The Wait was Worth the Hassle

Part 2

What was your home buying experience like?
We called our real estate agent at the start of 2019. We weren't searching very hard the first couple of months, but Krystal was pregnant and the due date was June 19th, so our deadline was sometime in April or May. It took us around three months to find a home.

We came in knowing that competition was fierce in East Long Beach so we didn't expect getting a home five or ten percent less than the list price; We went to see 20 homes on weeknights and weekends as well as looking at some online on Redfin. It was more time consuming than I thought.

We put an offer on one house on Studebaker and Wardlow, but our offer wasn't close to other buyers who bid over the asking price. The same thing happened for another house about a half-mile away. We were off by $10K.

So, once we lost two offers, we needed a different plan so we weren't overbid. We told our agent to use an escalation clause of $1,200 over the other buyers if their price was not more than .50% over asking price. Now I understood what a housing shortage was as a homebuyer.

We finally found and got a three-bedroom with an unpermitted bonus room in a neighborhood at a price point we could work with, and moved in on April 21, 2019. I think we were successful with this house and beat out five other offers because we bid almost 10% over the asking price.

How did you know that the home was the one for you?
It wasn't like that. We loved the area, El Dorado Park, schools, and convenient shopping areas. The house s kind of plain from the outside but the inside was much better than we anticipated.

The kitchen is from the 70's and I feel that's an easy upgrade for us. We like the private backyard and trees too. Overall, it feels very comfortable and not temporary. It's a home we can see ourselves staying in for 10 years.

What was your approach to financing, and was the down payment challenging?
I'm pretty good at saving so that was never a problem. In addition, I had a healthy retirement account and began saving money once I turned 22. I am not concerned with wearing trendy clothes, leasing new cars, going to restaurants or going to hip clubs, so that helped me a lot.

We actually got a self-employed bank statement mortgage because I have a lot of write-offs for business expenses. Otherwise we would still be renting and be subject to rent increases annually or every two years by the landlord.