First Home Style

A little over a week ago, the house was appraised for the bank. Today my loan officer informed me that the house appraised at the sale price. I have also satisfied the underwriter’s conditions. My role now is to shop around for Hazard insurance. Which means that we are about two to three weeks away from closing. I am one step closer to buying a home. And it’s a pretty exciting yet overwhelming feeling at the same time. I am happy. This has been a goal of mine for so long that along the way there were many times that I doubted that it would come to fruition.   But I am scarred as all hell.   The amount of responsibility terrifies me. I truly feel that now I am a grown up.

Last week we completed the home inspection. There were a few concerns such as a leaking faucet and fallen off cabinet doors but nothing that would impede us going forward with the deal. The house appeared to be in good working condition though it is in desperate need of deep cleaning.   My realtor has taken to calling this house a “hot property”, as there continues to be a lot of interest and offers. He was concerned that someone else could swoop in and make a higher offer than mine.   Apparently, there was a prior offer to mine and that deal fell apart after the inspection when the “greedy buyer” wanted to renegotiate the price.   I made my offer at the right time. Also, it was about $10,000 more than the prior offer. My realtor was eager for us to go to contract.   Present at the inspection were myself, my realtor, the inspection, the homeowner and the listing agent. I had asked my mom to come along as well for moral support. Mom did not see the home prior to...

At the end of July, I thought that I had found my dream home. I made an offer. The seller countered. Then I accepted the seller’s counter offer.   I was already trying to schedule the home inspection when my realtor, Robert, texted me that the seller wanted to hold off. Well, according to Robert, the seller decided to sell the home to his neighbor’s friend. I was disappointed but then oddly felt relief. As much as I like the home and the area, I was a little worried that the location was a little too isolated. It was close to buses but far away from the train. I was concerned about how I would get to and from work. Robert would still make his commission as he was acting as both the buyer and seller’s agent. Everyone was happy except for me. I then called another former realtor, Louis, and we began looking at properties.   We went to an open house on a quiet street, a few blocks away from a subway station and a block from a bus, that was listed below market value. There w...

After 5 years and countless open houses, I found a home that I want to purchase.   Things have been moving pretty fast since that initial viewing a little over a week ago.   I made an offer. The seller countered my offer. I accepted the counter. In fact, I agreed to all the seller’s terms and conditions and did not even negotiate the closing cost.   All that was left to do is to sign documents. In the meantime, I was decorating the home in my mind. I had picked out paint colors, stained the floors and had even updated the old fashioned bathroom sink and cabinet. It seems that it would all go to plan and by the end of August, I imagined myself accepting the keys to my dream home. My mother was excited. She imagined coming to visit and having afternoon tea. I found a housing inspector and we awaited the seller’s availability for us to inspect the home. But then today, I received an text from my realtor stating that the seller wants to “place things on hold”.   Wh...

On Sunday I went to two open houses in one of my ideal neighborhoods (the uncool parts of Brooklyn that are not Cobble Hill, Williamsburg or Bushwick). Both homes were clearly out of my price range but I was curious to see what I could get in a higher price point. Sadly, I realized that even with a larger price bracket, I wouldn’t get a larger, more updated house.   Even at my price point, I can only afford an attached fixer upper in this part of Brooklyn.   If I’m extremely lucky I would get three decent sized bedrooms. I liked house # 1, still, I couldn’t imagine making an offer on this property. It had a lot of pluses. It was a two unit property known more commonly as a Mother/ Daughter. The top floor or first unit had two bedrooms, with a kitchen, dining area, living room and bathroom. The second floor had one bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. Each unit had its own entrance.   There was even a patio and garage in the back. I liked the layout of the hous...

Initially when I started my home search I was looking for a two-bedroom coop apartment in Brooklyn.  However, for the last few weeks I’ve been looking at houses.  I had no desire to own a house before. I always thought that house ownership would be too much work to maintain and that I was not mentally or physically prepared to deal with all of the responsibilities of house ownership.  Even now, typing this, I’m feeling rather overwhelmed by the idea of shoveling snow.  But I can’t deny that there are a ton of perks of having a house that are simply not available with a coop. For one, there isn’t a coop board to snoop around my finances, ask about my further plans for the property and hurl intrusive questions at me about why I had student loan debt. I guess my shift in thinking began late last year as I started attending more open houses.  I fell in like with the idea of having more space and possible having a tenant to assist me with paying my mortgage each...

Four years ago, when I started this blog, I was obsessed about homeownership. It was all I thought about. I was in contract to purchase my first home and I also recently graduated from a master’s degree program. Needless to say, I was cocky and confident. I was optimistic. I thought that everything was falling into place. But then the coop board denied my application and the job that I thought would materialize did not.  I was sad and angry for a long time. I stopped blogging and became even more depressed as I couldn’t find a home in my preferred neighborhood or my price range. I knew someone who had contacts on the coop board and I asked them to enquired about my application and why I was denied.  He was informed that I the coop board was concerned that I did not have enough cash and they wanted a cash buyer. They were also concerned about my student loan debt. As I had just recently graduated from school, I hadn’t yet started repayment. I left graduate school owing Sallie ...