The Homebuying Saga, Part I

It has been an extremely emotional and hectic week. I am bound to forget all of the minute details of what has occurred within the next month, so this is mainly for my benefit.

Doug and I had few intentions of purchasing our first home until around November or so of this year. We have, however, done tons of research into the areas we want to buy. Thank God for the Internet! In addition to web-based research, I am quite certain we have driven around every damn neighborhood in south Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Bixby, Glenpool, Kiefer, and even some parts of Sapulpa. We started hitting random open houses and requesting showings about two weeks ago. And initially, it was just to get an idea of what we want/don't want. Until this past Sunday. Let me back up a bit.

Sometime around the beginning of June:

We're driving around a really nice, newer, clean neighborhood that looks to be just out of our price range. We call about one of the smaller homes up for sale in the neighborhood. The Realtor told us that she was selling the house for $15,000 more than our price ceiling, but that she is a motivated seller. After we hung up the phone, Doug and I looked at each other and one of us said, "Motivated, huh? Is she like, I dunno, $40,000 motivated?" We laughed and didn't give it much thought. Until...

Sunday, July 13:

We had a 13:00 appointment to see a home in Broken Arrow and hit an open house at 14:00. We spend the next three hours driving around Broken Arrow, visiting one more open house. We come back to our apartment. Depressed and despondent, Doug logs onto our favorite real estate search site and finds that the $15,000 above our price range house is from the beginning of June is now AT our price ceiling. It is now 18:00 and Doug had already packed up to go back to Oklahoma City (he's finishing his Master's Degree at OU). We call the Realtor. At 18:45 we are IN the house looking around. We love it! It needs some work: new carpet, new baseboards, paint, a few exterior planks and eventually some cabinet/counter/back splash/vanity work. But it is in a great location for us and the neighborhood has extremely low crime and looks great.

Monday, July 14: Doug has returned to Oklahoma City and the parents are called in for backup. We feel very fortunate to have parents who know a great deal about houses. At 18:00, my parents arrive and check things out. At 18:30, Doug's brother and father arrive to look things over. Doug's brother does AC work for a living and so he's able to really check things out. It's unanimous! All of them agree that the house is just a little bit ugly on the inside and a tiny bit on the outside but that a bit of sweat equity will turn it into our palace should we choose to proceed. Two hours later I'm on the phone with Doug telling him that his father looked me straight in the eyes and said, "If I were you I would have already put in an offer on this house." We decide that 8:30 p.m. is a perfectly reasonable time to make an offer on a house. So, Doug calls the Realtor and makes an offer. Minutes later he calls me and tells me that we have a deal, for $5000 less than she was asking. Plus a washer and dryer.