Home Buying During COVID-19 Part One

Our families have thought we're nuts on several occasions, but specifically when we told them we were looking into moving in the summer of 2020, especially since the company I work for will no longer be in existence at the end of July.

But, why not add the stress of home hunting and moving on top of looking for employment? :)

Here's the thing- we've been talking about moving casually for the last two years. We do check-ins with each other every couple months on a few key relationship topics, to keep the conversation going, and to gauge the other person's stance. If you casually continue big conversations, it allows for easy communication, and decreases the chances of them turning into fights. For us, moving has become a topic that has really ramped up since Fall of 2019.

We've known that our current home, as much as we love the house and the location, is not sustainable for us long term. We'd like more space. We'd like a two car garage. We'd like a master suite bathroom. (and I'd like more space to spread out all my hobbies without eating into a perfectly good bedroom)

We've always casually browsed Zillow and sent interesting listings back and forth, but the timing hadn't felt right, or we were figuring other career items out. In December 2019, I had some spare time off (burning excess PTO before the end of the year) and I found a couple house listings I wanted to check out. Drew wasn't quite ready to go look, and since I had time to burn, I went and saw them with a realtor.

What was amazing about viewing the three homes I did, is I could actually envision living in each of them. In the past two times when we were buying homes, I got too emotionally attached to one specific one, and then let that rule my decision making skills. (Personal progress!)

Afterwards, when I asked Drew if he wanted to go see them, he said something along the lines of "I'd rather not encourage a move right now, when we both like a place we tend to go for it without being overly logical." ...and he's not wrong. If there's one thing we are as a duo, it's determined.

So we let those houses go, and continued to fix up certain projects on our current home. We also put some time researching other unconventional home buying processes, such as selling to Zillow and working with Orchard Homes. Perks to both is that we'd be selling to a company and have more control over not dealing with home showings, and we'd get to move out with a more relaxed schedule. (These are HUGE perks because the last time we moved was easily one of the more stressful times for us as a couple) We reached out to both of them to learn more on the process, but told them we were still in the research phase.

Then, in the end of January 2020, the conventional realtor reached out and met with us- letting us know about what we could expect to sell our current home for, what projects we should do before listing, and the best time to list. She also set us up with an MLS search so we'd get notified of any newly listed homes.

We spent about every day keeping up on that list and discussing what we liked in each, and what we didn't like from each. We meticulously communicated what we're looking for in the next home, and what items would be most important to each of us. One thing we both agreed on was, we live in a great location, and if we could find something in our area, that would be awesome.

Mid-February we found a new development being built in our area, which would be extremely convenient as we'd get to choose the finishings, and stay in our area. After going down that path a bit (by a bit, I mean we were ready to put a payment down to reserve our build and start the process) we learned a few key pieces of information that turned us off to working with those builders. Beautiful homes, but we couldn't customize to the extent we wanted to, and they were notorious for nickel and dime-ing people through the process.

Around the end of February, we found a PROJECT of a house that was oozing potential. We both got very excited about it when we drove by it and saw the photos online. It was a Mid-Century Modern home that someone had started to gut, but decided to sell instead. Jackpot. We were looking for that style, and we really wanted to customize to our taste. I set up a showing with the realtor to see the house, and hot dog, it was a friggin' mess. What started as an optimistic visit quickly was shattered with reality. This home was gutted, had clear structural damage, and with the information from the realtor- the seller wanted cash, as-is, etc. NOPE.

Back to the searching phase.

...and then Coronavirus hit.

We put the house process on hold, while continuing to look at listings. Since we had already started the conversation with Orchard and set up a consultation/inspection, we decided to do so in the end of May 2020. This would at least give us an official idea of what we needed to do to our home, and if it made sense to continue down this path.

Then things started moving very fast in June 2020... Once we were done with the inspection/initial discussion with Orchard, we decided to sign on with them. We let the conventional realtor know that as well. (Which was a big bummer because she was very nice and it felt a little like breaking up with someone that did nothing wrong- we just preferred the Orchard model of selling)

As we started browsing homes, we found another Mid-Century Modern that was screaming for updates. We started the pre-approval process and then went to take a look at it. (And it had a pool, which is a lifelong dream of mine!) Bummer about this was, it was a very popular home and had two offers within the amount of time that we had to go look at it. And, there was clearly structural damage... and the floor plan was a hot mess. ...onto the next.

Back to the searching phase.

We had a few saved that we wanted to go look at next, but as we were walking through our neighborhood, we noticed one in a location we really liked that said, "coming soon" we reached out to the realtor for the information, and it was everything we were looking for. "This is the one!" I shouted to Drew as I opened the email. This was perfect- in our neighborhood, the right size, the right style, and maybe we could get to it before it was publicly listed.

We requested a showing as possible, which was Saturday early morning. Between the time it listed on Wednesday, and the Saturday showing there were three offers on the house already- all above the original asking price. So we threw our hat into the ring Friday night with an enticing offer, and went to see it on Saturday, along with other houses.

We did not get that house. We might have been the most enticing offer of the time of ours being submitted, but we were beat, and without the opportunity to counter. The housing market by us is pretty cutthroat.

Back to the searching phase.

In the next round of homes to visit, we found another project. This one needed it all- windows, heating/cooling, gutting, etc. but it had tons of potential. The problem was, it was very over priced, especially for the condition, but it had sat on the market for a few months with no offers.

So we put in a low offer to start the conversation.

This offer was outright rejected. The owner said the lowest he'd go was still very high for the condition of the home. This was his late father's home so there was likely some emotional value being placed on the home and possibly other factors at play. It wasn't worth the time or money to invest in something overpriced.

Back to the searching phase.

In the next batch of homes, we found two that were worth looking further into.

Option A was a project that needed plenty of work, but looked to be in good shape structurally. (Some of the other homes from this batch were very clearly in need of windows, siding, drywall, landscaping, etc. This one just needed updates) Option A was also on a great plot of land and in a really nice area.

Option B was extremely charming, but had a lot of updates already in place that weren't our taste. It had a great landscaping, and other features we liked, but when it came down to a comparison of the two- Option A had bigger bedrooms, a better area nearby, you could access the garage from the house, and we wouldn't feel bad updating it to our tastes.

So, we put in an offer. This offer wasn't too below what they asked, but it was a bit lower since the house was freshly listed and in dire need of updating. Also, when we ran comparisons of the area, that floor plan had 17 recent listings- with a wide range. Some were very updated and quite a bit more expensive, and there were some that were clearly outdated and much lower. This particular one seemed to fall in the middle, but the price seemed a little higher than our comfort level for the state it was in.

This time, we got a counter price and a closing date change. This was good because it showed the seller was still motivated to sell rather than an outright rejection. However, their price was a little north of where we wanted it.

We countered again in price, and said we're fine with moving the closing date. We made it clear that this is where we felt good with the price. AND we were officially under contract.

I'll go into the contract period in part two, but the main takeaways I learned from the pre-contract part of the home buying process are:

• It can take months to be remotely ready to start looking in person

• In a competitive market, be very prepared to be disappointed

• Don't get emotionally invested in a house, people aren't picking YOU, they're picking the numbers

• You will see some weird stuff in houses, from murals on the walls, to strange DIY floor plans. If you're not afraid of some hard work, you can see the potential in everything.

• A lot of yards don't offer privacy

And a few that are specific to home searching during a pandemic:

• Wearing gloves in houses will make your hands sweat real fast

• Wearing a mask in some houses is a downright blessing

• Not attending open houses is super nice- less pressure and more personal

Part two coming soon...