couple |

Finding the right house, is like finding the right person!

Zhenya

Even through the ups and downs we stuck to it and

found our perfect house!

Sam

After having been married for a year and a half, Sam and I started talking about buying a house! Our original plan was to buy a condo in downtown Minneapolis, but after looking more closely into it, we didn’t want to pay association fees for the rest of our life, so that plan went down the drain! Besides, we both switched jobs early in the year, so living in downtown didn’t really make sense any more! It was very convenient to walk to work though.

Our search process began with finding the right realtors, and, thankfully, when you work in a day care setting, you are bound to find a realtor among the parents. We decided to go with Elke and Mike from the Weiland Group (Keller Williams). They were absolutely amazing! And we are so grateful Kate recommended them to us!

Our search started in January, when there weren’t as many houses on the market. Sam and I went to a few open houses by ourselves, which I definitely recommend doing.

Once the weather warmed up (which we thought it never would!), more houses started popping up on the market, and we knew something would definitely come up! But I am going to tell you upfront, the process wasn’t easy! I’ve been reading some people’s blogs and they say that the first house they saw was the one (HOW?!?!), or they went and saw 3 different ones and picked one of those! I don’t know how you people do it! We saw over 20 different houses, made 3 different offers, looked at police reports, neighborhood reviews, Google street views, and all the fun stuff! Though it wasn’t as fun then, sitting in my basement and writing about it now, it all sounds like fun and games, but the whole house hunting process was so emotionally draining, that I can’t be more than happy it’s over!

The other aspect of buying a home that I personally hated, was competing with the contractors. They come in, they offer cash, and they sweep the sellers off their feet. Thankfully we managed to outbid a contractor during our offer process.

Now the whole house bidding, offer, and re-offer process happened when I was in Chicago for the Verizon Wireless Voices event, and trust me – that added on to the stress! But we closed, and now have our very own house, with our very own backyard, front yard, story and a half and all the other wonderful things that the homeownership brings! Oh, and I now have my very own WASHER and DRYER! Let me tell you, those two are my favorite couple now, in the whole wide world!

Have a great Wednesday!

Sam and Zhenya