PROJECT HOME: THE PROCESS

In case you didn't see in my weekly post, Jon and I are set to officially close on our first home the 27th of this month!!! It's been a whirlwind going through the home buying process. Everything went along very quickly for us, mostly due to finding the house we wanted within a short time period. I seriously can't wait to reveal the house to you! It was the first house we fell in love with and we just couldn't get it out of our minds after looking at several other houses. It's in a great location and meets all of our needs well into the future. We've been busy making lists, budgeting money, and planning out a schedule for the move-in process and the projects we want to tackle right off the bat. We also have a whole separate list of to-do's to get done before the baby comes in February. Yikes! Over and over again Jon and I have talked about how excited we are to be able to invest in a home and call it ours. :)

I've had a lot of questions about the process of buying a home especially with being self-employeed. I thought I would share our own personal process/experience in light that it might be helpful! Please note that I'm a complete newbie at this and don't know everything. We've been doing our best to learn as much as possible and ask lots of questions!

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Start the process - The first step we took was to find a realtor. I recommend asking a friend for a reference who had a good experience. Some friends of ours recently bought a house through a fantastic realtor and highly recommended her to us. She has been fantastic to work with, quick to respond, and super on top of things. After we connected with her, she put us in contact with her favorite mortgage lender. We didn't go through a big time bank and using her recommended lender was a great experience. They were personable, available for questions at any point, easy to work with, and very organized.

Get pre-approved - After we made our initial contacts we had to get pre-approved before moving forward. We set up a conference call with our lender and had to provide basic information about our income, current living situation, etc. We also talked to her about the budget we wanted to stick with for a house, and how much of a down payment we wanted to contribute. She was great about explaining the full process to us and getting all of our information. As a side note, my husband is employed full-time in Atlanta and I am self-employed. Being self-employed can be tricky. The lender wants to see at least two years of income records via your tax documents that show a consistent income. Since I quit my full-time job at the beginning of the year and only started working for Maiedae full-time this year, with part-time work going back two additional years, we opted to NOT have my income as part of the approval process. My name is still on the title, but the lender only looked at Jon's income for the loan. If you are single looking to buy a house or you and your significant other are looking to buy a house and are self-employeed I recommend having two years under your belt and keeping stellar income and tax records. One of the best things Jenny and I did for our business was hire an accountant. It's majorly helpful during times like this!

Start looking - After getting pre-approved we started the house-hunting process. Check out my last post on searching for a house here. One of my biggest tips is to make two lists before looking of your needs and wants. The more places you look at, the easier it is to really pinpoint exactly what you want. AND don't settle! You'll know when you walk in that it's the house for you. Just remember to stay in your budget, walk-in with some vision, and have fun!

Ok! You've found the house! - Here's where things really pick up! You start by making an offer, the sellers can counter your offer and you can go back and forth on an offer until you feel it's right or decide to decline and keep looking. For the house we are moving into, we initially made a low offer that was declined and later went back to the table with a new offer after looking at a handful of houses and knowing that was the one we wanted. We went up a little and the sellers went down a little and it was a perfect fit for us to accept.

Accepted! - Now that you're offer has been accepted you have lots of work to do! First of all you'll need to get busy with your lender for the mortgage loan. In order to finalize everything on their side they'll need a butt-load of information from you like your bank statements, pay stubs, tax documents for two years, a copy of your drivers license, W-2's etc. I spent almost a whole day scanning in documents, organizing them on a dropbox folder and sending everything over to our lender. Even after that we had lots of documents to sign and little things here and there to fill out and send over. You'll want to be on top of this and well organized. I recommend if you're interested in buying a house to go ahead and make sure you have all of these important documents and that they are at reach when needed. Aside from working with your lender you'll also need to get an inspection done on the house to see if it's no bueno. This is super important and will really give you an idea of what type of money you might have to throw down after moving in. Our inspector was insanely awesome. He spent four hours going through our house looking at everything and then proceeded to give us a grand tour of our house and its woes for 1.5 hours. He was thorough, honest and very helpful! Once we got a list of things that needed to be done on the house we approached the sellers about paying to take care of some of the major things before we moved in. Luckily, they were willing to take care of ALL of our requests and pay closing costs, so that was a major blessing!!

