Season 1: Episode 2- Ants in the Pants Syndrome

Just when I thought my life was becoming comfortable, predictable and familliar, we turned the next corner... Buying a house... As most of you know, we recently had the opprtunity to throw ourselves a 5th anniversary wedding... A vow renewal that ROCKED our lives. Since then the next "BIG thing" has been looking forward to buying a house. We have been saving maniacs, for what feels like forever, to continue building up our savings account. Had we not thrown the wedding, we'd be in a home, with all brand new appliances and money to start some renovations.. But.. No.. Not now. We had to start from scratch after depleting the account to pay for our fabulous "low budget, DIY" wedding. (The wedding was in fact DIY but in no way did it end up being low budget. More on that in a later post.) Luckily, we are able to put a nice chunk away each month, so we're making our comeback indefinitely. The plan is to be finacially ready to make an offer on a house in the fall. We are preparing for our down payment, 3 months mortgage payments and enough leftover for some nice, new appliances.

We found an agent that we decided to work with. Well, let me be honest. I found an agent that I decided to work with. My husband, in his loving compassion and grace, agreed. She connected us with her lendor, and before we knew it, the ball was rolling. It was UBER exciting, to say the least. At first. It all moved so quickly! Give the lendor paystubs, bank statements, yadda yadda... BAM! "You're approved, on just your base pay, for a $275,000 house!" Understand.... This was not even including my largest paycheck or Eli's overtime... That's a lot of house! And to my dismay, A LOT OF $ IN A MONTHLY PAYMENT. Just under $2000/mo. After Eli and I sat down and did our monthly budget, the stars faded and my "big house fantasy," came to an end.. There was no way that we could logically afford a $275,000 house. You see, we want to be able to continue to save, and expand our family. We will also be losing a large part of my income when we move, because I will no longer be employed as the property manager for my apartment complex. When we did our budget, it didn't even look like we could really afford a house at all, because of the lost income. Talk about a roller coaster. After making adjustments across the board, we finally found a price range that we were comfortable with, and made a pact and promise to each other (well, mostly from me to him) that we would not go one penny over $200,000.

Now here comes the part where I explain the Ants in the Pants Syndrome.. Most of you would assume that it's quite normal to have a hunger/desire to know the surrounding housing market. You would probably say, "It's an exciting time in a person's life to buy their first home and that a little case of "ants in the pants" is completely normal." That's not what I'm talking about... Now that we know what price range we are comfortable with, I'm like a market STALKER. I'm on the prowl for more information. I'm on a mission to see just what we will get for our $200,000. A friend of mine is an agent as well, and a while back she sent me the link to a website that only real estate agents have full access to. I have been the Real Estate Ninja, searching the cyber world by night, and running the streets by day. Armed with various apps on my iPhone and listing updates, I know every house that meets our search criteria in Solano County! Minus Vallejo and Fairfield. Yuck. My agent has sent me new listing information that I have already read through a mere 6-7 times and I feel like I already know every pro and con of the property... Normal? Maybe. But what about this? I spend my freetime, between appointments and school drop-offs and pick-ups, cruising the Vacaville neighborhoods in search of a For Sale sign on a house that may have slipped through the cracks of real estate advertising. I have narrowed down our afordable neighborhoods, so I just cruise along and check the market value of homes in those areas with my Zillow app. Even homes that aren't on the market at all. Maybe I have even checked the market value of YOURS... Still normal? I think not.

I can't help the avid enthusiasm that's growing inside me each day. Every week, when Eli gets paid, we transfer what we can to savings, and the ball of impatience grows. I think a big part of the hunting allows the daydreamer to take hold of the wheel. It somewhat numbs the small yet relevent fears I hold deep down inside about buying my first house. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way afraid of being a homeowner. I am thrilled. I am so ready to begin the nesting process again. I actually thrive in situations where the end is unknown and my faith has to grow. I live for the adventurous experiences in life, crossing the bridges that your life events have led you to...

I made an appointment to meet up with my agent on Saturday to view a couple of the listed homes. It's time to take my obsession inside, I'm no longer satisfied by the curb view. Haha! The funniest part of all is that we truly won't be ready to commit to anything on the market until the end of the summer.. But, it's like they say, keep your eyes on the prize.. Right?