House Buying Journey

Well our house buying journey continued; however, now without a few bumps in the road. We found out in mid-December the owner of our perfect location home was going to be a “sell by owner” only. The owner was not open to working with a realtor to our disappointment. This is the first time I have ever bought a house, and I was not comfortable doing this on my own. I also had a friend that was a past real estate agent and he told me to never buy a house without a realtor. Our thought at this time was this was God’s nudge for us to head down the pathway of buying instead of building. 

As we looked in our preferred location for another home, we could not find the size of home in our price range. We found one in a nearby town we were considering; however, it was next to a rail road track and that was not going to work. All of the other houses were out of our reach. Then around December 22 we found a home down the road from us that was a real fixer upper and thought we could make this work. When we were to view the house, we were concern about the roof structure and other support. We marked this one off our list. We decided at this point to expand the area we were willing to consider to live, including areas closer to Waco such as Chalk Bluff and China Springs. The problem with these areas means we are leaving our hometown and family. Our families, especially my family, were not happy with this at all, but we did not see any other options. We finally was able to get them on board with us living in Chalk Bluff, and thought maybe this is a new beginning for us. 

We found a house in Chalk Bluff that was perfect with a nice backyard and huge workshop. My husband was already dreaming of all the things he could make in that shop. The good news, it was way in our price range and it was big enough for our whole family. We were already picturing ourselves in this house and had a wonderful feelings God was leading us in this direction. Our agent, Pam, scheduled a view for December 30, and on that say day I met with our mortgage company to submit all our paperwork for a pre-approval on the house. 

Before I met with John, with Oak Mortgage, I stopped by my husband’s work to pick up some papers. As I was getting into the car, I told my husband I am excited and this is going to work for us. Again, there was the verbal recognition of excitement, which is always our down fall. After I met with John I had a couple of hours before the viewing so I started going around viewing with home insurance agents, since we were definitely not going to use our current one again. While visiting with one of the agents I receive a text from Pam saying the house is under contract. Oh my heart sank, and I could not believe we did not even get to see the house. We were so ready to make an offer that day on the house. 

Mark and I had lunch that day, and it was a big let down that we missed out on two houses. The good news is that we were set with the mortgage company and ready to make an offer if we found another house.  I told Mark, if God wants us to have that house it will come back to us. Over the next few weeks we contemplated our next steps. We decided since we could not find a house, maybe we should build a house. We started to take steps to identify property and find a way to build a house.