We finally found the one, that knocks us off our feet. We finally found the one, that makes us feel complete ...

I know you are all waiting with bated breathe for an update from when we saw the house last Thursday. Well we fell in love with it all over again! I was worried that maybe we had built it up in our minds so much as the "house that got away" but it was just as awesome as I remembered it. And now that we had the chance to see 25+ houses in between our 1st and 2nd visits we had a pretty good idea of what was out there and that just made me even more confident that this was the one!! So we put in an offer ...

Putting in an offer is super nerve wracking and requires a good sit down with your realtor first, then a private sit down between you and your house buying partner after. Don't feel like you have to make a decision right there in front of your realtor. This is a huge decision and you should take the time to talk with each other openly about it. After our 2nd visit we talked with our realtor about how aggressively the house was priced (the sellers had come down a lot since it was first listed and were finally at that "priced-to-sell" mark), what the comparables were (what houses in the area with similar features have sold for within the last 6 months), and her opinion on what we should offer. I'm not going to go into the exact numbers of our specific transaction but I will tell you the comparables showed that houses in the area sold for about $5000-$9000 less then what the sellers were asking for and our realtor wanted to go in around that mark. She knew we really loved the house (and I'm sure was tired of showing us house after house) and didn't want to run the risk of losing it again so she wanted to go in as aggressively as possible. However, seeing as I am my grandfather's granddaughter there was something in me that wanted to offer way less and take my chances with the wheel of negotiating (side note - you don't actually get to spin a wheel)! So my husband and I discussed it, we came up with a number that we were comfortable with and added on a 5000 credit back from the seller towards our closing costs (which I totally recommend you do). We met with our realtor the next day and drew up the paperwork. I could tell she wasn't thrilled with the number we had come up with but she was supportive and went over her strategy on selling them on this price. Here's a picture of my hubby and I before the signing process started! hehe! Can you tell we were a little nervous ...

The next 24 hours were excruciating. Every time my phone beeped I freaked out. Thankfully I only had to suffer for 24 hours because this past Saturday afternoon the text came in ... THEY ACCEPTED!!!! = D We were so thrilled. No negotiating at all ... they accepted as is and signed the offer! Our strategy had paid off, literally! If you take anything away from my blog I hope it's the lesson to follow your instincts and do what you are comfortable with. People will offer you advice on how much to pay and what to offer and 99% of the time it'll all be great advice but in the end it's your decision and you have to live with it!

Well our first two steps to home ownership are complete!! Now on to step three ...