Before closing - Before signing the final documents and making it super official, expect lots of random little things to come up. Your lender might need various things, you might have to sign different documents through your realtor and get different tests or surveys done to the house. Most importantly, you'll want to make sure you have all the funds needed to pay your down payment and any additional costs at your closing date.

A quick financial tip - Aside from having the exact amount of money you'll be using for your down payment, you'll also want to set aside extra for things like an inspection or additional testing, those will come out of pocket. As well, if you have projects to take care of on the house before move-in or soon after, you'll want extra budgeted money for that. I would also recommend extra money for moving and food! Just to give you an idea, we calculated our down payment, doubled it, and set that amount aside so we wouldn't be in the hole at all during the moving process.

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I hope that was helpful information! I know it can be a lot to take in. It's a "part-time" job process and can be very stressful. Just take your time, find good people to work with, and be organized! If you have any additional questions or tips to offer, please feel free to leave a comment below. :)

Photo Credit: Illustration by Amyisla

PROJECT HOUSE: SEARCHING

It's unbelievable to think we've only been looking for houses since July 20th. A LOT has happened in 19 days. I'm actually sitting here a little shocked that it's ONLY been 19 days. We feel like we've been searching for months and have known our realtor for years! Our decision to buy a house happened during the beginning of July. We were pretty determined to continue renting our condo for the next couple of years but really felt strongly that we needed to move and we needed to buy a house. After some phone calls and references we found our realtor, contacted a lender, got pre-approved, and met our realtor all within a few short days. The first day we looked at four houses, one we thought was really interesting but didn't get those butterfly feelings when we thought about it. The second day we looked at a really nice townhouse on the other side of town, but ultimately wanted to move into a house and wanted to live much closer to our families, if possible. Our third time looking at houses we found one we really liked but decided to continue looking. Our fourth and final time looking at house we saw three and enjoyed all of these for different reasons. All that to say, after a quick whirlwind of looking at only nine houses within a week, we've come to this point...

While I can't say much at this point, we've found a house that we are truly in love with. It meets all of our needs, a lot of our wants, and is the type of home we can imagine growing a family in for years and years. We are working through the entire process still but things are moving along smoothly and I hope to be able to reveal "the one" to you soon. :) Again, a lot has happened over the past 19 days!

As Jon and I have been going through the home searching process, we feel like we learned a lot in the way of searching for a home. Here are some of our top "learnings" so far:

1// Realize what you're looking for - Before we started our search, Jon and I spent a couple days discussing our "deal breakers" and "wishlist" items for the house. This really helped us in our decision process and helped us to view each house and ask ourselves if it would fit our needs. The more houses we looked at the more we realized what we truly wanted and needed in a home. Check out some of our "deal breakers" and "wishlist" items on this post.

2// Listen to your heart - *Sappy music starts playing* but seriously, people told me that we would get that "feeling" and just know the house that was our house. Waiting for that feeling and being patient for that definitely paid off. We both felt that way when we first saw photos of "our house" and each time we looked at it afterward.

3// Don't pressure yourself - If you see a house that you like ok and feel any pressure to make an offer because of the deal or because of other offers already on the table, don't do it! Hold out for the house you love. It's really easy to get wrapped up in the "game" of finding a house. Don't loose sight of finding "the one"!

4// Advice is great, but it's your decision - Being first time home buyers, we felt the stress of not knowing a lot about houses. Luckily, my dad and Jon's dad are great with homes and have a lot of knowledge and advice to offer. We found their opinions and thoughts super valuable but at the end of the day realized it was our decision to make. Seeking advice from smarter people is always wise, but just remember you're not trying to find a house that will please everyone, you're looking out for you and your family. :)

5// It's stressful - Going into this process felt almost like we were taking on a part-time job. There are lots of decisions to make, things to think through, papers to collect, documents to sign. Expect that your journey might be stressful, but in the end hopefully filled with lots of joy when someone hands you the keys to your new home. If you're not feeling it, step away, continue looking. You'll know when it's your home! :)

I seriously can't wait to share more with you about the home. It's a great story. Once things become really official, I'll be sure to share more. We'll have lots to do before the baby comes in February, so expect lots of home update posts, too! As well, if you have any home searching advice to add, please feel free to share in the comment section below!

