Tuesday, September 25, 2012

House Hunting in Colorado

Jason and I have a lease signed that goes through the end of March but being that the houses and the market are completely different here in CO I wanted to start looking at homes in areas we like to get a better idea of the costs and a feel for the different neighborhoods. Unfortunately, ever since I have started the process I've been nothing but discouraged.

When we moved here, we knew the area we wanted to buy in so we rented an apartment across the street from that subdivision.  We are both so thankful we did that because after a couple months of living here we realized we are way too far from the mountains and everything we want to do we have to drive on this really expensive toll way and we're just too far east and/or south.  On the plus side we do love our building and all the amenities but as for the location it is just not for us.

So for our future (and permanent) home we're looking to buy in one of two different towns and they're very similar in some ways but also very different. Whats funny is that those who live in one, bash the other and the ones who live in the other bash the first. So it's been interesting and super stressful to try to figure out where we want to live.  The perks of seriously each outweigh the negatives of each other!

We've been looking in both towns hoping we'd be able to narrow it down by finding "the house."  So far we have found two houses that we've loved and put offers in.  Long story short on one was that after putting the offer in I was sleepless and restless that night.  I was incredibly uneasy about the offer and the house. I had no real reason for how I felt since I did love it and Jason loved it and it had everything we wanted but just felt God was telling me it wasn't "the house."  After telling Jason and our Realtor how uneasy I was, we learned that we didn't get it anyway as our offer wasn't high enough but it was still a super emotional and crazy ride which I only could point towards God to.

The second house we put an offer in on we knew was a total long-shot.  It was a foreclosure and listed for way way under what it should have been and we were outbid by a number that was much higher than we'd have even been willing to go.  Again, emotional and a let-down but knew God had something better in mind.

Along the way we have looked at about 20 other houses and I have taken house hunting on as practically a full time job.  (sadly, I have become almost obsessed with it.)  The housing market is the complete opposite of what we came from in Chicago.  Houses are off the market faster than we can even get into them to see if we like them.  People are getting their asking price which means that the houses we want are in a different price bracket than we're really willing to spend.  (see my post about our new budget and how we're really trying to plan for our future and live well within our means)

In the past couple weeks we've really been leaning toward one of the areas more than the other but then that means we don't get as big of a house and the yards are tiny! It's been so confusing and overwhelming and part of my serious sadness that past few weeks (as it seems nothing is really going my way lately in this whole Colorado adventure we've been enlisted in!)!  Yesterday we got an email from our Realtor (who has been amazingly patient with us and determined to find us the perfect house) telling us that she is resigning as a Realtor and has accepted a different position still in real estate but no longer as an agent.  I felt like she was the one thing that was going right in the house hunt!  This to me was the final confirmation that I needed to give this whole idea of house hunting a rest for a while.

Jason and I discussed it last night and while I have felt like I've been being told to wait on the process I am finally convinced that I need to truly stop looking for a while and just see what happens.  I am sad to say that I have felt the nudge from God the past couple weeks but I wasn't ready to give up but am now finally ready to hear Him and wait.  As I said here...waiting seems to be the lesson I'm being taught this year, so waiting on our future house is going to have to be one of them too.

I'm confident we'll find the right house when the time is right.  I want it now...since we moved here for a house and yard and everything else but the timing isn't right. There may be some foreclosure or short sale that we can find but as for my serious house hunting, I need to wait.  And we will.  In the meantime,  we do live in a super nice, cozy apartment that has everything we could ever need at this time in our lives.  So it's not such a bad deal knowing our Lord has something else up his sleeve.  Some other (hopefully better!) reason that we need to wait and I'm thankful I am finally ready to listen.

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