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When Jesse and I started looking at homes the first time we bought, our wish list wasn't long. We wanted a house, preferably with some heritage, that was close to our family. We were open to a fixer upper, as long as it wasn't terrifying to live in before we completed that work. It turned out that as short as that list was, in our city with our modest first time home buyer's budget it was hard to find anything that fit it!
House Hunting Fuel: Optional. Sense of humour: Mandatory.
What we did find:
- A house that was listed as having a claw foot tub… only it was upside down, broken & in the sand filled basement.
- A house that still had a gurney in the living room, in case you weren't completely sure someone had recently died there.
- A house full of renters who wouldn't leave for the showings, one of whom was naked. Naked. I really can't overemphasize the nudity.
- A house that slyly tried to hide that it didn't have a washer or dryer, or any way to hook them up.
- Many houses that had cracks in the wall… that continued straight through to the outside of the house! For breezy summer days and terrifying winters.
Ultimately, I found that my Most Valued House Hunting Skill was resilience & a sense of humour, so I wasn't tortured about what was available or the fact that even these relatively scary homes were being snapped up in bidding wars.
After seeing 10+ houses a week for over a month, we made ourselves into real estate detectives and developed a strategy. We would only look at homes where there was at least one similarly priced house in the area that went on the market in the same week. Because there were so many multiple offer situations, this meant that at least some other buyers would bid on the other property which would (hopefully) increase our odds of success. After two weeks of bidding with this new strategy we found a beautiful house (with another beautiful house for sale down the street), bid as high as we could comfortably go, and won! As crazy as it sounds, we were still the winning bid of eleven other bids that were reviewed.
I'm so glad that the market has calmed down since then!!
Fast forward to 2012
When we bought our second house this year, the process was incredibly, wonderfully calm. We looked at it twice and thanks to the inexperienced real estate agent who listed it, we had an opportunity to pounce! It was priced out of reach of most first time home buyers, but it lacked air conditioning and a main floor bathroom so it didn't have the features that most people looking to buy a house of it's size would want. It was over twice the size of our last house (not hard, our previous home was teeny at under 700 sq. ft!), in our ideal neighbourhood, had enough bedrooms for us to start a family one day, was perfect for entertaining, and had a huge backyard. There was even a huge newspaper feature lined up to publicize it, but it was pushed back until the week after they were accepting offers.
I couldn't believe that we were lucky enough to be placing a bid on it, and didn't really believe we would get it… until our realtor let us know that we were the only buyers at the table! We were even able to negotiate for some repairs to be made before we moved in, and I still pinch myself that I get to live here.
Looking at the strategy that we used to buy our first house and the very different experience of buying our second home, I think the real lesson is that timing is everything.
All your luck can change with one listing, or with a listing nearby a listing you like. Or even with a newspaper's publishing schedule! While it's not something you can plan for, if you're looking at houses try to trust that one day soon the timing that's working against you now will change and work in your favour.
As hard as it is, even if you've put on your Real Estate Detective hat and are being strategic with bidding you'll need patience. You never know, the time may go faster if you pretend you're a hard boiled flatfoot on a housing market stake out.
Waiting for the perfect timing is so hard! How do you keep from going crazy when you have to wait out an important decision?
Disclaimer: This post content is sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, but the views and opinions expressed are only my own. As with everything, if you need legal or financial advice, speak one-on-one with an expert.
LAST UPDATED ON: June 26th, 2013
CATEGORY: All Posts
your blog is so very wonderful, i am in luv
xx
House-hunting is the worst. I will never forget a student let I viewed with some friends during university. The whole house reeked of weed, and was totally filthy. There was a bong on the kitchen table. We noticed there wasn’t a fridge, and when we asked about it, the tenant showing us round shrugged, and said, “Oh, it stopped working last month, so we just moved it into the yard.” The fridge. was. in. the. yard. Apparently telling the landlord was way too hard, so they just put it in the garden and decided that would do.
Funnily enough, we didn’t take the house.
You have a great story on your home buying experience. I wish we could say we looked and had ups and downs but we simply went up to our little dream house around the corner of our apartment, knocked on the door, and said we wanted to buy their house. Thankfully, we were invited in and that night our papers were written up.
Diana, that’s an amazing story in and of itself! That makes you home even more charming than it already is :)
I think you need to put a warning on top of this post that it may cause injury because I nearly choked on the candy I was chewing on when I read the naked renter (choked with laughter that is, though if I’d been there I would’ve probably choked from shock!).
I’m glad you got through reading the post unscathed, Alli! Honestly it was so shocking and hilarious. When I drive by that house now, I still can’t keep from smirking ;)
I love hearing people’s home buying stories. It’s such an exciting and scary thing to do. My boyfriend and I bought our first home in May and the process was overwhelming. We didn’t have to look at too many before we found this one thankfully. It’s hard when you fall in love with them online and when you get there in person it’s just a big NO lol. I’m glad you all found the perfect house for you!
I’m glad you found the perfect house for you, Erin! I’d forgotten about that feeling until I read this, you’re exactly right. It’s wild how different a house can look in pictures when you’re actually there walking through it, isn’t it? At least when it’s a NO! you can usually tell right away. And then you get to be on a curiosity tour lol
Hahaha oh my gosh the things you saw when buying your house! Holy cow!
I have no desire to own a house right now, but I think part of that is because I’m not convinced we could every live “comfortably” in the DC metro area – we’ll see if/when we decide to buy where it ends up being!
I totally hear you. When we were in DC I couldn’t believe the house prices. There are only so many places in the world where it makes sense to own and I’m so glad you guys know what works for you and your market. The idea of having a house but being “house poor” and unable to do anything or have a life that you love totally gives me the shivers. I wouldn’t want that for anyone, let alone Charming, Lovely, You :)
I don’t keep from going crazy usually ;) I just go crazy. And get bought back down to earth by my boyfriend. And then get over it. And then go crazy again. It’s hard living inside my head ;)
Congratulations on finding your dream house!
Ha! This is basically how I handled it. I found it incredibly hard to manage my stress levels when we were putting in offers and then waiting on the results. In my case I can look back and know that I had an undiagnosed anxiety disorder that wasn’t being treated, so I have a lot of compassion for Younger Kyla in that experience. Especially knowing that it would really start getting better for her a year after the house purchase. And God only knows how I’d deal with that cycle now. It’s not easy even in the best of times!
I feel for younger Kyla too. Everything seems so much less complicated when looking back, but when you’re stuck in the middle of it… oh the drama ;) Glad everything took an upswing for you after the purchase :)
I have duffered from anxiety a lot, although I probably don’t have a disorder, just trouble with doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done… Getting better at that though ;)
Anxiety disorder sounds nasty. :(