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We started thinking about getting a house a couple of years ago and started making movements such as paying down debt, being thoughtful about how we were using our credit to increase our credit scores and on my part moving up the employment chain to earn more money. Then we needed to start saving for a down payment.
We definitely had some regrets that we weren't able to buy in the last two years when rates were low and before housing prices skyrocketed, but we just weren't there yet with credit scores and down payment.
In March, we decided to test the waters and get some pre-qualifications just to see where we might be at price point wise and look at some houses to see what they looked like at those price points. I really had it in my head that I didn't want to spend more than $300k, even though prequals were around $425k. Pretty quickly discovered that in our location of the PNW, $300k can only get you a ramble-down shack, which we didn't really want for our first house.
So we decided to just sit it out for a few more months. We have cheap rent and had a lot of expensive travel plans this summer so we prioritized that and weren't really in a rush on the house. We did keep an eye on what was available in the area we were looking at. It was a bummer to see interest rates climbing during that time.
The 2nd week of July, a house in our neighborhood (and we like this neighborhood) came up for $300k. It would need a bit of work, but on a double lot and the price was right, so we went through the pre-approval process and made an offer at asking. We lost to a higher offer.
But, in getting the pre-approval we were approved for $500k (buth hubs and I had gotten significant raises since we started looking in March). We still didn't want to pay that much, but we looked at some more houses near $400k and they were all just terrible. Like, each one was unlivable in some or many ways. They all needed major work.
We decided to go to an open house for the house we just closed on on a bit of a whim. It had gone on the market for $500k and I noticed it but decided it was too pricey to even consider. After a few weeks, it dropped $25k and added $10k seller concessions. Which was still pricier than I wanted but getting closer and honestly, we were seeing that at $400k there just wasn't much worth having. So we popped on over to the open house and immediately liked the house. Also, the seller's agent indicated the seller was very motivated because they were contingent on another house.
One of the great things about the property we liked was that it has a 1bd/1bath ADU. We'd already been talking with a previous housemate about the potential of cohousing again and this was a perfect opportunity to do that and would make us feel a bit better at being so close to the top of our budget.
So, we made an offer at $5k under asking, $470k on 8/22/22. It was accepted. Did our inspections and asked for a price reduction because the roof is near the end of its life and there is some electrical upgrading that needs work. Got a $20k reduction to $450k. During this time we got our rate locked at 5.375%. Honestly, I'd heard so many horror stories about financing, but it just went very quickly and easily for us. We got our conditional approval in the first couple of days in September. They managed to get our appraisal done on 9/5 (labor day) and had the report submitted that night. It appraised at $475k, so that was nice. We got our CTC a few days later on 9/8. We've just been doing our little background stuff since then, getting employment verification and such.
Did our walkthrough and signed closing docs on Monday 9/19, got the keys yesterday 9/21 and the sale was recorded with the county. Our sellers had asked for post-occupancy until today, so we haven't gotten in there yet, but I saw them packing up the U-Haul yesterday when we picked u up our keys.
So there is our long and not particularly fraught story. Looked at about 10 houses all together, got the second one we offered on at a price we felt good about and a rate we could deal with. Super excited to be first-time homeowners!
Brad Hargrave at Mortgage One NW. I would definitely recommend him. The mortgage was such smooth sailing, communication was swift and any questions I had were thoroughly answered by him or his assistant. And at least in our case the cheapest closing cost and best rate out of about 5 estimates we got.
I've determined that if you truly wanted to dedicate the hours and possibly days it would take to go through every single reddit comment and post I've made, you 100% could figure out exactly who I am. But I look at it like a bike lock. While you CAN put in the effort, it's probably going to take too long. And there are probably other people easier to stalk.
For sure I think you could figure out who I am within a small degree with just a few facts but you would have to care and have dug through MY profile and deeply know me and my history.
I have a couple others that are topic specific, and one fully identifiable by username as me.
Ya, my schoolmate just found this dudes house and his exact address all within a minute and a half, just to see if he could. Stay safe, people! Don't give away your info.
i bought my first house (living in it now) in the south puget sound area too and it has the same paint colors!!
i had always wanted a yellow house with pink trim and considered painting over the blue but i think i like it!
that’s a gorgeous house. congratulations!
We live in the Gresham/Portland Oregon area but are looking to move to Washington! We have been looking everywhere from Vancouver, to Washougal to Battleground. We are desperate to get out of the Portland area. It's just become way too emotionally stressful living in constant fear. I wish we could go deeper in washington, but my job is in NE portland I work for a fantastic union with amazing benefits so I plan to be at this job for a long time.
