I have wanted a house since 2005, just after my daughter was born. Instead of buying a house though, I supported my husband and packed up our apartment and moved to the middle of no-where, Sutherlin OR. While there we spent our little nest egg I had been saving on living while we waited for the business to start....when we ran out of savings we got credit cards, and when we ran out of credit we got help from the state, and we found jobs. I worked part-time and hubby worked for a plumbing company, then a cabinet making company. We made $16 more than what would qualify us for assisted living with the state. We were renting and couldn't pay the rent, when we were just about bankrupt, we decided to go back home to Seattle.
For a year we lived in a very weird state with my mom's now ex-husband #2. Still wishing and dreaming of a house, I found it. The carpet, the architecture, the paint, the yard, with an art studio, a one car garage with a full work area for hubby, and a wine cellar. It was a $700,000 house...and we had no credit or $$. I fasted and prayed for that house, begging God for it.
It came time where we had enough money and stability to move out, so we started looking for apartments and found the place we would call home for a while...the same place we have been at for the last 6 years. God has the perfect sense of humor and the paint color, carpet, and layout was very similar to my dream house...hahaha very funny God! However, my longing for a house never stopped.
About three years ago we made friends with a couple who shared a fire with us while camping and learned we had lots in common. She happened to be a real estate agent. I was ecstatic! I contacted her and got us set up to get preapproved for a mortgage...we didn't get approved for very much especially just after the house bust. We trucked on though, looking at house after house and biding to find we were out bid and needed a min of $10,000 to be able to put down on something. Very discouraged, I gave up...and as the song says...Let it Go!
A year or so later a friend encouraged me to look again, and she wanted to go look at some open houses. I got jazzed after looking at house after house, and met a real estate agent who said I didn't need $10,000 to get a house, just have to do it the right way. I got his name and number and followed up with him a week or so later. He came over and met the hubby and we got preapproved again with a bit more than last time and started looking...we put offers on 5 houses to be out bid every time. We have been asked to just get gift money from family-who does that? We did ask and got a good egg, but not $10,000.
We finally got an offer in and a week later learned the guy we were working with got fired from the agency...he said it was because he was entertaining offers from another agency and they made it easier for him to decide who to go with, but something didn't smell right. We contacted a friend at church that had entertained us talking about getting a house before we met our firepit friend. He helped us make sure we legally got out of the offer that the other guy had started and the contract we had signed with the agency...got us preapproved again...this time we were told we needed to raise our credit score by 20 points. That is where we are at today...waiting for our credit score to change.
In the mean time hubby and I are waiting to hear back on promotions we applied for at our perspective companies. Our lease expires in October and I am praying that we can get a house before the summer is over so we can get the kids settled in school for the year.
I am loosing hope that we will get a house...like ever. During this process hubby and I talked about the last time we lived in an owned house. Turns out it was 13 for me and 15 for him before our parents divorced and hubby had to live with his dad. Apartment living is temporary....renting is temporary...someday I want to be a permanent, solid, a go to gal, a HomeOwner!
I wrote this on 6/24/214...about a week or so later we got a list of houses that we qualified for and bid on one before even looking at it in person. For the first time we went into mutual! Then we looked at the house. I have to say that if I had looked at it before we placed the bid, I would not have gone for it. I think God knew this. We got the inspections, and signed papers Aug 1st. Everything is going through smoothly and looks like we will close and move by Sept 20th! We are all so excited for this new adventure.
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