BrittanyMakes

You guys! Sorry it’s been quiet on the blog lately, but the silence has been for a good reason – we bought a new house! It’s been so hard to keep this a secret these last few weeks while we’ve waited for escrow to close. We got the keys Friday and now own our ‘for-a-very-long-time’ home! We always knew our first home was not our forever home, that we would outgrow it within a few years once our family grew. We weren’t planning to buy a new home this year, we thought we’d look in a couple more years once our kids were fully in school, but like most things in life, not everything goes according to the plan!

Earlier this summer we found a house for sale in the neighborhood we’ve been longing to move to, it was a mid-century architecturally designed fixer upper that just pulled at my heart strings so hard. Needless to say we didn’t get that home, which turned out to be a huge blessing because  it would have been a money pit and our personal lives would have severely suffered. What came of that house was the realization that we were indeed ready for our next home, and it was either make the move now or wait another year, so we took the plunge and began house hunting full speed.

How many of you are familiar with the SF Bay Area housing market?  For those of you who know, I feel your pain! For those of you who aren’t familiar, basically it’s nearly impossible to get a house these days. Houses sell significantly above asking, like hundreds of thousands above asking, and you’re competing with half a dozen or more offers on a home while you’re hoping you stand out amongst the rest some way somehow. There are some tactics buyers and their brokers use to win the hearts of the sellers in hopes they choose your offer, but the competition has been so strong most of those tactics don’t even work anymore.  highest dollar wins, coupled with low inventory, we didn’t stand the chance.

The house we just closed on was our 6^th house we attempted to buy over a course of 3 months. You guys, we purchased this home before it even hit the market! It’s unheard of.  The seller of our home was looking to pass his home to a young family and didn’t want to deal with the stress of the market. He told his broker to ‘find a good family to buy this house’. Somehow the stars aligned and now this home is ours!  I hate this term but it’s true – I’ve literally pinched myself a half dozen times because I can’t believe this is real life.

I am so excited to document how we make this home ours, just like we did for our current house (which is currently under contract to be sold!). So stay tuned as there’s so much to share about this new house!