Finding Our House

In my last post, I had recently gotten back from a trip to Alabama where we had made an offer on a house. After a week of not getting anywhere, we started having some doubts.  Especially me.  My husband was worried about us missing out on a good house, and I understood his concerns, but I was worried about buying the wrong house. I felt like that would have been an even bigger mistake. I really felt that wasn't out house. So, we ended up withdrawing our offer. 

That same day, we ended up getting two offers on our Michigan house just hours apart.  Our house had been in the MLS less than two days!!  We were totally in shock. But happy.  It's certainly better to sell quick then drag it out for awhile. I've done that before. Definitely not fun.

But, I realized I needed to get back to Alabama quick and find "our" house. Not an easy job since just the week before I saw everything there was to see in our price range in the area we wanted to live.  A few new things had popped up, and we adjusted our price range a bit, just to give us a few more options. But really, I still only had a handful of houses to see.  

Frank had to start his new position this past week and was driving down with his car, so we decided I'd drive down with him, and fly back once we had a house. Or at least a plan.  

We spent a whole day driving down...about a 12 hour drive.  The next day, I was up and ready to go looking at houses.  I had been praying a lot before I left Michigan that if God had a house picked out for us, to please let it come on the market while I am there and for it to work out smoothly.  While we were driving to a house I had on my list, we came across another house with a "For Sale" sign in the yard and I said to my agent, "I don't remember that house being for sale a couple of weeks ago". She agreed and called the listing agent's office. They said they had no listing at that address and to call the listing agent directly. She did that, and found out he was entering it in the MLS right then.  He gave her some basic info on it and she told him we wanted to see it that day. 

We kept driving around and looking at the other houses on my list, and I just kept saying, "this isn't it". I was holding out hope for the house that we found earlier. I saw lots of good houses, but some of them were in a location I didn't like, or the lot was one I didn't care for. Or it didn't have the right amount of rooms we needed for our family to function. Those are things I couldn't change. I started crossing off those houses immediately. If there was something I didn't like and couldn't change, then it was off the list. Then there were houses that I loved the lots, and it had the right amount of rooms, but maybe I didn't love some of the paint, carpet, or kitchen appliances. Well, that's all changeable. Even if we don't do it righ away or never do it. At least we have the option. And that's really my best advice to anyone looking for a house!!  

We finally saw the new-to-the-market house and it was really nice!  I thought to myself that it might be the one.  After checking it all out, I told my agent to make another appointment to see it in a few hours, and called Frank and told him to meet us there. 

After he came and we looked around together, we both decided we did not want to let this one get away.  We had our agent write up an offer that night, and had come to an agreement less than 24 hours later!!  Praise God!  We knew that this was the house!!

We had the opportunity to meet the owners on Friday night, and she said she had been praying for the family who was meant to have their house. It gave me chills. I feel like God kind of heard both our prayers and said, "Hey, I can answer both those prayers right now!!"  And reassured us that the previous house we had made an offer on was definitely not meant to be ours. 

I got back to Michigan on Sunday night, and now begins the final preparations before the move. I have a to-do list a mile long. And only 10 days until the movers show up to pack. Our last day in Michigan will be Wednesday, June 25. 

I know I will not get to see most of you before we leave, and many of you I did t even get a chance to see at all in the short time we were back in MI. 

I will keep blogging through this crazy process, and of course you can reach me by phone, email or Facebook!!  

Have a great week....I've gotta start checking things off this list!!