house hunting in cleveland: part two

Searching for a house to buy is nothing like I thought it would be- and worlds different than what HGTV makes it seem like. I've never been so stressed out in my life! I wanted to start looking for a house last February and had all the meetings set up , but I got cold feet because I wanted to save more money for a down payment. It wasn't necessarily a terrible choice because I am certainly in better financial standing than I was a year ago, but I am kicking myself now for not going forward last year when I had the chance.

I wouldn't go as far to say that the search is going horribly- but it's not going great. The good thing is that we are seeing a lot of houses that we like, but the bad thing is that a lot of other people like the houses we like too. Every one and their mom want to live in the neighborhoods that we're looking for- which is frustrating.


how cool are these floors? major design inspo from one of the houses we saw.

The first day we went out, we saw 6 houses that ranged from our highest price limit to our lowest. It was kind of shocking to see the range in quality of the houses as the prices decreased. Of course, we loved the first house we saw, which so happened to be at the top of our price range. Nate & I started to talk about what we could offer to the owners, and that was sure a learning process for us. We waited to see this house three days after it came onto the market- that was our first mistake. We then notified our agent that we wanted to draw up an offer, but that we wanted to take the night to sleep on it and make sure it was the best decision for us- our second mistake. By the time we were ready to sign off on the offer, they had already accepted another offer.

We saw a couple of houses after that, but we didn't see another that we liked for another week or two. The next one we saw was a familiar house- one that I had seen on my daily Zillow hunt before we even got preapproved and talked to a realtor. The house had a prior accepted offer from before we started looking that ended up falling through because of financing- it felt kismet to us, that the house was meant to be ours.  It was such a cute little cottagey house with adorable curb appeal, and it met a lot of our criteria. After taking a tour, we decided to make an offer but were sadly beaten by another couple who offered A LOT more money, according to our agent. It was probably for the best, I started to get cold feet about this little house and wonder if it was too small for us. Right now it's just Nate and I (no babies yet), but we want a house that we can grow into rather than have to up and move in 3 to 5 years.

The next house we saw has been our favorite to date.We loved it before we even walked through it. Granted, it needed A LOT of work to make that house into a home with the decrepit kitchen and peeling paint over ancient wallpaper... but it was a house we could see ourselves really making our own. Nate and I toured the place with our realtor the day the house came on the market and when we arrived, there were mobs of people there. MOBS. And that was probably around 6:30pm, so god only knows how many more people had already been there. We were pretty competitive with our offer and went over asking price, but there were 17 competing offers. We ended up losing this house, which has caused me the most heartbreak thus far. I feel slightly guilty, but I keep hoping that something bad will happen to the people who had their offer accepted. Isn't that terrible??


Anyway, we just found out about a fourth house we made an offer on just yesterday (yes- you read that correctly. Fourth. House.), and we were outbid on that one too.  So, we're trudging along, and hoping that by some miracle, we'll catch a break sooner rather than later.

we're staying sane by making nate try out all the tubs, obvi

It's really, really hard not to give up hope and wallow at home everyday, but we know the right house for us is out there-- just maybe not right now. That's where we're at.


The funny thing is- with each house that you fall in love with, you start to wonder to yourself, "What did I see in that last house?" We are just trying to stay positive, and hope we find another stunner that we have to have.

house hunting in cleveland- part one

After three years of dreaming and penny pinching, we're finally doing it. Nate and I are starting to look for a house!

April was the official 1 year anniversary of Nate and I cohabiting, but this June marks 4 years of living in my apartment for me-- I can hardly believe that it's been this long.

While we love our apartment and our neighborhood, we decided it was time to move on and find a place of our own for several reasons. Owning a house is a much more cost-effective living situation than renting (for us, at least) and it gets pretty tiresome listening to the slightly-muffled sounds of techno music at 3am from your upstairs neighbors, or fighting for a street parking spot. As I'm getting older, I come to value more and more having a home that reflects us and our style- which is only attainable to a certain point when you can't paint or install a backsplash or rip out carpet without the blessing of your landlord. Looking back, I wish I would have gotten a little more daring in DIY renter-friendly solutions to spruce up our space, like experimenting with peel-and-stick tile or removable wallpaper. Oh well!

We are pre-approved for a loan, have an agent that we're working with, and seeing houses already!

Here are some of the features of the homes we want to find:

• Single family home
• See above. So long, noisy neighbors! We did consider that it might be nice to have additional income if we bought a duplex and rented out the other level, but the attraction of a quiet, private home is so much more important to us than money.
• Multiple stories
• Personally, I find multiple-story homes visually more interesting and attractive than ranch homes. While we love mid-century modern style ranch houses (a la Palm Springs, CA), I don't see myself being able to commit to one interior style. Nate and I love unique furniture, and we usually end up with an eclectic assortment. Maybe someday we'll end up winning the lottery and we can fulfill our desire through a desert vacation home with a brightly colored door! We also envision ourselves having a finished (or semi-finished) third floor that would serve as an art and music studio for the two of us to share, since Nate is a graphic designer.
• 3 bedrooms & 1 bathroom
• We currently have an extra bedroom in our apartment, and it has served us well these past few years. We both have a lot of family and friends visit from out of town, and it would be nice to have an additional guest room if we have more than one person come into town. If the third floor studio dream doesn't pan out, it would be nice to have an extra bedroom to serve that purpose as well.
• Natural Light
• I promised myself that I would not buy anymore plants until we buy a house, because the light in our apartment is kind of abysmal. We only have so many windows that aren't obstructed from closely neighboring houses or the roof to our front porch, so we can only have so many plants vying for light in the same spaces.
  
  In case you're wondering, the promise I made to myself is not going well.
• Hardwood Floors
• Our apartment has such icky carpet- when we found our place, we asked our landlord if there were hardwoods underneath the carpet and he divulged a horrifying tale- his tenants from years before had a cat that peed all over the floors, and he couldn't get the smell out until he sealed them with some sort of black tar. My heart hurts just thinking about it.
• Old homes with unique charm
• We are so drawn to homes with little nooks and built-ins that you just don't find from modern homes. Bring on the exposed brick and creaky stairs!

All-in-all, the features that are listed above might not seem like much. Nate and I know more of what we definitely don't like than firm wants/desires. We'll see how that goes.

Wish us luck on our search-we'll definitely need all we can get!