you is to make sure the house will work for you! Do your research when it comes to the mortgage company or bank. Have the down payment in your bank account before you ever even contact a mortgage broker about being interested in buying a house. And be ready to have a very long and stressful process... and then If it ends up being not that bad you'll be pleasantly surprised!
I for one, never want to move again, because I'm terrified of having to do that 7 months of difficult work every single day. We will see, hopefultly this house will work for us for quite a few years before I ever even have to think about that!
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