2. Home search

around this time, we also started checking out some model homes. we weren't really planning on buying a new house, but for some reason, i felt motivated to start searching just in case. plus, obama's tax credit was going to expire at the end of November (which is now extended till april of 2010, but we'll talk about that later!) which also kind of spurned this activity.

now keep in mind, i know nothing about real estate...i had no idea what escrow was, i even didn't know what a mortgage was...seriously! i quickly learned as a buddy of mine lent me his first time home buyers book, which really helped. we saw some awesome houses, really large ones, 4-5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3 car garages, on lots that were almost 10,000 sq. ft...the all ranged in and around 300-400k. suffice it to say, we got pre qualified for these places, but i don't think we were prepared to be paying that much in mortgage.

i was more interested in getting a brand new house, as i just didn't want to deal with any problems an older place would bring. i had a friend that just bought a place, and she was telling me every day of problems she was having, things they needed to replace, and renovate...

we got the invitation for our very first phase release. we were very excited, but didn't really know what to expect. my brother came with us, in order to give us some guidance and how the whole process worked. there were about 6-8 other groups that attended which i'm assuming were all pre approved as well. they had 6 homes going on sale, and people were selected in priority to choose the home they wanted. to our surprise, we were 2nd on the list...so when the called our name, i had no idea what to do. they asked if there was a home i wanted...so i chose. a single story 4 bedroom, 2,400 sq ft home on a 8,500 sq. ft lot. the house was going for $371,000. the took the home off the list...and then we started to get nervous..."did we just buy a house?" i thought to myself...? we met with the loan officer, and then the builder...they gave us a huge packet to read, went over finances and told us we had a week till they draw up the contract to either change our minds, or defer to the next phase.

so much info, i thought i was going to get an anxiety attack. nikki was worse, as she immediately hit the computer and started working on the finances.

while all this was going on, i was reading the newspaper, and saw an ad for a new housing development just up the street from my brother's place. the homes started at $249,000 and had all these builder incentives.

nikki and i thought it was a sign, so we checked it out. houses were really nice, in a gated community, with all the incentives you can think of. before you know it, we put an offer on one of those homes, went back to the other builder, told them we changed our minds, and took our $10,000 check. it was all so dizzying...

after we signed the contract, 2 months later, our house was built, and we were closing. literally like a whirlwind. we are now 3 months into our new home and we absolutely love it. it's more house than we're used to so it's going to take some time to fill up every room.