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We bought a house!
Jun. 2nd, 2022 12:38 pmWe bought a house!
From the outside this probably looks like "getting finances ready to buy a house" moved directly to "we have a house now," but that's just only because I didn't have the heart to journal during the process, to become more invested in the houses we didn't get and cement the failures in my memory. In reality we did all the initial setup (finances, realtor) last September/October and started seriously hunting in November 2021, so it was a ~7 month search. We made offers on, I think?, 4.5 houses; successfully have I made the failures blended and vague in my memory.
2022 is a bonkers time to buy a house. The houses in our range have been selling at 10%+ over list price, which for the record is batshit super crazy—normal markup is something like 1% to 3%. (And no, appraisals aren't increasing to meet this.) Our realtor—and realtors really do have a shit job, don't they? so much front-facing work at honestly not enough income—our realtor says her work is always busy but that it's worse now: buyers usually make an offer and then ... get a house; now they have to make as many as ten offers, which means ten times the paperwork.
But as incredibly awful and stressful as this process has been, our multiple failed offers helped us refine our search, set our expectations, and wait for a good deal. In retrospect, I'm glad it worked out this way! At the time I was totally miserable, though; this is one of the worst things I've ever voluntarily done.
We made a dry run on the 0.5 house, getting as far as pulling together paperwork before Devon had second thoughts and pulled out—the right call for that property, a good practice run for figuring out not just what looked nice but what we actually wanted, although we were in no danger of getting it because it sold at 5% over what we would have offered. All of our actual offers were near-misses because we could offer a lot down but weren't willing to go stupidly high or to forgo inspections, which is another stupid thing that buyers are doing in the current market. All those house were great, it was awful to miss out, but seeing the prices/conditions they sold for leaves us with no regrets.
And then a month ago interest rates went up and everyone got cold feet—us, too! But this also meant that the sellers who were taking advantage of the market with higher-priced houses were suddenly finding that those houses didn't move. After another failed offer on a lower-priced house (which also sold at 5% over our offer), our realtor pointed us at one that had been on the market, which she'd toured and liked, which had recently had a 10k price drop. Devon talked with our money guy again and determined that the interest rate change honestly didn't affect our purchase power that much. Moreover we were able to offer at asking price, with an inspection, and we got it immediately.
So the takeaway seems to be: insofar as possible, just don't with the current market. Wait if you can. If you can't, be aggressive but not stupid: don't let prices escalate, don't take risks, just wait for sellers to grow overconfident. And probably luck helps, too.
I won't share public pictures until I can take them myself, just for privacy reasons. The house is in Olympia, Washington, one mile from downtown, in a beautiful old neighborhood. It's 1400 square feet, with potential to finish the basement. It was built in the 1930s, the compromise one makes to be close to town. But it's in great repair (our inspector loved it, although the unattached garage needs some work). Coved ceilings, arched details, built-ins, wood and tile floors, fireplace has been removed, kitchen remodel, sewer and electrical redone. Three beds and one bath, which is probably another reason it wasn't selling but works great for us. Near two schools, also a downside. But set back from the road and so, so charming.
We should close any day now! Our apartment lease lasts until the end of July, so we'll use the overlapping time to make trips up to photograph, finalize decorating plans, and do any pre-move in work we can. It's stressful to think of furnishing a place, our first actually-ours place, a hopefully-forever-home place, right after the incredible sticker shock of buying a whole dang house. But also we have the freedom to live there, we have time, time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions. I'm looking forward to it.
Also and most importantly, owning my own home means! three cats!!
From the outside this probably looks like "getting finances ready to buy a house" moved directly to "we have a house now," but that's just only because I didn't have the heart to journal during the process, to become more invested in the houses we didn't get and cement the failures in my memory. In reality we did all the initial setup (finances, realtor) last September/October and started seriously hunting in November 2021, so it was a ~7 month search. We made offers on, I think?, 4.5 houses; successfully have I made the failures blended and vague in my memory.
2022 is a bonkers time to buy a house. The houses in our range have been selling at 10%+ over list price, which for the record is batshit super crazy—normal markup is something like 1% to 3%. (And no, appraisals aren't increasing to meet this.) Our realtor—and realtors really do have a shit job, don't they? so much front-facing work at honestly not enough income—our realtor says her work is always busy but that it's worse now: buyers usually make an offer and then ... get a house; now they have to make as many as ten offers, which means ten times the paperwork.
But as incredibly awful and stressful as this process has been, our multiple failed offers helped us refine our search, set our expectations, and wait for a good deal. In retrospect, I'm glad it worked out this way! At the time I was totally miserable, though; this is one of the worst things I've ever voluntarily done.
We made a dry run on the 0.5 house, getting as far as pulling together paperwork before Devon had second thoughts and pulled out—the right call for that property, a good practice run for figuring out not just what looked nice but what we actually wanted, although we were in no danger of getting it because it sold at 5% over what we would have offered. All of our actual offers were near-misses because we could offer a lot down but weren't willing to go stupidly high or to forgo inspections, which is another stupid thing that buyers are doing in the current market. All those house were great, it was awful to miss out, but seeing the prices/conditions they sold for leaves us with no regrets.
And then a month ago interest rates went up and everyone got cold feet—us, too! But this also meant that the sellers who were taking advantage of the market with higher-priced houses were suddenly finding that those houses didn't move. After another failed offer on a lower-priced house (which also sold at 5% over our offer), our realtor pointed us at one that had been on the market, which she'd toured and liked, which had recently had a 10k price drop. Devon talked with our money guy again and determined that the interest rate change honestly didn't affect our purchase power that much. Moreover we were able to offer at asking price, with an inspection, and we got it immediately.
So the takeaway seems to be: insofar as possible, just don't with the current market. Wait if you can. If you can't, be aggressive but not stupid: don't let prices escalate, don't take risks, just wait for sellers to grow overconfident. And probably luck helps, too.
I won't share public pictures until I can take them myself, just for privacy reasons. The house is in Olympia, Washington, one mile from downtown, in a beautiful old neighborhood. It's 1400 square feet, with potential to finish the basement. It was built in the 1930s, the compromise one makes to be close to town. But it's in great repair (our inspector loved it, although the unattached garage needs some work). Coved ceilings, arched details, built-ins, wood and tile floors, fireplace has been removed, kitchen remodel, sewer and electrical redone. Three beds and one bath, which is probably another reason it wasn't selling but works great for us. Near two schools, also a downside. But set back from the road and so, so charming.
We should close any day now! Our apartment lease lasts until the end of July, so we'll use the overlapping time to make trips up to photograph, finalize decorating plans, and do any pre-move in work we can. It's stressful to think of furnishing a place, our first actually-ours place, a hopefully-forever-home place, right after the incredible sticker shock of buying a whole dang house. But also we have the freedom to live there, we have time, time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions. I'm looking forward to it.
Also and most importantly, owning my own home means! three cats!!
