When you think of buying your first home you think of ease and excitement. You feel like you have hit a huge milestone and you have. You feel like this is it the stepping stone of your life. What you have worked so hard for you. One of the biggest moments in your life, this is it.  

You start searching for houses trying to find that perfect house that fits your needs and if you have a family their needs. You find a few houses that you think will work for you and you get excited and contact a realtor. You start going to see houses to see what they actually look like instead of what is shown online. You find it the perfect house or so you think. You want to be an offer in so you contact a mortgage company and get preapproved. You would think that would seriously be it. Wrong, there is so much more that goes into buying a house.  

First thing’s first make sure you and your realtor is going to work together well. Remember you hired them, they did not hire you. You have options and the worst thing is to have a realtor that does not see your visions or your needs. Trust me.  

So, we knew we had to buy a house but we were on a time restraint. See, we had just moved to a new area 9 months before signing for our house. Right after we moved surprise we are expecting baby number two. No, I am not kidding I mean literally two weeks after we moved we found out I was pregnant. We knew we had to act fast.  

My husband quickly found himself a job and we put our oldest in daycare while we both temporarily worked so we could get a loan. Once he had been working for a couple of months and we had prequalifying papers in hand, we contacted a realtor. We found this realtor through a friend so imagine the disappointment we had when we found out she was not all she was cracked up to be.  

In our first meeting, we informed her that we were on a timeline that we need a home before the baby was born. She said okay no problem then next thing you know we are playing the waiting game but we decided that we would stick with her because at this point we had no other choice. We were in a rush. Oh and let me add she was late to every showing.  

But enough about that. So we go house hunting and the first house we looked at was one my husband and I found on the internet. Perfect for us so we put in an offer. It was bank-owned so imagine our surprise when the bank would not budge on price. So we said forget it we will continue to look for another house.  

We then found another house and we had an offer in when we came across another house that the loan had fallen through on. Meaning it was under contract at the time of us looking at the houses and the contract did not work out. When I walked in, I knew I was home. The neighborhood was perfect with kids everywhere. The house was perfect with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths and the land was perfect with a little over a half of an acre. In a neighborhood, we hit the jackpot.  

We quickly put an offer in and this was at the end of May. We were told by our realtor and the mortgage company to go ahead and put in our notice at the place we were renting for July because we would close in the middle of June. The middle of June came and we had heard nothing. So I began calling only to find out the pushed the closing date to the next week. The next week came we heard nothing. Called again and low and behold it had been pushed to the end of the month.  

We closed just three days before we had to be out not to mention I had started contractions. We were not even sure if I was going to be able to sign the papers and we already knew my husband was unable to sign papers. Yes, folks that is right, I hauled my pregnant but and my toddler to the lawyer’s office to sign papers for both me and my husband. What a day that was.  

I mean we were told so many times that we were closing on this date or that date that we did not even have anything packed. We were not even sure if we were going to be signing papers because the mortgage company was still waiting for paperwork from my husband’s work. My realtor said everything is a go and I called the mortgage company only to find out that we were not good to go. 

I mean I was not even dressed to go sign papers and when my realtor text me and said you can follow me my text back was I am not sure we are signing papers I just talked to the mortgage company and they said they still were waiting. I was livid that no one could give me a straight answer on whether I was signing papers or not. I did not get confirmation from the mortgage company until one hour, yes one hour before signing papers that we were for sure signing papers.  

The moral of this story, be sure you can trust your realtor and whatever you do, do not assume everything is fine because your realtor may do negotiating without you knowing. Keep up with the mortgage company and remember you will have to give them documents after documents after documents. It is a real pain in the behind, but after all, is said and done, I could not be any happier in my home with my happy little family and dog. I just do not want to buy another house for a long, I mean very long time if ever again.  

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