I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend. Some big (scary) decisions were made over here at our house! On Thursday, we headed over to a model home and floated the idea of building a new home, and therefor selling our current home. I know! Are you hyperventilating with me people!?
It's a decision that, right now, seems like it was made hastily, but we have been discussing it for years. It's always been one of those things that would be nice to do, but (in our minds) it would be a long way off for us. All this talk of economic climate and the housing market made us think that we would not be selling this house (that we essentially bought as an investment) any time soon. ESPECIALLY given that, a few short months ago, houses the same size were going for LESS than what we paid four years ago. Let's talk about how hard that pill was to swallow!!
Then the market took a swift turn around the beginning of the year and people that Tony work with (in the housing industry) were basically saying, "If you don't put your house on the market RIGHT NOW, you're just stupid!" So, needless to say, the decision was upon us like a hard slap in the face. This is something we would have preferred to have more time to prepare for, but we always knew this was not the "forever" house, so I'm not really sure what I expected.
In regard to buying new or pre-existing, there were a lot of considerations to make:
- We would have to put a contract on the new house under a contingency. That basically means that we would have to sell our house in 90 days so that we don't potentially loose the new house. Not only will the builder not sell us the new house while we are still paying a mortgage on another house (assuming we are not renting it out, which we are NOT), but we will most likely not even be able to get funding if we do not sell this house. NO PRESSURE!!
- We will have to move in with my mother during the gap between the sale of our home and the closing of the new home. Which means we will basically be moving twice and have to store all of our junk in a storage unit for a few months.
- If we buy pre-existing, are we prepared to start all over with the renovations that are already done in our current house and would already be done in the new build?
- When you build a new house, you cannot lock in your interest rate until a maximum of 60 days before you close your house. Since this is "THE HOTTEST MARKET EVER!", are the interest rates going to skyrocket by the time we are able to lock in our interest rate (probably around early October)??
None of these things amount to the end of the world, but they are collaboratively SUPER stressful. As previously stated, this will be the last time we do this for a VERY long time.
Ultimately we decided to bite the big, scary bullet and go with the new build. Since the decision was made it has all snow-balled rather quickly. Thursday we held our lot, Friday we got pre-approved, Saturday we got the current house in order, Sunday we met with a Realtor to sell the current house and then we went and put a deposit down on the new house and Monday there was a big FOR SALE sign in our front yard. So when I say "snow-balled", what I actually need you to think of is that humongous boulder thing that comes barreling straight at Indiana Jones, just load up a hole with snakes and rock some dramatic music and you get the picture.
These have been an emotional few days for both of us. We are so excited to get into a house that we expect to be in for AT LEAST a decade, but we are very sad to see our current house go. It was just terrible sitting across from the Realtor and hearing that all of the hard work that we have put into this house will not necessarily be reflected in our back account at the end of all this. That being said...we will be doing some SERIOUS saving for the next few months. This is going to be an amazing adventure and I look forward to sharing all of the awesomeness with you all!! Tell me at least ONE of you has been through this??
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