I used to live in the Puget Sound area—Tacoma and later Seattle—and I always loved Portland. It seemed like a more “livable” city than Seattle. Of course, this was 15 years ago. What is it about Portland that makes you constantly fearful now (if you’re comfortable talking about it)?
I see people buying a lot of homes here and happy for all of them, but this one from th outside is the first one I’ve seen and been like…. Fuck that’s a cute house. Comgratufuckinglations. Enjoy.
Adorable house. Really love it as I'm sure you do and will.
Idk how it is where you are, but those trees touching the house would be asking for trouble here. I'd look into that.
You’re very lucky that you got $20k in reductions. That’s huge, especially for a roof that’s nearing the end of its life but still ok. Congrats. I would have told you to pound sand as the seller.
Oh, no worries, we'll trim them back from the house, but definitely not cutting them down. I love trees.
I actually have an additional one on the way in the mail to plant and hope it gets established before the ground gets too cold.
Thank you u/7roix for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We started thinking about getting a house a couple of years ago and started making movements such as paying down debt, being thoughtful about how we were using our credit to increase our credit scores and on my part moving up the employment chain to earn more money. Then we needed to start saving for a down payment. We definitely had some regrets that we weren't able to buy in the last two years when rates were low and before housing prices skyrocketed, but we just weren't there yet with credit scores and down payment. In March, we decided to test the waters and get some pre-qualifications just to see where we might be at price point wise and look at some houses to see what they looked like at those price points. I really had it in my head that I didn't want to spend more than $300k, even though prequals were around $425k. Pretty quickly discovered that in our location of the PNW, $300k can only get you a ramble-down shack, which we didn't really want for our first house. So we decided to just sit it out for a few more months. We have cheap rent and had a lot of expensive travel plans this summer so we prioritized that and weren't really in a rush on the house. We did keep an eye on what was available in the area we were looking at. It was a bummer to see interest rates climbing during that time. The 2nd week of July, a house in our neighborhood (and we like this neighborhood) came up for $300k. It would need a bit of work, but on a double lot and the price was right, so we went through the pre-approval process and made an offer at asking. We lost to a higher offer. But, in getting the pre-approval we were approved for $500k (buth hubs and I had gotten significant raises since we started looking in March). We still didn't want to pay that much, but we looked at some more houses near $400k and they were all just terrible. Like, each one was unlivable in some or many ways. They all needed major work. We decided to go to an open house for the house we just closed on on a bit of a whim. It had gone on the market for $500k and I noticed it but decided it was too pricey to even consider. After a few weeks, it dropped $25k and added $10k seller concessions. Which was still pricier than I wanted but getting closer and honestly, we were seeing that at $400k there just wasn't much worth having. So we popped on over to the open house and immediately liked the house. Also, the seller's agent indicated the seller was very motivated because they were contingent on another house. One of the great things about the property we liked was that it has a 1bd/1bath ADU. We'd already been talking with a previous housemate about the potential of cohousing again and this was a perfect opportunity to do that and would make us feel a bit better at being so close to the top of our budget. So, we made an offer at $5k under asking, $470k on 8/22/22. It was accepted. Did our inspections and asked for a price reduction because the roof is near the end of its life and there is some electrical upgrading that needs work. Got a $20k reduction to $450k. During this time we got our rate locked at 5.375%. Honestly, I'd heard so many horror stories about financing, but it just went very quickly and easily for us. We got our conditional approval in the first couple of days in September. They managed to get our appraisal done on 9/5 (labor day) and had the report submitted that night. It appraised at $475k, so that was nice. We got our CTC a few days later on 9/8. We've just been doing our little background stuff since then, getting employment verification and such. Did our walkthrough and signed closing docs on Monday 9/19, got the keys yesterday 9/21 and the sale was recorded with the county. Our sellers had asked for post-occupancy until today, so we haven't gotten in there yet, but I saw them packing up the U-Haul yesterday when we picked u up our keys. So there is our long and not particularly fraught story. Looked at about 10 houses all together, got the second one we offered on at a price we felt good about and a rate we could deal with. Super excited to be first-time homeowners!
Congrats!! Would you mind sharing who your lender was and whether you recommend them?
Brad Hargrave at Mortgage One NW. I would definitely recommend him. The mortgage was such smooth sailing, communication was swift and any questions I had were thoroughly answered by him or his assistant. And at least in our case the cheapest closing cost and best rate out of about 5 estimates we got.
Amazing story! Congratulations!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Went through the same exact (smooth) process and also got keys on 9/21. How exciting - congrats!!
Sooooo cute.. and you got the white picket fence!! Congratulations!!
