The Great House Hunt

Looking at buying a house for the first time has to be one of the most stressful things two people can do together! We're just really getting started, and already I'm wondering if maybe the apartment life is really the best option for us for another year. :-)

We looked at several houses last year, even before we were "officially" engaged, but God made it pretty clear to us that we needed to wait on that for a least a year. Well, it's time again. Our lease isn't up until the end of August, but with the whole timeline that's involved, we really need to start seriously looking in order to potentially make an offer around early June. Exciting? Yes. Overwhelming? You betcha.

One of the girls I work with is a part-time realtor as well, so she and I browse through listings once or twice a week. We found one that we liked a lot in the online pictures in what we call our "old neighborhood." Last year, there was a house in this neighborhood that we were soooo close to making an offer on before somebody else came out of nowhere and bought it outright. Anyway, the house for sale there this year went under contract the day after we saw it online. Our "old neighborhood" seems to be somewhat unlucky for us!

Take 2 - my mom drove through a neighborhood in Springdale that looked really promising, and we looked at a couple of houses there last weekend. On the outside, they're beautiful. On the inside, total dumps. Also, when every other house is for sale in the neighborhood, and mostly on short sales (meaning they're near foreclosure), it doesn't feel like a long-term neighborhood potential for us as a family.

Take 3 - our first promising option! We looked at a house in the Johnson area on Saturday morning. It's bank-owned, so we'd have to buy it as-is, but it seems to only need paint (in every single room) and new carpet. This one feels a slight bit out of our price range, but if we can end up getting it down some, it could be a house that would last us 10-15 years because of the size and neighborhood. I love this house, but we felt like we needed to see some other viable options before declaring it a go.

Take 4 - we ran across a good-looking listing online, and as it turns out, it's owned by a dear member of our church. We looked at it last night, and while I really love the house, it's lacking quite a bit in terms of the neighborhood. The area is okay right now, but seems to be declining quickly. Still, it was really good to see another good option to compare to the Johnson house.

So that's where we're at right now. The hardest part of the whole process is that Ryan's parents are 8 1/2 hours away, and pictures can only do so good. We are so blessed to have them wanting to put down a down-payment for us on the house, so we really want to involve them as much as possible in the search. My parents are certainly helpful in that, as they can offer a home-owner's perspective to his parents that we aren't able to give.

This is certainly a process of great faith! I'm eager to see how God works in our hearts the whole way...and eager to have some extra living space so that we can start planning for babies to fill it. :-)