Photo Credit: Homes Illustration by Amy Blackwell 

PROJECT CONDO: NOW PROJECT HOME!

When Jon and I moved into our current rented condo last year, our thoughts were to rent the place for up to three years. We had already been renting an apartment for 2 years and thought a larger condo would be a great place to start a family and settle into until we were ready to buy a home.

A couple things happened this year that really started making us rethink the renting situation. First, was our taxes. Tax season really hurt us, being a married couple that's renting with no kids and who both work full-time. We ended up having to pay a lot out of pocket since we don't qualify for many deductions. Our CPA even encouraged us to look into home buying to help us out. Second, while in many ways renting can be easy and it's nice having a good landlord take care of issues, you lose the freedom to really do what you want in your home. Painting or making any types of changes becomes very limited because you don't own the space. As well, even if you did get permission to rip up the carpet and lay down hardwood floors, you aren't investing in your own space and it's almost not worth the costs for a temporary home. Third, the market is slightly going back up and we really want to take advantage of the market while we still can and before things get super pricey! And finally, new little Wallace on the way really motivated us to start thinking about a place we would want to raise a family. While we're not looking for a forever home (although that would be awesome) we are looking for a long term place to make our own, raise a family, and love for many years. I'd also really like a colorful front door, but that's besides the point. ;)

SO, I realize I hardly made a dent in my Project Condo series, but blogging about my slow progress was a great motivator. I really want to continue blogging about our home buying and decorating progress, especially since we are going through home buying for the first time and will have to put together a nursery space pretty quickly!! So, the once named Project Condo series will now be called Project Home. :) To get started, here are a couple of things we've thought about for our new home:

NEW HOME MUST HAVES
* At least three bedrooms with a great game room/media space that can be closed off from the cats.
* Would like 2.5 baths. Don't really need 3 full bathrooms, but at least two full bathrooms would be perfect.
* In a good and safe neighborhood that's kept up nicely, cared for, and somewhat private.
* Large enough to grow into, but not too overwhelming.
* Something built between 1970-current time. We'd like something to improve upon, but not too much of a heavy project fixer-upper. Something with great bones, good electrical wiring, good plumbing, and not prone to flooding.
* Doesn't have a massive yard. We aren't huge yard/gardening people, so we'd like something that is nice, fairly level and easy to maintain.
* Within our budget.
* Good driveway space for visitors. We love hosting friends and having people over and we'd love an easy place for them to park and enjoy our space.
* A lot of natural lighting.
* Located in a good community and not too far away from our families. We know they will want to be really involved in our kids' lives and we'd like to make that commute easier on them.
* While we don't mind living in a neighborhood with an HOA, we'd prefer if they weren't super, super strict.

AWESOME TO HAVE LIST 
* Fully finished basement. We'd love a great game room and movie space.
* Hardwood floors, it's so nice to have with allergies and cats!
* Large master shower and closet.
* Laundry/mud room.
* A small office/studio space for Maiedae.
* A great kitchen layout with a good sized pantry.
* Unique qualities like big beautiful windows and wood ceilings.
* Open floor plan with a good flow of the space.
* Sidewalks in the neighborhood. I don't know why, but I've ALWAYS wanted to live in a neighborhood with sidewalks.
* Located near a good grocery store and nice shopping.

I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you! We just started looking at homes with our realtor today so once we get a few more under our belt we'll be sure to share some of the homes we looked at and our thoughts. We are hoping to move along the process fairly quickly and would love to be in our new place no later than November and as early as September so we have enough time before I'm TOO big to get things settled and put the nursery together. :) In the meantime, I think I'll go ahead and get the ball rolling on packing and going through all of our stuff. Here's to finding a great family home!! PS - If you live in the Atlanta area and have any neighborhood recommendations for us, please do share!! 

Photo Credit: Home Portrait Illustration by Rebekka Seale.