Real Estate 101

Over the past 6 months I have learned my fair share about the process of buying and selling houses in the real estate market. We have bought and built a new house and almost sold a house, twice! Here the top 10 things I have learned from our experiences these past 6 months. (in no particular order)

1. You have to sign a lot of documents,
2. You have to provide a lot of documents, sometimes multiple times
3. Always except and plan for delays
4. Home values can change quickly up or down
5. Selling a home is not for the weak at heart
6. Don't count your money until the money is in your hands
7. If you want to keep your house clean, list it!
8. There are some people who should take a class on commitment and integrity
9. You can't change a floor plan so make sure you bought a good one.
10. Communication skills are all but non existent

When we purchased our new house, we weren't planning on selling our current one, just renting out it. As number 4 states,  the market changes quickly and we were now able to sell our current home, thus beginning our home selling journey. It has been a roller coaster and not a fun one at that. I will spare you the gory details but I will say we have had the house sold twice and both times the buyers backed out. ANNOYING. Since the last buyer backed out we have been stagnant, no showings no offers...getting a bit frustrated to say the least. God is in control, that is our prayer that we would rest in that truth. "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

So at this moment we are waiting for our new house to be done, hopefully we close on September 19th. And we are patiently praying and waiting for God to bring the right buyer for our current house. It might work for some people but at this point in our lives we don't want to be landlords, so hopefully it will sell sooner rather then later.

On to more exciting real estate adventures...Our new home is coming along nicely...here are some recent pictures.

 LOVE...my new kitchen. I have wanted dark cabinets forever. Although now if we had the money I would have done white cabinets, they are timeless and of course a couple thousand more. .

Thankfully when we went to choose our granite slab we were able to pick out a different one cause the one we choose in the 4 hours we had at the design center was HORRIBLE, seriously I mean horrible and ugly. So our granite will be a version of St.Cecilia, a light granite with dark lines and such. It is safe and will look good, not my first choice but it was the best we could do given what we could choose from.

 

 Family room..Love all the windows and light the downstairs has. It is such a difference compared to our current house.

 Master bathroom...so excited for the space and my own sink! If you saw our current bathroom you would understand why. We choose to get double sinks in master bath but not in kids bathroom, they need to learn the art of sharing (and it was a ridiculous amount...for a sink!)

 Master Bedroom. I can't wait to decorate this room...so many fun ideas and thanks to my wonderful husband I already have the perfect white tuffed fabric headboard to go in between those windows. More of my decorating ideas to come in other posts.

 Shane in "his" space. This is the loft, man cave, or our tribute to the Seattle seahawks. ( I have to give him at least one area, he does help pay the mortgage)

There you have it, my lessons learned in Real Estate 101, I am sure before all this is over there will be more. Nothing is as I imagined it would be not the buying a new build or the selling. I am still excited for our house to be completed, I have enjoying watching the process of a new home happen, just wish is had of been faster!

Till next time,

Sarah