Finding the House - Her Perspective

We started looking for a house at the end of May, early June.  This was not the best time to start looking.  This is when everyone is looking, therefore there was high inventory but everyone wanted said inventory.  Our budget was $300,000.  In Northern Virginia, this amount isn't going to get you much depending on where you are looking.  We looked at a foreclosure and it was awesome - everything we wanted.  It even had a wrap around porch.  Within days, the offers on this house had gone above and beyond our budget and had 18 people sending offers.  We never stood a chance.

We started looking at other houses but each time we would find a house that had just gone on the market, we would email our agent and he would tell us that it already had an offer on it.  So before we could even see any, they would be gone.  We started to get discouraged.  We didn't want to wait too long to find something because he had to be out of his apartment by the end of July and when my divorce is final, we would need a place for the kids to live.  I was also being particular as I wanted a single family home, not a townhouse.  This made our search a little more difficult.

Meanwhile, one of our mutual friends was getting a house ready for sale in the area we were looking in.  After speaking with her, it seemed this house would be a good fit for us.  She was hesitant for us to see it before they did a few things to the house - even though they were selling as is, they redid the stairs, and hung some new doors and fresh neutral paint.

I convinced our friend to let us see it before the work was done.  I knew I could look past any mess or unfinished work to see potential.  I also begged her, that if it was a good fit for us, that she would sell it to us before putting it on the market and we would pay asking price.  She agreed if we wanted it, she would sell it to us.

I was excited.  I called Mark and he agreed we would go see the house.  The minute we walked in, I could feel Mark stiffen up.  It was not in a condition he expected to see.  After seeing the top floor, he turned to me and firmly said, "No."  I was already envisioning what this house could be - I was imaging what we could do, all the Pinterest ideas I could find.  I didn't react and simply said, "Let's finish looking." 

To be fair, the huge was a huge project, I could see this.  But I also knew our budget, and I knew that if we bought this house for asking price, we were already ahead and we may also be able to add some remodeling money to our loan.  The house definitely needed a new kitchen and three new bathrooms.  The bedrooms were only the plywood subfloors and had no real flooring.  The trim all needed to be redone, the yard and backyard needed a lot of love and so one and so on.

I could see it.  I could see us there.  I could see my kids there - I could imagine happiness for us there.  I just needed to convince Mark that this was a good idea.  As we got in the car, Mark was full of doubts.  He could see that I wanted the house but he didn't.  After about 10 minutes he turned to me and said, "Tell me it will be OK.  If you tell me it will be OK, I will trust you and we will get the house."  I held his hand and said, "It will be OK, I promise."  Then he said, "OK, we will buy the house."  That is when the real journey began.