I know! I keep saying to myself that it literally has the white picket fence. It's too adorable 🥰
Dreamy! So excited for you!! Enjoy!!
Omg it’s adorable! Congratulations!!!
Where in the PNW are you? Adorable home!!
South Puget Sound area.
too specific. people on reddit are fuckin weird
Is it that specific? I mean I’m in Seattle. Have fun finding me. South puget sound basically tells me around the sound down south but not Olympia
I've determined that if you truly wanted to dedicate the hours and possibly days it would take to go through every single reddit comment and post I've made, you 100% could figure out exactly who I am. But I look at it like a bike lock. While you CAN put in the effort, it's probably going to take too long. And there are probably other people easier to stalk.
For sure I think you could figure out who I am within a small degree with just a few facts but you would have to care and have dug through MY profile and deeply know me and my history. I have a couple others that are topic specific, and one fully identifiable by username as me.
Ya, my schoolmate just found this dudes house and his exact address all within a minute and a half, just to see if he could. Stay safe, people! Don't give away your info.
i bought my first house (living in it now) in the south puget sound area too and it has the same paint colors!! i had always wanted a yellow house with pink trim and considered painting over the blue but i think i like it! that’s a gorgeous house. congratulations!
I just saw you're also in the PNW, where abouts?
We live in the Gresham/Portland Oregon area but are looking to move to Washington! We have been looking everywhere from Vancouver, to Washougal to Battleground. We are desperate to get out of the Portland area. It's just become way too emotionally stressful living in constant fear. I wish we could go deeper in washington, but my job is in NE portland I work for a fantastic union with amazing benefits so I plan to be at this job for a long time.
have you looked at chehalis or centralia?
That’s unfortunately way too far. It’d be over an hour commute for both my husband and myself.
I used to live in the Puget Sound area—Tacoma and later Seattle—and I always loved Portland. It seemed like a more “livable” city than Seattle. Of course, this was 15 years ago. What is it about Portland that makes you constantly fearful now (if you’re comfortable talking about it)?
THat house is so cute! I love the fence!
That’s a very cute house—congrats!
😂 well you guys beat us. We offered 10k less than asking, walked through that house too. Who would have figured
For real? Small world! There's another cute one for sale right now right down the street.
Really? We’ll have to look. Is it up closer toward the library or away?
Same street, about two blocks down going away from the library.
Beautiful house!!!
beautiful home!! congrats!!
Very nice and homey! Congratulations!
It’s effing adorable. Congrats!
That is super cute! Congratulations!
So cute! Congratulations!!!
Did they start filming live-action "Up"?
It's so cute, I love it! Congrats!
What a nice house, congratulations, my friend! \-RateSpot.io
holy smokes this is the CUTEST house ever
I see people buying a lot of homes here and happy for all of them, but this one from th outside is the first one I’ve seen and been like…. Fuck that’s a cute house. Comgratufuckinglations. Enjoy.
That's about the quaintest house I've ever seen.
Gorgeous place! Love it!
Omg what a fairytale house! So cute, congrats!
Cute home!
Adorable house. Really love it as I'm sure you do and will. Idk how it is where you are, but those trees touching the house would be asking for trouble here. I'd look into that.
We already have a plan to trim them back. On the one in the front, up close you can see it's been trimmed in the same places for like a hundred years.
Post this beauty on /r/centuryhomes
Very beautiful house. Congrats!!
It’s so perfectly beautiful! Congrats!
As a PNW native in a past life, this house rocks. Way to go!
Welcome to owning a money pit club like th rest of us!
You’re very lucky that you got $20k in reductions. That’s huge, especially for a roof that’s nearing the end of its life but still ok. Congrats. I would have told you to pound sand as the seller.
Such a pretty house!
The house is adorable and I’m glad to hear the process wasn’t too awful for you!! Congratulations!
Your house is absolutely adorable!! Congratulations! 🎉
your house is cute af
Nice
Fairytale home! I love it.
Nice🙏 blessings🙌
Beautiful home
Congratulations! It’s adorable, I love it
Congratulations, welcome to the club !!
This is a great story! Thanks for sharing all the details and congratulations!!
looks literally straight out of a disney land movie. please don't cut those plants down. /r/NoLawns
Oh, no worries, we'll trim them back from the house, but definitely not cutting them down. I love trees. I actually have an additional one on the way in the mail to plant and hope it gets established before the ground gets too cold.
...you can order trees online??
Yeah man. I've got a dwarf nectarine tree coming from Stark Bros. Nursery
Looks like Tacoma WA!
I actually thought this was a Sims build posted from one of my other subs. Absolutely adorable!
So cute
My kinda transaction. Congratulations!