Buying Bryna’s First House
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Welcome to my post “Buying Bryna’s First House!”. My husband and I closed on our first home the day after our seven year anniversary. We searched for about three months, and got turned down multiple times before finally purchasing our first house. This post goes through our experience as first time home buyers.
House Hunting
When we arrived to Virginia we didn’t plan on buying a home. We wanted to spend our first year here renting from the Military Housing company before deciding whether or not we liked the area. Between enjoying the short amount of time here and a horrible experience with the housing management company, we quickly decided we would be buying a home sooner rather than later. We met with our realtor at the first potential house. For weeks we spent the week thinking about what we wanted to see. On Thursdays and Fridays the Zillow listings updated. Fridays and Saturdays we’d spend the days visiting potential houses and putting in offers. And every Sunday or Monday we heard back “Sorry, they didn’t choose your offer”.
The market for home buying right now is very competitive still. Summer time is the season to buy and interest rates are still climbing as of August 2023. People are offering over asking the price, and including appraisal gap coverage. Neither of those perks were within our budget, so we often got outbid by cash offers or deeper pockets.
Potential Houses
The first house we had our offer accepted for was a contractor flip in a beautiful historic part Newport News. The yard was huge, it had an outdoor fireplace, covered driveway, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and also…. A basement.
Not many people on the Hampton Roads Peninsula have a basement, and for good reason. Our initial inspection found that there had been over a foot of standing water in the basement for an undetermined amount of time while the house was unoccupied. We opted for a secondary inspection from a foundation company, who confirmed the standing water issue and offered the best solution they could to prevent it from ever happening again. The price tag was $100,000. We knew we couldn’t afford this house and it’s flood prevention, so we ended up walking away from it.
The second house we had our offer accepted on we viewed on the evening before our son’s first birthday. Our realtor told us if we could be at the house within 30 minutes we had a chance of getting it. We rushed down, took a 5 minute walk through and wrote up our offer on the spot. That night we found out they accepted our offer because we visited the house in time, even though it wasn’t the highest offer they received. After the rest of the home buying steps, we finally closed on our house the day after our seven year anniversary.
Closing on Bryna’s First House
Based on the pattern of our house hunting dissapointments, we didn’t think we stood a chance at getting this house. We really weren’t excited about it until our closing day. It takes about a month to close on a home, barring any major setbacks. On one hand, it felt like we signed our whole financial life away, and on the other it was thrilling to take this major life step. It took us just over 30 days to close due to the home needing some minor cosmetic upgrades for our VA Appraisal.
The months of searching and let downs that lead us to buying our first house were well worth the time and the headache in the end. We’re thrilled to be first time home owners!
If you’re interested in buying as well, here’s our realtor Craig! Him and his wife Lori were helpful every step of the way. We never felt pressured or unheard and would recommend them to anyone. Here’s a link to their site through Remax https://www.remax.com/real-estate-agents/craig-lundgren-newport-news-va/102303687
Also, check out my post about tips for buying your first home!
Welcome to my post “Buying Bryna’s First House!”. My husband and I closed on our first home the day after our seven year anniversary. We searched for about three months, and got turned down multiple times before finally purchasing our first house. This post goes through our experience as first…
Welcome to my post “Buying Bryna’s First House!”. My husband and I closed on our first home the day after our seven year anniversary. We searched for about three months, and got turned down multiple times before finally purchasing our first house. This post goes through our experience as first…