We Bought a House
It’s hard to describe the whirlwind of the last 14 days
About a month ago, our landlords told us they would be selling our house this October.
Fast forward to two Fridays ago...
A home pops up on the market while my wife is out of town for the weekend.
I casually check out the open house Saturday with my friend Clay during a commercial break in the Masters.
I like the house.
My wife comes home late Sunday and that evening I casually mention she should “check out a house I toured”.
She asks our realtor to set up a showing for later that week.
Our realtor comes back saying “the owners want all offers by noon tomorrow”
OH!
I'm off to a work trip Monday at 5:30am, she checks out the house at 10am.
After I land, she calls: “I like it - are we putting in an offer?”
OH!
If you’re thinking this quick decision making goes completely against my planful, thoughtful persona… trust your instincts.
But thankfully homes have an Option Period.
For $500, we bought ourselves a week to do Home Inspections, loan discussions, and decide if we are actually buying the house.
Knowing I could say “Just Kidding!” after a week gave me the confidence to move forward.
So, in a hotel room, over a thousand miles away, I TAPPED TO SIGN on my phone to buy a house.
A house the two of us saw SEPARATELY for a combined total of 20 minutes.
Insanity.
My work trip was our annual Sales Kickoff.
For those who haven’t had the joy of experiencing a Sales Kickoff, we get maybe 30 minutes of downtime between 7am and 10:30pm each day.
I was useless coordinating home inspections and too exhausted to reasonably answer the question “are we actually buying a house??”
Thankfully, my wife was a QUEEN handling all of the logistics of inspections.
By time I landed Thursday night, inspections had been done, loan docs had been drafted, and even our parents had seen it.
Friday we finally got to see the house together for the first time.
Good news… we both still loved it.
The option period ended on Tuesday and we will move in mid-May. (wahoo!)
The house went from “listed” to “ours” in 5 days🤯
BUT we had plenty of conversations beforehand about buying a house in general.
So over the next few newsletters, I’m going to bring you into those conversations.
I’ll cover topics like:
1. Our Thoughts on Renting vs. Buying
Renting is cheaper than buying across all 50 states (even when accounting for building equity in the home).
But a home is not just for optimizing finances, I’ll give you the numbers to think about and the non-financial aspects to help you decide what’s best for you.
2. Our Criteria in Deciding a Specific House
Your criteria will look different than ours, but I’ll dive into what was important to us.
Maybe it gets you thinking about things you hadn’t previously.
3. The Actual Process of Buying
Option Periods, Appraisals, Leasebacks, Earnest Money, the list of new words goes on and on.
We were putting ChatGPT to WORK these last few months learning the jargon of buying a house.
I’ll make a simple guide so you’re ready when the time comes.
I hope for it to be an informative and useful few weeks of content for you.
