Four weeks into our house hunting experience, and I’ve come to one conclusion:
House hunting is a pain in the ass.
It seemed so much easier the first time around; I was only 22 years old. We were less than a year out of college, both living at home with our parents, and both making shit for money, so our options were pretty limited. We had a very specific price range, and knew the area that we wanted to be in… which narrowed down our search to literally one neighborhood. Once we were ready to get serious about the search, we made appointments to look at three different units on the same day. We came, we saw them all, we made up our minds, and we bought one of them. It was that simple. Seriously.
This time? Not so much.
We like the town we live in. Because of that, we’d like to stay in this town. On one hand, that might seem like it makes things easier because it gives us a focus for our search, but really all it does is severely limit our options. And while we’re in much better shape financially than we were six years ago, Rockefellers we are not, so we do have a budget.
And here’s the thing: We’re kinda sorta picky this time around. You see, we’ve spent the last six years chipping away at home improvement projects at our current place, refining it to be the place we’ve always wanted it to be. Now that we’re essentially done with it all, well, we’ve outgrown our home.
All of the work–the painting (oh my god, THE PAINTING), the massive kitchen renovation, the bathroom, the floor project, the sliding glass door, the carpet–it’s all so fresh in our minds. We remember what a huge effort it all was, and we just aren’t ready to do it again. We want something move-in ready this time.
We want a decent kitchen.
We want decent bathrooms.
We want a two-car attached garage. (No compromises.)
We want a nice yard.
We want a deck.
We want a quiet street.
We want vinyl siding.
We don’t want to have to replace a roof or windows.
We’d love a fireplace.
We’ve looked at a few places and have been “meh” about them. It’s been a week or two since anything new has come on the market that fits into our parameters, and that’s just… frustrating.
Add to all of this that we also have to worry about selling our place this time around, and well, you’ve got stress. Our realtor is coming over this weekend to help us get our house on the market, and it makes me so nervous. Not to mention the fact that it means we have to do all this stuff in preparation to show the house–we need to declutter, we need to clean the nooks and crannies, we need to make the house less… ours. It’s a weird process.
House hunting (and selling) is a pain in the ass.
10 Responses to Hunting
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
ugh, house hunting is the worst. We had a total fixer as our first house so we were ready for something more turnkey with this house too. We kept getting outbid because we bought at the height of the market. I wanted to claw my own eyes out. Good luck, I hope you guys get a great deal on a house you love and sell yours quickly!
House hunting is AWFUL. We did it for months and ended up renting, because we were always outbid. I hope you guys find something awesome, and soon!
My Realtor gave us the best advice.
Drive around to several neighborhoods, and knock on a few doors asking about the neighborhood and if they no anybody interested in selling!
House hunting is SUPER stressful – especially in the Rochester area! The neighborhoods (and taxes) vary so drastically within miles, which only adds to the stress! My husband and I did the same thing – we only searched in certain suburbs, and that was a mistake. We had our hearts set on Fairport but we ended up finding our version of the perfect home in Webster! Also, lots more houses will enter the market in March/April (when we start to thaw out) and will be priced to sell, so just be patient! And if you have to stay in a specific suburb, then you’ll have to be REALLY patient! For the time being, try broadening your search, keep an open mind, and at least check out some open houses to see what’s out there because you never know! Good luck Heather!
I totally agree! My husband and I looked at 35 houses before we found “the one” with all of the options we wanted. It was exhausting but worth it in the end!
I hated it. Luckily we didn’t have to sell anything when we bought our home…but the searching took MONTHS!!! It took us 6 weeks to find a fabulous home only to find out some legal issues and we pulled out of the contract. We finally closed on our (different) home three months after that.
Hang in there!
I feel your pain. We are going through the exact same nightmare over in London. Prices have risen so much, and everything seems ridiculously priced for a pokey stupid house!
We had to widen our search massively, as initially we were set on just one area, and we are so glad that we did, because after months and months of searching we have found our perfect house in a place we hadn’t thought of (but which is close to our original favourite contender) and which is more convenient for us.
We have just has our mortgage approved and hope this will progress well from there.
So loads of luck in your search, and be patient – it will pay off!
We are just about to start this too, except we’re building our home. But putting our house up scares the heck out of me and the amount of work we have to do to get our house up on the market is insane….can’t wait until it’s over!!
I know how hard it is :(
Our house needs a lot of work before we could even sell it. We moved in after only looking at a couple houses. It’s small and we figured it would be a good “starter home” and we would move out after a year or two. We have been here 10 years and are in no position now to sell or move. UGH.
I hated house-hunting. It was a total nightmare because we only wanted to look in ONE city so my stepdaughters didn’t have to transfer schools. When we found our house, it was seriously a miracle, but we did have to give up on a basement which sucks (we have a slab). Good luck to you guys! It will happen eventually!!
in the same boat as you right now so i feel your pain. ugh i hate it! hope you find something u love!